This has been a summer of epic thunderstorms and steamy heat in Bayreuth, paralleling the controversy surrounding the storied festival’s future. Through four generations of Wagners, and legendary internal and external squabbles, the … » Read

OPERA America has announced the seven inductees of the Class of 2023 into the Opera Hall of Fame. Established in 2020 to mark the 50 th anniversary of Opera America, the Hall of Fame includes artists, administrators, and advocates who have … » Read

In announcing its upcoming season of eight programs performed at four different venues, Santa Barbara chamber music group Camerata Pacifica noted that its new executive director, in the job since June 1, was Ana Papakhian [pictured]. She succeeds … » Read

Wanted! A good home for a custom-built organ that weighs 40 tons and needs 800 square feet with a 50-foot ceiling to operate. Although it is over 100 years old and has been in storage since 1994, the Exposition Organ is in good shape. The city is … » Read

Music lovers in search of a unique concert venue will not do much better than a trip to the Mt. Wilson Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, CA. Founded in 1904 by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the observatory was … » Read

In his most recent column, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross discusses a subject  frequently brought up in this space, and that is the demise of classical music at Lincoln Center. He points out that the complex was built as a home for the … » Read

Although it has remained a bastion of conservatism musically, devoting itself exclusively to the operas of Richard Wagner, productions at the annual Bayreuth  Festival have become increasingly radical and provocative under the management of … » Read

For classical musicians in the U.K., Brexit is proving to be every bit the disaster first predicted when the vote was taken in June of 2016. A new report from the Independent Society of Musicians (ISM), based on interviews with 400 members, finds … » Read

This year’s Glimmerglass Festival, which concludes today, may well be remembered as the summer of Anthony Roth Costanzo. The counter tenor, a member of the Young Artists program in 2008 who has returned three times since to perform, seemed … » Read

Although contemporary opera composers cast a wide net when looking for nontraditional subjects for their works, few if any have turned to the modern labor movement for inspiration. An Aug. 13 workshop performance of excerpts from Delores , a … » Read