Vienna State Opera [ENA] Verdi’s Otello achieves its devastating power through a terrible contraction: the world of public triumph gradually narrows into the private chamber of an irreversible crime. The Vienna State Opera’s presentation brings together an exceptionally compelling constellation of artists—Jonas Kaufmann, Nicole Car and Luca Salsi, with Bertrand de Billy conducting—in Adrian Noble’s psychologically focused production.   [Full story...]

Vienna State Opera [ENA] Some opera productions illustrate a story; others discover a theatrical image capable of expressing its entire emotional universe. Tom Morris’s L’Orfeo at the Vienna State Opera belongs, in its conception, to the latter category. With sets and costumes by Anna Fleischle, Monteverdi’s drama becomes a celebration poised above an abyss: a world in which love and communal joy.   [Full story...]