This week, Piotr Beczała returns to Italy for his highly anticipated debut at the Arena di Verona. The Polish tenor, who is one of the most acclaimed singers of his generation has not performed at any major Italian theater since 2013; the tenor noted 10 years ago that he would not return to Italy after he was booed at the {…}
Photo Credit: Dahlia Katz One of the biggest, and longest-lasting, impacts that the pandemic has had on our society has been in the area of technological adaptation and innovation. One could see this in the widespread usage of live-streamed, Zoom-based productions, as well as other digitally-manipulated processes, in opera from 2019 to 2021. The boom in streaming’s popularity was thanks {…}
(Credit: (c) ROH 2021) This week, the Salzburg Festival is set to open its new production of Verdi’s “Macbeth” with a stellar cast that includes one of today’s most exciting artists at the festival, Asmik Grigorian. Ever since her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2017 as Marie in “Wozzeck,” Grigorian has become a favorite of the festival. She has {…}
(Credit: Wiener Staatsoper) It’s a big week for Juan Diego Flórez – the Peruvian tenor is set to take the stage of the Arena di Verona for the first time. Following a career that has led him to some of the most important Italian theaters in the world, including the Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Teatro dell’Opera di {…}
Photo Credit: Cory Weaver Opera is full of parents that have difficult, often downright hostile, relationships with their children. Sometimes they are married off to unloving partners and treated like slaves or vermin. Other times, they are all together abandoned. But, while there are a lot of uncaring parents, there are many parents who love their children and who go {…}
(Photo Credit: James Glossop) Disability is a tricky subject in opera. Oftentimes, it is chastised as something dirty or mysterious or just down right funny. But in truth, it’s rather serious and a complicated theme to get right. A new opera about the perils of mental illness, love, and genuine belief has tried to reframe this with exceptional results. Composed {…}
As the Teatro Real de Madrid closes its 2022-23 season, the company is set to present a new production of “Turandot” with three casts that include some of the greatest interpreters of the roles. Among the cast will be Ewa Płonka, who returns to Madrid a year after her debut. Płonka has become one of the leading dramatic sopranos of {…}
This week the Santa Fe Opera is set to open a new production of Wagner’s early work “Der Fliegende Holländer” with a cast of superstars and rising stars. Among the cast is Nicholas Brownlee, who is singing the title role and making his role debut. Brownlee has been a mainstay at the Santa Fe Opera since his debut in 2015 {…}
The story of Clara Josephine Wieck-Schumann and Johannes Brahms is one of both fact and myth. Through their forty years of correspondence, they expressed adoration for each other and the art of music itself. Yet, do we really know what their love was like? Fresco Opera Theatre in Wisconsin had created an opera called “Clara” to explore this relationship using {…}
