(Photo: Fabio Ceresa) One of the highlights of this summer’s Innsbruck Early Music Festival will undoubtedly be a fully staged production of Antonio Cesti’s opera from 1668, “Il pomo d’oro,” to a libretto by Francesco Sbarra. Written for the Austrian Empress, Margaret Theresa’s 17th birthday in a specially constructed outdoor theater in Vienna, it has been described as the empire’s {…}
Olivier Award winner, Peter Whelan, is known as one of the most dynamic and versatile exponents of historical performance of his generation. He is currently the Artistic Director of Irish Baroque Orchestra and Curator for Early Music of Norwegian Wind Ensemble. In addition to taking up the role of Artistic Partner with National Symphony Orchestra Ireland in January 2026 and {…}
Composer Carlos Simon has built a career at the intersection of the Black church and the concert hall, channeling a Pentecostal upbringing into music written for orchestras, opera companies and choruses. That path has taken the Atlanta native from Composer in Residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the inaugural Composer Chair of the Boston {…}
(Photo: Karpati & Zarewicz) Polish baritone Artur Ruciński is one of those artists for whom opera has never been merely a display of vocal mastery. For more than 25 years, he has built an extensive Verdi repertoire, returning to its great roles with fresh eyes each time. In Madrid, where Ruciński is performing Count di Luna in Giuseppe Verdi’s “Il {…}
(Photo credit: Ozge Balkan) During the week-long program Opera by the Fjord in Bergen, Norway, co-creator and conductor Sascha Goetzel spoke with OperaWire about this unique young artist program. Not only does Opera by the Fjord take young opera singers, it brings together budding orchestra musicians, conductors, and répétiteurs. This year, the program featured performances of Mozart’s “Le nozze di {…}
In a modern world burgeoning with new operas each year, some artists are ensuring their cultures be spotlighted in an industry constantly being innovated. Quinteto Latino and Opera Cultura, are two artistic pioneers with similar missions: spotlighting Latino artists while uplifting communities through diverse storytelling. Quinteto Latino, a wind quintet engaging audiences through education and performing commissioned pieces by Latino {…}
(Photo: Nicole Austin) Opera has long carried a reputation for exclusivity, an art form perceived as belonging to concert halls and formal dress rather than community rooms and public library shelves. Tanisha Mitchell has spent years working against that perception, building a platform that treats opera not as a rarefied pursuit but as a living tradition worth sharing anywhere an {…}
In 1888 Umberto Giordano, composer of famous verismo operas “Andrea Chenier” and “Fedora,” wrote a single act opera with which to enter a competition. Despite its moderate success, the opera was quickly forgotten and was lost to the archives. In February of this year, the unearthed opera, “Marina,” was recorded live at Milan’s Teatro Dal Verme, conducted by Vincenzo Milletarì {…}
Mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade spent decades among the most celebrated singers of her generation, performing on the world’s leading stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, and the Paris Opera. Though she stepped back from full time performing in 2010, retirement {…}