Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at Komische Oper Berlin
A concrete hellscape, a cycle of violence, and the particular genius of a piece that got its composer exiled.
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DSO, Ollikainen & Shaham at the Berlin Phil
A Soviet homecoming, a film theme everyone knows, a tomb for the drowned - and the modern symphony that converted me.
Die Zauberflöte at.. Union Berlin?
I walked into a football stadium braced for confrontation, and came out converted. On community, belonging, and what opera might learn from Köpenick
Giselle by Staatsballett Berlin
A story told entirely in gesture, in a room where phones no longer wait for the final bow.
Gran Gala de Zarzuela at Deutsche Oper Berlin
A 20th-century flamenco legend on castanets, a conductor stealing a verse, a genre I'd never once encountered - and a door into Spanish opera I didn't know I'd been missing.
Parsifal at Deutsche Oper Berlin
A curtain opening onto a cross, living tableaus, and an evening so unexpectedly moving it has stayed with me ever since.
La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera
World-building in the largest opera house on earth—and a Puccini farewell that hit closer to home than expected.
L'Italiana in Algeri at Deutsche Oper Berlin
A lucha libre mask on the curtain, two gyms, one wrestling ring, and Rossini completely dismantled—then rebuilt into something that actually works today.
All Balanchine III at the New York City Ballet
Balanchine in New York, Berlin in the audience—and a reminder not to take any of it for granted.
Nurejew at Staatsballett Berlin
A gay Soviet defector, a ballet banned in Russia, a director now based in Berlin—and a premiere that felt like the most important cultural event of the season.
Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Staatsoper Berlin
A man collapses outside a peep show, and spends the rest of the evening learning why. On shame, desire, and the particular wreckage of a man who never healed his inner child.
Selemo at Neuköllner Oper
Two traditions, one stage, and the quiet insistence that spring, contradiction, and simultaneity don't need your permission.
Staatsoper Berlin
Don Giovanni at Staatsoper Berlin
A rotating enchanted forest, a Giovanni who bleeds through the whole opera, and the production that knocked the wind back into my opera-tired lungs.
Komische Oper Berlin
Jewgeni Onegin at Komische Oper Berlin
An opera about not getting over a crush—and a production so gorgeous it makes 150-year-old heartbreak feel like yesterday.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Violanta at Deutsche Oper Berlin
Psychoanalysis as science fiction: rooms within rooms, each one a door into what you've buried—some doors you open, and some you don't.
Staatsoper Berlin
Falstaff at Staatsoper Berlin
Berlin’s queer aesthetics, stripped of queerness—a glossy appropriation where underground culture becomes set dressing for straight comfort.
Staatsballett Berlin
Wunderkammer by Staatsballett Berlin and Marcos Morau
A hypnotic descent into Berlin’s queer club culture—where wonder carries the weight of otherness, and belonging is never guaranteed.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Tristan und Isolde at Deutsche Oper Berlin (2025)
Between night and light, between longing and annihilation, lies a space where love becomes both wound and salvation.
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Don Giovanni at Vicenza Opera Festival
Between marble grandeur and moral decay, a centuries-old story of charm and cruelty becomes a mirror for power, privilege, and our age of artifice.
Staatsoper Berlin
Die schweigsame Frau at Staatsoper Berlin
Between camp and complicity, this production plays with tropes it should interrogate—and ends up reinforcing the very norms it claims to question.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny at Deutsche Oper Berlin
A libertarian fever dream becomes a masterclass in why community is our only defense against collapse—and fascism.
Deutsche Oper Berlin
Werther (concertante) at Deutsche Oper Berlin
A stirring Werther finale doubled as farewell and protest, as Berlin’s mayor applauded opera amid massive cultural budget cuts.
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour x Opera: “The Reclamation of America”
A genre-defying, politically charged performance that reclaims and reframes American identity through music, imagery, and unapologetic cultural ownership.
Maxim Gorki Theater
Carmen at Maxim Gorki Theater
A bold, stripped-back Carmen that reclaims, reframes, and reimagines—queer, critical, and culturally aware in all the ways opera should be today.