https://operawire.com/obituary-legendary-soprano-martina-arroyo-dies-at-90/
Legendary soprano Martina Arroyo has died at the age of 90. Born on Feb. 2, 1937 in Harlem, New York City, she was the youngest of two children born to Demetrio Arroyo and Lucille Washington. She was educated at nearby P.S. 170 and Junior High School 101 in the New York City Public Schools system and learned to play the {…}
https://operawire.com/q-a-florian-amort-on-contemporary-handel-festspiele-halle-curation/
(Photo: Anna Kolata) Florian Amort, born in Berchtesgaden in 1992, serves as the Director of the Stiftung Händel-Haus and the Artistic Director of the Händel-Festspiele Halle. He succeeds Dr. Bernd Feuchtner, who passed away in February 2025, shortly before his planned retirement. A former scholar of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, Amort studied musicology, art history, history, and Catholic theology {…}
https://operawire.com/q-a-baritone-cesar-san-martin-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 {…}
https://operawire.com/editorial-why-im-retiring-from-staged-opera-at-43/
I am 43-years-old. My voice – a true bass, the kind this art form waits decades to mature – is at its peak. The instrument I spent my life building is finally, fully mine. Low notes that took years to settle and high notes that took a decade to secure. A career that carried me to national stages, and to {…}
https://operawire.com/opera-meets-film-recalling-cinematic-legacies-pt-1-halka/
Throughout the Opera Meets Film series, we’ve explored a great deal of opera/film relationships. From stage adaptations of films, experimental works, documentaries, controversial stories and plots, and even dialogues on academic research, the opera-film relationship is complex. The very term, opera, can mean many things, from a metaphor to a psychology of struggle. But practically, when opera is used in {…}
https://operawire.com/q-a-maria-jose-siri-on-singing-200-performances-of-aida/
When Maria José Siri sings her performance of “Aida” on Sept. 10, the soprano will have completed 200 performances of the famed Verdi opera. Since 2003, the role has been in Siri’s repertoire. She first sang it in Argentina and would go on to perform it at such major theaters as the Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Massimo, Arena di Verona, {…}
https://operawire.com/styriarte-festival-2026-review-die-schopfung/
(Photo: Nikola Milatovic) When traveling to Graz for the summer Styriarte festival, one might expect the grand choral architecture of Joseph Haydn to echo through a stunning cathedral in the old town center. The reality, however, arrived as a complete surprise. The festival’s flagship production unfolded beneath an imposing double-facade Science Tower, surrounded by trendy contemporary apartments boasting container-style structures. {…}
https://operawire.com/handel-festspiele-halle-2026-review-rinaldo-double-feature/
(Photo: Anna Kolata) The 2026 Händel-Festspiele presented a unique double-feature of Handel’s breakout 1711 masterpiece, “Rinaldo.” By showcasing two radically different formats—traditional Italian puppetry and a metatheatrical re-contextualization at Oper Halle—the festival offered audiences a rare opportunity to compare two staged productions. While one production embraced the “primitive” theatrical tools of the past to unlock the opera’s raw, historical energy, {…}
https://operawire.com/salzburg-whitsun-festival-2026-il-ritorno-di-ulisse-in-patria/
(Photo: © SF/Marco Borrelli) A Marionette Theatre for Monteverdi The Salzburg Whitsun Festival presents a production of Claudio Monteverdi’s “Il ritorno d’Ulisse” in patria by Franco Citterio and Giovanni Schiavolin as a marionette performance, in collaboration with Italy’s most renowned puppet company, the Compagnia Marionettistica Carlo Colla & Figli of Milan. A small puppet theatre is constructed on the stage {…}