Features
Opera is an art form replete with tales. Find your way through narratives, adventures, and biographies. Find out how opera brings many streams of the arts together.
‘A simple piece’ has not become a simple piece at all, but a strongly conceptual and deliberate work, behind which lies an almost mathematical system and many weeks of rehearsal.
The history of music is full of marvels that we are still (re)discovering. This is the story of five such forgotten treasures and the people who helped uncover them.
After 160 years and countless adaptations, The Flying Dutchman finally returned to the shores of the stormy sea in which the idea for the opera first occurred to Wagner.
In this series, we pay homage to the strong women in opera. Now it's Manon's turn for a spot in the limelight.
‘The most important quality of any good comedy is that in the end, it hurts. These people remind us of our own weaknesses.’
The Other Weill
Unique among Broadway composers of the time, Weill insisted on composing his orchestrations himself. ‘As far as I am concerned, I compose for today. Posterity doesn't interest me one bit.’
Our prima donna, Régine Saint Laurent, is a star in free fall. Her life has revolved entirely around opera: all she can and wants is to practice her art.
The Magic Flute is often presented as a fairy tale about finding one’s way through the opposing forces of Good and Evil.
The great Norwegian operatic soprano Kirsten Flagstad continues to inspire the next generation of opera singers from Norway.
Rarely do we stop to reflect that Don Giovanni is in fact a ghost story, complete with a cemetery scene and a return from the dead.
Throughout its over 70 years of existence, AsLiCo stood by its mission and has paved the career of many famous singers such as Carlo Bergonzi, Mirella Freni and more recently Rosa Feola.
The volunteers of this soup kitchen were all members of the community of this parish. There was an interesting relationship between the religious aspect and volunteering.
World Opera Day 2020: Four global concerts. One giant leap for opera. One record-breaking day for OperaVision.
Viktor Ullmann composed his operatic parable in the deprivation and horror of the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
The 2002 staging of Fidelio is an astounding early example of how immersive theatre can free us all.
This 2nd edition celebrates the best of opera in Spain and the central role that opera plays in our society.
Covid fan tutte: Mozart in Helsinki
A Mozart opera as you have never heard it before: sung in Finnish, joyfully irreverent and absolutely topical.
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s staging of Les Indes galantes tells a story of colliding cultures and ultimately a story of us.
'It took a long time before I felt that I had truly discovered the work': director Christof Loy on Euryanthe.
All we hear is her breathing. At the same time, however, her breathing is also an answer to his question, because it means: "Here, in the moment, one lives with every breath.“
We asked Hamish Mackay about Episodes, a digital series of short songs he commissioned in the midst of lockdown.
Following our profile of Mařenka in The Bartered Bride, it is Princess Turandot’s turn for a spot in the limelight!
In Close, two film directors, two choreographers and nine dancers meet on the spectacular Main Stage of the Oslo Opera House.
Elvira’s dream factory
The dramatic composition of I puritani shows us Elvira’s dream factory at work.
The Ice Break: a prophetic opera for our times
Prepare to be unprepared as you immerse in Tippett’s universe.
Death in Venice: the interwoven lives of Britten and Mann
Discreet and controlled Britten proved perfectly fitting to formulate the age-old antinomy between reason and passion.
Turning Voltaire’s Candide, a stinging blast against tyranny and feigned moralising, into toe-wiggling musical theatre is a crazy idea.
The two most influential operas of the 19th century are Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov.
Tolstoy’s War and Peace defies improvement. How could Prokofiev dare to attempt such an impossible task?
A beautiful backstage peek at Chile's Teatro Municipal thanks to this touching and enlightening documentary.
Was there ever a more precocious talent than Mozart? He wrote Il sogno di Scipione when he was 15 years old.
Don Giovanni’s intrinsic ambiguity
Is Don Giovanni comedy or tragedy? This unsettling ambiguity lies at the heart of the opera.
In this series of articles, we will focus on female roles who stand out by virtue of their strong, independent and enterprising character.
Death and the young man
Violanta is Korngold’s second opera, composed at the tender age of 17.
Dramaturg Koen Bollen asks director Alan Lucien Øyen if Rusalka is merely a magical extravaganza or a thoughtful parable about what it is to be human.
Orpha Phelan, director of La Cenerentola at Irish National Opera, explains what makes Rossini’s opera so brilliant.
José Miguel Pérez-Sierra explains his love for Rossini and why The Barber of Seville has stood the test of time.
Ahead of their new production at Garsington Opera, conductor Jac van Steen and director Paul Curran share their thoughts on Smetana’s popular opera.
Ivan Acher’s new opera Sternenhoch is based on an unconventional Czech novel. But who exactly was its author?
In the 161 years since the revised version of Moniuszko’s first opera, it has never left the Polish repertoire.
Giuseppe Verdi was the leading Italian composer of his time, and his operas remain extremely popular.
The first of Mozart’s three collaborations with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte is one of the best-loved operas of all time.
Contemporary opera is flourishing in our present era, embracing new narratives, timely topics and innovative formats.
Congratulations to a number of our partners on their success at the 2019 International Opera Awards announced on 29 April at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London.
National Opera Studio creation - arias & a documentary, produced almost entirely in quarantine, exploring creative processes, isolation and digital connections.
What do opera companies with the status of 'national institutions' say about the people they represent?
Here is everything you need to know about Puccini's masterpiece before watching the full performance.
Once upon a time, in a dark cave, there lived a bad troll... Enter the magic world of Andersen with the fairy tale of the Snow Queen!
#OperaPassion Day
A live celebration of opera’s raw emotive power.
