Singers, it's the annual Tax Season Conundrum!

Op-ed

Unless you are fortunate enough to be a star in high demand you don't have to worry right? WRONG! Even then, you've got bills not limited to agent commissions, AGMA fees, health insurance, travel, rent sometimes in multiple locations and those dreaded gigs that don't line up in the calendar year in a foreign country... even out of state poses challenges depending on your official place of residence.

Nashville Opera's Carmen: "She dies because she told a man, 'no'."

Interview

"I think that neither Carmen nor José are hero nor villain, but people who make bad choices. I think that's why Carmen is perhaps the most performed opera of all time, partly because of its tragic love story. The stories of crimes and passion have documented throughout human history. We know these people and can identify with how they might feel or felt, based up personal experiences or from stories we have heard or read about."

Conductor's score appears to have been opened prior to first rehearsal

Humour

Breaking news: spine on conductor’s score shows signs of having been opened before the first rehearsal, says source sitting nearby. Currently unclear if the score has been borrowed from a friend.

Stage management shocked as everyone brings own pencil to rehearsal

Humour

Breaking: everyone brings their own pencil to rehearsal, leaving stage management stunned.

Broken harpsichord replaced mid-show by crappy piano & sheet of paper

Humour

After mid-performance harpsichord malfunction, stage management saves the day with crappy piano and large piece of scrap paper.

Trump to host WH screening of "What's Opera, Doc?"

Humour

Donald Trump plans to host screening of “What’s Opera, Doc?” for White House staffers, following success of "Finding Nemo".

2 violists injured after Cunegonde's aria ends in chaos

Humour

Cunegonde’s aria ends in chaos after soprano accidentally launches broken string of pearls into orchestra pit, 2 violists report painful welts.

Music historians find lost Mozart opera, all agree that it is crap

Humour

Breaking: Music historians discover lost Mozart opera, opera circles collectively agree that it is crap.

ROH's Madama Butterfly: better to be furious than bored

Review

Yet there's something horridly patronising about how Puccini romanticises the Japanese. The music he writes for Cio-Cio San's family at the wedding is purposefully cacophonous, almost laughable sound effects and definitely not the reactions of fully-realised human beings. The story of Madama Butterfly existed before Puccini's opera, but there's a clear attraction to her youth and ignorance, and the idea of "rescuing" her from her "shameful" past as a geisha and making her a proud Westerner, as though in recovery from her savage Eastern upbringing.

In review: Early Opera Company at Wigmore Hall

Review

For a group that plays so much with singers, it was shocking to see how little sensitivity they had towards Bevan and Hulett. We were watching the classy soprano try to make elegant choices in all of her arias, but those five violins were not responding to her well. While they reveled in their long flowing legato lines, they played without breathing or reacting to the singer.