Take out the high courts and bring in the dancing elephants: here are some of the strangest opera plots that have ever been put to paper.

Across three flagship performances, Haymarket continues to plumb the expressive depths of early music repertoire.

Music of the Baroque’s first performance in over three decades of Handel’s final oratorio.

A performance of Monteverdi’s last opera led by none other than Jordi Savall.

The Chicago early music ensemble will collaborate with Baroque opera specialists, an eminent early music keyboard player, and leading chamber groups in its upcoming season.

Internationally renowned soprano Jeanine De Bique makes her Zankel Hall debut alongside opera and early music ensemble Concerto Köln.

An interview with the distinguished soprano featuring her various collaborations with fellow Canadian artists.

The performance lineup features three mainstage operas; all three titles are rare and represent Chicago premieres.

The American countertenor on his new album dedicated to music composed for Senesino.

Haymarket Opera Company has announced its 2022 lineup; the March-September season will feature three works.

The Catholic Church and the northern Italian city of Ferrara are making their peace with Antonio Vivaldi nearly 300 years after the city’s archbishop effectively canceled the staging of one of his operas.

WFMT talks with the outspoken mezzo-soprano about what it means to take on the role of Carmen, why she’s excited to open the COT season, and how modern-day audiences and artists can best confront the more outdated aspects of Carmen and other beloved operas.

WFMT host LaRob K. Rafael visited Haymarket rehearsals, hearing musical rehearsal highlights and talking with two of the production’s stars: countertenor Bejun Mehta and mezzo-soprano Emily Fons.

Baroque music goes digital.

Little known fact: Handel ranked ‘Theodora’ — not ‘Messiah’ — as his best oratorio. You’ll see why in a rapturous performance by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

It’s Baroque opera, minus the sobriety. The serious operas of Handel and Gluck get the parody treatment in this excerpt from the 1737 opera The Dragon of Wantley performed by Haymarket Opera Company!

NEW YORK (AP) — “When I am laid in earth,” the heroine sings just before she dies at the end of Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas.” Rarely will the aria be heard in a more fittingly sepulchral setting than when the hour-long opera, composed in the 1680s, is performed this week in the catacombs of Brooklyn’s historic Green-Wood Cemetery. The …

“With this kind of comedy, there is no fourth wall. We’re very aware of the audience; we’re not pretending they’re not there.”

How does an opera written in 1735 hold up today? Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of George Frideric Handel’s Ariodante presents a contemporary perspective on the nearly 300-year-old Baroque opera, with updated gender and sexual politics to boot.

This article was originally published on February 23, 2016.

Have you ever wondered how opera singers are able to sing so many notes so easily? Mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux shares her secrets to singing coloratura.

Maestro Harry Bicket shared what’s in his “little box of tricks” to help musicians in modern orchestras sound period perfect.

“Ariane et Bachus” was first performed by the Académie Royale de Musique in 1696, and Haymarket Opera Company’s production marks the first revival of work in 321 years.

When exploring the jungles of South America, perhaps one of the last things you would expect to find are centuries old scores by European composers like Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Bassani, and Hasse. But that’s exactly what Father Piotr Nawrot encountered in Jesuit Missions located in modern-day Bolivia, along with the score to an opera, San Ignacio, which receives its Midwestern premiere …

“Telemann has written… some truly funny arias about Don Q.’s dreams of chivalry and Sancho’s donkey and mishaps”