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Strength, Power & Kindness
Cover Story October 2023

Strength, Power & Kindness

Mezzo Jamie Barton brings her unique gifts to a new Jake Heggie opera at Houston Grand Opera. 

Sight Lines | Peter Sellars
Sight Lines Peter sellars
Sight Lines, Video

Sight Lines | Peter Sellars

F. Paul Driscoll chats with the legendary opera and theater director.

The Outer Limits

The Outer Limits

Composer Ted Hearne erases boundaries.

Breaking news

Renata Scotto, 89, Star Soprano Who Seamlessly Merged Singing and Acting, has Died

Renata Scotto, 89, Star Soprano Who Seamlessly Merged Singing and Acting, has Died

The Metropolitan Opera Guild to Streamline Its Operations

The Metropolitan Opera Guild to Streamline Its Operations

Graham Clark, 81, Tenor With a Rare Gift for Characterization, has Died

Graham Clark, 81, Tenor With a Rare Gift for Characterization, has Died


In Review

  • Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival
    International, Online Exclusive August 2023

    Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival

    "Augmented reality reached the Bayreuth Festival this season. The festival originally planned to supply the entire audience for Jay Scheib’s new staging of Parsifal with specially designed glasses to experience the production’s three-dimensional moving images. Instead only 300 ticket holders received the glasses for each show. While Scheib offered a modern, well-thought-out reading of Parsifal’s text and music, the nonstop barrage of images threatened to turn the innovative aspects of this Parsifal into visual Muzak."

  • La Cenerentola at Opera Maine
    North America, Online Exclusive

    La Cenerentola at Opera Maine

    "Opera Maine’s Cenerentola delivered an evening of boisterous laughs and thrilling vocalism, and, in the role of Angelina, Hongni Wu met all the coloratura challenges set by Rossini, singing with an elegance and emotive beauty that transformed even simple phrases into meaningful sentiments."

  • Madama Butterfly at Cincinnati Opera
    North America, Online Exclusive

    Madama Butterfly at Cincinnati Opera

    "Directed by Matthew Ozawa, Cincinnati Opera's powerful thought-provoking new production of Madama Butterfly is an extraordinary re-envisioning of the opera, a subtle critique that does no violence to the work but focuses attention on what is already there. The revelatory production—created jointly with the Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Utah Opera Companies—certainly deserves wide exposure."

  • Henri VIII at Bard SummerScape
    North America, Online Exclusive

    Henri VIII at Bard SummerScape

    "There are more viscerally exciting historical operas inspired by Tudor dynastic history, but Henri VIII is worth hearing: its ensemble scenes and processions are well constructed and divertingly energetic in the mode of Spontini and Meyerbeer. Leon Botstein—who led a 2012 concert of the opera—fared solidly in the pit and Jean-Romain Vesperini's fully staged production rendered the occasionally melodramatic action comprehensible, and was quite handsome to see."


Spotlights


Recordings


Watch & Listen

  • Sight Lines | Missy Mazzoli
    Sight Lines Poster Frame Missy Mazzoli
    Sight Lines, Video

    Sight Lines | Missy Mazzoli

    The composer speaks about how she learned to write for the voice, her efforts to foster greater inclusion among future composers and her chamber opera, Proving Up, which receives performances at Juilliard in February.

  • Sight Lines | Russell Thomas
    Sight Lines Russell Thomas Poster Frame
    Sight Lines, Video

    Sight Lines | Russell Thomas

    F. Paul Driscoll speaks with tenor Russell Thomas about his new appointment as LA Opera's artist-in-residence, how he finds inspiration in old recordings, and the repertoire that he hopes to take on during the next phase of his career.

  • Best of the Best: Eugene Onegin
    Spotify Poster Frame Eugene Onegin
    Audio, Spotify Playlist

    Best of the Best: Eugene Onegin

    Our favorite selections from Tchaikovsky's great romance, sung by an all-star cast, from Ivan Kozlovsky, Leonid Sobinov, Jussi Björling and Galina Vishnevskaya to Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Peter Mattei and Renée Fleming.