Raphaël Pichon, who literally grew up in the shadow of the Palace of Versailles, has had dual careers as a countertenor, and later as the founder and director of the historically oriented choir “Pygmalion.” With a decided gift for drawing

Born on 12 October 1935 on the outskirts of Modena in Northern Italy, Luciano Pavarotti became one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. His bright and incisive tenor voice, paired with a directness of manner made him a

The Bruckner Year 2024, celebrating the 200th birthday of one of the most innovative composers of the second half of the 19th century, will see the release of multiple recordings of the Bruckner cycle. The composer was plagued by crippling

The Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár (1870-1948) scored the greatest international success of his later works with a revised version of Die gelbe Jacke (The Yellow Jacket). Premiered at the Metropoltheater in Berlin on 10 October 1928, the romantic operetta Das

The Phantom of the Opera was the longest-running show in Broadway history, celebrating its 10,000th performance on 11 February 2012. The production grossed over 1 billion dollars on Broadway, and 6 billion worldwide. Premiered on 9 October 1986 at Her

An extraordinary premiere took place in Brno, Moravia, on 4 October 1936. Czech conductor Milan Sachs raised his baton to début the 1st Symphony by Antonín Dvořák. A critic wrote, “although the writing was at times awkward, the orchestration is

The great Nordic countries of Europe have produced two significant composers over the last 150 years. Both were born in 1865, but Denmark’s Carl Nielsen always stood in the shadow of Jean Sibelius. Sibelius came from an upper-middle-class upbringing, while

André Rieu is one of today’s most successful classical performing artists. In fact, he is one of the most successful touring artists in the world, easily outselling most popular music acts. Rieu founded the Johann Strauss Orchestra, the largest private