All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. The Financial Times opera critic Shirley Apthorp, known for her candor, tolerance for adventure, and exacting standards, had this to say about Alexander Raskatov’s George Orwell adaptation at the time of its Amsterdam premiere last year: ”Animal Farm is raucous and jarring, dark and unsettling, brazen and virtuosic. It deserves a life beyond this production, not least because its themes, sadly, show no signs of aging.” We’ll own up to our dismay that the opera moves the action from Mr. Jones’s abandoned farm (read: Russia after the murder of Nicholas II) to a slaughterhouse. Blame the director Damiano Michelietto—but not too severely, because it’s he who came up with the concept of the opera in the first place. While much if not the entire original cast is in place, the original conductor, Bassem Akiki, has ceded the podium to Alexander Soddy. —Matthew Gurewitsch