Seattle Opera puts story of Afghan women center stage

An opera based on the popular novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” which is set in Afghanistan, is making its world debut in Seattle.

Sing Different: Why the Life of Apple’s Steve Jobs Makes for Great Opera

Steve Jobs gets the operatic treatment with Mason Bates’ Grammy-winning The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. We spoke with the composer, librettist Mark Campbell, as well as baritone Edward Parks, who created the role of Jobs.

COT’s 22-23 Season: ‘Turing’ World Premiere, Britten, Heggie for 50th Anniversary

In this celebratory season, audiences will hear two twentieth-century operas and three world premieres across COT’s full slate of mainstage and special programming.

Opera film ‘Soldier Songs’ about war trauma heads to Grammys

An hour-long piece for baritone and orchestral septet, the work depicts with unrelenting intensity the horrors of war and the PTSD faced by many returning veterans.

Composer Ricky Ian Gordon Premieres 2 Operas in 5-Day Span

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis and Intimate Apparel both opened in the last week of January.

Lyric’s ’22-23 Season: Verdi, ‘Fiddler,’ Fleming, & ‘Carmen’

Plus a world premiere, Chicago-set take on ‘The Barber of Seville’ and the return of ‘West Side Story’

Lyric’s Next Show, Mazzoli’s ‘Proving Up,’ Postponed

The opera had been scheduled for performances in late January, and according to Lyric, rehearsals were set to begin this week.

Met Opera to present Blanchard’s ‘Champion’ in April 2023

The staging follows the success of the composer Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones on the opening night of this season.

Verismo Meets Lyrical Flow: Chicago Composer Creates Opera from Classic Nas Track

It was a rap song by Nas that directly influenced Chicago composer Steve Wallace’s newest chamber opera, Undying Love.

Met returns with 1st work by a Black composer in its history

Fire Shut Up in My Bones became the first work by a Black composer in the 138-year history of the Metropolitan Opera as the company presented its first staged performance since March 2020 following a gap caused by the coronavirus.

Met Opera to Stage Anthony Davis’ ‘X’ on Malcolm X in 2023

The Met says X will open on Nov. 3, 2023, in a staging by Robert O’Hara that will be conducted by Kazem Abdullah. Will Liverman will star in the title role.

Watch WFMT’s Classical Conversation With ‘Approaching Ali’ Composer D. J. Sparr and Star Soloman Howard

Ali was among the most important, most charismatic, most unique figures in American (not just sports) history. So how do you adapt the monumental life of the People’s Champion into an opera?

Operatic day at the beach evokes climate crisis

Twenty-one tons of sand are transforming the Brooklyn Academy of Music into a day at a beach for the staging of the global warming opera Sun and Sea.

Chicago Opera Theater Announces Live, In-Person 2021-22 Season

From Carmen to Claus, learn what is in store for the next season of Chicago Opera Theater.

Lyric Announces 2021-22 Season With ‘Magic Flute,’ ‘Macbeth,’ Mazzola

A Verdi and bel canto expert, Lyric’s new music director Enrique Mazzola will open the season with Verdi’s Macbeth and Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, while also conducting contemporary opera Proving Up by Missy Mazzoli later in the season.

How Kamala Sankaram Brings New Audiences, Stories to Opera

“The reach is exponentially larger.”

Met Opera skips this season, 1st Black composer opens ’21-22

The Metropolitan Opera will skip an entire season for the first time in its nearly 140-year history and intends to return from the pandemic layoff next September.

In the Age of the Visual Album, What Can Opera Learn from Beyoncé?

The virtual sphere won’t replace the live stage, but it can add a second, more accessible one, with great room for creative growth and the viral potential of easily shareable, iconic images.

COT Pivots to Digital, Expands Season

Chicago Opera Theater has revised its 2020-21 season with digital livestreams and additional performances.

Stand up With the Sitdown: Black Singers Share Their Experiences in Opera

Star tenor Lawrence Brownlee’s new Facebook Live series aims to change the face of the industry through interviews with other Black opera singers and advice for aspiring Black opera singers, Brownlee explains.

Lyric Cancels Performances Until January 2021

Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, in-person performances will be among the last to return, making “operating on anything close to a normal basis until that phase” impossible.

Three Chicago Premieres in Chicago Opera Theater’s 2020-21 Season

General director Ashley Magnus maintains that even in troubled times, the company is “moving forward with the belief that opera truly is a living, resilient art form.”

6 Hours, 12 Countries, 250 Performers: ‘The Lunar Opera’ Gets the Virtual Treatment

A marathon 6-hour performance will be held in an unexpected (but increasingly familiar) place: Zoom! The video conferencing platform will provide the proscenium for a performance of Pauline Oliveros’ postmodern masterpiece ‘The Lunar Opera.’

9 Works by Women Writers We Want to See Adapted into Operas

We’re glad to see that in recent decades, more and more works by women writers have been given their due in the opera house. Here’s a look back at some of them, and a short list of works by women that we’re waiting to see operatically staged.

Higdon opera for Philadelphia to have 3 different endings

The opera is a fictionalized account inspired by the theft of seven artworks from a museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

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