OPERA NOW CONTENTS

FRONT OF HOUSE

3 EDITORIAL National Opera

7 LETIERS Berlin backlash

9 OPERA NOTES World premiere of Chinese-US eo-production in Boston

A new look for NYCO Recommended viewing from Opera Now's correspondents

FEATURES

13 OPERA FOR NOW London's Barbican Centre presents a series of modern European operas with a distinctive voice and a promising future

16 THE WAO FACTOR West Australian Opera, based in Perth, is taking all the excitement of the art form to 'the remotest city on earth'

19 BRAZIL'S FINEST As Sao Paulo's opera house undergoes a maior restoration in time for its centenary, Karyl Charna Lynn takes stock of opera's illustrious past and rather more turbulent present in Brazil

23 FEASTING ON PARMA The charms of Verdi and vini come together in our visitors' guide

28 PERFORMING VOICE Dogged by illness, few opera singers can have had as many career setbacks as Petra Lang. Mark Glanville discovers where her drive to succeed comes from

32 JOHN STEANE'S MEMOIRS: PART I We begin our serialisation of the operatic memoirs of one of our most venerated writers and a great commentator on the qualities of the human voice

37 CASTING CALL Robert Turnbull concludes his two-part survey by comparing great Wagnerians of the past with with the state of today's talent

43 BASS LINE Polish bass-baritone Vitalij Kowaljow is honing his Wotan for the forthcoming Ring cycle in Los Angeles. He talks Karyl Charna Lynn through his view of the role