January 2024

Our first issue of the new year features the mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina on our front cover, winner of the Female Artist category of the International Opera Awards and now interviewed by Richard Fairman ahead of her Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera.

Full details of the International Opera Awards winners are inside, led by the incomparable Marilyn Horne, who was given a Lifetime Achievement Award.

We celebrate 2024 as a Year of Czech Music and other features include:

Maria Callas as a cross-cultural icon by Yehuda Shapiro.

Memories of Callas from Nicholas Payne and Daniel Snowman.

Austin Opera’s general director Annie Burridge talks to Maria Mazzaro.

Timothy Vernon in conversation with Sylvia L’Écuyer as he steps down from his post as artistic director of Pacific Opera Victoria after 43 years

We provide full listings of Metropolitan Opera broadcasts and reviews from around the world include: the premieres of Joby Talbot’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly at Dallas Opera, Jake Heggie’s Intelligence in Houston, and Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded in Washington DC; Salome and Boris Godunov in Hamburg; Katya Kabanová in Bergen; Mei Tehom in Tel Aviv Das Rheingold in Brussels; Fidelio in Toronto; Maometto secondo in Naples; Lohengrin in Shanghai; Die Frau ohne Schatten in Lyon; Das Floss der Medusa and Il trittico in Berlin; Zoraida di Granata in Wexford; La Juive in Turin; La rondine at Opera North; 7 Deaths of Maria Callas at ENO; Jephtha at Covent Garden

Disc of the Month is Scylla et Glaucus, with Judith van Wanroij, Véronique Gens and Cyrille Dubois, conducted by György Vashegyi (Glossa).

Stage Door young artist is Sun-Ly Pierce, as she prepares to sing Suzuki at Houston Grand Opera.