In review: Pretty Yende's debut album, A Journey

Review

It's easy to feel as though you're standing beside Yende in the studio, watching her bright smile and thoughtful musicianship at work. Yende has clear love for communicating with her audience, and with these recordings, she's also letting listeners into something that's quite personal.

Teaching in the Arctic: 5 things that one singer learned

Editorial

My work up north has made me a better singer and artist, without question. At the most basic level it's one of the ways I remind myself why art is so, so important, even though trying to be a singer is so difficult. So here are five epiphanies I've had because of my time teaching in some of the most beautiful places on earth.

New recordings: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Review

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat is not a technically a tragedy, though; deaths do not a tragedy make. The opera is based on Oliver Sacks's case study (1985), with a libretto by Sacks, Christopher Rawlence, and Michael Morris, and tells of a neurologist's study of his patient, Dr. P.

Just in: the crowdsourced melody is complete

News

Listening to the voted-upon melody is a pretty fascinating exercise for anyone with an interest in music and in people. It sounds like something you've definitely heard before, and the lyrics are just on the tip of your tongue (something likely by Coldplay).

3 ways to fight boredom at the opera

Editorial

Of course, when boredom sets in, one of the worst places to be is stuck in a dark theatre, made to keep quiet, without the opportunity to hover a mouse over the proscenium to see for how much longer this thing will go on.

In review: The Barber of Seville at ROH

Review

In theory, having a cast of big, hall-filling voices can seem like a pointless exercise (a futile precaution?), when the whole opera is designed to clear the way for easy, flexible, and funny singing. Yet this cast was a complete win from top to bottom; as they each sang their first notes of the evening, we were struck (and satisfied) with how these rich, go-big-or-go-home voices managed everything from dizzying coloratura to cackling comedy.

Practicing spontaneity: be like Hillary & not like Donald

Op-ed

Isn't it possible, though, that you've taken all the fun out of it both for yourself and the audience? If you're running to a plan, there is no room for whimsy or spontaneity, for some little piece of improvisation that might turn a good performance into one which is delightful and memorable.

#FreeTheKnee Part 2: "You have better choices."

How-to

Rather than recap, we decided to use our photoshoot to create a "lookbook" to serve as inspiration to empower the operatic community to make choices that serve your artistry.

Opera in concert: uncluttered or uninteresting?

Editorial

If an opera truly is a great work of drama and music, does that mean it's less likely to translate well without sets or costumes? If the drama and music are wonderfully combined, does an in-concert performance mess up a composer's delicate balance? If a great opera feels like it's going on for days, how much fault lies in our dwindling contemporary attention spans?

Spotlight on: Chelsea Rus

Interview

"Of course I have had moments of doubt (and I have tried to imagine my life as a lawyer), but the bottom line is that I am an addict. I will always itch to sing and perform, and I will never feel like myself doing anything else."