May 2024

Lise Davidsen is on our front cover, in her role debut as Leonora in La forza del destino at the Metropolitan Opera.
Inside this issue, which includes a detailed Festivals Spotlight and Festivals Directory:

• The tenor Charles Castronovo profiled by Roger Pines.
• Stephen Langridge, artistic director of Glyndebourne, discusses challenges and projects past and present.
• The Bayreuth Baroque Festival goes from strength to strength, as Max-Emanuel Cencic describes.
• The director Louisa Muller, preparing a new production of Rameau’s Platée for Garsington Opera, talks to our American editor, Rebecca Paller.
• Tomer Zvulun of Atlanta Opera in conversation with Mark Thomas Ketterson.

Our emerging artist coming through the Stage Door is the baritone James Newby, preparing roles for performance in the UK and Germany.

Performance reviews from around the world include: Death in Venice at Welsh National Opera, Idomeneo in Geneva, Werther in Copenhagen, La forza del destino at the Met, Die Walküre in Brussels, Lear in Hanover and Madrid, Rusalka in Liège, all eight of Smetana’s operas in Ostrava, the premiere of Detlev Glanert’s Die Jüdin von Toledo in Dresden, La Bohème in Atlanta, Peter Grimes in Hamburg, Simon Boccanegra in Milan, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi in Cape Town, Marx in London at Scottish Opera.

Our Disc of the Month is Michael Spyres—In the Shadows, with Les Talens Lyriques conducted by Christophe Rousset (Erato).