Costume Designer

A Japanese girl sacrifices her heritage for the American dream when a naval officer chooses her for his bride. Her dream is crushed by betrayal when he traps her in the very cage she wishes to escape. She seizes her destiny, and the devastating outcome lingers long after the final note.

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Madama Butterfly

The Santa Fe Opera

Moral outrage one moment, coquettish expediency the next. The intrigues of the powerful interwoven with the desperation of hapless refugees. When it comes to the gamut of human emotion and modes of behaviour, few operas of the baroque period can touch Handel’s GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO, which premiered in London in 1724. This tale of the love affair between the ageing Roman general Julius Caesar and the young pharaoh Cleopatra was one of Handel’s greatest triumphs within his lifetime and remains his most performed opera. That is not just down to the base material – one of the best-known historically attested love stories, which has been given treatments ranging from Shakespeare to Liz Taylor and Richard Burton and “Asterix und Cleopatra” – but also to a sophisticated libretto that provided the inspiration for a string of great arias and memorable character studies, for aside from the Roman-Egyptian pairing of Caesar and Cleopatra GIULIO CESARE IN EGITTO features another pair who are busy not with flirting but with the serious business of staying alive: Cornelia, the widow of Pompeius, a murdered rival of Caesar, and her son Sesto. Both have sought refuge in Egypt but have become pawns in the scheming between Cleopatra and her brother Tolomeo.

Giulio Cesare in Egitto

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Following on from Puccini’s LA RONDINE and Johann Strauss’s DIE FLEDERMAUS, Rolando Villazón returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin to tackle one of the great comedies of the bel canto genre and demonstrate that he can do humour. L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI remains one of the most popular works by Gioacchino Rossini, who is said to have dashed the piece off in less than a month and was a tender 21 years of age when the opera premiered at Venice’s Teatro San Benedetto in 1813. It’s a testament to Rossini’s boldness that he chose material that had been set to music only a few years before by his more experienced colleague Luigi Mosca. His audacity paid off, with the subsequent triumph bringing him immediate fame across Italy and widespread popularity soon afterwards throughout Europe.

L’Italiana in Algeri

Following triumphant Met turns in Roméo et Juliette, La Traviata, and Lucia di Lammermoor, Nadine Sierra summits another peak of the soprano repertoire as Amina, who sleepwalks her way into audiences’ hearts in Bellini’s poignant tale of love lost and found. In his new production, Rolando Villazón—the tenor who has embarked on a brilliant second career as a director—retains the opera’s original setting in the Swiss Alps but uses its somnambulant plot to explore the emotional and psychological valleys of the mind. Tenor Xabier Anduaga returns after his acclaimed 2023 Met debut in L’Elisir d’Amore, co-starring as Amina’s fiancé Elvino, alongside soprano Sydney Mancasola as her rival, Lisa, and bass Alexander Vinogradov as Count Rodolfo. Riccardo Frizza takes the podium for one of opera’s most ravishing works.

La Sonnambula

Lincoln Center

Stranger Things: The First Shadow opens to rave five star reviews! Theatre and storytelling has never been seen like this before and has been described as ‘The West End theatre event of the year’ (The Daily Telegraph).

Stranger Things: The First Shadow

Phoenix Theatre London

Bollywood meets Baroque in this utterly original retelling of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar’s tempestuous love affair.
Handel’s masterpiece, full of seduction, dazzling spectacle and vocal fireworks, is given the all-singing, all-dancing treatment in this Glyndebourne classic.

Giulio Cesare

Glyndebourne

Verdi’s kaleidoscopic drama appears for the first time since 2015, with tenor Charles Castronovo making his Met role debut as the Swedish king whose love for his friend’s wife spells his undoing. Carlo Rizzi conducts an all-star ensemble that features soprano Elena Stikhina as Amelia, the object of Gustavo’s affections, and reigning Verdi baritone Quinn Kelsey as her husband, Count Anckarström. David Alden’s striking production also includes mezzo-soprano Olesya Petrova as the fortune teller Ulrica and soprano Nina Minasyan in her Met debut as the precocious page Oscar.

Un Ballo in Maschera

Familial revenge runs deep in Giuseppe Verdi’s towering opera of grand passions stymied at every turn. Music Director Eun Sun Kim continues her Verdi cycle with Il Trovatore, a work of sublime arias, passionate ensembles, and the rousing Anvil Chorus.
Sir David McVicar’s incisive, visceral production, rooted in the haunting imagery of Spanish painter Francisco Goya and the power struggles of the Spanish War of Independence, returns to San Francisco.

Il Trovatore

War Memorial Opera House

A dream cast assembles for Strauss’s grand Viennese comedy. Soprano Lise Davidsen is the aging Marschallin, opposite mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as her lover Octavian and soprano Erin Morley as Sophie, the beautiful younger woman who steals his heart. Bass Günther Groissböck returns as the churlish Baron Ochs, and Markus Brück is Sophie’s wealthy father, Faninal. Maestro Simone Young takes the Met podium to oversee Robert Carsen’s fin-de-siècle staging.

Der Rosenkavalier

Vincenzo Bellini's opera »La sonnambula«, which premiered in Milan in 1831, is considered to be his most important work, alongside »Norma«, which was released just six months later. The ›semiseria‹, composed in an elegiac, soft style, shows the idyll of a remote Alpine village in which superstition and backwardness almost cost the young orphan Amina her happiness in life, because Amina sleepwalks. So she ends up in the room of a strange man at night, is accused of infidelity by her lover Elvino and left. Only Rodolfo, the apparent seducer and none other than the deceased count's son who has returned home, can use his knowledge to explain the phenomenon, confirm Amina's innocence and lead the story to its happy ending. Director Rolando Villazón stages Amina's story as an escape from the confines of her village to another

La sonnambula (The Sleepwalker)

Semper Opera Dresden

Verdi’s glorious Shakespearean comedy features a brilliant ensemble cast in Robert Carsen’s celebrated staging. Baritone Michael Volle sings his first Verdi role at the Met as the caddish knight Falstaff, gleefully tormented by a trio of clever women who deliver his comeuppance. Reuniting after their acclaimed turns in the production’s 2019 run are soprano Ailyn Pérez as Alice Ford, soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano as Meg Page, and mezzo-soprano Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Mistress Quickly. Soprano Hera Hyesang Park and tenor Bogdan Volkov are the young couple Nannetta and Fenton, and Maestro Daniele Rustioni conducts.

Falstaff

Umberto Giordano’s exhilarating drama returns to the Met repertory for the first time in 25 years. Packed with memorable melody, showstopping arias, and explosive confrontations, Fedora requires a cast of thrilling voices to take flight, and the Met’s new production promises to deliver. Soprano Sonya Yoncheva, one of today’s most riveting artists, sings the title role of the 19th-century Russian princess who falls in love with her fiancé’s murderer, Count Loris, sung by star tenor Piotr Beczała. Soprano Rosa Feola is the Countess Olga, Fedora’s confidant, and baritone Artur Ruciński is the diplomat De Siriex, with Met maestro Marco Armiliato conducting. Director David McVicar delivers a detailed and dramatic staging based around an ingenious fixed set that, like a Russian nesting doll, unfolds to reveal the opera’s three distinctive settings—a palace in St. Petersburg, a fashionable Parisian salon, and a picturesque villa in the Swiss Alps.

Fedora

The celebrated actress Adriana Lecouvreur loves Count Maurizio, who keeps his relationship with her a secret. The Princess of Bouillon also desires him.

Adriana Lecouvreur

Vienna State Opera

Temptation, redemption, and the price of desire take center stage in Gounod’s Faust, arriving in a dazzling, dance-infused production from visionary director David McVicar. Reimagined as a tormented composer in Belle Époque Paris, the title character makes a fateful pact with Mephistopheles: his soul in exchange for youth and sensual pleasure. After Faust sets his sights on the pure-hearted Marguerite, his passion leads to her ruin—but also her salvation. Set to one of the most beloved scores in French opera, Faust is full of iconic moments, from the diabolical “Song of the Golden Calf” to Marguerite’s glittering “Jewel Song.” Sublime soprano Pretty Yende makes her company debut as Marguerite, joined by tenor Matthew Polenzani as Faust and bass-baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo as Mephistopheles. Giacomo Sagripanti, music director of the Tbilisi Opera House, conducts in his HGO debut.

Faust

Wortham Theater Center

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the helm of Strauss’s most beloved score, following his acclaimed Met performances of the composer’s Elektra, Die Frau ohne Schatten, and Salome. After her “resplendent” (Observer) 2025 portrayal of Strauss’s Arabella, soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen stars as the elegant Marschallin, alongside brilliant mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo as her impetuous younger lover, Octavian. Soprano Ying Fang is the lovely heiress who steals his heart, and bass Günther Groissböck reprises his uproarious portrayal of the bumptious Baron Ochs in Robert Carsen’s turn-of-the-century setting.

Costume Designer

Brigitte Reiffenstuel

Events

Upcoming events

Jul 3 - Aug 29, 2026

Madama Butterfly · Santa Fe Opera

5 - 14 Sep, 2026

Adriana Lecouvreur · Wiener Staatsoper

Oct 30 - Nov 15, 2026

Faust · Houston Grand Opera

Mar 24 - Apr 10, 2027

Der Rosenkavalier · The Metropolitan Opera

Past events

Jul 3 - Aug 29, 2026

Madama Butterfly · Santa Fe Opera

Apr 25 - Jul 8, 2026

Giulio Cesare in Egitto · Deutsche Oper Berlin

About

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