Michael Fabiano: the "profound effect" of ArtSmart

Interview

When it comes to young people with little to no extra-curricular activities in their daily schedules, it's a major discovery to see that students are eager to stay after school for their private sessions. "Lots of the kids are genuinely excited to be able to stay after school and wait for a lesson," says Fabiano. "To be able to focus on something every day, and to wait an hour to do their lesson, is good for them because it keeps them in the incubator environment."

Bronx Opera: 50 years & counting

Interview

"It took our company a number of seasons, since its inception in 1967, to even realize that there was a possibility for its longevity. When this rather startling thought took hold, we had already formulated our basic missions: to give talented operatic artists an opportunity for meaningful experience and exposure (57 to date have gone to the Met), to nurture new audiences for opera...to expose outstanding and rarely performed works to audiences each winter and to proudly represent the quality of life in our home borough."

Talking with singers: Karolina Pilou

Interview

"The idea that one person doing the casting can assess what the thousands of people from different cultures and walks of life in a diverse audience will find attractive or not, is still a puzzle to me. We tell the most fascinating and outrageous stories to audiences, but don't give them enough credit that they can believe a short and overweight tenor or a plus size soprano can be the object of desire in many given opera productions."

Don't miss: The Pirates of Penzance with TOT

Interview

"Pirates is part love story, part silly romp which pokes fun at everything ranging from love, youth, getting old, authority to politics."

Talking with singers: Jessica Pratt

Interview

"It is our diversity that makes for a healthy industry. I prefer to think of us all contributing in our own way, rather than all competing, which seems like such a limiting view to me. The only competition that I feel constantly is competition with myself, to try overtime to improve something in my performance or my technique."

Talking with singers: Daniel Okulitch

Interview

"Canada is small enough that when someone shows an interest in classical music, there is a community that will claim you and help you. As such, I believe we are able to find and produce large numbers of exceptional musicians, disproportionate to our population. We're smaller than California, but produce more classical singers who have international careers. Figure that one out."

Falstaff in Cambridge

Interview

"There is something very exciting about staging grand opera in an intimate venue," says Redmond, "that brings a power and intensity to the performances that one can sometimes miss in a large opera house. With an orchestra of 80, a chorus of nearly 100, and an international cast of soloists, it's an exciting sound!"

Talking with singers: George Gagnidze

Interview

"The tendency nowadays is for lyrical voices to take on dramatic roles, Wagner, Verdi and Strauss when they should sing Mozart. Just a few days ago a young baritone sang for me and asked me for my advice. A beautiful voice, but he was very young. He sang Amonasro for me and told me his wish is to sing Wagner. I suggested he should study the Count in Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Papageno for now. Then the voice will develop..."

Talking with singers: Ekaterina Semenchuk

Interview

"Amneris is one of the most difficult roles in the mezzo-soprano repertory. It requires intense concentration and incredible physical and moral commitment, not only in the last act as many people believe. At the very beginning of the opera, a careful, disturbing and somewhat ominous leitmotif of jealousy sounds. Amneris appears with it, lives with it throughout the opera, and by the last act the motive has become a storm."

Talking with singers: Sondra Radvanovsky

Interview

"It took me twenty years to get here," says Radvanovsky of the long game that is the opera singer's career. "Twenty years of cracking on high notes at the Metropolitan Opera, and saying, 'This didn't work tonight, let's try it another way!'" And the work is still not over.