Top article

All articles

L_corinne-winters_interview_iphigenie-en-aulide_iphigenie-en-tauride_2024b

Interview with Corinne Winters, double Iphigénie at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence

Soprano Corinne Winters' career sounds like a series of challenges, the latest of which is a Gluck double bill at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2024, where she will sing the title role in both Iphigénie en Aulide and Iphigénie en Tauride on the same night with maestra Emmanuelle Haïm and director Dmitri Tcherniakov. After a glorious debut as Katja Kabanova at the Salzburg Festival in 2022, she took over the Janáček character in Geneva,...


L_renee-fleming-interview

Renée Fleming: “I'm happy to see people embracing new music and new works that are relevant”

In 2017, the Marschallin in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera was supposed to be Renée Fleming's last opera role, after a career of countless unforgettable performances. In addition to numerous recordings and concerts - including the art song programme with pianist Evgeny Kissin this summer at the Verbier Festival and the Salzburg Summer Festival -, the soprano diva has not only appeared in musicals (The Light in the Piazza, Carousel), but...


L_camilla_nylund-interview

Camilla Nylund: “Every opera role is like a journey”

An accomplished Strauss performer, especially in the role of Salome, Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund started to extend her Wagner repertoire with Isolde in June 2022 and Brünnhilde this season in Die Walküre and Siegfried at the Operhnaus Zürich. While at the Verbier Festival to sing Marie in a concert version of Berg’s Wozzeck, and before the last instalment of the Ring cycle in Zurich in November, we met with her to find out more about her career...


L_catarina_molder

Meeting with Catarina Molder, artistic director of Lisboa Operafest

In addition of her career of opera singer, Catarina Molder is now heading the major (and only) opera festival in Portugal, and we have met her at the occasion of the third edition of Lisboa Operafest which took place in the gardens of National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon from 19th of august to 10th of september. And as she has many other activities in the world of opera singing, she tells us about...


L_bruno-de-sa-sopraniste-001

Bruno de Sá: “Opera business doesn’t reflect the discussions we’re having in our society”

Don’t call him countertenor! Bruno de Sá’s golden male soprano is becoming one of the most sought-after voices not only in the baroque milieu, but also anywhere soprano lines are required. We met him at the Verbier Festival, where he performed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with conductor Reinhard Goebel and mezzo-soprano Anna Lucia Richter. He spoke about the challenges of finding his own way through the opera milieu since he discovered his singular tessitura with...


L_angela_meade

Angela Meade: “Now I am able to take on some of the heavier Verdi roles”

Soprano Angela Meade is famous for her incredibly powerful interpretations of Italian opera throughout the world on the most prestigious stages. We met her at the Verbier Festival where she was singing Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera… *** Opera Online: Psychologically, Amelia might be one of the most sincere characters in Un ballo in maschera. How do you portray that in your singing? Angela Meade: In terms of technique, it’s not just blasting stuff,...


L_jeanine_debique_interview_marco_borggreve

Interview with Jeanine De Bique for her Alcina role debut at the Opéra national de Paris

Soprano Jeanine De Bique, from Trinidad and Tobago, has built her career on Mozart and Haendel, which has made her one of the reference performers of these composers today. In her recently released first album, Mirrors, she puts into perspective Haendel heroines with another version of who they can be in some other composers’ works of the same period. She was Rodelinda at the Opéra de Lille, Théâtre de Caen and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées...


L_lotte_de_beer__c__philipp-ottendoerfer

Interview with Lotte de Beer, stage director of Aida at the Opéra national de Paris

Lotte de Beer made her highly anticipated Opéra national de Paris debut two weeks ago with an innovative Aida – starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Jonas Kaufmann and Ludovic Tézier – which gathers the ghosts of colonialism. She has encompassed a certain number of opera genres (Falstaff, Puccini’s Il Trittico, Carmen, Rusalka, Mosè in Egitto, Lulu…), has been appointed Director of the Volksoper in Vienna from next September, and will stage Le Nozze di...


L_vasco_mendon_a

Contemporary opera: A conversation with Vasco Mendonça

Vasco Mendonça is one of the rising stars among contemporary composers. In addition to his studies with Klaas de Vries and George Benjamin, he has participated in the Rolex Mentor and Protegé Arts Initiative along with Kaija Saariaho and represented Portugal at UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers. His first piece of musical theatre, Ping, was adapted from a Samuel Beckett monologue and premiered in 2011. The House Taken Over (2013) – based on...


L_golda_schultz__c__gregor_r_hrig

A conversation with Golda Schultz

After singing at the Opernhaus Zürich (La Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro) and Bayerische Staatsoper (Liù in Turandot and a special concert with Thomas Hampson and Kirill Petrenko) in July, soprano Golda Schultz performed in Mahler's Second Symphony for the closing concert of the Verbier Festival, alongside with mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova, conductor Fabio Luisi and the Verbier Festival Orchestra. We met her between two rehearsals in Verbier to talk about her repertoire...


L_jonas-soderman-bohlin-itw

5 Questions to Jonas Söderman Bohlin

Jonas Söderman Bohlin composed the music and co-wrote the libretto of Tristessa, a brand new opera premiered at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm last week. The work is based on The Passion of New Eve, a book written by Angela Carter in the late 70s. It tells the story of Evelyn, an aggressive man who will become a woman against his will through the action of a feminist cult. He worships Tristessa, a Golden Age movie star that will eventually share his destiny. We discussed...


L_helmut-deutsch-interview2

An interview with Helmut Deutsch, pianist and accompanist

For a long time, accompanists, the artists who provide musical accompaniment to singers during recitals, have remained in the shadows (and in anonymity). For several years (or decades), the main role of these musicians has been more recognised, and recitals are increasingly true duets with the singer. Helmut Deutsch, pianist and musicologist, is one of these internationally respected accompanists. He plays on the most prestigious stages, having notably accompanied the baritone Hermann...