Opera Now

Opera Now captures the drama, colour and vitality of one of the most powerful of all the performing arts, showcasing the creative spirit of opera both on stage and behind the scenes. In addition, our 32-year magazine archive is now available to subscribers to our ‘digital’ and ‘print & digital’ packages, allowing you to explore more than 270 issues of opera history.

Opera Now

In praise of the soprano

READERS’ LETTERS

When big things come in small packages

ETO’s new season sees Rimsky-Korsakov debut

New opera film celebrates women and weddings

Rossini festival announces full summer programme

NEXT ISSUE MARCH 2022 • ON SALE 21 FEB

MARIA EWING 1950-2022

Letter From Karlsruhe

Crossing the divide • Bertha Motanach reports on an innovative company that is taking opera to parts of Ireland north and south of the border where few other companies venture, with the help of some ingenious new technology

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Fast moving scenarios • American-Canadian soprano Sondra Radvanovsky has had a rare and unusual career, starting out with Verdi’s lyrical leading ladies before doubling back to master the agile coloratura demands of the bel canto repertoire. This month, she presents her pièce de resistance as Donizetti’s Tudor Queens, showcasing her brilliant virtuosic and dramatic skills across three epic operas

Long live the queen • Known for her poise, vocal beauty and impeccable musical taste, Renata Tebaldi – who was born 100 years ago – will be remembered for her exquisite singing which made her the darling of audiences at the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala in a career that spanned more than three decades

Forget me not • On Renata Tebaldi’s death in December 2004, aged 82, Opera Now correspondent Alan Sievewright wrote a personal tribute to the singer, recalling her charismatic personality and deeply affecting voice, as experienced live on stage

A life on record

What is a ‘Brünnhilde voice’? • Writing in Opera Now, the late John Steane, perhaps the finest of all commentators on the operatic voice, examined the very special qualities of the Heroic Soprano

Wagnerian Heroines • A Century of Great Isoldes and Brünnhildes Berühmte Isolden und Brünnhilden aus einem Jahrhundert (in English and German)

Director’s cut Robert Wilson • A new production by Robert Wilson is always a talking point. His latest opera, Verdi’s Otello, was premiered at the Baden Baden Easter Festival in 2019, conducted by Zubin Mehta with a distinguished cast headed by Stuart Skelton in the title role, Sonya Yoncheva as Desdemona and Vladimir Stoyanov as Iago. This month, the same production heads to the Greek National Opera

Scenes from a never ending tragedy • Blue, an opera about police brutality and its devastating impact on a Black community in America, was premiered at the Glimmerglass Festival in 2019. The work, with music by composer Jeanine Tesori, received the Music Critics Association of North America 2020 Award for Best New Opera. Opera Now spoke to Blue’s librettist and director, Tazewell Thompson

The Valkyrie

The British Fringe

Prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos STRAUSS The Medium MENOTTI

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Götterdämmerung

Eurydice

The Murderess

New releases

Alla Napoletana L’Arpeggiata/Christina Pluhar

Spotlight February – March 2022 • Production Highlights • World Premieres • Exceptional Casts

My Favourite things ALLAN CLAYTON • The British tenor Allan Clayton, 40, is one of the most distinctive singers of his generation, known as...