Tabla de contenidos para Spring 2025 en Opera Now

Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen has announced she is pregnant with twins and that her performance in the Met’s Fidelio in March will be her last performance until 2026. In a video on social media, the singer spoke of her ‘excitement’ for the twins’ arrival but apologised for ‘disappointing’ those who had already bought tickets. The cancellations include the role of Sieglinde in Barrie Kosky’s Die Walküre at the Royal Opera, which will now be played by Welsh soprano Natalya Romaniw.…

The company Streetwise Opera has launched ‘Stand with Streetwise’, an emergency appeal to raise £120,000 to ensure its survival. The organisation is calling on supporters to help continue its work using opera and creativity to empower people experiencing homelessness. With homelessness on the rise and funding for small charities under unprecedented pressure, this is the most critical appeal in the charity’s 22-year history. As part of the appeal, Streetwise Opera is also announcing the support of new patrons, including Dame Sarah Connolly DBE, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston, theatre, television and film star Paterson Joseph, and actor Simon Callow, who join soprano Elizabeth Watts, who has been a patron for over a decade. These artists, spanning the worlds of opera and stage, are joining forces to champion the company’s work, amplifying the…

Where I live, the must-have gift this Christmas was an unlikely one: opera tickets. For much of the autumn, opera was one of Denmark’s biggest topics of conversation. Even my culture-phobic in-laws seemed relieved that they had finally found a way to discuss my unusual career. ‘So what’s on at the opera at the moment?’ asked one of them at a Christmas lunch, genuinely interested. There was a simple explanation. As the evenings drew in towards the end of 2024, Denmark’s public broadcaster DR aired the third series of its comedy-documentary The Opera Trip (‘Operarejsen’). The show proved a surprise hit when it first aired in 2022 and momentum gathered assuredly towards its heavily trailed third season. I’m usually quick to find ways of criticising opera’s representation in the mainstream…

He was one of those enthusiasts. The type that either inspires extreme delight or mysterious urgent phone calls that require immediate attention. They have, according to one friend, the ability to stop a nascent interest in its tracks. Personally, I can’t get enough of the opera collector. But then, as someone who often goes to extreme scheduling measures in order to see new works and productions – such as running from a concert at the Southbank Centre during the interval to get to Covent Garden for the final act – I am not immune to the urge to add to my own opera museum. This particular collector was a charming German professional who had an eye-watering list of opera attendances to his name. We played gentle opera-fan tennis, a carefree…

UK Royal Opera Bernstein – Trouble in Tahiti/A Quiet Place  By Alexandra Coghlan Plenty of composers took a swing at the Great American Opera. Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson and George Gershwin, all gave it their best shot. Leonard Bernstein’s entry is a curious affair. A Quiet Place from 1983 harks back to the composer’s earlier one-acter Trouble in Tahiti, revisiting Sam and Dinah’s 1950s suburban dream and strained marriage 30 years on. It’s not a piece we hear often, a big, bruised, angry work covered in finger marks from rethinks and rewrites, baggy from being stretched into new and ambitious shapes (at one point swallowing Tahiti whole, turning it into an extended flashback sequence). But as a bookend, an answer to the glossy bubblegum cynicism of its prequel,…

Serpentes ignei in deserto Hasse Erato 2173239904 Hasse composed the oratorio Serpentes ignei in deserto in Venice in the 1730s for singers from the Ospedale degli Icurabili which suggests he might have been working against the clock in case his cast expired before opening night. But by this point the hospital was essentially an orphanage, though I can’t imagine what sort of foundlings possessed the technique to sing the virtuosic string of arias and one duet that Hasse provides. Whatever they put in their gruel certainly worked. The oratorio depicts the Israelites in the desert being attacked by serpents for having rejected God, only for God to relent when Moses prays for forgiveness. From this cheerless premise, Hasse builds quite a drama. There are six soloists, each with at least…

What does your job entail as the chief operations officer? Anything that is part of the operation, so it goes from the car park to the restaurant, and into the theatre. At the moment, the directors and designers are presenting their designs, booking the rehearsal rooms and organising next year’s menu with the catering company. How are the sets presented? In September the year before, designers present a white card model, which is a sketch of what they’re going to create. We give them lots of advice, but they often don’t listen to a word you say! Then they present a finished model that God couldn’t afford, and you sit down for a number of months talking it through, editing and reworking the piece until about the middle of December.…

The Royal Swedish Opera and the National Property Board of Sweden have agreed upon a historic joint renovation plan for the opera house, to be completed by 2032. The ancient national theatre for opera and ballet will have modernised, functional premises with all artistic activities remaining together within the same building. The renovation will be made possible by joint funding from the government and private donations to the Royal Swedish Opera. Houston Grand Opera has announced South Korean baritone Geonho Lee as the winner of its 2025 Concert of Arias competition. Lee is currently pursuing advanced studies at the University of Music and Theatre Munich and was also a 2024 semifinalist in the Operalia Competition. Cultural cuts by the city of Berlin are not likely to affect the renovations of…

As of the 2025-26 season German conductor Hermann Bäumer will serve as Music Director of the State Opera in Prague. He will replace Andriy Yurkevych, who is leaving the post for personal reasons. Czech choral conductor Zuzana Kadlčíková will step into the role of Chief Chorus Master of the State Opera. She succeeds Adolf Melichar, who remains at the State Opera as Chorus Master. Bäumer has previously collaborated with the State Opera, conducting productions of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. In June 2025 he will conduct a new adaptation of Aribert Reimann’s opera Lear. Kadlčíková will arrive at the State Opera from the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava, where since 2021 she has worked as chorus leader and conductor. Speaking of the appointment, Bäumer said:…

In 2017, I went to see the new production of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera on my birthday. The cast was simply stunning: Renée Fleming, Elina Garanća, Erin Morely and Gunter Grössbuck; and after the performance, I met Renée Fleming at the stage door. It was truly a moment for so many things to come together: my love of her artistry, my love of Robert Carsen’s brilliant stage direction, and discovering a new singer to watch, Erin Morley, which is what opera is all about for me. Renée was so charming and relaxed, and she complimented my pink ensemble! When I said that I wore it ‘to see the Marschallin,’ she chuckled a little bit, and then we talked a bit about the production. I told her…

Down a side-alley in Wandsworth, south London, a line of expectant people queue up outside a converted chapel building. It’s a Wednesday lunchtime and the National Opera Studio’s ‘Wandsworth Wednesday’ concert is about to begin. Two recitals sit side-by-side, taking the audience through classic arias followed by transportive Lieder and iconic contemporary repertoire. The Wandsworth chapel building is home to the National Opera Studio [NOS] – an organisation established in 1977 by the Arts Council as a link between the music colleges and the six main UK opera companies. Today, it takes on up to 12 young singers and four repetiteurs for nine months of rigorous training, five days a week, preparing them for life on an international operatic stage. It certainly boasts a collection of illustrious alumns, from Susan…

Despite its very small population, Albania has contributed many breathtaking voices to the operatic stage – such as award winning Ermonela Jaho, Inva Mula, a formidable talent on stage as well as being the voice of Diva Plavalaguna in one of the most famous scenes from The Fifth Element, and Saimir Pirgu. Discovered by Claudio Abbado, at age 22 Pirgu made his principal role debut as Ferrando in Così fan tutte at Salzburg in 2004, the youngest tenor ever to do so. Aside from his radiant vocal quality and carefully honed skill, Pirgu says there was a third factor that secured his opportunity. He says: ‘In Così, to fool their lovers they dress as Albanians. He [Abbado] said, “I’m curious to know what it sounds like sung by an Albanian”.…

WHAT’S HAPPENING AND COMING UP IN THE OPERA WORLD The Royal Ballet and Opera has announced that Netia Jones will take up the newly created position of Associate Director of the Royal Opera, leading on opera programming in the Linbury Theatre. Working alongside Oliver Mears, Director of Opera, Jones will play a role in driving the wider artistic output of the Royal Opera and will be responsible for commissioning and creating new projects as well as advocating for the UK opera sector. Speaking of the appointment Jones said: ‘I am delighted to join Oliver Mears and the company. The Linbury Theatre is the perfect space to explore new technologies, to forge global connections and to reflect the artistic ambition of this exceptional company.’ Mears said of Jones’ appointment: ‘We can’t…

ON SALE 29 APR Just as opera house’s seasons are coming to an end, Natalya Romaniw gears up for a role debut in one of the most talked about productions of the year. Soon to play Sieglinde in Barrie Kosky’s Die Walküre at Covent Garden, the soprano speaks about her career so far, recent successes and her plans for the future. ALSO… • The first in a new series of designer’s studio tours • Cape Town Opera: Exploring the young artist programme producing a score of prolific singers • Opera America’s Marc Scorca reflects on 35 years of leadership as he announces his retirement • Previewing the next instalment of Barrie Kosky’s Ring cycle for Covent Garden with Die Walküre www.operanow.co.uk…

Michael Volpe OBE – Executive Director, If Opera As a supertanker, slow to turn, changing opera will rely upon novel ideas or old ones returning. I would like singers to be able to have good, reliable careers that do not always involve the pinnacle houses. I would like audiences to understand the same and for opera houses to support careers, not control them and to thank the talent that brings them reputation, not the other way around. I would excise the egos in major houses so the artists take all the credit. I wish opera could sometimes flash from a pan in days and weeks, not always months. I hope that the talent who create the magic and the opportunities they have are not overshadowed by grandeur and scale. I…

Considered by many as an oxymoron, children’s opera doesn’t sit well with media outlets who would prefer to see any version of the artform at the furthest end of culture’s accessibility spectrum. Classical composers have long directed their energies towards children either as muse or audience: see Schumann’s Kinderszenen, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Poulenc’s L’histoire de Barbar or more recently Dove’s Adventures of Pinocchio. Who are these ‘children’ anyhow? Anyone under 18 as per Unesco guidelines, or primary school Key Stage 2? The explosion of children’s literature in the 19th century, exemplified by Kipling’s Jungle Book or Sewell’s Black Beauty, took stock of this ‘vulnerable’ audience as a distinct entity to be shaped via culture. A laudable enterprise: we might say the same of music if we look to…

The first time Ermonela Jaho and Michael Spyres worked together was a concert performance of Rossini’s Guillaume Tell at La Monnaie in March 2014. Spyres was a late jump-in to sing the treacherously difficult tenor role of Arnold, the love interest for Jaho’s Mathilde. ‘He came directly from the airport straight into rehearsals,’ recalls Jaho. ‘He didn’t complain, even though he was jetlagged. The tenor role is huge, and he nailed every single note. I thought, is he even human?’ ‘Who is this insane guy?’ quips Spyres. ‘The night before, I’d had Le villi in Paris,’ continues Jaho. ‘Singing Puccini and singing Rossini are very different, so I was planning on telling them that I was tired, I was maybe going to mark a little… but when I heard him…

I Lituani Ponchielli Accentus Music ACC80642 This is the finest and most faithful recording to date of Amilcare Ponchielli’s criminally overlooked 1874 opera, and technically the first to be professionally captured. Ponchielli’s influence on his student Puccini is every bit as obvious in I Lituani as it is in his more famous La Gioconda, the sumptuous vocal lines buttressed by lush, majestic orchestration. The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra deftly captures that detail, as does the mighty Kaunas State Choir; ‘Sull’arpe volate’ (Act 1) and the Act 2 dances are delicious showpieces for both. All is well-paced, exhilaratingly dramatic, and elastic – see the Prologue’s ‘Come sposa…’ duet – in the hands of conductor Modestas Pitrėnas. This otherwise stellar rendition’s casting is its undoing. The opera’s overall tessitura is low; besides…

1 In which country is Il trovatore set? 2 Who composed Orietta di Lesbo, Adele di Cosenza and Guglielmo Wellingrode? 3 Who played Figaro, Susanna, Contessa, Conte and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at the Little Island Theatre in New York last year?  4 How many of Wotan’s children appear in Die Walküre? 5 Raise a pint to which fraternal trio of composer, poet and astronomer 6 Which Canadian singer-songwriter has composed two operas, not considered peaks? 7 _osca was premiered at La Scala: complete the title 8 Rossini posthumously helped which band with music for their second film? 9 Which Spanish descendant of Lucrezia Borgia was a Met star, fundraiser and board member? 10 And which fizzy soprano became chairwoman of the Met in the 1990s? 11 Which somewhat less…

I’m not a mental health expert – I’ve made mistakes and will make many more. But here, I share observations, experiences, and approaches to my profession as it relates to overcoming mental health challenges. I was born and raised in Canada, near Toronto, in 1992. My parents are Iranian and immigrated to Canada in 1979. It was not a musical household, yet music has always been a guiding light in my life. I was introduced to opera in my teens and dreamed of pursuing a career in the artform since I was 18. I began my studies as a baritone and came into my countertenor voice in my twenties. I have been based in Amsterdam for the last nine years. My career started gaining momentum as I was finishing my…