On May 1, Berlin hosted a performance of Norma directed by Vasily Barkhatov. As is often the case in contemporary Regietheater, the action was moved from ancient antiquity into a vaguely modern setting. The production deliberately avoids a precise geography or timeline: the audience is presented with a state that has undergone a radical political transformation.

On April 6, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden hosted the final performance of this season’s premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Un Ballo in Maschera. The production brought together renowned performers, such as Anna Netrebko, Boris Pinkhasovich, and Charles Castronovo.

It is remarkable that one of Italy’s lesser-known opera houses, though bearing the name of the great composer – Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi – presented such a profound production of Il Trovatore. The audience was largely conservative (around 80 percent of the spectators seemed to be of retirement age), and one can hardly imagine that they would welcome an excessively radical directorial concept. Anyway, the production was notable not for extravagant or complicated staging, b

"The Art of Not Looking Back" created by Hofesh Shechter, an Israeli choreographer based in London, can be considered as a deep and thorough