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Q & A: Baritone César San Martín on the Emotional Power of Zarzuela, Returning to ‘La Verbena de la Paloma’ & the Global Nostalgia for Our Roots

As the 2026-27 season opens at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela, baritone César San Martín returns to one of the works most deeply connected to the city’s musical identity: Tomás Bretón’s “La Verbena de la Paloma.” San Martín appears as Julián in Nuria Castejón’s production, which returns to the stage following its 2024 presentation and forms part of a season {…}

Q & A: Mezzo-Soprano Anita Rachvelishvili on Returning to Her Path, NYC, Teaching & The Importance of the Greek National Opera

On Oct. 15, 2026, the Greek National Opera will make its Carnegie Hall debut with a unique program that pays tribute to Nikos Kazantzakis, a Greek writer, journalist, politician, poet and philosopher. Among the vocal soloists on the showcase is Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, who will also be performing in New York City for the first time in numerous years. {…}

Q & A: China Now Music Festival Artistic Director Jindong Cai on Celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary Through Chinese-American Experience

Two chapters of American history, separated by more than a century, sit at the center of this year’s China Now Music Festival in New York. One belongs to the thousands of Chinese laborers who helped build the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s. The other belongs to Maya Lin, the American artist born to Chinese immigrant parents who designed the Vietnam {…}

Q & A: Victoria Frances Young on Her Fixed-Media Operatic Work ‘Breaking News’

(Photo: © Victoria Frances Young) Pianist, composer, and electroacoustic and multimedia artist Victoria Frances Young’s contemporary operatic work, “Breaking News,” won the International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) Search for New Music Competition’s Leah Reid Electroacoustic and Music in Technology Prize and will receive its wider streaming release on October 6, ahead of the world premiere of its fixed-media {…}

Q & A: Composer Huang Ruo & Librettist David Henry Hwang on ‘The Rift’ for China Now Music Festival’s ‘Chasing Dreams’

(Photo © Courtesy of the artists & the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music) Two black granite stones, each 246.75 feet long, carve a V-shape into the earth with the names of 58,000-plus dead soldiers in chronological order. Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial is more than meets the eye. In 1981, the 21-year-old Yale student who {…}

Q & A: Azrieli Commission for International Music Laureate Adrian Mocanu on ‘de l’encra escafada’

(Photo credit: Fotografia Giu) Of the troubadours who sang in medieval Provence, most of the surviving legacy belongs to men. The trobairitz, the female troubadours, have largely faded from cultural memory, and Beatriz de Dia left behind a single song preserved with musical notation. That lone canso is the starting point for “de l’encra escafada” (“from faded ink”), a work {…}

Q & A: Sophia Baete on Performing ‘Carmen’ & Participating in The Denyce Graves Foundation

The Denyce Graves Foundation began as a way to bridge the past to future by honoring overlooked musical voices and empowering the next generation of world-class artists.   Founded by opera star Denyce Graves, the foundation celebrates trailblazing musicians, music educators, and composers of color through community engagement programs, concerts and presentations, creation of new works of art, establishment of young {…}

Q & A: Teddy Balfour-Austin on the General Voices Program at the Denyce Graves Foundation

The Denyce Graves Foundation began as a way to bridge the past to future by honoring overlooked musical voices and empowering the next generation of world-class artists. Founded by opera star Denyce Graves, the foundation celebrates trailblazing musicians, music educators, and composers of color through community engagement programs, concerts and presentations, creation of new works of art, establishment of young {…}

Q & A: Marija Jelić on her Debut with the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, AI in Opera & Future Projects

Serbian Marija Jelić Sid a rising star in opera, having performed at the Belgrade National Theatre, and Serbian National Theater as well as at the Ljubljana Festival, National Opera and Ballet in North Macedonia, Jerusalem Opera Festival, Sigulda Opera Festival, and Riga National Opera Orchestra. In addition to her career on stage, she is the president of the International Opera {…}

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