The powers of fate & great singing: La forza del destino

Review

This was a fairly standard production with a bit of a modern twist from designer Christian Schmidt, directed by Christof Loy. A star-studded production, it is currently enjoying a near sold out run at the Royal Opera.

Montezuma: long-lost baroque blueprints

Review

While Handel provides so many details about characterization in his arias which speak for themselves, especially in timbre, Vivaldi, precisely because of his compositional fluency, requires a constant level of onstage interpretation to allow his stylized and always virtuosic pieces to provide a stimulating background.

The Top 5 Things Your Music Instructor Wants You To Know

How-To

Have you ever wondered, when taking on music lessons, what requirements there may be when starting? Some instructors might give you a list of their requirements ahead of time, but most probably don't.

Talking with singers: Erwin Schrott

Interview

"Let's face it: if we had the chance to clone ourselves in a younger self and keep our memories or our soul…I wonder how many of us will take the chance immediately."

If you like Star Wars, you're gonna flip for opera: shouting into the void

Op-Ed

Maybe this is how it is for everyone that has a niche interest. Indie film lovers, college sports fans, lovers of obscure graphic novels - maybe they all bristle at the ubiquitous fandom of big-budget Hollywood movies, the NFL, DC Comics.

Talking with singers: Grace Davidson

Interview

"I have always felt that Baroque music is my natural habitat. I love working with historical instrumentalists, everything about their unique colour, tone and pitch feels comfortable for me and relates to the way I sing a line or phrase."

Talking with singers: Patrick Terry

Interview

"I wish I had started to save money earlier. I wish I had invested in travel containers for toiletries earlier, because I cannot tell you how many tiny shampoos I have accumulated over the years."

Talking with singers: Soraya Mafi

Interview

"I often take for granted how lucky we are to have access to such wonderful music and music-makers in London. The rich history of classical music in London has enabled musicians to take advantage of world-class composers, conductors, teachers and venues."

An American Dream: an opera that hits home

Review

With music by Jack Perla and libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo, An American Dream spotlights the lives of two families against the backdrop of Japanese internment by the U.S. government following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Appropriately strange: Frida at FGO

Review

Frida Kahlo was Mexican, an artist, a woman, disabled, queer, Communist. Though the pacing of the opera was choppy and piecemeal, resembling a biopic in its sweeping depiction of her teenage romance, her life-altering bus accident, her revolutionary politics, and her turbulent marriage, the format was well suited to highlight the many intersecting facets of Kahlo's complex and richly lived biography.