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.

For the love of singing

READERS’ LETTERS

Italian opera houses join to help save Verdi’s Villa for the nation

Royal Opera ends three decades of sponsorship from BP

In memoriam: Jürgen Flimm

Voices for Change • Historically opera has a bad track record when it comes to inclusivity and its treatment of minorities. Benjamin Ivry looks forward to a new study that aims to tackle such issues head-on

Artista international

Another fine mess… • The recent funding cuts from Arts Council England threaten not only English National Opera but the entire fragile ecology of opera provision across Britain. Simon Mundy spells out the consequences

Flying free • Aigul Akhmetshina is a major young talent whose sensuous, captivating mezzo voice and compelling stage presence is proving to be a huge attraction in major opera houses around the world

Five steps to singing success

Mastering the singer’s art • Singing is a mysterious art, a combination of a god-given gift and the mastery of a complex set of technical skills, brought together with a dash of chutzpah and a fair dose of blood, sweat and tears. Behind every great singer is a great teacher, and in this special feature on young artists, Opera Now asked some of the leading lights of a new generation of artists along with their teachers and coaches to explore the chemistry that makes this vital relationship catch fire

Finding the perfect fit • L’Académie de l’ Opéra National de Paris

A comfort zone for learning

A stamp of approval

The Pupil

The Mentor • Stephen Wadsworth Director of the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies at Juilliard School and Head of Dramatic Studies at the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program

The Pupil

The Mentor

The Teacher

The Pupil

The Pupil

The Teacher

Faming was • With late nights, a lot of time away from home and unpredictable work patterns, a career in opera puts enormous pressures on family life, especially for parents of young children and particularly for women who tend to bear the brunt of the challenges. SWAP ’ra is here to help

Travels with my pera glasses • A trip down memory lane saw Professor Ogus touring northern Germany, where works by Rimsky-Korsakov and Dmitri Shostokovich prevailed following a staging of Verdi that failed to deliver and an overwrought approach to Mozart…

GIORDANO Fedora

Boris Godunov

La Forza del destino

Ernani

Irish National Opera

Barbican Centre, London

Die Fledermaus

Les Contes D’Hoffmann

After glow • A three -CD set of recordings that Jessye Norman rejected for release during her lifetime has been released with the legendary soprano’s posthumous blessing. Benjamin Ivry discovers some fascinating new dimensions to a stellar career

New releases

Oper Now CHOICE

Spotlight March-April 2023

My Favourite Things • Wasfi Kani CBE is a dynamic and highly entrepreneurial cultural impresario who has made a huge impact on the British opera scene. In 1998, she founded Grange Park Opera, which has grown into one of the UK’s leading opera festivals. Since 2017, the company has been based in West Horsley Place, the Queen Anne mansion that belonged to the late scholar and TV personality Bamber Gascoigne, where Kani has built a new £10m opera house, the Theatre in the...