Music is multidimensional and can resonate with people of different cultures, backgrounds, beliefs, and so on, in very different ways. Because of how subjective music is, it is difficult to provide a systematic explanation of what music arouses in us emotionally, because people respond to the same and also different songs differently. However, while it’s difficult to concisely explain what {…}
Photo Credit: Cory Weaver Opera is full of parents that have difficult, often downright hostile, relationships with their children. Sometimes they are married off to unloving partners and treated like slaves or vermin. Other times, they are all together abandoned. But, while there are a lot of uncaring parents, there are many parents who love their children and who go {…}
Throughout time, women have routinely been at the bad end of the deal when it came to composing, performing, or really anything that has to do with music. However, as we now know, that didn’t mean women composers, performers, critics, and everything in between didn’t exist. Actually, the opposite! Composers like Hildegard von Bingen, Barbara Strozzi, Clara Schumann, and Amy {…}
Kevin Short is one of today’s most versatile bass-baritones performing at some of the world’s greatest theaters and taking on leading roles in a wide variety of repertoire from Verdi to Gershwin to Stravinsky. In the summer, he was scheduled to perform the title role in Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith’s world premiere opera “Castor and Patience” at the {…}
The Scottish Opera has announced its mainstage plans for autumn have been canceled. In a press release, the company said, “it has become clear to us at Scottish Opera that, because of the continuing uncertainty around convening large gatherings due to Covid-19, it will simply not be possible for us to present our large-scale Autumn 2020 production. This was planned {…}
A number of opera houses in Europe have announced cancellations due to the coronavirus outbreak. Among the houses that have closed are Deutsche Oper Berlin (March 11-April 19), the Slovenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre (Until April 3), the Theater an der Wien, Staatsoper Berlin, Komische Oper (until April 19), Berlin Philharmonic, Oper Frankfurt, Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon, Deustche {…}
International travel could be heavily limited in the United States until 2021. In an interview with Fox Business Network, Steven Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary, said that International travel may not be able to continue until next year but it is still too early to know. The Treasury Secretary added, “Our priority is opening up the domestic economy. Obviously, for business people {…}
Opera is forbidden in Iran. For years, Opera has been banned in the country despite palpable progress that saw the opera house open in 2013 for a production of “Gianni Schicchi” and the reopening of the opera house in 2015. There was even an all-women’s production of “Carmen.” But for opera singers who continue to pursue this artform in Iran, {…}
With the new year, OperaWire is intent on developing the type of content we offer our readers, but also offering them new means of interaction. As such, we are happy to unveil a series of fun weekly word games ranging from word searches, cross word puzzles, and others centering on operatic themes. For this first edition, we will simple ask {…}
Opera is the art form that is bringing you to this website. It’s an art form that is over half a century in age and has seen some tremendous evolution over that span of time. How well are you familiarized with that change? In this week’s quiz, we test that knowledge in the hopes of exciting drawing you to dig {…}
Have you ever wondered what it would look like to view some of the world’s most renowned opera houses from center stage? Wonder no longer. New York-based fine arts photographer David Leventi’s 120-page book “OPERA” answers this question in stunning color and detail. The son of architects, he photographed the auditoriums of nearly 50 opera houses in the United States and {…}