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."

The time I spilled some secrets into a microphone

News

How do I get away with writing about opera from within it, when I know the cast and creative team? How do I publish fair reviews? How do I address problems in different organizations, and decide whether or not to name names? Why do some in the opera industry resort to anonymity in order to say what they feel is true?

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.

Ways to procrastinate: the plot-generated opera

Humour

Readers, we've discovered a new game. If you head over to Plot Generator, you can fill in a form that creates your own short story (sort of like Mad Libs). It's kind of fun on its own, but there's a nerdy twist to it.

"I didn't get in": a short story about clarity

Op-ed

I cross the street and jump over a huge puddle to get to the sidewalk that leads to my apartment. I look up, and there they are: Mrs. Shame and her good friend Mr. Humiliation. So we greet each other, reluctantly shake hands and pick up our usual conversation where we left it the last time I ran into them: "How can this happen to you? They said they loved your dress! But perhaps, if I you had done this phrase differently... I didn’t want to have to tell you this, but your high C was flat.

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."

The Tinder Opera hits the stage

News

The Tinder Opera was written by composer Scott Joiner and librettist Adam Taylor, and it was originally produced for film by Galaxy 454 Productions and the Rainy Park Opera Company. Their next film opera collaboration is Something Blue (L'opera del Bachelor), which features a cast of 30 - led by Joiner and soprano Jessica Fishenfeld - and a 10-piece chamber orchestra.

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."

In review: Jamie Barton at Wigmore Hall

Review

Barton's big smile is infectious, and her singing is totally satisfying. She left us heavy in our seats during Brahms' "Unbewegte laue Luft," and Dvořák's "Songs My Mother Taught Me," and she seemed to be making a good case for a definitive performance of Turina's Homenaje and the Sibelius songs.