Benvenuto Cellini: Strassberger loses the plot, but La Monnaie still makes beautiful music

Thaddeus Strassberger’s Brussels debut presents Berlioz's opera semiseria with plenty of good music but far more visual noise.

Because my review of the company premiere of Benvenuto Cellini at La Monnaie | De Munt is published in Bachtrack, I will not be publishing my show notes, here, and instead direct you to read more off-site. A somewhat bizarre spectacle for my first trip to Brussels, it was still immensely gratifying to hear this rarely performed opera live and in the bedazzled flesh.

Performance Date: 28 January 2026

It’s relatively rare for an opera company to resurrect a work without a strong history in the repertoire, so a piece gaining traction more than 180 years after its debut feels remarkable. In the case of Benvenuto Cellini, the challenges are manifold: it failed with audiences in its lifetime, resulting in substantially different versions of the score; the vocal intensity is robust for several of the main characters, and there’s a demand for large choruses; the instrumental music is not particularly easy, either. But a first studio recording…