Bel Canto

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS to Return to San Francisco Opera
by Stephi Wild - Aug 27, 2026

San Francisco Opera will present Thea Musgrave's MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS in a new co-production with English National Opera, starring Heidi Stober in the title role.

Buffalo Opera Unlimited to Perform NOTES ON VIARDOT and CINDERELLA
by Stephi Wild - Aug 21, 2026

Buffalo Opera Unlimited has announced it will open its 2026–2027 season with the U.S. East Coast premiere of composer Michael Ching's Notes on Viardot, presented alongside Pauline Viardot's chamber opera Cendrillon (Cinderella).

ARMIDA, DON QUICHOTTE & IL PIRATA Set for Washington Concert Opera 40th Season
by A.A. Cristi - Aug 19, 2026

Washington Concert Opera will mark its 40th season with Haydn's ARMIDA, Massenet's DON QUICHOTTE, and Bellini's IL PIRATA, performed at Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC under Artistic Director Antony Walker.

Video: MARIA STUARDA Trailer Released Ahead of Met Opera Run
by Michael Major - Aug 19, 2026

The Met Opera shared a trailer for Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, starring Lisette Oropesa as Mary, Queen of Scots, in a production led by conductor Enrique Mazzola. Watch the video!

Interview: Director Josh Shaw of Donizetti's Comedic Opera IL FORTUNATO INGANNO
by Shari Barrett - Aug 14, 2026

I decided to speak with POP’s Artistic Director Josh Shaw about the discovery and selection of the long-long opera, selecting the venue, his selected cast, and why he thinks audiences will flock to enjoy a totally Italian experience with tickets starting at $15, with table seating that includes wine and pasta!

Review: BBC PROMS: ROSSINI'S 'STABAT MATER', Royal Albert Hall
by Aliya Al-Hassan - Aug 8, 2026

There was a distinctly Italian air to the Proms for Rossini's 'Stabat Mater'. Exciting Italian-Turkish conductor Nil Venditti paired Rossini's choral masterpiece with Ottorino Respighi's instrumental 'Vetrate di chiesa' or 'Church Windows' and all four soloists for Rossini's work were Italian. It made for a captivating evening, full of emotion and musical prowess.

ELIJAH ROCK: MEMORIES UNLEASHED to Play New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara
by Stephi Wild - Aug 5, 2026

Ensemble Theatre Company will present ELIJAH ROCK: MEMORIES UNLEASHED, a one-night concert of song and story featuring music from the Great American Songbook, jazz, and blues.

Piedmont Opera to Reveal Casts for 50th Anniversary Season
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Aug 4, 2026

Piedmont Opera revealed the casts and creative teams for its milestone anniversary season, featuring Renée Fleming and North Carolina premieres of works by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer.

Review: L'ELISIR D'AMORE at Union Avenue Opera
by Steve Callahan - Jul 26, 2026

This charming and quite wonderful production is perhaps the most perfect offering in the company’s splendid thirty-two year history.

THE DANGERS OF TOBACCO to Open Theater 86's New West 39th Street Home
by A.A. Cristi - Jul 22, 2026

Theater 86 will stage a reimagined version of Chekhov's THE DANGERS OF TOBACCO at its new Garment District home, expanding the classic monologue with live opera and violin, directed by Aleksey Burago.

Review: DON GIOVANNI a Bel Canto Opera? Crutchfield’s Teatro Nuovo Proves It
by Richard Sasanow - Jul 19, 2026

To “IL” or not to “IL”—that is the question. According to the program at the other night’s performance by Will Crutchfield’s Teatro Nuovo (TN) of Mozart’s great opera about Don Juan, it’s IL DON GIOVANNI, rather than simply the familiar DON GIOVANNI. That’s as it was called by its librettist (the composer’s great collaborator, Lorenzo da Ponte) and the portrayer of the eponymous anti-hero (baritone Manuel Garcia Sr.) on its first visit to New York 200 years ago, when Italian opera arrived here in New York for the first time.

Review: Teatro Nuovo Does It Again with Smashing TURCO IN ITALIA
by Richard Sasanow - Jul 16, 2026

While the US celebrates its 250th anniversary (with not much to cheer about), those bel canto specialists under Will Crutchfield at Teatro Nuovo are reveling in the 200th year since Italian opera (or at least opera in Italian) came to this country. And not a moment too soon.

Music at Kohl Mansion Receives Chamber Music America's 2026 Community Impact Award
by A.A. Cristi - Jul 7, 2026

Music at Kohl Mansion and Executive Director Patricia Kristof Moy have been named Chamber Music America's 2026 Community Impact/Presenter of the Year.

Donizetti’s Comic Masterpiece DON PASQUALE Brings Wit, Romance, and Bel Canto Brilliance to Theatro São Pedro
by Claudio Erlichman - Jul 6, 2026

Donizetti’s Don Pasquale returns to the stage at Theatro São Pedro as part of the theater’s 2026 lyric season, with performances on July 10, 12, 15, 17, and 18. Conducted by Ira Levin and directed by Lívia Sabag, the production brings new life to one of the finest examples of Italian comic opera. Premiered in 1843, Don Pasquale combines sparkling humor, lyrical beauty, and dazzling bel canto writing in the story of an aging bachelor whose marriage plans are hilariously undone by a pair of young lovers. A cornerstone of the operatic repertoire, the work remains a showcase of Donizetti’s melodic genius, theatrical wit, and unforgettable characters.

Review: I PURITANI, Royal Ballet And Opera
by Franco Milazzo - Jul 2, 2026

Thirty-four years is a long time to leave an opera in the attic, and I puritani has spent most of that period gathering dust for good reason. Bel canto — that Parisian tradition of vocal style over dramatic substance producing works that, to many, are all fur coat and no knickers — has never quite recovered its mass audience since the Sutherland-Callas generation retired, and Bellini's last opera, which substitutes plot for vocal spectacle with a candour that even its admirers find trying, is not the obvious place to start rebuilding one. That Richard Jones has now properly turned his attention to it for the first time in his long career suggests either a late conversion to the cause or, more plausibly, that he has simply run out of twentieth-century miseries to reframe as grand opera.

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR to Open at Berkshire Opera Festival This Summer
by A.A. Cristi - Jun 25, 2026

Berkshire Opera Festival announced a new production of Donizetti's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, conducted by Brian Garman and directed by Jonathon Loy, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater Adds 8 New Board Trustees
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Jun 24, 2026

Milwaukee Repertory Theater revealed eight new Board Trustees, including former TCG President Ben Cameron and Medical College of Wisconsin President Dr. Shekar Kurpad, to serve three-year terms guiding the theater's next chapter.

Rice University’s Shepherd School Of Music Reveals 2026–27 Season
by Stephi Wild - Jun 18, 2026

Rice University's Shepherd School of Music announced its 2026-27 season, featuring orchestral, chamber, opera, and faculty recital programming, including a Texas premiere of Matthew Aucoin's Eurydice and multiple World Premieres.

Obituary: Operatic Superman Speight Jenkins
by Erica Miner - Jun 16, 2026

Opera enthusiasts, and devotees of Seattle Opera in particular, have been grieving the recent loss of a titan whose memory never will be absent from the minds of people who knew and loved him. Having succeeded Seattle Opera founder Glynn Ross in 1983 as the company’s second general director, Jenkins held the position for an unprecedented 31 years, from 1983 to 2014.

NO TENORS ALLOWED Summer Concert Series to Launch Opera Orlando's 2026-27 Season
by Stephi Wild - Jun 10, 2026

Opera Orlando will present NO TENORS ALLOWED, a summer concert series featuring sopranos Nola Richardson, Yeawon Jun, and Johanna Will across three consecutive Sunday performances at Dr. Phillips Center.