Sep 5th, 2008 · Science fiction isn't typical source material for opera. Which is why Placido Domingo was a little surprised when The Fly landed on his desk. But David Cronenberg and Howard Shore's opera opens Sept. 7 in Los Angeles.
Aug 22nd, 2008 · With a blood-spattered bride and a high-intensity mad scene, Donizetti's early-19th-century hit sets the standard for operatic melodrama. It gets a rare performance in its French version from Glimmerglass Opera, in upstate New York.
Aug 15th, 2008 · The Barber of Seville may be the perfect, operatic comedy. On World of Opera it comes to us from the jewel-like theater at Glimmerglass Opera, a perfect venue for the crystalline musical textures and intimate vocal detail of Rossini's masterpiece.
Jun 12th, 2008 · Operatic tenor Wayne Conner was an classical-music radio personality and a teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Academy of Vocal Arts and Peabody conservatory. For 30 years, he also produced and hosted WHYY's "Singer's World" and "Collector's Corner." Connor died May 9 of liver cancer at the age of 79.
Jun 6th, 2008 · There are plenty of operas in which the main characters sing their final words with their last breaths. In this one, nearly everyone on stage kicks the operatic bucket as the curtain falls. Placido Domingo leads a production from Washington, D.C.
May 18th, 2008 · Gustav Mahler once said, "The symphony is a world; it must contain everything." For the famous composer, that meant writing symphonic music with the dramatic punch and poignancy of opera.
May 9th, 2008 · Thousands of Americans lead double lives, working by day and singing their hearts out at night as members of an operatic chorus. NPR's Ketzel Levine goes behind the scenes of the Portland Opera Chorus as it prepares for a production of Aida.
Jan 10th, 2008 · Bey sings some of the slowest tempos today: Listening to him is like looking over a master artist's shoulder as he applies paint to a canvas. Calling him simply a jazz singer misses the point. There's the passion of gospel in his baritone, plus an operatic sense of drama.