An Improbable Beauty: Bellini's 'La Straniera'

Expect the unexpected from Bellini's mysterious 'Stranger'

Exiled to Massachusetts: Verdi's 'Un Ballo en Maschera'

A steamy drama skips town to escape finicky censors

Breaking the Mold: Gounod's 'Romeo and Juliet'

One of literature's all-time greats is a rarity at the opera

Learning History's Lessons: Mussorgsky's 'Khovanshchina'

A fiery moment from history becomes an epic opera

Co-Starring with 'Carmen': Bizet's 'The Pearl Fishers'

Bizet's 'other' opera: overshadowed, yet often overwhelming

Two for the Price of One: Strauss's 'Ariadne auf Naxos'

Strauss and Hofmannsthal create a masterful, musical mashup

Strife and Salvation: Beethoven's 'Fidelio'

In 'Fidelio,' a rescue for the ages

Historically Seductive: Massenet's 'Cleopatra'

Massenet's final opera takes on one of history's great romances

Rossini Turns 21, with 'Aureliano in Palmira'

'Aureliano' topped off a prodigious year for the young Rossini

Here, then Nowhere: 'The Maid of Orleans'

Here, then Nowhere: 'The Maid of Orleans'

Brilliance in Darkness: Verdi's 'Simon Boccanegra'

Verdi makes the best of an operatic second chance

Passions and Potions: Donizetti's 'The Elixir of Love'

A phony formula gets powerful results in Donizetti's "Elixir."

'El Niño' by John Adams: The Nativity in Verse and Music

John Adams combines opera and oratorio to tell the Christmas story

Special Event, Special Music: Rossini's 'Journey to Reims'

Rossini brings out his best to meet a royal challenge