Q &A: Fundación Ibáñez Atkinson’s Andrés Rodríguez Spoerer on his Operatic Journey & Bringing Met Opera’s Laffont Competition Auditions to South America

(© Fundación Ibáñez Atkinson) This year, the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition held its first South American auditions in over 70 years. This historic event was several years in the making, with Andrés Rodríguez Spoerer as its main champion. As Music Director of Chile’s Fundación Ibáñez Atkinson (FIA), Rodríguez Spoerer spent years building the relationships, programs, and infrastructure that would make {…}

Mar 28, 2026

Q & A: Janet Farrell on INSERIES & Being a Recipient of a National Opera Trustee Recognition Award

Janet Farrell is one of five recipients of the National Opera Trustee Recognition Awards by Opera America. Farrell, who loves singing, was brought to the INSERIES by the dynamic artistic director, Timothy Nelson. With Farrell’s professional business acumen and experience at M&T Bank and her love of opera, she has been able to draw attention and support to INSERIES, something {…}

Mar 26, 2026

Q & A: Serge Dorny on Taking Presidency of Opera Europa, The Future of Opera & Anna Netrebko’s Return to Bayerische Staatsoper

(© Geoffroy Schied) Serge Dorny is one of the most powerful men in opera. Beginning his career as a dramaturge under Gerard Mortier at Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, he would eventually become Artistic Director of several major institutions before climbing to some of the most prestigious positions in the industry. He led as General Director of Opéra National {…}

Mar 23, 2026

Q & A: Gregory Spears on ‘Fellow Travelers’ & His Upcoming Opera ‘Sleepers Awake’

Composer Gregory Spears is in the middle of celebrating his breakthrough opera “Fellow Travelers,” which premiered 10 years ago. The opera, which is based on the Thomas Mallon novel set in Washington D.C., during the McCarthy era of the 1950s and focuses on the “lavender scare,” a witch hunt and mass firings of gay people from the United States government, {…}

Mar 22, 2026

Q & A: Music Director Peter Whelan on His Vision for Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale & the 2026-27 Season ‘The Power of Music’

The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale recently announced its 2026-27 season, the first with Peter Whelan as its new Music Director. For Whelan, what distinguishes Philharmonia Baroque from the outset is its energy. He describes the ensemble as a group of “musical time-travelers” who bring a visceral, theatrical charge to every performance, and speaks warmly of the Bay Area audience’s {…}

Mar 18, 2026

Q & A: Artistic Director Christoph von Bernuth on the Multi-Faceted Identity of the Karlsruhe Handel Festival

(Photo: Arno Kohlem) Christoph von Bernuth is the Opera Director and Artistic Director of the International Handel Festival at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. With nearly 19 years at the Innsbruck Early Music Festival alongside René Jacobs, he is a leading expert in Baroque opera productions. Formerly Deputy General Director at Oldenburg, he is also an accomplished director, known for staging works {…}

Mar 10, 2026

Q & A: Director Jorinde Keesmaat on ‘SHE/HER/ME’ & the Female Perspective in Opera for International Women’s Day

(Photo: Welmer Keesmaat) Director Jorinde Keesmaat is working on the concept and staging of a new project, “SHE/HER/ME,” an opera film installation with film and dialogue by Jean Cocteau, music by Philip Glass, and new composition by Molly Joyce. Keesmaat was invited as the keynote speaker to a Women’s Leadership event, ahead of International Women’s Day, to the Consulate General {…}

Mar 4, 2026

Q & A: Lawrence H. Levens on Recovering Will H. Dixon’s Lost Opera, ‘Maid of Chatteaulogne’

Opera history is full of lost works. It is also missing champions with the interest and desire to find the missing pieces and give these operas a second life. That’s not the case with Lawrence H. Levens, custodian and guardian of the Barnes/Dixon/Myers Historical Harlem Papers, who has worked tirelessly to restore a work by Will H. Dixon, a pioneering African-American {…}

Mar 3, 2026

Q&A: Librettist/Director Crystal Manich & Composer Laura Kaminsky on Pittsburgh Opera’s World Premiere, Telling Audiences It’s “Time to Act” With School Gun Violence

Tonight, Pittsburgh Opera will set the stage to “Time to Act’s” world premiere. A new opera whose setting is a modern day high school and whose characters are teenagers, the opera’s slogan is “build the world you want to see.” The students’ preparation for a production of Sophocles’ classic Greek tragedy, “Antigone,” quickly turns into a parallel story of {…}

Feb 23, 2026

Q & A: Elizabeth Askren on Growing MaestraMagic! & Opera as a Comic Book

(Photo credit: J. Kraemer) Following the release of the Spanish edition of MaestraMagic!’s comic book, “La Flauta Mágica,” Dr. Elizabeth Askren sat down with OperaWire to discuss this creative journey. The project started as part of Askren’s mixed-media edutainment show that she created with her daughter Lily during the lockdown in 2020. The English version and first edition of the {…}

Feb 21, 2026

Q & A: Legendary Designer Zandra Rhodes on Her Work for Palm Beach Opera’s ‘The Pearl Fishers’

Few designers have blurred the line between fashion and art quite like Dame Zandra Rhodes. Born in Chatham, Kent in 1940 — with a mother who fitted gowns at the House of Worth in Paris and later taught at Medway College of Art — Rhodes seemed destined for a life shaped by fabric and form. She studied printed textile design {…}

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