Janai Brugger will soon make her debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago in the role of Liù in Puccini’s Turandot. Janai will be playing the role for the five performances in January 2018 (Maria Agresta portrayed Liù for the December performances). The Chicago-native has been described as “gifted with a Read more…
Riccardo Massi loves action and opera. This stuntman-gone-opera singer is currently finishing up a very successful run in LA Opera’s Carmen. We feel fortunate that he was willing to take time out of his busy schedule to answer a few of our questions. I was amazed to read that you Read more…
Last month I had the unique privilege of sitting down with Minnesota Opera’s new Assistant Conductor, Jonathan Brandani. Jonathan is a young, affable, and wonderfully delightful Italian conductor who has had a relationship with Minnesota Opera since the 2014/2015 season, when he worked with the company on Puccini’s La fanciulla Read more…
Italian baritone Tito Gobbi was a prolific and versatile performer and stage director from his debut in 1935 to his retirement in 1979. He appeared in over 25 film versions of operas and played Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca almost 1,000 times. In fact, he played Scarpia opposite Maria Callas‘ Tosca Read more…
The quintessential diva, Maria Callas was renowned not just for her beautiful singing, but also for her superb acting. The short-lived Greek-American star was born in New York City in 1923. She studied music in Greece and first emerged on the operatic stage in Italy. Callas is widely regarded as one of the great interpreters of the 19th-century bel canto technique, singing virtually all the major Donizetti, Bellini, and Rossini soprano roles. A recording of her singing the title role of Puccini’s Tosca in 1952 is still considered the gold standard. In fact, the recording itself has a Wikipedia page.
“Nearly thirty years after her death, she’s still the definition of the diva as artist—and still one of classical music’s best-selling vocalists.” -Opera News, 2006
Maria Callas is “the Bible of opera.” -Leonard Bernstein
