(Credits: Brescia e Amisano) This week the Teatro alla Scala opens its 2025-26 season celebrating the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death, presenting the 1934 edition of his masterwork “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.” It’s a work that is rarely performed due to its challenging score and huge cast. With La Scala’s new production, several cast members will be appearing with the {…}
It’s that time of the year. The end of the year. As with every year, 2025 was full of a lot of opera revelations in productions, concerts and competitions. So in recognitions of those breakouts, here’s a look at some of the young singers who are likely to make operatic waves in the very near future. Here are OperaWire’s 10 {…}
On Saturday, Nov. 22, the Metropolitan Opera put on its, in my view, unfortunate production of “Carmen.” While Carmen gets into a fight with one of the other factory girls, chaos erupts as the security guards try to regain control. At this moment in the production, a white man dressed in black came onto the stage and started dancing. He {…}
Photo Credit: IMG Artists/Frederica von Stade/Robert Millard (2005) This year was exciting for many reasons but one of them stands out. On Monday, March 10, 2025, the documentary about Frederica von Stade, “Flicka: A Love Letter,” first created in 2023, was screened at the National Opera Center in New York City. Combining archival footage of performance clips, Brian Staufenbiel’s “Flicka” gave {…}
Yes, you can be a conductor and a mother. But no one told me that. The classical music world rarely talks about women on the podium who are also mothers. I want the next generation to know that it’s possible—even if it’s exhausting. When I was 21, I decided I wanted to be a conductor at the highest level. Inspired {…}
Almost every year, a multitude of operas are premiered, some of which never really get publicly highlighted as they should due to certain operas taking the limelight, funds, and critical attention. Thus, in this three-month series entitled, Opera History Flashbacks, we’ll be taking a look at three historically important years and the operas that were premiered during those years. If {…}
This week, the Royal Opera House is set to unveil a new production of “The Makropoulos Case,” a rarely performed Janáček work. The opera plays with the idea of immortality and has historically been a vehicle for a great diva. This week, the London company does just that, but also brings Katie Mitchell, a director who has been known for {…}
The sudden death of Pierre Audi in May this year lent a moving note to the presentation of the Birgit Nilsson Prize in Stockholm on October 21. The prize, which has been awarded every three years since 2009, now went to the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, where Audi had been artistic director since 2018 – a deeply fitting tribute to a man {…}
Earlier this summer, I returned to Cooperstown to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Glimmerglass Festival, a place that, quite simply, changed the course of my life. Standing once again on their majestic campus, I was inspired to reflect on my own journey as a performer and as a person, as well as the impact the Festival has had {…}
