Attempting Destruction but Creating History in G. W. Pabst’s ‘The Three Penny Opera’

With the publication of Ross Benjamin’ translation of Daniel Kehlmann’s fictionalized story of Austrian filmmaker, Georg Wilhelm Pabst (1886-1967), The Director (2023/2025), preceded by German filmmaker Werner Herzog’s translated memoire, Every Man for Himself and God Against All (2022/2023), it’s fascinating to see how the opera-film relationship can be incredibly heterogeneous. While for Herzog, “when the whole world is transformed {…}

Jul 8, 2026

Opera Meets Film: Detailing Pre-Revolutionary Russian Opera Cinema in Vasili Goncharev’s ‘Eugene Onegin’

In the West, Richard Wagner’s music is by far the most utilized music in cinematic practice. From the Ring Cycle in satirical contexts, avant-garde metafiction, and even para-documentary realism, to comedy drama and beyond, his presence in film is extensive and ongoing. But if we leave both the US and Western Europe for a moment, what does one find? Is {…}

Jun 18, 2026

Opera Meets Film: Then A New World Began In William Dickson’s ‘The Dickson Experimental Sound Film’ (1894)

For the last five months, we reversed course and explored operas based on films, and we now know that it sometimes produces mixed results, whilst at other times, it strips the film of what made it great and ends up alienating the audience from the story. But now we’re going to take a step back in time, something familiar to {…}

May 28, 2026

Opera Meets Film: Duplicitous Love Behind Enemy lines in Hans Gefors’ ‘Notorious’

Joining the ranks of other screen-to-stage operatic adaptations, Swedish composer Hans Gefors and his eighth opera, “Notorious,” can be considered a contemporary grand opera. Spanning five acts — a number usually seen in French grand opera but also seen in Italian verismo including “Don Carlo,” “Robert le diable,” and “La muette de Portici” — the opera details the complex love affair between a {…}

Apr 16, 2026

Opera Meets Film: When Justice Becomes A Curse in Poul Ruder’s ‘Selma Ježková’

Photo Credit: Miklos Szabo/Lincoln Center (2011) Having composed the internationally celebrated work, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ (1988), an opera which has gained a truly canonical spot in theatrical repertoire thanks to its global embrace, Danish composer Poul Ruders was and remains on the cutting-edge of opera today. With five operas to his name, among them ‘The Thirteenth Child‘ (2016) and ‘Kafka’s {…}

Mar 6, 2026

Opera Meets Film: A 1960s Thriller Born Anew in Stephen Schwartz’s ‘Séance on a Wet Afternoon’

(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 {…}

Feb 24, 2026

Opera Meets Film: Review for Robin Norton-Hale’s ‘La Bohème’

(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 {…}

Feb 12, 2026

Opera Meets Film: Translating Moral Ambiguity in Gordon Kampe’s ‘Dogville’

(Photo Credit: Jo Schramm) Operatic depictions of cruelty, vengeance, wrath, mercilessness, wickedness, barbarism, savagery, and anger seem hallmark elements of the genre itself. From villains like Queen of the Night, Lady Macbeth, and Don Giovanni to ghastly characters like Elektra, Scarpia, Iago, Mefistofele, and Caesar, all the way to troubled souls like Wotan, Giorgio Germont, Turandot, Poulenc’s Chaplain, Anna Bolena, {…}

Jan 8, 2026

Opera Meets Film: Strained Relations and Non-Endings in Sebastian Fagerlund’s ‘Autumn Sonata’

(Photo: Sakari Viika/Finnish Music Quarterly) Throughout operatic history, family difficulties are among the most widely utilized themes by composers, with the more recognizable feuds seemingly being children and their (step) mothers. From Pamina and her mother (“Die Zauberflöte”), Hansel, Gretel, and their stepmother (“Hansel and Gretel”), Lucette/Cinderella and her stepmother (“Cendrillon”), and Elektra and her stepmother (“Elektra”), there is something {…}

Dec 18, 2025

Opera Meets Film: The Pursuit Of The Dream in Miriam Gordon-Stewart’s ‘YAPS’

The world of classical singing is fraught with challenges, especially for those wishing to make a career from singing alone. From an oversaturated marketplace of voices and biases of all shapes and sizes, to economic stressors and the constant fight for golden opportunities, what keeps someone going? The chronic instability within the classical music industry makes searching for opportunities both {…}

Nov 20, 2025

Opera Meets Film: Celebrating An Operatic Giant in Brian Staufenbiel’s ‘Flicka’

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 {…}