Despite living in a horrific Nazi concentration camp, Jaap Polak and Ina Soep continued to write love letters to one another. The couple’s letters were published in 2000 and were featured in a documentary film of this same title. Their relationship inspired Composer Gerald Cohen and librettist Deborah Brevoort‘s first opera together, “Steal a Pencil for Me.” The couple was {…}
(Photo: Ross Kavanagh) This September, Northern Ireland Opera premieres its new production of Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”, with its quality cast members directed by Cameron Menzies, and conducted by Dominic Limburg. This production looks certain to be another hit with local audiences, following its sell-out productions of “La Traviata” and “Tosca.” OperaWire met up with one of its stars, mezzo-soprano Sarah {…}
It was January 2020, on the Brooklyn waterfront. A bone-chilling wind funneled through old buildings, slamming the streets. Inside, “Ellen West” would have its premiere. But my mind wasn’t on opera; that very day, I learned my brother had cancer. As I arrived, a cluster of people stood on the steps. Ricky Ian Gordon was in the aisle, easy to {…}
After 140 years, Wagner’s final opera, “Parsifal,” first performed at the second Bayreuth Festival in 1882, finally got its Mexican premiere in April of this year. While not quite an opera—it was defined by Wagner as an ‘Bühnenweihfestspiel,’ or a ‘stage festival play’ with a sacred focus—Wagner’s final piece testifies to his consummate understanding of opera as not just a {…}
(Credit: Courtesy of TACT International) Boris Pinkhasovich is one of today’s rising baritones. Born in Saint Petersburg to a family of musicians, he studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory of Music and in 2011 became an ensemble member at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. His career eventually went international after major debuts at the Royal Opera House, Paris Opera, {…}
This week the Salzburg Festival opens a new production of “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” with an all-star cast that includes some of the best performers of the work. Among them is Kathryn Lewek, who will be taking on the challenge of portraying all four heroines, something that has always been seen as rare and complex. In preparation for the roles, Lewek {…}
(Credit: Dario Acosta) American soprano Angel Blue is widely considered to be one of the most influential sopranos before the public today. The two-time Grammy Award winner, 2020 Beverly Sills Award recipient, and the 2022 Richard Tucker Award winner is celebrated worldwide for her honeyed soprano and affecting deliveries of many of the most beloved roles in the operatic repertory, {…}
(Photo: Alex Dowling) During the pandemic, the composer, Emma O’Halloran, and librettist, Mark O’Halloran, produced a piece for Irish National Opera’s hugely successful and innovative “20 Shots of Opera.” The work, entitled “The Wait,” is an impressive opera that brilliantly showcased O’Halloran’s compositional skills, in which OperaWire drew attention to her “wonderfully evocative score, with its contrasting densities and textures, {…}
Italian librettist Fabrizio Funari‘s newest opera with music by composer Gaia Aloisi, “Aqua Tofana,” is set to premiere on September 22nd in London at the Tête à Tête Festival. “Aqua Tofana” also features director Rosie Kat, producer Ted Blackburn, lighting designer Mildred Moyo, and singers soprano Sarah Parkin, mezzo-soprano Alexandra Dinwiddie and baritone Thomas Litchev. Following its London premiere, the {…}