Aurora Orchestra, fun, & Frankenstein!!

Review

Farnsworth was the perfect surreal emcee-type. With direction by Martin Berry, Farnsworth's extraordinary character was layers thick, at once a gleeful child, enamoured with the music around him and the tales he tells, and an unpredictable psychopath. His vocal gymnastics were paired with delightful virtuosity on some of the toy instruments that Grüber includes in his scoring, like slide whistles and kazoos.

What we've learned by talking with 108 opera singers

Editorial

Since we started Schmopera in late 2013, we have interviewed 108 singers. One hundred and eight! We're proud of that number, and we're by no means done. This site began partly out of our huge admiration for what singers do, and our respect for their skill and thick skins. We thought it might be a good milestone, at roughly 100 conversations with 100 singers, to take stock of what they've told us.

Great ideas: a streamable opera miniseries

News

Remember how we complained about how there's no opera on Netflix? Well, there still isn't. But we've discovered Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser, a project that will hopefully inspire more like it. Composer Lisa Bielawa and librettist Erik Ehn are in the midst of creating Vireo, a series of operatic episodes, two of which are now available to stream online.

Don't miss: Composers (of the) Roundtable

News

"Children express themselves through singing, play-acting, dancing, making up stories, dressing up, and generally being over-the-top - which is pretty much what opera is all about. So a medium which might seem elitist and esoteric to adults comes naturally to children. Kids especially love storytelling, and opera is a great way to tell stories. "

Talking with singers: Paul Appleby

Interview

American tenor Paul Appleby recently finished a run of Belmonte in The Metropolitan Opera's production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and he heads next to the Glyndebourne Festival, to sing the title role in Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict. Paul is one of those thoughtful, curious artists who craves the stage as a recitalist as well as in operatic roles.

4 ways that opera really is life

Editorial

The link between human behavior and art is so strong and so complicated that it's even an understatement to call it a "link" at all; art comes from humans, and humans are part and a product of our environments, natural and otherwise. There's a potential regression from La traviata to single-cell organisms, if you step back far enough.

Aria guides: Mi chiamano Mimì

How-To

Next up in our series of Aria Guides: Mimì's first aria from Puccini's infamous La bohème. The aria is Mimì's response to Rodolfo;s "Che gelida manina", and together, they form one of opera's most amazing moments of "getting to know you". Puccini's scores are rich in detail, and he doesn't leave much to the imagination. But along with your teachers and coaches, we can offer a few starting points as you get to work on this delicious bit of music.

The TFCO kicks off with Tolkien

News

David Day, author of A Tolkien Bestiary, will give a talk and discussion about the fantasy worlds of King Arthur and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Also on the docket are sneak peeks of two operas for young people, coming up later in the TFCO line-up, The Sword in the Schoolyard and The Hobbit, both by Canadian composer Dean Burry (The Brothers Grimm, The Bremen Town Musicians).

Singers: masters of illusions

How-to

There's no faking what opera singers do onstage. It's the result of legitimate hard work, and the staggering skills they show come precisely from not taking shortcuts or band-aid approaches to fixing problems. Real as it is, these artists have their bags of tricks. Singers, please forgive us for outing some of your little secrets...

Talking with singers: Bryan Register

Interview

"Physically, it feels like I'm doing my yoga practice in public, in front of an audience," Register laughs. Singers and yogis alike know how tricky it can be to find a comfortable balance of effort and ease. "I would equate a long, difficult phrase, to holding a difficult pose in yoga. You just have to breathe into it, accept it, you're not going to die."