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.”

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.’

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.

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

With a story that highlights how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go, Chicago Opera Theater presents the world premiere of Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride, which centers on a pivotal moment in the civil rights struggle.

On Wednesday, February 12, Lyric Opera of Chicago general director Anthony Freud and music director Sir Andrew Davis announced the company’s 66th season. A North American premiere, a Midwest premiere, and a special opening night concert with Renée Fleming are among the highlights. The 2020-2021 season will also be Sir Andrew’s last as music director.

“It has been said that a society can be judged by the way it treats its animals,” composer David T. Little says in the program notes for his chamber opera, Dog Days. Based on a short story by Judy Budnitz, the opera is set in a war-torn future that’s not too far away from our own time.

Terence Andrus has been on death row since 2012. Through a penpal program, celebrated bass-baritone Ryan McKinny has become a friend and artistic collaborator.

“There are very few places, it seems to me, where people go to reflect as a community… The opera house, or the concert hall, is one of those sacred spaces…” reflects composer Jake Heggie.

Classical and jazz composer-pianist Anthony Davis is known for writing operas based on historical figures, notably X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X. His latest opera, The Central Park Five, with a libretto by Richard Wesley, premiered in June 2019. We spoke with the composer and members of the creative team about bringing the opera to life.

This is the third major presentation of City Opera’s LGBTQ series following Peter Eotvos’ Angels in America in 2017 and Charles Wuorinen’s Brokeback Mountain last year.

Moby-Dick is a Great American Novel, no doubt. But that fact doesn’t make Herman Melville’s 600+ page opus any less intimidating.

General director Ashley Magnus exclaims that “to ensure that opera stays relevant as a living art form, we must bring contemporary voices, as well as works of international prominence never before seen in Chicago to the stage.”

Known for composing in styles ranging from melody to dissonance, he earned the Pulitzer in 1975 for From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, a composition for voice and piano.

On February 10, some of the biggest names in the music industry convened at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center in Los Angeles. R&B and soul singer Alicia Keys hosted the ceremony, as winners were announced in 30 fields and 84 categories. Here are the nominees and winners for the classical music categories.

“There’s an element within this work that I think people can take away on a personal level,” said Janet Chen, ProMusica’s executive director.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ten years ago at age 27, Nico Muhly became the youngest composer ever to have a piece commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. “It was completely terrifying,” Muhly said of the offer from Met general manager Peter Gelb to write “Two Boys” for America’s leading opera house. As with any commission he gets, he said, “It’s not …

CINCINNATI (AP) — Composer Gregory Spears and U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith have been commissioned by the Cincinnati Opera to write Castor and Patience, a story of black cousins in the American South who disagree about the future of land they inherited. The company said Tuesday that the work will premiere at the Corbett Theater in July 2020. Smith’s …

Chicago Opera Theater today announced its 2018/19 season composed of three new-to-Chicago works, continuing the company’s commitment to presenting new and rarely performed operas.

COT presents a world-premiere opera, Elizabeth Cree, by the team of composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, who together created the Pulitzer-winning opera Silent Night.

Thompson Street Opera Company presents the Chicago premiere of Uncle Alex, an opera that tackles the complexities of immigration in America, Saturday, January 27, 2018 at Adler University. The performance is part of Faulty Systems, an event that invites speakers and artists from all disciplines to speak about civic engagement, social justice, and activism through art. Uncle Alex, with music …

Whether you’re new to opera or consider yourself a connoisseur, there’s something for everyone to enjoy this fall in Chicago. Here are four operas we are excited to see in the coming months.

Mark Campbell has written the words to over fifteen operas to date, making him one of the most active librettists alive. When Campbell visited the Windy City, he spoke about his work and explained, “how do you write an opera?”

If “Music oft hath such a charm / To make bad good, and good provoke to harm,” perhaps these 10 Shakespeare-inspired operas will charm you.

Anyone who’s ever tried to sing or play an instrument knows that hard work and practice are essential to make a performance successful. But performing music from memory presents another challenge. The repetitions Glass uses make memorizing his music particularly difficult.