Biographies
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Deon van der Walt
Deon van der Walt was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1958 and studied singing at the University of Stellenbosch. He made his debut as Jaquino in Fidelio at the Kapstady Opera house even before graduating and numerous scholarships and awards allowed him to …
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Fernando Valero
Spanish tenor Fernando Valero was born in Écija in the province of Sevilla, on 6 December 1856. He first studied law, but then took to singing under Martin Salazar and the legendary tenor Enrico Tamberlick. He made his debut as Lorenzo at the Teatro Real …
Articles, Interviews & Memories
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Beniamino Gigli: The Record of Prejudice
During the controversial period in his career, in the years leading up to and immediately following World War II, Beniamino Gigli was, above all, the most international of Italian singers, in both his personal orientation and in his arrangement of his itineraries. In effect, Gigli …
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Sitting down with Angel Joy Blue
Soprano Angel Joy Blue is singing the role of the young slave girl Liù in the San Diego Opera production of Turandot on February 24 and 27, and March 2 and 4, 2018. Lise Lindstrom sings the title role of Turandot and Carl Tanner sings …
Focus Feature
Le Postillon de Lonjumeau
The history of opera is littered with shipwrecks which sail with great success when first launched only to sink into oblivion for one reason or another. Some are lost forever and some are re-floated only to sail out briefly before returning to dry-dock. It seems that ‘Le Postillon de Lonjumeau’ has become something of a pleasure boat which is only given the odd cruise in its home waters of France, kept afloat almost solely by its famous tenor aria of the same title. It is an aria full of verve, humour, melody requiring great vocal skill.
Recent blog posts
Best Recordings of La Traviata
La Traviata was, according to Operabase, the most performed opera worldwide in the 2015-2016 and 2013-2014 seasons. Why is it so popular? Well, there are …
Best Recording of Die tote Stadt
There are certain operas that I adore that simply don’t have a common place in the repertory. Often times with these operas there is only …
Selected Blog posts
Does nudity have a place in opera?
(Note: none of the videos in this article include full nudity, but they come close. Parental discretion advised.) The Metropolitan Opera was recently the subject …
Regietheater
Last week, I went to Parsifal at the Royal Opera House. The singing was sublime. The same could not be said for the staging. Although there were …
Book review: The Opera Fanatic
It’s always strange to find yourself described in a book you’re reading. For me (and, I suspect, many devoted opera fans), Claudio E. Benzecry’s The Opera …
Opera cookbooks
I promise they do feed me at Cambridge! My current focus on food is not indicative of chronic hunger. Now that I’ve made that disclaimer, …
Racism and sexism in operas
Racism and sexism are huge issues in every sphere of society, and they affect the opera world in many ways. Racial and gender considerations in …
What happens after the opera?
The opera social media world has been buzzing in the past few weeks about Anthony Tommasini’s New York Times article “Liberating the Librettos”, in which he speculates …
