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.

Ballet Director Laurent Hilaire concluded Ballet Festival Week 2026 with an overall attendance of 100 per cent. The opening event was the premiere of the new triple bill Common Ground on Saturday, 28 March 2026, in which choreographers Alexander Ekman and Johan Inger presented their work to the Bavarian State Ballet audience in Munich for the first time. Common Ground refers to a shared basis of human coexistence, and thus the audience can expect a performance that conveys an

On April 17, 2026, the Paris Opera announced the death of Jacqueline Rayet, one of the most brilliant and versatile stars of French ballet of the second half of the 20th century. She died at the age of 93.

Burlesque differs greatly from anything else. There is no fourth wall in burlesque – it simply cannot exist. It’s an exchange of visions of beauty and an exchange of emotions, which is why, for example, it doesn’t work well on very large stages. People come for that live connection and for nostalgia.

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.

Born in 1894 in Florence to a family of railworkers devoted to operatic music, Bianca straight from the early childhood showed her gifts for singing and very soon started taking vocal lessons. Her teacher was Ernesta Bruschini, the sister of the Italian soprano Matilde Bruschini and the author of the book "The technique of belcanto". Bianca's progress in singing was obviously rapid, and already in 1917 she made her professional debut at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence in

It is striking how fates and meanings echo across time. After his legendary defection from the USSR in 1961, Rudolf Nureyev was declared a traitor to the Motherland and sentenced in absentia to imprisonment. And now, decades later, in modern Russia, a ballet about him – a man who became a symbol of freedom in the art world - is stigmatized and pushed aside.

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

When a ballet classic is reborn, it carries within that mixture of nostalgia, expectation and electric tension that only the truly great works can evoke. John Neumeier’s Nutcracker, back in the repertoire of the Bavarian State Ballet since 2 November 2025, is such a work.

Some tips for young singers from the greatest Wagnerian soprano of the 20th century.