Contents

FRONT OF HOUSE EDITORIAL Live at last LETTERS Your thoughts and suggestions THE ESSAY Opera and its uneasy relationship with alcohol NEWS & NOTES Grange Park to stage world premiere * Opera Australia announces new Ring dates

A R U T Y U N O V A

: S A S H A

P H OTO

C O V E R

- LIVE REVIEWS Verdi’s Rigoletto in Rome; Ottone in Villa at La Fenice, Venice. Opera Galas from Greek National Opera at the Herodes Atticus in Athens. The launch of Søholm Summer Opera in Denmark - BOOKS New editions in the classic Overture Opera Guides series. Colourful views of Chalet Monet, the beautiful Swiss lakeside home of Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge - RECORDING CD & DVD Reviews Barrie Kosky’s highly entertaining Orpheus in the Underworld from the Komische Opera. A new Cunning Little Vixen from Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO. Plácido Domingo Gala from Verona. Opera Rara: Opera Now’s choice of rare delights, from a catalogue that spans 50 years. solo albums Diana Damrau’s powerful assumption as opera’s Tudor Queens. Ermonela Jaho’s much anticipated debut solo album, Anima Rara, in which the soprano pulls out all the stops OPERA ONLINE Streaming Gilbert & Sullivan courtesy of G&S Opera TV

- SPOTLIGHT A Guide to opera in a postpandemic world

18

12

50

‘Wagner singers are made,

not born’

CONTENTS

LETTER FROM Cambodia, where a new production of The Magic Flute is planned in collaboration with local artists COMPANY FOCUS How Malmö Opera is taking its work to the heart of its community, FROM HUMAN TO DIVINE Down-to-earth diva Nina Stemme transports audiences with her thrilling portryal of heroines THE SECRET OF LONGEVITY A profile of the charming, cosmopolitan tenor Nicolai Gedda ARTIST PROFILE Aigul Akhmetshina – a phenomenal star in the making CALLAS DRESSED IN CANS The astounding art of Nikos Floros, inspired by Maria Callas

Enter our prize

draw to win SALZBURG FESTIVAL: TH ANNIVERSARY

CELEBRATION An outstanding collection of DVDs featuring 10 classic Salzburg Festival productions

from the past 12 years, with casting to die for. Details on page 10

63

LEGENDARY SINGERS Remembering the elegant artistry of French soprano Mady Mesplé CLEAR-EYED COMMANDER A tribute to Covent Garden visionary Sir John Tooley WEXFORD TAKES FLIGHT Wexford’s new artistic director introduces this year’s virtual festival

LET’S GET DIGITAL Guildhall’s innovative double bill of digital operas QUIZ Test your operatic wits WHY I LOVE OPERA Rutbert Reich, founding President of the Birgit Nilsson Foundation

www.operanow.co.uk

Ope

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