Talking with singers: Elza van den Heever

Interview

"'Casta Diva' alone is of course that one moment of magic that craves to be sung to absolute precision - problem is, at least for me, that the aria is truly very low in the soprano tessitura and makes it just incredibly difficult and uncomfortable if you're nervous. It’s at the top of the show where you are most vulnerable and scared and nerves often get in the way."

Josephine and The Artizans: "We call it hip-hopera."

Interview

The band is headed by Josephine Permaul, a classically-trained singer with a love for songwriting and genre fusion; her Artizans are rappers Jermaine Davidson and Michael Wordley, violinist Tanya Cracknell, cellist Marianne Hardisty, electric cellist Laura Dodds, keyboardist Thom Rowlands, and bassist/producer Debs Spanton.

Talking with singers: Brian Jagde

Interview

"You have to continue to get better," says Jagde of his constant work with his teachers and coaches. "You're working really hard to just even have a job and to have a career, and now you have to keep it. The work never stops. It's not that you make it, and then you're there."

Talking with singers: Kate Lindsey

Interview

"One of the most challenging things on stage is to really, really open yourself up and give," she says. Singers often feel a responsibility to do well, to move an audience, and as a result, it's easy for the body to give in to pressure. "We can either play it safe, because we're just not sure what the support is like, we may not feel like we have enough breath under us, so we can play it safe, maybe not go for that pianissimo," Lindsey explains of taking risks onstage. "It's really hard to do that in front of thousands of people when your heart's pounding."

Talking with singers: John Brancy

Interview

Fresh off a recording session for his new album with pianist Peter Dugan, A Silent Night, baritone John Brancy relishes the chance to take a break from the opera stage, and spend time with art song.

Killer women: Shadwell Opera's double-bill

Interview

"I think the honesty and compassion of these pieces can have a saline, stripping effect on boring ideas about how the mind works. Somehow the psychology of a single human being is unfathomably more complex than we pretend from day to day. Without the music, it would not be possible to explore those depths in the same way."

Dracula's neighbour: Nancy Allen Lundy

Interview

"Alfred Corn is the brilliant wordsmith of this beguiling story. I can't say enough about how beautifully crafted the text is. The words are like music, tripping and bubbling off the tongue. They are a pleasure to speak, and every phrase is an economic distillation of words to convey intention."

Talking with singers: Marina Rebeka

Interview

Though the Metropolitan Opera is no small test of a singer's nerves, Rebeka found singing in her home town of Riga to be a daunting task. "The feeling with singing at home was always very complicated," she says. Rebeka's professional career began in Germany, and when she sang at home, the pressure to prove herself seemed great. "Singing for family and friends, on one hand, it's great; on the other hand, it's like, 'OK, let's see what she has learned abroad.'"

Gordon & Vavrek's 27: the New York premiere

Interview

"The idea was inspired by the idea of writing an opera for Stephanie, because of the personal relationship I have with her and knowing how her favorite thing to do is PRESIDE! It seemed a perfect fit and it has been a dream. She is an outsized voice and personality like Stein, it is a perfect fit. Stephanie has enormous love, artistry, courage, basically, BALLS!"

Don't miss: Comfort

Interview

"The Chinese opera and music of 'The Butterfly Lovers', is the cultural character in the play, from which the heroine and hero fall in love and through which they survive the atrocities of war. The opera's themes such as gender equality, love, and redemption echo those in the contemporary story of the young lovers' dreams and hopes in 1930s China and how their love stands up against war."