Opera with Opera News

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Flow, flow, bitter tears … Soon the darkness will fall … Weep, Russian people … Savonlinna, just 60km from the border with Russia, is a good place to see Boris Godunov, especially with Mika Kares completing his debut run in the title role at the ⁦@operafestivalfi⁩.

Jan Younghusband, former head of music television at the BBC, has been appointed chair of ⁦@BYOpera⁩ British Youth Opera.

Wishing the soprano Julie Fuchs ⁦@juliefuchssop⁩ a very happy birthday! (Pic: Vfssen)

A very happy birthday to the baritone Christian Gerhaher!

Late expressionist: Alberto Ginastera’s first opera, Don Rodrigo was premiered in Buenos Aires @TeatroColon #OTD in 1964.

What price peace? Richard Strauss’s pacifist opera Friedenstag - Peace Day - was premiered in Munich ⁦@bay_staatsoper⁩⁩ #OTD in 1938.

“Di Stefano is my idol … The most incredible, open voice you could hear. The musicality of Di Stefano is as natural and beautiful as the voice is phenomenal.” Luciano Pavarotti talking in his last interview with this magazine about Giuseppe Di Stefano, who was born #OTD in 1921.

Pathbreaking soprano: Caterina Jarboro - whose Aida at the Hippodrome in New York in 1933 made her the first black woman to join a white company on an American opera stage, 22 years before Marion Anderson’s ⁦@MetOpera⁩ debut - was born in Wilmington NC #OTD in 1898.

Creator of the “other” operatic Macbeth: the distinguished Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch was born in Geneva #OTD in 1880.

The great French baritone Maurice Renaud, who created two Massenet roles and also two by Ernest Reyer, was born in Bordeaux #OTD in 1861.

Cincinnati Opera has announced its 2026 Summer Festival season, including the premiere of Kevin Day and Tifara Brown’s Afrofuturist opera Lalovavi alongside Salome and Carmen, plus Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus and Euridice.

Nessun dorma … That might be because, even a month after midsummer, it’s still light as Turandot ends at Savonlinna ⁦@operafestivalfi⁩.

We’ve gone to press with our September issue, the cover featuring ⁦@PrettyYende⁩ as Semele at Covent Garden ⁦@rbo_org⁩ and articles including a profile of the ⁦@MetOpera⁩’s music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Greatly saddened to hear of the death of dear Maggie Stearns, aged 89 – opera translator, librettist, champion of young talent through the Sullivan Foundation and for more than 35 years the press representative of ⁦@OTSL⁩ Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

After Nixon in China, here comes North Korea in Trump: Republicans are pushing to rename the Kennedy Center’s Opera House after Melania Trump, with the House Appropriations Committee voting 33-25 for the theatre to be renamed as the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.”

Wishing the magnificent mezzo Susan Graham ⁦@MezzoGraham⁩⁩⁩ a very happy 65th birthday!

Io son l'umile ancella del genio creator … Francesco Cilea, the composer of Adriana Lecouvreur, L’arlesiana and four other operas, was born #OTD in 1866.

Born #OTD in 1796, the pre-eminent 19th Swedish composer Franz Berwald is best known for his symphonies. Time to look at his operas?

San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle ⁦@OperaParallele⁩ has announced the appointment of Daniel Harvey as the company’s next Executive Director.

Prophet with honour: one of the keys works of the Finnish opera boom, Joonas Kokkonen’s The Last Temptations celebrates the 50th anniversary of its premiere by returning after a long absence to Savonlinna ⁦@operafestivalfi⁩ in a new production that opened tonight.