Latest Opera News

New opera production adds something new to Luis Buñuel's 'The Exterminating Angel': cannibalism

Mar. 14, 2024 14:39 PM EDT

Calixto Bieito added an element to “The Exterminating Angel” that Luis Buñuel and Thomas Adès left out: cannibalism. Adès’ opera, based on Buñuel’s 1962 film “El ángel exterminador,” details psychologically blocked dinner guests who can’t depart a mansion and the...

La Scala performers and workers call for Gaza cease-fire before opera-ballet set in conflict

Mar. 10, 2024 15:24 PM EDT

MILAN (AP) — Just before an opera-ballet set in conflict, La Scala’s principal dancer Roberto Bolle, general manager Dominique Meyer and other members of the dance company, orchestra and stage crew faced the audience as the curtain rose. It revealed a banner with the imperative: “Cease...

Afrofuturist opera `Lalovavi' to premiere in Cincinnati on Juneteenth 2025

Feb. 22, 2024 15:57 PM EST

The Cincinnati Opera will present an Afrofuturist-themed production next year that commemorates the Juneteenth holiday and would mark the first of three commissions from the company to all-Black creative teams. “Lalovavi" is composed by Kevin Day with Tifara Brown writing the...

Verdi’s opera 'Forza del Destino' gets its first new production at the Met in nearly 30 years

Feb. 22, 2024 08:17 AM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — When the Metropolitan Opera last revived Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino,” a reviewer bemoaned its “four soul-numbing hours of ludicrous plot twists.” That’s harsh. But there’s no question the libretto of this musically glorious,...

Financially struggling Met Opera's 18 productions next season matches the fewest since 1980-81

Feb. 21, 2024 14:54 PM EST

The financially struggling Metropolitan Opera will present 18 productions in 2024-25, matching the current season and pandemic-curtailed 2019-20 for the fewest since 14 in strike-shortened 1980-81. Met general manager Peter Gelb kept up his pivot to contemporary works, starting the...

LA Opera scraps planned world premiere of Mason Bates' 'Kavalier and Clay' adaptation over finances

Jan. 29, 2024 16:22 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — The Los Angeles Opera has scrapped plans for the world premiere of Mason Bates' “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” this fall because of finances. The work will instead open with a student cast at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. Bates'...

Opera superfan's estate donates $215,000 to foundation for singers

Jan. 08, 2024 12:18 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — The estate of Lois Kirschenbaum, an opera fanatic known for collecting autographs backstage at the Metropolitan Opera for more than a half-century, has donated $215,000 to the George and Nora London Foundation for Singers. “Lois’s love and dedication to opera...