At 95, Franco Zeffirelli is returning to the opera house to direct a new production of Rigoletto. The opera will open in September 2020 at the Royal Opera House in Muscat when the Zeffirelli will be 97. The theatre’s director, Umberto Fanni, announced the news from Zeffirelli’s glorious villa on Rome’s via Appia Antica. His […]
*music & opera
Interview with Anna Netrebko on her son, his autism and his abandonment by his father Erwin Schrott
Anna Netrebko, soon after her performances of Andrea Chénier at La Scala, talked about her son, his autism and the abandonment by his father, bass-baritone Erwin Schrott. When I realized that Tiago was a child who was different from the others I was desperate. My best friend’s son had the same problem, though his condition […]
Interview with tenor Lawrence Brownlee on being a black man in America: Cycles of My Being
A new song cycle exploring the realities of life as a black man in America will receive its world premiere performance with Opera Philadelphia tonight, then in Chicago at the DuSable Museum of African American History on 22 February, and the Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on 24 April. Cycles of My Being is commissioned […]
La Scala remembers Dmitri Hvorostovsky who has died at 55
Teatro alla Scala has learnt with profound sorrow of the loss, after a long illness, of the baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Born in Krasnoyarsk in 1962, Hvorostovsky was one of the most esteemed voices and one of the most charismatic interpreters of the last decades in a repertoire ranging from Verdi to Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky. At […]
Stunning photos from La Scala archives celebrate Raina Kabaivanska’s return to the theatre
As part of the Great Voices at La Scala series, Raina Kabaivanska will be interviewed Sabino Lenoci and Giancarlo Landini of Italy’s L’Opera magazine in the theatre at 4pm, Saturday 4 November. After the success of Puccini’s Tabarro in 1959 with Piero Cappuccilli at Vercelli’s Teatro Civico, Kabaivanska started out on her triumphant international career. […]
Top opera singers discuss how they choose and prepare new roles
Opera singing is a high-wire profession. Only the most tone-deaf will not wince when a note is off. It is all too obvious when part of a role lies too high, or too low or, indeed, hovers too much around the centre of the voice, for a particular singer. Audiences reach out in empathy when […]
Vampires are taking over the opera house
When the Royal Swedish Opera announced their “Night of the Vampires” dress rehearsal event on Facebook on 15 September, it became clear that there is a major popular culture interest in vampires. In the invitation people were asked to “come dressed to match you most beautiful inner vampire” – in only a few hours every […]
Maria Callas in newly restored photos from the La Scala archive
“Silence – Recording in Progress” reads the sign, as Maria Callas arrives at La Scala to record Il trovatore in 1956. More than any other theatre, Callas is linked with the great opera house in Milan. She recorded many of the ‘studio’ recordings there when the theatre was closed for the summer break, and gave […]
A box in the Royal Albert Hall goes for £2.76m
Jim Ratcliffe, the 64-year-old ‘British chemical engineer turned financier and industrialist’ – and, according to Forbes, is worth around 10 billion dollars – has bought a box in the Royal Albert Hall for £2.76m. There are 849 years remaining on the lease. That investment doesn’t give him exclusive use however: he will be able to attend […]
Thomas Hampson answers the Gramilano Questionnaire… Singers’ Edition
Q&A When did you start singing? In the crib. Apparently, I was a very vocal baby … no seriously, I already sang as a child. Why did you start singing? I loved tunes and music always made sense to me. Which singer inspired you most when you were young? Frank Sinatra. Which singer do you […]