Q & A: Harry Christophers On The White Light Festival & A Big Year for The Sixteen

On Nov. 7, the White Light Festival in Lincoln Center will present the U.S. premieres of James MacMillan’s widely acclaimed “Stabat Mater” and “Miserere” as part of the 10th anniversary of the festival. Harry Christophers, music director and founder of The Sixteen choir, will lead both works alongside the Britten Sinfonia ensemble. It’s a big year for Christophers, who is celebrating the {…}

Opera In the Big Easy – New Orleans Opera Association Robert Lyall On Developing The City’s Rich Operatic Tradition

(Credit: Brittney Werner) If you visit New Orleans today, you can pop into the Napoleon House, the supposed location in which the former emperor would live out his days in North America. The music that you’ll hear while sipping your Pimm’s Cup in the 200-year-old house-turned-bar is classical. Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony is on repeat, after all, the maestro wrote it {…}

Q & A: Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Lidiya Yankovskaya, & Elizabeth Askren On How The Hart Institute For Women Conductors Helped Shape Their Careers

For five years, the Dallas Opera’s Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors has done something that few other major companies have done – champion women conductors. The program, the first ever designed to meet the needs of women opera conductors, has allowed participants an opportunity to engage in a wide-range of musical opportunities alongside some of the most {…}

Q & A: General Director Francesca Campagna On Cultivating a New Vision for The Center of Contemporary Opera

Recently named General Director of Center of Contemporary Opera (CCO), Francesca Campagna represents a positive shift towards greater international and personal awareness within the opera community. She is the first female in CCO’s history of 37 years to be selected for this role and also the first immigrant. Her career’s journey spans over more than a decade and has been {…}

Q & A: Gil Rose On Resurrecting Saint-Saëns’ ‘Henry VIII’

(Credit: Kathy Wittman) Boston’s Odyssey Opera has revealed that it will be “crossing the pond to merry old England” for its seventh season, which will feature a plethora of rarely performed Tudor-themed operas by a variety of composers. The company’s Founder and General-Artistic Director, Gil Rose, recently shared some insight with OperaWire on the upcoming season, particularly its exciting opener: a quasi-premiere {…}

Q & A: Director Anna-Magdalena Fitzi On Her Approach To Coaching Singers And “Ottone” At Innsbruck’s Early Music Festival

Innsbruck’s Early Music Festival is presenting Handel’s “Ottone” as its Barockoper: Jung production in which promising young talented singers who have just embarked upon their careers are given the opportunity to perform in a fully staged work. The director for this production, Anna-Magdalena Fitzi seems the ideal choice to take charge of the staging as she works extensively with young {…}

Reviving A Lost Legend – The Making of Bea Goodwin, Whitney George & Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble’s ‘Princess Maleine’

Dell’Arte Artistic Director Chris Fecteau was working on putting together the 2019 season for the company when he happened upon Lili Boulanger’s “Princess Maleine.” His hope had been to create a season centering on the works of Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck, who had inspired such works as Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande” and Dukas’ “Ariane et Barb Bleu.” “My mentor Fiora {…}