The voice teacher series: Jennifer Casey Cabot

Interview

"Breath support is the foundation of everything we do as singers, so it is a constant focus in my studio to understand and integrate buoyancy, appoggio and breath pacing mastery."

Don Giovanni: "strengthened by reinterpretation."

Interview

"These classic opera scores, like any art form, are never static, and I believe they are strengthened by reinterpretation. We've all become used to hearing them in a certain way over the years, with the same orchestration, to the point that they have become museum pieces. My intention is to breathe new life into the scores, and I hope that audiences are able to gain a fresh perspective on the music as a result."

Fidelio: still political in 2018

Interview

"I hope people who know Fidelio already will be surprised and challenged to experience the opera in a new way. I hope newcomers to Fidelio will come away with admiration for Beethoven's beautiful music and appreciation of this story's powerful resonance today. I hope all audience members will take away questions and concerns that they continue to talk about and wrestle with."

Talking with singers: Nelson Ebo

Interview

"My desire for singing was within me when I was born. My father loved to sing and when I was a child I was always the loudest one (out of the 16 of us). I sang in my church choir and found a way to formalize my love of singing. When I was a bit older, I was given a cassette tape of the Three Tenors and started imitating them."

Orphée⁺: "How do we grieve in 2018?"

Interview

"The key is to employ all these elements to further enhance and heighten the experience of the drama - that is to say, these are not random tricks that have been selected for novelty's sake. Despite the number of collaborators, there is a unity of purpose behind every device, and I think they coalesce beautifully."

Lore Lixenberg is The Mother

Interview

"The satire and explosiveness is in the score, as Laurence is playing around with Witkacy's pure form and putting that into music. Also the performance is actually a staged concert that is often a financial decision for a company, opera is expensive, but has the benefit of really putting more focus on the score and the structure of the piece and in my opinion gives an opera performance a certain clarity."

"Susannah is THE great original American opera."

Interview

"I particularly love the wide open interval leaps in her first aria 'Ain't it a pretty night.' You feel Susannah's longing to escape the small town and you see the beauty of the mountains and valleys before her. It's pure Americana in spirit and sound."

Talking with singers: Tara Erraught

Interview

"It never gets easier to say no to an interesting offer, even though you may well know you don't have the time, so your management team and your teacher are vital in guiding you at every step in what is a healthy decision, always."

Talking with singers: Isabel Bayrakdarian

Interview

And right in between, there's the chamber group experience, which feels intimate enough that you don't need a conductor, but there's a constant sense of awareness of the need to be very sensitive to each instrument enveloping you (literally and figuratively) on stage. So there's more conscious give and take - teamwork - to make the collective work and shine.

Materialism turns tragic: don't miss The Overcoat

Interview

"The overcoat is stunning," says baritone Geoffrey Sirett, who is set to sing the role of Akakiy. "It transforms his life, because it is so beautiful and immaculately designed, and it gives him his five minutes of fame."