May 2020
Featuring on the cover of our newly published May 2020 issue, Lise Davidsen is seen in the title role of Fidelio at Covent Garden — one of the last new productions to open before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the operatic world. In what felt like both a very long and very fast-moving month, everything has changed beyond our previous imagining. If you are still watching opera performances, the chances are you’ll be seeing them via the countless ‘quarantine soirees’ that have sprung up as opera houses offer free streaming services — our useful guide below in this Newsletter should help you not to run out of operas to watch during these worrying times.
Over the next few issues we’ll be looking at how the operatic world is dealing with the situation. This month we interview the Shanghai Opera House’s general director and conductor Xu Zhong, whose story shows how it is possible for artists, opera companies and their audiences to maintain their connection despite the current crisis.
There’s much more inside, including a profile of the irresistible mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa, and an article looking at the contrasting operatic fortunes of the composers Paul Hindemith and Carl Orff, both of whose 125th anniversaries fall this year.
- Xu Zhong, general director of the Shanghai Opera House, in conversation
- We profile the rising star mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa
- Erik Levi on 125th anniversary composers Orff and Hindemith
- Mark Elder chooses his favourite recording
