Ensemble Studio shines in a lackluster Evening

Editorial

Whatever its form, this annual event is meant to show off what these artists do best. It's clear that the Ensemble Studio features seven excellent young voices and two industrious pianists. With that said, An Evening With the Ensemble Studio seemed to show that what these young artists do best is prosper under the oddest of onstage circumstances.

Talking with singers: Adela Zaharia

Interview

I have different favorite singers, especially for the roles that I am singing. For Traviata, it's the great Virginia Zeani or Anna Moffo, for Konstanze in Entführung it's Eda Moser. For her interpretation, energy on stage, and the passion that goes into the singing, it's of course Maria Callas.

Talking with singers: Michael Fabiano

Interview

"We're in an era where things need to be tried. We can't just do the same. That's the argument against the model in America sometimes, where we just do traditional opera productions for the sake of doing them traditionally because no one wants to see anything different. That to me is not an acceptable answer."

'i': opera run by the cool kids

Review

The design of the opera, under the obviously careful eye of Kofen, felt almost Bauhaus-inspired, which really worked with the bonkers nature of both the libretto (also by Kofen) and the music and the DIY nature of the costumes (mostly made out of waste paper, hence the company's name).

Talking with singers: Samantha Pickett

Interview

There's no manual for anyone's five-year plan, and Pickett is on no quest for any sort of Right Answer™. "That would make for a really uninteresting artistic journey, if we were all following the same path."

Don't miss: No Place Like Home

Interview

"And to have a home, it's also important to have a place that is not-home - which is easy enough to define if you only feel at home in one place, but much more difficult when, say, you fly across the world and feel like you understand the heartbeat of a totally foreign city. That feeling isn't home-as-a-place, that feeling is home-as-a-mental-state."

Audra McDonald and the Art of Perfection

Review

She let us know that she considers herself "a champion of new composers." "That way," she told us, maybe only half-joking, "I'll still have a job in the future." She reminded us that Jason Robert Brown was once a "new composer" and proffered his "Stars and Moon" which has become one of her signature songs.

Love Potion Number Nein

Review

Mr. Mitisek and Long Beach Opera have built their world-renowned reputations on new works and the discovery of neglected treasures from the past. Mr. Martin's 1942 opera does not fit into either category.

Dressing opera singers: chatting with costume designer Meriem Bahri

Interview

For years, she pushed her love of fashion and drawing to the side until, while studying in Lille, she happened to meet the couturiere designing and building costumes for her local amateur dance troupe. The couturiere showed Bahri how to use a sewing machine and she was hooked.

Verdi's tragedy in jest

Review

To protect his daughter from the Duke (and his entourage of like-minded cruel courtiers), Rigoletto hides her from the real world. She isn't allowed to venture outside, except to go to church. And that's where the Duke spies her and decides he must have her. There is an abundance of well-placed irony throughout the drama.