Talking with singers: David Shipley

Interview

Shipley also sang in Tosca with Angela Gheorghiu ("She was lovely."), and in Nabucco with Plácido Domingo; this season, he'll join Sondra Radvanovsky in Manon Lescaut, and Bryn Terfel in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. "You're having a conversation with these huge figures of the opera world," says Shipley of the opportunity to work closely with top-tier singers in the industry.

Spooky shows: The Tell-Tale Heart

Interview

"The old man's glass eye triggers her murderous rage – as she sings about the eye, she sees it and is held captive by its image – so the eye gets its own trance-like music. There's furtive, creepily joyful music while she describes her cunning murderous actions. There's a demented waltz that gets progressively weirder as the narrator's tenuous grip on sanity loosens."

Spotlight on: Owen McCausland

Interview

"Get used to listening to yourself. That recording of your last - lesson/coaching/recital/opera has important information and it will help you move forward. Video is even better. It can be hard, especially at first, but it will highlight the things you can’t hear and also help you forgive yourself for dumb mistakes."

Talking with singers: Héloïse Werner

Interview

"Getting a job at the Royal Opera House in the chorus, for me, even if that would be amazing for most other singers, I wouldn't like it." Werner is aware of the different pursuits of professional singers - career stability, for example. "I can totally understand why most people aren't like me."

Don't miss: Boys of Paradise

Interview

"The whole show is an analogy of the Phoenix mythology, a bird that burns brighter and brighter and then burns out. This is such a classic, ancient story, and our characters are off their faces for the majority of the show, so I felt okay with sticking to a quirky, acoustic instrumentation. Also it was a fun challenge to conjure up the feelings of euphoria when coming up on ecstasy, or getting drunk, using conventional instruments."

Talking with singers: Christian Bowers

Interview

"There are a lot of times when I'm in an empty hotel room, and I'm looking at Facebook and I'm seeing you with pictures of your kids, the pictures of your house and the garden you planted," he explains. "All my stuff's in my room that I grew up in, and I live out of a suitcase or two for five weeks at a time."

Spotlight on: Alexander Hajek

Interview

"For 'good' singing, I use a few benchmarks to keep myself in check. After the curtain goes down, is my voice in good enough shape to do the whole thing again? Did I manage to make the audience laugh AND cry? Did I discover a deeper truth about the piece or myself?"

Talking with singers: Eleazar Rodríguez

Interview

"It honestly began like a hobby. I started by imitation, like many singers do. In Mexico it is still a custom, at least in my hometown, that the eldest son, takes the profession of the father. In my case I was thinking of going into law, since my dad is a great lawyer, but that never happened. I've been working a lot on this career and little by little I've been going up the ladder."

Don't miss: Don Giovanni at Nashville Opera

Interview

Don Giovanni starts a curious season at Nashville Opera, which also includes Bizet's Carmen, Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied, and the world premiere of Robert Paterson's Three Way, a trio of one-acts ("Think Sex and the City meets The Twilight Zone," say Nashville Opera).

Don't miss: "Feet" at the Horniman Museum

Interview

"It was this juxtaposition, and the indignity of an animal losing its feet for a reason we would now consider to be quite minor, which formed the basis of the idea. Our main character, the pigeon (sorry, rock dove) just wants to tell her story and get a bit of attention for once."