“I really felt like I was in the zone for those three queens, and I made a promise to myself to live in the moment.”

Elise K. Kirk, emerita director of the White House Historical Society, highlights ten US presidents who changed music in America through the music they presented at the White House.

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 …

Opera lover and Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has appeared in an opera before – at least, in a way. She is a character in Scalia/Ginsburg, a comic one act with words and music by Derrick Wang that had its world premiere in July 2015. But now, Ginsburg herself will appear in a production of Donizetti’s The Daughter of …

One of the most difficult coloratura arias in the entire operatic repertoire is popularly known as “The Doll Song.”

Philip Glass is simultaneously one of the best known and most misunderstood composers of our time. Though he has many fans, he also has many critics.

At 79 years old, Philip Glass has composed 27 operas. Yet, only a handful have been performed in Chicago, though the composer spent formative years in the Windy City as a student.

Pulitzer-winning composer Paul Moravec: “A supernatural story makes total sense for an opera…”

Tenor Javier Camarena made history on March 12, 2016, when he performed an encore during a performance of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at the Metropolitan Opera, making him one of three singers to offer encores so in the company’s recent history. He spoke about performing the encore, the music itself, and other exciting moments in his career in anticipation of his upcoming performance in …

A life in opera may seem all glamour and glitter. But, when the curtain falls and audience members leave the opera house, they rarely think of how difficult life can be for a singer.

Gioachino Rossini made so much money from the 39 original operas he created between 1810 and 1829 that he retired in his late 30s.

Growing up, composer Jonathan Berger reflects, “there was an enormous amount of talk in my house about what really constitutes patriotism, what is a right war and a wrong war…”

Opera has always been important to composer Rufus Wainwright, though many know him as the man behind the piano crooning confessional songs.

Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck revolutionized the art form when it premiered in 1925. When Berg saw Georg Büchner’s play Woyzeck, he knew that he wanted to compose an opera based upon it. But an opera based upon this revolutionary expressionist play “demanded a new kind of operatic language as well,” according to The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera. Sir Andrew Davis, music director and principal …

“There are all kinds of ways to play Bach, and that depends on your personality and how you want to deal with Bach’s music.”

Behind every great man is a great woman, so the saying goes. In Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, the women often run the show. How better to learn about these fascinating female characters than from the women behind Lyric Opera of Chicago’s new production of Mozart’s masterwork? I spoke with Barbara Gaines, the stage director, as well as the opera’s leading ladies …

Baritones Alessandro Corbelli and Vito Priante are two of the most sought-after Rossini singers today. They break down the heralded opera composer’s repertoire.

What does opera have to do with the death penalty? Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, came to WFMT, Chicago’s fine arts and classical radio station, to explain.

See which operas Justice Ginsburg chose as her her five favorites during her visit to WFMT.

Finnish soprano and two-time Grammy Award winner Karita Mattila is celebrating her 33rd season as a professional performer. What are the secrets to her enduring success?

“I’ve been working towards this my whole career,” Lopez said excitedly as he observed summer technical rehearsals for Bel Canto.

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

Lyric Opera formalized its commitment to extending their resources to Chicago’s neighborhoods, naming Ana María Martínez and Eric Owens community ambassadors.

Pieces of music that turned the art form into something it hadn’t seen.