Opera which are always relevant (and some that are not) Operanorman lebrecht August 06, 2026From my Stephen Sondheim essay in the current issue of The Critic:The test of a great music drama is its capacity to feel relevant to varied times. Works that fail this high bar include Tosca, Magic Flute, Flying Dutchman, Parsifal, Falstaff, Rosenkavalier, Fledermaus, The Sound of Music and the complete works of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Those that keep raising the bar include Carmen (pic), Tristan und Isolde, Salome, Jenufa, Peter Grimes, West Side Story and the complete works – well, at least half – of Stephen Sondheim.