(Photo: Olivier Metzger) French soprano Julie Fuchs has been busy thrilling opera audiences all over Europe with her wide-ranging repertoire, from Baroque to contemporary. She is currently making her American debut in the title role of Händel’s “Partenope” at San Francisco Opera. A lifelong singer, Fuchs began her musical training in Avignon before going on to study at the Conservatoire {…}
(Credit: Marco Borggreve) Mark Padmore has established himself as an important recital and concert singer who has performed around the world in many of the greatest theaters in a diverse repertoire. He has been an Artist in Residence with the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchester, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Wigmore Hall and has served as an artistic director for the St. Endellion Summer Music {…}
Swiss soprano Gabriela Scherer is in high demand for her lyric German roles with her Arabella and her Senta in “Der fliegende Holländer” among her most popular warhorses. But she isn’t letting anyone put her in a box. The soprano is leading her career on her own terms and performing roles that speak to her. This season she made her {…}
Spring was in the air in Philadelphia when I met with David B. Devan in Opera Philadelphia’s Center City offices. Warm temperatures and flowers heralded a new season, as clearly as the empty offices signaled change for the opera company. Devan is stepping down as Opera Philadelphia’s general director at the end of May. It was a decision prompted in {…}
(Photo: Khalid Al-Busaidi, ROHM) OperaWire has been in Oman at the Royal Opera House Muscat to review a production of Puccini’s “La Bohème” and a concert performance entitled “Homage To Maria Callas,” starring the great Italian baritone Leo Nucci and the fabulous Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, along with the Egyptian tenor Ragaa Eldin. The stars of the show, Yoncheva and {…}
(Photo credit: Tiara Abraham) The 18-year-old soprano Tiara Abraham made history on May 3, 2024 as the youngest person to earn a master’s degree from Indiana University, across all campuses. Abraham’s brilliance does not start there, nor will it stop. At 4-years-old, she became a Mensa, started community college when most people her age were in elementary school, and received {…}
(Photo Credit Anna Rakhvalova) A violinist. A composer. A polyglot whose musical world combines classical contemporary music with jazz, Arabic music, and improvisation. This is Layale Chaker, whose blossoming career, which has seen her work performed by such organizations as the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Nebraska Crossroads Music Festival, is set to take another step when her {…}
(Photo Credit: Chris Gonz) In 1994, when he was 10 years old, Julian Prégardien sang the role of the First Boy as a member of the Limburger Domsingknaben, performing in “Die Zauberflöte” all around the Frankfurt region. Fast forward more than 20 years to 2010 when Prégardien, whose career has seen him perform for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Staatsoper Hamburg, Bayerische {…}
(Photo: Frances Marshall) With Ireland’s Blackwater Valley Opera Festival about to get underway, OperaWire thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty, who will be playing the role of Sesto in the festival’s headline presentation, Handel’s “Giulio Cesare.” 2024 is proving to be a busy year for Carty. She has had a full calendar, {…}