And the Winner is : Swedish soprano Cornelia Beskow who won the first prize of the Lauritz Melchior International Singing Competition 2017. Congrats !

A new Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia is announced at Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées from 5 December staged by brilliant Laurent Pelly and directed by great Jérémie Rhorer but Kate Lindsey announced to perform as Rosina is pregnant, Catherine Trottmann replaces.

A superb December month at the Vienna’s Opera with the Richard Strauss’ days and 4 masterpieces performed : Daphne, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier and Arabella.

At Vienna’s Volksoper from 9 December, the Wiener Staatsballet performs a new Roméo et Juliette ballet but not Prokofiev’s, the Berlioz’s masterpiece instead with choreography by Davide Bombana.

Let’s go! Mezzo Cecilia Bartoli & cellist Sol Gabetta are on tour in Europe thanks to their new album Dolce duello in Baden-Baden (23 November) and among other dates in Amsterdam (27 November), Brussels (29 November), London (1 December), Paris (4 December), Munich (10 December), Vienna (12 December) and Berlin (17 December).

At London’s Southbank Centre, conducting his Philharmonia Orchestra Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to perform Mahler, Symphony 9.

The new 2018 season of the Teatro dell’Opera officially opens on 12 December with a French masterpiece, Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust is conducted by Daniele Gatti and directed by Damiano Michieletto.

The all-Beethoven Sonatas cycle by rare and very talented pianist Igor Levit continues at Brussels’ Palais des Beaux-Arts on 5 December.

Unfortunatly Dmitri Hvorostovsky cancels all the performances scheduled at the Wiener Staatsoper, in Verdi’s Otello Dalibor Jenis replaces in March and Paolo Rumetz as Rigoletto in May.

Amazing countertenor Franco Fagioli performs at Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées on 12 December a programme with arias from Handel’s Opera, divine for sure…