Recently in Interviews
01 May 2013
It would seem a logical step for the mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey to take on
the role of the Composer in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. »
29 Apr 2013
“Aim for excellence”, says Douglas Boyd, new Artistic Director of Garsington Opera at Wormsley, “and the audience will follow you”. »
23 Apr 2013
When I spoke with Zandra Rhodes, she was in her large San Diego workspace, which she described as having walls decorated with her own huge black and white drawings. »
05 Mar 2013
Palm Beach audiences are famous for their glamour, but in recent years a special star has sparkled amid the jewels, sequins, feathers and furs (whatever the weather). »
03 Mar 2013
When the soprano Jessica Pratt first arrived in Italy, she had yet to learn the language or sing in a staged opera. »
10 Nov 2012
When tenor Michael Spyres takes the stage at Carnegie Hall on December 5th, he will be in heady company. »
15 Oct 2012
One of the most noteworthy and controversial productions in recent memory
arrived in Belgium with hurricane force as Director Terry Gilliam’s inaugural
opera, an inspired interpretation of Hector Berlioz’s Le Damnation de
Faust, blasted into Ghent, followed by a run in Antwerp. »
09 Oct 2012
Florian Boesch is singing Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin at the Oxford Lieder Festival on Sunday 14th October. This won’t be routine. Radically challenging conventional interpretation, Boesch says “I don’t believe it ends in suicide” »
08 Aug 2012
Three quarters of the way through this discussion, a question that inhabits the mind of anyone putting any thought to the subject — but no one dare ask — was rhetoricised, “what is opera?” »
30 Jul 2012
The Glyndebourne Festival highlight this year could be the Ravel double bill - L’heure espagnole and L'enfant et les sortilèges. Laurent Pelly directs. Anyone who saw his brilliant Humperdinck Hansel und Gretel at Glyndebourne in 2008 will know what to expect - a staging of great imagination and verve, true to the spirit of the composer. »
26 May 2012
Director David Freeman tells why this is an event worth experiencing in the Olympic year. »
31 Mar 2012
Irish composer Gerald Barry’s opera The Importance of Being Earnest
premieres at the Barbican, London on April 26th. It is a joint commission between the Barbican and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
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26 Feb 2012
New Orleans native Bryan Hymel is singing the role of The Prince in Antonin Dvořák's Rusalka at the Royal Opera House, London. »
15 Feb 2012
Carmela Remigio is a Mozart specialist, having created Donna Elvira, Donna Anna, The Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Susana, Ilia, Ellettra, Vitellia, Pamina and Fiordigli. She speaks to Mark Berry about her latest Donna Anna at the Royal Opera House. »
25 Jan 2012
Lise Lindstrom, who made a notable splash in the opera world (debuts at La Scala and at the Met) with her portrayals of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot, has recently undertaken the still more demanding role of Salome. »
30 Dec 2011
I spoke with Vivica Genaux in December 2011, when she stopped in New York at
the end of one of her concert tours. »
27 Nov 2011
Piotr Beczala, the Polish lyric tenor, stars in the current La Traviata at the Royal Opera House, London. »
12 Jul 2011
In Gounod’s Faust at the Royal Opera House in October 2011,
Zhengzhong Zhou is alternating with Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the part of
Valentin. Alternating, not covering or substituting. Since Zhou is very young,
it’s quite a challenge. »
30 Jun 2011
Luca Pisaroni is one of one the more exciting young bass-baritones of his
generation. In July 2011, he sings Argante in the first ever Handel Rinaldo at
the Glyndebourne Festival. »
27 Jun 2011
Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser’s Madama Butterfly is such a classic that it is being filmed for the second time at the Royal Opera House, London. »
22 Jun 2011
Will Crutchfield made his name as a writer and musicologist in the mid-1980s, becoming the youngest music critic in the history of The New York Times. »
17 Jun 2011
Divas make headlines, but character singers are fundamental to the British opera tradition. “Character singing,” says Jeremy White, one of the stalwarts of the Royal Opera House, “is much more than just voice.” »
16 Jun 2011
Since her first significant and highly acclaimed debut as a guest artist with the Netherlands Opera in 1992, in the taxing role of the Nurse in Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, American mezzo-soprano Jane Henschel has triumphed in opera houses across the world, marvelling international audiences with her musical versatility, vocal strength and striking stage presence. »
14 Jun 2011
John Fulljames has been appointed Associate Director for Opera at the Royal Opera House. »
22 May 2011
Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska certainly knows how to make the most
of every opportunity. »
10 Apr 2011
“A tale of corruption, passion and poisoning”, as the Royal Opera House, London, describes its first-ever production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, with Paata Burchuladze, highly experienced in this repertoire. »
20 Feb 2011
For geography buffs the Rappahannock is a river that flows from Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to Chesapeake Bay. »
01 Feb 2011
In an episode of the series West Wing, political strategist Josh Lyman (played by Bradley Whitford) visits his friend and speech writer Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) in New York City before heading to New Hampshire for a promising candidate’s campaign speech. »
31 Jan 2011
Elizabeth Futral has established herself as one of the major coloratura sopranos in the world today. With her stunning vocalism and vast dramatic range, she has embraced a diverse repertoire that includes Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, Verdi, Glass, and Previn. »
31 Jan 2011
British soprano, Elisabeth Meister, is a rare combination of pragmatism, serious intent, personal warmth and infectious energy. »
31 Dec 2010
Composer and pianist Andrea Clearfield is a fundamental presence on the
contemporary music scene in Philadelphia, with a long collaboration with the
Relâche Ensemble to her credit, as well as a monthly salon in her home (with
close to 25 years of concerts) that brings together artists from various
disciplines, not only music. »
06 Dec 2010
Rodney Waschka is a professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where his multifarious activities are fundamental to the presence of contemporary music in the state. »
18 Nov 2010
Swedish composer Stellan Sagvik is a protean figure with a large and diverse body of work ranging from works for solo flute (most recently written for his wife, Kinga Práda), to chamber music — five string quartets, with another on the way, and symphonies, operas and choral music. »
07 Nov 2010
A completely new production of Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur is coming to the Royal Opera House, London. »
03 Nov 2010
Composer Marcela Pavia was born and raised in Rosario, Argentina, and comes from a family of Italian immigrants. »
24 Sep 2010
Composer Pierre Jalbert (b.1967), of French Canadian ancestry, was born and raised in northern New England, and studied composition at Oberlin Conservatory and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked with George Crumb. »
13 Sep 2010
This season Santa Fe Opera offered new productions that ranged from standard
repertoire (Madame Butterfly and The Magic Flute) to a world
premiere (Lewis Spratlan’s Life is a Dream) with The Tales
of Hoffmann and Albert Herring falling somewhere amidst. »
13 Sep 2010
Bruce Adolphe, born and raised in the New York area, a student of
composition at Juilliard in the sixties and seventies, has an impressive body
of work commissioned by artists known on every continent, and was chosen by the
Music Library Association to write a piece for brass (Triskelion)
marking the sixtieth anniversary of the Association, premiered by the American
Brass Quintet at the national meeting in Indianapolis in February, 1991. »
12 Sep 2010
As one of the most sought after composers of the young generation, Mohammed
Fairouz has many commissions and a substantial body of work, and maintains a
busy performance schedule. »
09 Sep 2010
Jacques Imbrailo sings Dr Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at the Royal Opera House, London »
24 Aug 2010
Robert Baksa is a name that is well-known to lovers of contemporary chamber music, with a hundred chamber works to his credit. »
07 Jul 2010
“You want to frame the voice in such a way that it shines.”— Daniel Catán »
01 Jul 2010
Baritone Austin Kness, an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera recently spoke with Opera Today critic Michael Milenski. »
28 Jun 2010
Jay Reise is one of the senior musical figures in Philadelphia, serving on
the composition faculty of the University of Pennsylvania since 1980. »
19 Jun 2010
On 7 June 2010, I spoke with Christine Brewer who was enjoying a relatively
free week at her home near St. Louis, Missouri, after long months of air travel
between concerts, recitals and operatic performances. »
17 Jun 2010
Opera stars are made as well as born. The Royal Opera House Jette Parker Young Artists Programme shapes the stars of the future. »
07 Jun 2010
‘Focussed and pure of tone’, ‘beautifully steady’,
‘pure clarity and note perfection’ — just some of the
accolades bestowed on the Lithuanian mezzo soprano Jurgita Adamonytė for
her recent performances of Mozart. »
04 Jun 2010
Aris Argiris makes his debut at Covent Garden as Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen. But this is unusually high-profile because it's a first, being filmed in 3D. »
03 Jun 2010
Olja Jelaska (b. 1967) is an important figure in the younger generation of
composers from Croatia. »
01 Jun 2010
Juan Trigos, composer and conductor, was born and raised in Mexico City,
where his father, also Juan Trigos, is a noted playwright and novelist. »
18 May 2010
Composer Robert Maggio is professor of composition at West Chester
University (in suburban Philadelphia). »
17 May 2010
According to her web site, Elena Ruehr has been called a “composer to
watch” by Opera News, and her music has been described as
“stunning...beautifully lighted by [a] canny instinct for knowing when
and how to vary key, timbre, and harmony” by The Boston Globe. »
22 Apr 2010
Composer Stephen Jaffe is the Mary and James H. Semans Professor of Music
Composition at Duke University. We spoke in his office there in Durham NC on
June 25, 2007. »
22 Apr 2010
Micaela Carosi, the Verdi specialist, has created Aida many times, so she’s closely attuned to the role. The new production, at the Royal Opera House, London, though, is different. “It’s like singing Aida for the first time”, she says, her eyes sparkling. »
20 Apr 2010
Osmo Tapio Räihälä is a Finnish composer of contemporary music, and was the founder of Uusinta, a collaborative group of composers and musicians. »
10 Apr 2010
Composer Lance Hulme studied composition at the University of Minnesota,
Yale University, and the Eastman School of Music, and returned to the United
States recently, where he lives presently in Greensboro, North Carolina, after
two decades in Mitteleuropa, where he founded and directed the contemporary
music ensemble Ensemble Surprise. »
10 Apr 2010
Anna Weesner is an American composer who grew up in rocky New Hampshire, and
now teaches in historic Philadelphia. »
10 Apr 2010
Composer and pianist Timothy Andres is in his mid-twenties, with an impressive catalog of works to his credit, many of which can be heard at his website. »
03 Mar 2010
Composer Sophia Serghi is presently professor of music at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she has taught since 1998, with two years away in 2000-2002. »
10 Feb 2010
Composer Gabriela Ortiz studied composition in Mexico City with Mario
Lavista at the National Conservatory of Music, at the Guildhall School with
Robert Saxton, and at the University of London with Simon Emmerson. »
25 Jan 2010
Kerry Andrew is a young British composer who seems to have her finger in an astounding number of pies, from modern sacred choral music to alt-folk, and including vocal chamber ensemble music and jazz. We talked via Skype on Jan. 12, 2010. »
18 Jan 2010
The thing you need in order to start an arts organization, even more than a
great deal of money, is a whirlwind – an individual with unstoppable
energy who can put it all together and keep it working through thin times and
thick. »
08 Jan 2010
American violinist Hilary Hahn has entered her fourth decade, having turned
thirty last year, and for her eleventh disc she takes on a collaborative role,
as obbligatist in a program of Bach cantata arias with soprano Christine
Schäfer and baritone Matthias Goerne, accompanied by the Münchener
Kammerorchester under the direction of Alexander Liebreich. »
07 Jan 2010
Composer Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon is presently on the faculty of the Eastman
School of Music in Rochester, New York. He grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico,
where he and colleague Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez played in a rock and roll band
together. »
25 Dec 2009
Composer William Price was born in Missouri (1971) and raised in Alabama, where he is presently professor of music theory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. »
17 Dec 2009
John Fitz Rogers is presently an associate professor of composition at the University of South Carolina School of Music. »
26 Oct 2009
An Interview with Ileana Perez-VelazquezBy Tom Moore
»
26 Jan 2009
Erich Korngold’s Die tote Stadt comes to the Royal Opera House in January 2009. It’s the first time this production has been seen in London : it is the famed Willy Decker production from Salzburg in 2004 which did so much to restore Korngold’s status.
»
03 Oct 2008
A virtuoso saxophonist, performing internationally, Mark Engebretson is also a composer whose recent works often take place at the interface between the live performer and the computer. »
03 Oct 2008
Composer Alejandro Rutty is newly-arrived in North Carolina, where he teaches at UNC Greensboro. »
17 Feb 2008
“Quand je vous aimerais? Ma fois, je ne sais pas?” are Carmen’s first words of seduction. »
13 Jan 2008
Oct. 25, 2007, Sala Cecilia MeirelesI met the young gaucho composer Dimitri Cervo at the 2003 Bienal of Contemporary Music, where his works for solo flute and strings, Pattapiana [named for Pattapio Silva, a great Brazilian flutist who died tragically
young at the beginning of the last century] made quite an impression. »
26 Dec 2007
Composer Frederick Carrilho was born in 1971 in the state of Sao Paulo, and has studied guitar and composition, most recently at UNICAMP in Campinas. His music has been heard at the recent biennial festivals of contemporary music in Rio, with the Profusão V – Toccata making a strong impression at the Bienal of 2007. We spoke in Portuguese. »
28 Nov 2007
October 23, 2007, Sala Cecilia Meireles, Rio de Janeiro »
19 Nov 2007
Oct. 25, 2007, Rio de Janeiro. »
11 Nov 2007
José Orlando Alves is a young composer, originally from Minas Gerais, but who spent many years in Rio de Janeiro, where he has been active for a decade with the composers’ collaborative, Preludio XXI. »
28 Aug 2007
Uncut with Canada’s Mistress of the trouser-role: the multifaceted Kimberly Barber. »
![Michele Mariotti [Photo by Amati Bacciardi (Pesaro) courtesy of Columbia Artists Music]](http://www.operatoday.com/Mariotti_MG_4200.gif)