Interview: Steven McRae and Vasko Vassilev talk about their Royal Ballet project at the Linbury Theatre
The Royal Ballet opens its 2026/27 Linbury Theatre season on 11 September with The McRae / Vassilev Project, a unique evening of music and dance.
top music & opera
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Interview: Rosalind Plowright looks back on her 50-year career
Rosalind Plowright looks back at her 50-year career with Paul Arrowsmith before a run as Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera at Opera Holland Park from 25 July.
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An unpublished ‘Dixit’ by Donizetti has been discovered in the library of a seminary in Bergamo
An unpublished work by the young Gaetano Donizetti, consisting of four pages, sets to music the text of Psalm 110, Dixit Dominus.
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The secrets of the Stradivari and Guarneri sound
Scientists have identified the chemical treatments that gave stringed instruments by masters such as Stradivari and Guarneri their characteristic rich tone.
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Cecilia Bartoli’s Farinelli tribute in her father’s hometown
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 Prince in Rimini.
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Interview: Baritone Sebastian Catana – never scream or shout
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.
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Riccardo Muti interview: life, death, and the lack of seriousness
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.”
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Jonas Kaufmann on his Verona debut, new album, and love of Italy
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 Italy since childhood.
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Opera at La Scala cancelled for Covid-19
La Scala has been forced to cancel tomorrow’s performance of L’italiana in Algeri after a company member tested positive for Covid-19.
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Jonas Kaufmann: A Picture Journey – a glorious new book celebrates the tenor’s 50th birthday in photos
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 with Kaufmann – a glorious picture book with more than 400 photos, (including one photo by Gramilano, of Kaufmann on bended knee), and many are published for the first time….
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Interview with Anna Netrebko on Tosca at La Scala: kissing, killing, and Kabaivanska
Anna Netrebko opens the new season at La Scala – as each year, on 7 December – as Tosca. It will be her fourth time in what is always a prestigious occasion (Italy’s President and other dignitaries will be present) after heading new productions of Andrea Chénier, Giovanna d’Arco, and Don Giovanni. With the ultra-critical…
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Aged 97, Franco Zeffirelli will stage a new production of Rigoletto
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…
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In conversation with Jakub Józef Orliński
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 in this once rarefied area of the vocal arts.
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Interview with Jonas Kaufmann: opera in the age of #MeToo and why he refused to go to the sauna
Jonas Kaufmann: #MeToo is happening in opera, and not just for the girls! We men are at risk too!
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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….
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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CD review: Diana Damrau in Meyerbeer’s Grand Operas – a diva in her prime
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 voice are shrugged off by a diva in her prime. Meyerbeer was German (Prussian) by birth, French by adoption, and Italian by formation; a true European. Born Jacob Liebmann…
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Traviata opens tonight at La Scala… here’s a sneak peek
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 1990 conducted by Riccardo Muti. It was performed as a preview performance two days ago, with the proceeds going to help Italy’s earthquake victims. Ailyn Perez will be singing tonight’s…
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Anita Rachvelishvili and David Aladashvili cast magic at La Scala
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 with pianist David Aladashvili was a true joint effort, not just musically, but from how they shared the stage. They obviously know each other very well and although Aladashvili, a…
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Maria Callas to Daniela Dessì: study to be good, not famous
The popular Italian gossip magazine Chi has published a series of articles about soprano Daniela Dessì. Her death at 59, just over two months ago, shocked the opera world, and beyond: Chi is not a magazine for opera lovers. It reported part of an interview with Dessì when she recounted her meeting with Maria Callas. Dessì’s…
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In conversation with Luca Pisaroni: back to Milan with his La Scala debut
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 sung in Italy. The performances of Don Giovanni are just before his 42nd birthday. Astonishing: a prophet is not without honour save in his own country. I grew up musically outside…
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Daniela Dessi dies after a short illness, at 59
Italian soprano Daniela Dessi has died after a short battle with cancer of the colon. She was just 59. She possessed one of the most beautiful voices on the opera stage today. Recently she was forced to cancel her performances of Medea at the Macerata Festival, and other summer engagements, which she announced to her fans…
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Young mezzo Lilly Jørstad wins important grant from her ‘homeland’
Lilly Jørstad — the mezzo-soprano who was strangely considered ‘unsuitable’ to continue her studies at the La Scala Academy — has gone on to demonstrate what a bizarre decision that was. She has been called by the La Scala opera house several times to sing the lead role in their production of Cenerentola for children, Rosina (after her…
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Pavarotti’s family tells Trump to stop using Nessun Dorma
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 statement sent to the newspaper of Pavarotti’s hometown, the Gazzetta di Modena, reads: We understand that the aria “Nessun dorma” sung by Luciano Pavarotti is being used as part…
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