David Patrick Stearns

Nico Muhly's Two Boys has an intentionally creepy sexual frankness that goes beyond anything previously seen on the Met stage, writes David Patrick Stearns.

The Met's high-style production with a smartly-selected cast represents a near-ideal opportunity to come to terms with what the piece is and is not, writes David Patrick Stearns.

"Light, swift and cogent were the watchwords in a performance that felt rather shorter than its three-and-a-half hour duration," writes David Patrick Stearns.

Before the first notes of Eugene Onegin, shouts rained down from the Family Circle of the Metropolitan Opera, with the word "Putin" surfacing often. David Patrick Stearns reports.

If applause alone could cure the New York City Opera's financial ills, the company would be in the pink following Tuesday's opening of the Mark-Anthony Turnage opera Anna Nicole, writes David Patrick Stearns.

Racks of dresses sat in the middle of the stage while costumed mannequins hung in mid air in the Mostly Mozart production of Marriage of Figaro. David Patrick Stearns had a look and offers his review.

This Chinese martial arts opera comes to Lincoln Center for 27 performances.

The ages-old plea, “Let my people go,” took on immediate meaning when Rossini’s Moses in Egypt had concluded its second act and the Israelites were still captive, writes David Patrick...

"Reaching the end of Giulio Cesare at its opening night wasn't just a matter of taking in four-plus hours of Handel’s greatest arias, but navigating stories within stories," write...

John Adams's large-scale oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary got its New York premiere Wednesday night. David Patrick Stearns writes that its Adams's "biggest and most profusely scored work."

Beyond religion, beyond duty, beyond fashion lies J.S. Bach’s music for keyboard. Read David Patrick Stearns's take on the composer's epic keyboard works and get a free download.

For the next 10 days, WQXR will be presenting the complete works of J.S. Bach – some 1100 in all. Get a free download, read our introductory essay and check out programming highlights.

"For all its musical clarity Sunday at BAM, Britten's opera failed to take possession (at least of me) in a way that it truly can," writes Operavore's David Patrick Stearns.

"The production isn’t for everybody, but so handsomely filled this five-hour-plus opera," writes David Patrick Stearns.

This visually busy Jay Scheib production addressed many of the problems in this woozy, dreamy portrayal of the Duchess of Argyll.

"As much as the opening scene's intentionally vulgar casino-style neon lights were greeted with stunned silence, the final curtain response suggested that it's a hit," writes David Patrick Stearns.

The Met's first-ever staging of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda opened on New Year's Eve, with Joyce DiDonato as the doomed Mary, Queen of Scots. "Against many odds, the opera actually mea...

Abstraction wrested music from the polarity of major and minor keys and Romantic-era emotions. Blogger David Patrick Stearns deconstructs the watershed years of 1910-1925.

From the first scene, the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Un Ballo in Maschera was to be a grand night for booing, writes Operavore critic David Patrick Stearns.

"Nobody should be surprised that composer Hans Werner Henze was at the premiere of a new work days before he died on Oct. 27 in Dresden," writes blogger David Patrick Stearns. "He was unstoppable."