The Vargas Blog

The title of this review does not refer to me having made the trip to Richard Wagner 's Valhalla and having successfully returned, but r...

Last week I went to see Danny Boyle 's production of Nick Dear 's sold-out new play, Frankenstein , from the National Theatre in L...

Calixto Bieito 's controversial 2010 staging of Richard Wagner 's Parsifal is back at the Staatsoper in Stuttgart, Germany. This ...

Ever since artist Nicolas Poussin painted his famous picture " Et in Arcadia Ego ," which shows a group of pastoral shepherds (pa...

For the past few months I have been spotting these strange diagrams, like the one to the left, everywhere, especially in posters in New York...

Willy Decker 's staging of La Traviata was the sold-out event in the summer of 2005 at the Salzburg Festival . That production, starri...

Here are some upcoming performances and productions that are rumored to be coming to The Metropolitan Opera. An asterisk means that it wil...

She had the most beautiful voice. Arturo Toscanini said of Renata Tebaldi that hers was the voice of an angel. Of Joan Sutherland , who ...

The Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall is always a hot ticket in New York, especially when they are led by Gustavo Dudamel , the young m...

It's a well-known fact that mounting a new production of an opera these days requires a special "vision" from the stage direct...

All the buzz you've heard is true. The Social Network , director David Fincher 's highly entertaining new film chronicling the gene...

It's so difficult to believe that Christoph Schlingensief (1960-2010) is dead. Barely a few weeks ago his name was on my lips as I was...

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced that it will kick off its 48th annual New York Film Festival with The Social Network , th...

I recently found out that one of my favorite productions of Parsifal , Nikolaus Lehnnhoff 's post-apocalyptic setting of Wagner 's l...

One of the many results of the so-called Regietheater, the director-driven style of presenting opera that has Europe and most of America and...

The Donmar Warehouse , that magnificent British theatrical institution, is on a roll these days. Recently, three of their productions ( Fros...

At one point, somewhere in the second act, Gomez Adams, played by Nathan Lane , looks up at statuesque Bebe Neuwirth , playing his wife Mort...