Centuries before Apollo and and Frank Sinatra, a wily faker flies a Sunday astronomer to the moon in hopes of winning the man’s lovely daughter. The libretto—by Carlo (Servant of Two Masters) Goldoni—is lighter than helium. Haydn was the seventh composer to set it to music and, being a genius, surely the finest, agleam with starlight (oh, those muted strings!). Though “Bolshoi” means “big,” you could just about shoehorn the hall for this show into a lunar module. —M.G.
Il Mondo della Luna, by Franz Joseph Haydn
Bolshoi Opera
Theatre Square, 1, Moskva, Russia, 125009
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