Opera Now captures the drama, colour and vitality of one of the most powerful of all the performing arts, showcasing the creative spirit of opera both on stage and behind the scenes. In addition, our 32-year magazine archive is now available to subscribers to our ‘digital’ and ‘print & digital’ packages, allowing you to explore more than 270 issues of opera history.
Opera Now
Celebrating the whole artist
ELEANOR BURKE Director
Bucharest Opera Festival • Romania’s capital hosts a world-class opera festival each June. Peter Quantrill surveys the results from the wide-ranging programme of the 2025 edition
Beatrice Venezi announced as music director at La Fenice
Pavarotti documentary announced
News in Brief
Kathleen O’Mara wins 2025 Queen Sonja Singing Competition
Met Opera partners with Saudi Arabia
International Opera Awards announces shortlist
IN Opera Now SPRING 2026
St Paul’s Opera • Clapham-based St Paul’s Opera produces a full-scale opera each summer forming an annual opera festival
Morality plays • Once united in its ideals, the opera world now finds itself fractured along the same political divides that cut through wider society. From the Met Opera’s $100m deal with Saudi Arabia to on-stage clashes over Palestine at Covent Garden, Andrew Mellor asks whether the art form of resistance is in danger of losing its voice
Who defines culture? • It’s time to reject the outdated divide between high and low art
Prompter • Does opera need normalising?
The making of a modern icon • Seventy years after a teenage Luciano Pavarotti first sang at the Llangollen Eisteddfod, a newly released recording returns us to the moment that sparked a career unlike any other
A universal voice • From Josephine Baker to Cleopatra, Julia Bullock’s artistry defies categorisation. She speaks about her inspirations, her mission to amplify unheard voices and how motherhood has reshaped her career
Pegasus rising • From nurturing teenage talent in Brixton to forging trailblazing partnerships with Glyndebourne, Pegasus Opera Company has spent three decades championing artists of global-majority heritage, transforming lives and reshaping what opera can mean for its community
Walking with Sister Helen • Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking has become the most-performed new opera of the 21st century. On the 25th anniversary of its premiere, Opera Now speaks to the interpreters of Sister Helen Prejean about the transformative power of inhabiting her story
Curtis Opera School • Turning 100 years old in 2024, we explore the provision for young singers at the renowned Philadelphia-based conservatoire
Riding the Great Wave • As Scottish Opera unveils the world premiere of The Great Wave this February, we explore the motivation behind the new work by composer Dai Fujikura and librettist Harry Ross, inspired by Hokusai’s iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Rodolfo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller • After his Covent Garden triumph as Cavaradossi, British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso prepares for his next big role debut in Valencia in Verdi’s rarely heard drama of love, betrayal and revenge
LIVE REVIEWS
Postcard from Salzburg • This year’s Salzburg Festival brought together a mixed bag of operatic experiences to Mozart’s birthplace.
New releases
Opera Now CHOICE
Opera Now • Discover more online at OperaNow.co.uk
Spotlight Oct 2025-Jan 2026 • Performance runs starting in October 2025 and running to January 2026. Listings are in alphabetical order by city within each country heading. M = Matinee performance. Comprehensive Worldwide Listings are available at www.operabase.com
Michael Levine • In a series highlighting the work of...