IN Series & Catapult Opera 2025 Review: St. John the Baptist

https://operawire.com/in-series-catapult-opera-2025-review-st-john-the-baptist/

(Photo: Bayou Elom) Following the invention of opera in Florence around the year 1600, its popularity spread throughout Italy. The early works of Peri, Caccini and Monteverdi offered a rebirth of Greek Drama with an attempt to find a way to understand the text through recitative and aria. These innovations made it possible to stage works whose texts could be {…}

Opera Meets Film, Special Features

Opera Meets Film: The State of American Opera in Peter Rosen’s ‘New American Opera’

https://operawire.com/opera-meets-film-the-state-of-american-opera-in-peter-rosens-new-american-opera/

Currently, opera in America in a state of unprecedented upheaveal. With the ongoing precarity occurring at the Metropolitan Opera House, from the recent dip into their endowement, noticeable drop in attendance, and the highly controversial partnership with Saudi Arabia, the idea of American opera is in a state of flux. While this was defended by Gelb as an example of {…}

Behind the Scenes, Interviews

Q & A: Conductor Victor DeRenzi on 44 Years at Sarasota Opera

https://operawire.com/q-a-conductor-victor-derenzi-on-44-years-at-sarasota-opera/

For 44 years, Victor DeRenzi has maintained his position at the helm of Sarasota Opera as its Artistic Director. During that time he has led over 900 opera performances. Among his major accomplishments with the company is a Verdi cycle that he initiated in 1989 and completed in 2016 with the aim to perform all of Verdi’s music. He also {…}

Opera Meets Film, Special Features

Opera Meets Film: A New Perspective On Life in Michel van der Aa’s ‘A Theory of Flames’

https://operawire.com/opera-meets-film-a-new-perspective-on-life-in-michel-van-der-aas-a-theory-of-flames/

Photo Credit: Hugo Thomassen/Nationale Opera & Ballet Striking a balance between innovation and tradition, the genre of opera films often toes the fine line between two ways of viewing both art-forms. When opera is treated as the subject it comes to life, playing the leading role, whereas when opera is perceived as the object its role becomes supportive, and life {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Royal Ballet & Opera 2025-26 Review: Tosca

https://operawire.com/royal-ballet-opera-2025-26-review-tosca/

(Credit: Marc Brenner) I’ve previously opined that Puccini’s Tosca is perhaps among the least plausible of tales in the repertory and that the problem with long-running or much revived productions is that, unless you can constantly attract new audiences, they can only stand the test of time for so long. This Oliver Mears’ exciting new production has the potential to {…}

News

Toledo Opera to Showcase ‘Meet the Resident Artists’

https://operawire.com/toledo-opera-to-showcase-meet-the-resident-artists/

Toledo Opera will present a “Meet the Resident Artists” on Sept. 15, 2025 at 6 p.m. local time. The showcase will feature an opportunity for audiences to interact with soprano Sarah Rachel Bacani, mezzo-soprano Danielle Casós, tenor Brady DelVecchio, baritone Rick Hale, and pianist Yura Jang. These artists will be a part of the “Opera on Wheels” program and “Opera {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Cumbria Opera Festival 2025: The Marriage of Figaro

https://operawire.com/cumbria-opera-festival-2025-the-marriage-of-figaro/

(Photo: Chris Tribble) In June of this year, OperaWire was fortunate enough to report and review the sterling efforts being made by the regional opera company New Sussex Opera in bringing the wonderful world of opera to the masses, performing glorious art away from the mainstream houses with their performance of a rarely sung opera, Saint-Saëns’s “The Silver Bell.”  This time, {…}

DVD and CD Reviews, Reviews

DVD Review: Zurich Opera’s ‘Ring Cycle’

https://operawire.com/dvd-review-zurich-operas-ring-cycle/

Historically, Wagner stagings have stirred up controversy. They are–to put it bluntly–like a fashion show: seasonally recurrent, fanciful (for better or for worse), and tailored, if you will, to fit just about anything, the blatant as much as the abstruse. New productions, then, warrant a healthy degree of skepticism–especially when, as so often happens, the integrity of the work is {…}

Interviews

Q & A: Serge Dorny, the Bayerische Staatsoper’s Intendant, on the 150th Munich Opera Festival

https://operawire.com/q-a-serge-dorny-the-bayerische-staatsopers-intendant-on-the-150th-munich-opera-festival/

Before Bayreuth welcomed its first pilgrims or Verona set its spectacles under the stars, Munich had already begun its tradition of celebrating opera each summer. Founded in 1875 under the patronage of King Ludwig II, the Münchner Opernfestspiele is the world’s oldest continuously running opera festival. The festival’s 150th edition, which runs through July 31 offers an ambitious mix of {…}

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