Opera Now

Opera Now captures the drama, colour and vitality of one of the most powerful of all the performing arts, showcasing the creative spirit of opera both on stage and behind the scenes. In addition, our 32-year magazine archive is now available to subscribers to our ‘digital’ and ‘print & digital’ packages, allowing you to explore more than 270 issues of opera history.

Opera Now

The bold power of small-scale opera

JAMES SCHOUTEN Tenor

NEWS & NOTES • Netia Jones appointed Associate Director of the Royal Opera

Lise Davidsen announces pregnancy

News in Brief

Colin Matthews opera to open 2025 Aldeburgh Festival

Streetwise Opera launches emergency appeal

Hermann Bäumer to become Music Director of the Prague State Opera

NATALYA ROMANIW

Barefoot Opera • A Sussex-based company doing vital outreach work with community at its centre

NEWS & NOTES This year in opera history • 300 years ago… Handel’s opera Rodelinda was first performed at The King’s Theatre, Haymarket, London on 13 February 1725

What I would like to change… • We ask opera lovers what they would change about the industry, if they could

Opera’s online champions • Cheryl Porter – opera singer and vocal coach

Have your say • Readers tell us about an opera production that has stayed with them

The Sound Booth • Beyond Hansel and Gretel: developing opera for children is a question of removing gatekeeping and improving access

Prompter • The Opera Trip: how a Danish TV series is changing the game when it comes to talking about opera

National Opera Studio • In a new series looking at worldwide young artist programmes, we explore the provision at the National Opera Studio as it moves into a new management structure and continues to champion creative risk-taking

Keepers of the flame • Opera Rara’s Artist Ambassadors Ermonela Jaho and Michael Spyres take a break from recording Donizetti songs to discuss their passion for exploring rare operatic repertoire

An outside eye • German opera director Pınar Karabulut speaks about the contrasts between opera and theatre, sexism and directing Bellini

Postcard from Vienna • Celebrating a city with a vibrant opera scene, Mark Pullinger sends a quarterly postcard from his travels

Lines of life • The German baritone shares the artistic and personal impact of his friendship with the 99-year-old Hungarian composer György Kurtág, which has lead to a new album of his music soon to be released on Alpha Classics

The European dreamer • Following a string of operatic successes, composer Philip Venables brings his largest-scale opera yet to Amsterdam’s Opera Forward Festival

Strauss – Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten • David Butt Philip explores his relationship to the role of Strauss’s Emperor ahead of starring in a new production at Deutsche Oper Berlin

Finding freedom • From their debut at Staatsoper Hamburg to breaking barriers at Classical Pride, soprano Ella Taylor is a new force in the opera world. Taylor discusses their journey as an artist from the Royal Opera to challenging traditional gender expectations on and off stage

Opera Now LIVE REVIEWS

Saimir Pirgu Albania’s operatic icon • Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu reflects on his remarkable operatic journey, discusses the future for the next generation of musicians and the importance of preserving the voice

New releases

Opera Now CHOICE

Spotlight Spring 2025 Production Highlights • World Premieres • Exceptional Casts • Performance runs starting in February and running to March 2025. Listings are in alphabetical order by city within each country heading. M = Matinee performance. Comprehensive Worldwide Listings are...