This week the Metropolitan Opera will revive its iconic production of “La Bohème.” Among the headliners in the cast is soprano Amina Edris as Musetta, making her debut with the company. Over the years, Edris has performed at the Opéra Comique, Staatsoper Berlin, Semperoper in Dresden and at Polish National Opera, among others. OperaWire had a chance to speak with {…}
(Photo Credit: Octavio Alonso Maya Castro) Visiting the Palacio de Bellas Artes made me fall in love with opera again. The open plaza welcomed groups of young people walking, laughing, and congregating. The bronze-tiled dome gleamed like a radiant sunset, hugging the luminous marble archway. Stepping inside, the grand foyer projected an entirely different regal stature. Whereas the exterior of {…}
(Credit: West Bay Opera) This week, the Metropolitan Opera will conclude its run of “Madama Butterfly.” It’s been a noteworthy run with two acclaimed sopranos taking on the title role. But that’s not the end of the story. To close it all out, Toni Marie Palmertree will make her principal role debut at the Met as Cio-Cio San. The role {…}
(Credit: Simon van Rompay) This week, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie Liège is set to perform Liszt’s “Faust Symphonie,” a piece inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s drama, “Faust.” For the tenor role, which appears at the end of the piece, Alexander Marev will take centerstage. The rising star has performed with the Opéra Royal de Wallonie over many years {…}
(Credit: Caitlin Oldham Photography) This week, the Washington National Opera returns with a production of Scott Joplin’s “Treemonisha” featuring a new production by Denyce Graves. But perhaps the biggest draw of the night is one of the Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artists in the title role, Viviana Goodwin. The soprano, who has already been in the program for over {…}
(Photo: David Bazemore) Now that 2025 has come and gone, and we are facing a new year of possibilities, it’s best to take a quick review of the stories we’ve explored together in the last years before 2026 really begins. While there has been a good deal of historical articles like the cinematic presence of Maria Callas and Wagner, there’s {…}
(Photo: La Boheme movie still press image) There’s no denying it. Italian opera, or ANY opera in another language for that matter, loses something, intrinsically, when it’s sung in English. Additionally, operas performed as a motion picture for cinema lose something more, by necessity, the artists having to mime to a pre-recorded rendition, negating the true passion and emotion of {…}
(Credit: © David Ruano) This week, the Gran Theatre del Liceu opens a new production of “La Gioconda,” one of the most challenging operas in the repertoire. For the occasion, the Barcelona theater has put together two outstanding casts featuring some of today’s most renowned singers. Leading one of the casts is American tenor Michael Fabiano, who continues to expand {…}
Photo Credit: Michael Cooper/Canadian Opera Company (2017) Generally absent from contemporary musical discourse, performance repertoire, and the operatic stage today, the name Harry Somers still carries considerable weight in Canada. He was instrumental in creating many of the musical institutions Canada now enjoys, such as the Canadian League of Composers (1951-), Canada Council (1957-), and the Canadian Music Centre (1959-). {…}
