Inside I feel 50, outside I feel 70, and my brain believes that I’m eternally young.
But on 21 October the great soprano Virginia Zeani will …
The concert programme includes some of the greatest living conductors. Riccardo Chailly will be on the podium for two evenings of the Symphony Season, Verdi’s …
I want to change my life – I want to go into straight theatre.
Natalie Dessay announced to Examiner.com’s Sean Martinfield.
After the summer Dessay is slated …
Angela Gheorghiu acts the diva, but she doesn’t seem to be one.
Before her appearances in Italy she leaves bold statements in the newspapers – “I don’t feel …
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 …
35 living descendants of Leonardo Da Vinci’s family have been identified. Although Da Vinci didn’t have any children, a project – started in 1973 – …
Cecilia Bartoli’s tribute to the castrati singers – Farinelli e il suo tempo – was a magical moment of music-making with the Les Musiciens du …
Composer Julian Cochran has two phrases in his publicity blurb which leap out of the page. One, tender and intimate, gives a clue to the …
Jonas Kaufmann was 50 on 10 July this year. To celebrate, the esteemed Vienna-based publishing house Verlag für moderne Kunst has produced – in collaboration …
Q&A
in italiano
When did you start singing?
From what I remember I’ve always sung: when I was seven I had emergency surgery for peritonitis and I sang …
One day, when I was finishing the last pages of The Firebird in St Petersburg [in 1910], I had a fleeting vision… I saw in my imagination …
Jonas Kaufmann talks about making his debut in Verona’s Arena at the age of 51, his new album Freudvoll und leidvoll, and his love of …
I’m in love and happy. His name’s Mihai Ciortea and he’s Romanian like me. He’s good-looking, kind and very, very young.
Angela Gheorghiu is talking about …
Q&A
When did you start singing?
I started singing when I was 12/13 years old. I was a tenor then…
Why did you start singing?
I started singing because …
Maria Callas would have been 90 today, yet she died 36 years ago.
Her years at La Scala in Milan, where she also recorded most of …
Joyce DiDonato well and truly conquered La Scala’s audience during her recital last night.
She was greeted by an ovation that took her aback – the …
The 27 year-old partner of the new Sovrintendente at La Scala (Alexander Pereira, 66) has left her first interview with Italy’s Chi magazine. Daniela de Souza …
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, …
Vittorio Grigolo is a firecracker of a man, exploding in all directions, often loudly, causing excitement – and a little disorientation – among those nearby. At least that is …
All the details of the 2016-2017 Opera Season at London’s Royal Opera House:
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ROYAL OPERA 2016-2017 SEASON – IN BRIEF
THE ROYAL OPERA 2016-2017 SEASON
THE …
After nineteen years, Cecilia Bartoli’s return to Milan’s La Scala tonight was long overdue. Daniel Barenboim was the instigator of the event, the opening of …
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 …
Italy’s Classic Voice magazine has published a list of the current maximum fees paid by the Italian opera houses, and, surprisingly – though according to many …
“Variation is not only a noble endeavour or a musical exercise, but also an intellectual tradition and virtuosity of the imagination,”
said Giò Ponti, Italian architect and …
Mirella Freni is eighty, and to celebrate her birthday La Scala threw open its doors to her fans and opera lovers to see the great …
La Scala has been forced to cancel tomorrow’s performance of L’italiana in Algeri after a company member tested positive for Covid-19.
93-year-old Luisa Mandelli, who sixty years ago was the Annina in Luchino Visconti’s La traviata with Maria Callas, was due to perform the same role …
Q&A
When did you start singing?
I can’t ever remember I time where I didn’t sing.
Why did you start singing?
I can’t remember the first “why” but there …
Renata Scotto has never been one to hold her tongue and at 81 she doesn’t intend to start. In a recent interview for Italy’s Il …
Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni will make his house debut at La Scala in 2017 as Leporello. It will be only the second opera he has …
“Listen to me, everyone speak about Callas. But I know Callas. I know Callas before she was Callas.
She was fat and she had this vociaccia …
You shouldn’t reveal a lady’s age, they say, but how can I not say that Edita Gruberova is 68 years-old when she took on the final …
Lilly Jorstad. Note the name. You’ll be hearing it more and more over the next few years. Lilly Jorstad is Rosina in La Scala’s Il …
In an interview with Italy’s Vanity Fair, the always outspoken tenor, Vittorio Grigolo, responded to journalist Sara Faillaci’s question, “Is sex important for you?” with,
My …
Meyerbeer: GRAND OPERA with Diana Damrau
This glorious new album finds Diana Damrau in sparkling, top-notch form. The exacting demands that Meyerbeer makes on the soprano …
Q&A
When did you start singing?
I don’t remember exactly when…
Why did you start singing?
Because it felt good.
Which singers inspired you most when you were young?
ABBA.
Which singer …
Luisa Mandelli, who played Annina in Luchino Visconti’s La traviata at La Scala in 1955, is now 93 years old. Although a small role, she …
The staging of La traviata is the lavish Liliana Cavani production with sets by Dante Ferretti with which Verdi’s masterpiece returned to La Scala in …
An (almost) unseen photo from the archives at Teatro alla Scala which shows an emotional Maria Callas moved to tears by the incredible success of …
Jakub Józef Orliński is the new countertenor name to add to an ever-growing roster of artists who are selling discs and selling out concert halls …
Riccardo Muti interview: on his 80th birthday the conductor opening up: “I’m tired of life, because this is a world that I no longer know.”
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 …
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 …
When Renata Scotto made her début in I vespri siciliani at La Scala to open the theatre’s season on 7 December 1970, one of the …
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 …
It’s not often that the accompanist for a recital is mentioned in the opening paragraph of a review, but Anita Rachvelishvili’s recital at La Scala …
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 …
With last night’s concert in Berlin, Barbra Streisand said auf wiedersehen to Europe forever. In fact, apart from two last concerts in Israel, she is saying …
Michael Feinstein’s book on the Gershwins called, sensibly, “The Gershwins and Me” (Simon & Schuster) was published in October. While he was still working in …
Carlo Fuortes, the new director of Rome Opera, has a difficult path ahead of him. During the first few months of his leadership he must …
The mezzo-soprano Lilly Jørstad, who has just completed a triumphant run of performances as Rosina at La Scala, has been told that she is ‘unsuitable’ …
La Scala’s La bohème has been a constant presence in the theatre’s programming after more than half a century and now edges towards its 240th performance. The …
I’ve been following this project for eight years and I’ve been to St Petersburg many times in train or by ship, because I don’t like …
Anna Netrebko opens the new season at La Scala – as each year, on 7 December – as Tosca. It will be her fourth time …
“Silence – Recording in Progress” reads the sign, as Maria Callas arrives at La Scala to record Il trovatore in 1956. More than any other …
Baritone Sebastian Catana talks about his summer at Verona’s Arena, his debut in Pagliacci, singing in Genoa’s opera house, and on never screaming.
Luciano Pavarotti’s three daughters Lorenza, Cristina and Giuliana, together with his widow, Nicoletta Mantovani, have requested that the Trump campaign stops using the Maestro’s voice.
A …
Ballet Season 2016-2017
Recital and Concert Season 2016-2017
The new season opens with another step along the path of Riccardo Chailly’s Puccini Project, Madama Butterfly, which will be …
Vittorio Grigolo is not normal. While no artist is normal – and some are downright strange – Grigolo is something of an eccentric, both onstage (just …
Jonas Kaufmann triumphed at Milan’s La Scala in his recital last night, with most of the packed house standing to applaud his generous encores.
Although criticisms …
