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.

Strong Women in Opera: Carmen
Strong Women in Opera: Carmen

Since the opera's premiere almost 150 years ago, Carmen has dominated opera stages worldwide. A femme fatale who beguiles every man who meets her, and dare one add, every theatre-goer at that, she has become the poster girl for sexual liberation and the unconditional will to freedom. ‘Free I was born, and free I will die!’ she famously calls out right before she is stabbed to death by her jilted lover.

The detail of the pattern is movement
Photo of Ilaria Lanzino
Understanding Moniuszko

An interview with director Ilaria Lanzino.

Graham Vick
Sir Graham Vick 1953 - 2021
Il trovatore from Rome
Il trovatore: an opera of the night
Attila
Verdi's Attila - The Territory of the Gods

History teaches us that Attila the Hun was a fearsome military leader, a ruthless and organised conqueror, the ‘scourge of God!’ Yet, in this opera, Attila is prey to wild dreams and victim of a priest in a white robe...

Der Schmeid
5 rediscovered operas
The Flying Dutchman goes ashore and comes full circle

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 August 2020, the Klaipėda State Music Theatre staged the very first production of the opera in Lithuania. The project could not have been more ambitious and has been hailed as one of the country’s most celebrated cultural events of the year.

Strong Women in Opera: Manon

Manon’s unique path in life could not be more alien to the strict social expectations placed on the women of her time. Already at the age of sixteen, she breaks free from the sheltered life mapped out for her and flees on her way to the convent with the handsome Chevalier Des Grieux. Despite her genuine love for him, she ends up leaving him for a life of wealth and luxury only to rekindle her relationship with him later.

No happy ending
From seclusion to communion
Weill
The Other Weill