Courtney Smith is an American freelance journalist living in Milan, Italy. On classical music and opera, she's written for the BBC Music Magazine, Opera
Now, Opera News, Corriere della Sera Style Magazine, Auditorium, Limelight and
Classical Singer. She's written in-house for classical music organizations such
as The New York Philharmonic and the Royal Opera House's blog.
On luxury, fashion and beauty, she's written for The Wall Street Journal,
Women's Wear Daily, Grazia.it and W Magazine's Editors' Blog. She's written
in-house for brands such as Calvin Klein.
A Carnegie Hall Sibelius concert under Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra brought a big American sound to the Finnish composer's symphonies, with great virtuosity and verve from violin soloist Hilary Hahn.
Russian piano virtuoso Evgeny Kissen taps his Yiddish roots for an engaging concert of solo piano works by lesser-known Jewish composers and a classic Yiddish poetry recital.
Despite starry bel canto experts such as Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee and maestro Michele Mariotti, a 2013 Paul Curran staging of Rossini’s La donna del lago reads vacuous on The Metropolitan Opera stage.
Franco Zeffirelli's admired 1987 Turandot honored Giacomo Puccini's chinoiserie fantasy about a cold-hearted princess thawed by love, but musically lacked conviction.
A charmingly-retro, Naïf Art production of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at Teatro alla Scala provided a refreshing departure from the minimal, post-apocalyptic devastation trends of modern stagecraft.
Yuri Temirkanov chills Felix Mendelssohn and Anton Bruckner symphonic fire with Russian sensibility at the MITO Settembre Musica festival inaugural concert
Bridging new and old, the young graduates of Teatro alla Scala's Academy joined seasoned Italian opera legends for an "Academy Project" performance of Gioachino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 46-year-old staging.
After an absence of 145 years, Teato alla Scala staged Gioachino Rossini's Otello in a painterly Jürgen Flimm production, sparse set inspired by conversations with Anselm Kiefer.
