Opera

Bass David Leigh finding that a successful opera career is no ‘impossible dream’

When David Leigh sang “The Impossible Dream” at his father’s funeral, the moment was both a testament to his past and a harbinger of his future.

Missy Mazzoli’s ‘The Listeners’ portraying life in a cult gets U.S. premiere at Opera Philadelphia

Opera about a school shooting’s aftermath has its US premiere in San Francisco

Washington Opera offers new ending to Puccini’s final work

Verdi’s opera ‘Forza del Destino’ gets its first new production at the Met in nearly 30 years

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Angelina Jolie explores new love of opera at LA premiere of ‘Maria’

Angelina Jolie suggests she felt a real connection with opera singer Maria Callas and found a new love for the art form at the LA premiere of the biopic “Maria,” where she plays the title role. (Oct. 27)

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Angelina Jolie finds her voice again, for Callas biopic ‘Maria’

Angelina Jolie was ‘terrified’ to take to the stage and sing as Maria Callas in ‘Maria’

Angelina Jolie says opera has grown on her

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Opera superfan’s estate donates $215,000 to foundation for singers

The estate of an opera fanatic known for collecting autographs backstage at the Metropolitan Opera has donated $215,000 to the George and Nora London Foundation for Singers. Lois Kirschenbaum died on March 27, 2021, at age 88.

La Scala’s gala premiere of ‘Don Carlo’ celebrates Italian opera’s new status as cultural treasure

Italian melodrama’s official recognition as a global cultural treasure is getting trumpeted with La Scala’s season premiere of Verdi’s “Don Carlo.”

‘Grounded,’ a new opera about a female fighter pilot turned drone operator, prepares to take off

Nearly 10 years after it was first imagined as an opera, “Grounded” is ready to take flight. With music by Jeanine Tesori and a libretto adapted by George Brant from his own play, “Grounded” tells the story of an F-16 fighter pilot who becomes pregnant and leaves the service.

Sister Helen Prejean’s ‘Dead Man Walking’ arrives at Met in Jake Heggie’s operatic version

Jake Heggie’s version of “Dead Man Walking” reaches the Metropolitan Opera for the season’s opening night in a production by Tony and Olivier Award winner Ivo van Hove starring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato as Sister Helen Prejean.

`10 Days in a Madhouse’ opera premieres in Philadelphia, celebrating women’s voices

Composer Rene Orth’s “10 Days in a Madhouse,” based on the 1887 book by trailblazing reporter Nellie Bly, opened Opera Philadelphia’s O23 Festival.

In break with the past, Met opera is devoting a third of its productions to recent work

The Metropolitan Opera is broadening its repertoire this season by performing more recent operas alongside classics like “La Boheme.”

Met Opera, Lincoln Center Theater commission work about detained Ukrainian children

A Ukrainian composer has been commissioned to write an opera about mothers from that country going into Russia to rescue their forcibly detained children.

Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen taking on new challenges on two continents

Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen is embarking on her most ambitious season yet. Several firsts await, including her debut at Carnegie Hall and performances of three roles she’s never sung in staged productions.

Rhiannon Giddens is as much scholar as musician. Now, she’s showing her saucy side in a new album

Rhiannon Giddens is as much a scholar as a musician. Along with her two Grammy Awards, she’s been the recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” for her work showing the influence of Black musicians on the history of art forms like folk and country.

Opera world split as director reinventions dominate Europe while US, Italy more muted

The opera world is split in two: Some European productions reinvent works in ways composers never imagined, and traditional stagings favored in the U.S. are condemned by cognoscenti.

Cecilia Bartoli veers into opera management while still singing at 57

Still singing at age 57, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli has branched into opera management. She succeeded Riccardo Muti as artistic director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in 2012 and in January became director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

Opera for the public: Spain’s Teatro Real opera house offers free broadcast to towns and cities

Here, the spectators sat on hundreds of plastic chairs. Many wore shorts and sandals. Others, tourists included, sat on the low walls and benches in the square or leaned on the barriers and the nearby subway station’s railings.

Bayreuth Festival plans to present Wagner’s ‘Rienzi’ for the first time in 2026

The Bayreuth Festival intends to present “Rienzi” for the first time in 2026 for its 150th anniversary, going outside of the canon of Richard Wagner’s final 10 operas for the first time.