As fundraising and architect selection continues apace for the new $300 million Sarasota Performing Arts Center (SPAC), news arrives that the Sarasota Orchestra has just closed on the purchase of a 32-acre site for a new, um, performing arts … » Read

The Washington National Opera’s (WNO) upcoming premiere of Grounded , an opera exploring the psychological toll of drone warfare, has come under fierce criticism because the military contractor General Dynamics was identified in promotional … » Read

Opera in the Ozarks, a summer training program and festival that this year runs June 23 to July 21, has received $34 million from the Walton Family Foundation to build a new, 300-seat theater. Founded in 1950, based in Eureka Springs, AK, OiO has … » Read

Opera lovers heading to Europe next season will have an embarrassment of riches. The following, new productions or European premieres outlined in a recent Times article, is a sampling. The Ring Royal Opera House launches Antonio Pappano’s … » Read

It took Robert Schumann just ten days to write his Ghost Variations ; it took 85 years for them to be published. He might have written them faster still had he not paused, on day nine, to throw his wedding ring, and then himself, into the Rhine. … » Read

Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra has named violinist Rachel Podger to the newly created post of principal guest director as of September 2024, for two years. She will lead three mainstage programs per season, including the … » Read

Until recently, gay characters in plays, motion pictures, novels, and even operas generally did not fare well. They were often the first to perish or to suffer unrequited love in more serious works—e.g., the plays of Tennessee Williams. … » Read

The York Symphony Orchestra (PA) has named Anthony Wise as its new executive director, effective May 7. As the ensemble’s operations and personnel manager since 2021, Wise succeeds Michael Reichman, now the VP of artistic operations and … » Read

Keith Elder is to become the new president and CEO of the Grand Rapids Symphony as of July 1, 2023. He succeeds Mary Tuuk Kuras, who retired in December 2022; Chuck Frayer has been serving as interim.   Elder joins the Grand Rapids ensemble … » Read

LONDON—English National Opera’s conceptualization of Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 was dreamily beautiful to behold. In a work that deals in pain and anguish, that may not necessarily have been a good thing. And yet… … » Read