Opera People
A Princess Comes Home
Ken Smith explores how ‘Turandot’ became China’s national opera Read more
Living opera
Fort Worth Opera’s Darren K. Woods on setting a new festival agenda. Read more
Rarity Value
Yehuda Shapiro reflects on recent repertoire trends Read more
Der Jahrhundertsänger
John Warrack pays tribute to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Read more
Twilight of the tickets
Robert Turnbull investigates upheaval at Wagner societies worldwide Read more
Opera’s Poet of Nostalgia
Jack Sullivan explores the operatic life of Frederick Delius Read more
English International
John Berry talks to John Allison about ENO’s co-production policy Read more
That Broadway sound
Roger Pines looks at how vocalism in musical theatre has evolved over the decades Read more
Sparkle restored
George Loomis sees Ruslan and Lyudmila in Moscow’s renovated Bolshoy Theatre Read more
Too Hot for the Bolshoy
It might seem a bit of an exaggeration to claim that a single review could change the course of musical history... Read more
Salvatore Licitra, 1968-2011
The early death (in Catania, on September 5) of Salvatore Licitra has robbed the opera world of one of the best-loved tenors of the post-Pavarotti generation. Read more
Liszt and the opera
In Liszt's bicentenary year, Tim Ashley examines the composer's relationship with opera... Read more
House of the Midnight Sun
Amanda Holloway visits the new-look Icelandic Opera Read more
Emotion of the Moment
Jon Tolansky revisits his last conversation with Jon Vickers Read more
Ildar Abdrazakov
To be young, good-looking and the owner of a fabulous bass voice is a cruel twist of fate. Composers have rarely favoured low voices for their heroes and lovers. Read more
Alla polacca
Polish music has probably never been better represented around the world, and yet sadly it is still true to say that most music-lovers would be hard pressed to name more than half a dozen Polish composers and almost certainly no one earlier than Chopin. Read more
Alberto Zedda
By virtue of the nature of their work, conductors blessed with longevity are able to sustain their careers for much longer than singers or even instrumentalists... Read more
David Syrus celebrate 40 years at the Royal Opera
The Royal Opera’s 1971-2 season, which opened with the Ring conducted by Edward Downes, featured Nilsson as Elektra under Solti... Read more
‘Vissi d’arte’: Angela Gheorghiu talks to Jon Tolansky
Angela Gheorghiu was previously profiled in the March 1999 issue of opera, and at that time her now legendary appearance as Violetta at the Royal Opera House was still a relatively recent wonder... Read more
Boy Wonder
Nico Muhly talks to Kristin Cowdin Read more
Interview with Eva-Maria Westbroek
In a relatively short time, the Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek has established herself as one of the Royal Opera’s most versatile and exciting guest stars... Read more
An imperfect Wagnerite
Rodney Milnes on a stormy on-off love affair Read more
Francesca gets her gun
George Loomis meets Glimmerglass’s new boss, Francesca Zambello Read more
The death of Italian opera
The history of Italian opera is typically drawn as a continuously developing artistic tradition lasting some 300 years, from the early 17th century to Puccini’s Turandot, first performed in 1926... Read more
The Price of perfection
This issue was to have marked Dame Margaret Price’s 70th birthday, which she would have celebrated on April 13. Sadly, she died of a heart attack early on January 28 at home on Ceibwr Bay in Wales... Read more
Rolando Villazón in Lyon
Among his many other non-singing pursuits, Rolando Villazón has become the latest active singer to try his hand at opera directing, which must be one of the only professions in the world these days for which no qualification other than a recognizable name Read more
The shock of the new
It was towards the end of 2005, just before the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, that I went to interview the late Charles Mackerras. At home in his elegant house in St John’s Wood, London, the veteran conductor could not have been more eager to talk Read more
Karita Mattila’s first Emilia Marty
A burst of star power dominated SAN FRANCISCO OPERA’S final fall production. On November 10 Karita Mattila met Emilia Marty for the first time in her career in a new production of Janáèek’s Makropoulos Case... Read more
Toulouse
Encapsulating all the creative differences that were soon to terminate the Brecht-Weill collaboration, Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny is a work that positively invites directors and conductors to take different aesthetic sides. Read more
Shirley Verrett, 1931-2010
In 1968 RCA released ‘Shirley Verrett in Opera’, a mix of French and Italian repertoire, much of it unfamiliar and all of it gloriously sung. The disc opened with the heroic bravura aria of Gluck’s Orphée (in the version reworked by Berlioz for Viardot). Read more
Marilyn Horne—tribute to Dame Joan Sutherland
Marilyn Horne's tribute to Dame Joan Sutherland Read more
In the Key of Dreams
David Pountney on Martinu, the great experimenter Read more
Critical condition
Brian Kellow mourns the disappearing art of writing about voices Read more
Arabian Opera Nights
John Allison on Frank Lloyd Wright's Baghdad opera house Read more
Seattle
My wife's first Lucia was Sutherland, mine was Sills. So you can imagine our astonishment at being left breathless by seattle opera's new Bride of Lammermoor, Aleksandra Kurzak... Read more