Editor’s Note Front of House
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EDITORIAL Phone +44 (0)20 7333 1701 Email opera.now@markallengroup.com Editor-in-Chief Ashutosh Khandekar Associate Editor Helena Matheopoulos Consultant Editor Keith Clarke Contributing Editors Francis Muzzu, Tom Sutcliffe Robert Thicknesse (UK), Francis Carlin (France), James Imam (Italy), Karyl Charna Lynn (USA), Andrew Mellor (Scandinavia), Ken Smith (Far East) Design Louise Wood ADVERTISING Phone +44 (0)20 7333 1716 Title Manager Craig Dacey, craig.dacey@markallengroup.com Group Sales Manager Alisdair Ashman alisdair.ashman@markallengroup.com Advertising Production Daniela DiPadova, +44 (0)20 7333 1727, daniela.dipadova@markallengroup.com SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BACK ISSUES Phone UK 0800 137201 Overseas +44(0)1722 716997 Email subscriptions@markallengroup.com Subscriptions Manager Bethany Foy UK Subscription Rate £70 PUBLISHING Phone +44(0)20 7738 5454 Publishing Director Owen Mortimer Director of Marketing & Digital Strategy Luca Da Re Marketing Manager John Barnett Group Institutional Sales Manager Jas Atwal Production Director Richard Hamshere Circulation Director Sally Boettcher Managing Director Paul Geoghegan Chief Executive O€ cer Ben Allen Chairman Mark Allen
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All systems are go
Is it all over? As the 20/21 season comes to an end, there’s a collective cry in the air of ‘good riddance’ to the past year from opera companies and audiences alike. The pandemic has taken a terrible toll on the entire season. Its continuing virulence into the first half of 2021 took many in the opera world by surprise. Judging from the plethora of press releases announcing new seasons that have pinged into my email box in recent weeks, confidence is returning with a vengeance. This time last year, new seasons were being anticipated with a sense of hope and fingers crossed. There was no roadmap out of the pandemic. Vaccines were still at the testing stage and the measures needed to curtail the spread of the virus in theatres had yet to be fully understood and implemented. We are in a very different position now. The successful roll-out of summer festivals in the UK in May and June have shown that the appetite for live opera is, if anything, stronger than ever. Meanwhile, major productions such as the new Peter Grimes at the Teatro Real in Madrid (with a cast led by the superb tenor Allan Clayton) and the Salzburg Whitsun Festival’s tour de force production of Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (starring Cecilia Bartoli) have proved that even under pandemic restrictions, performances featuring superb international casts can be pulled off with considerable success.
The next step that will make all the difference to opera will be to get opera-loving audiences moving again: the travel industry is still suffering and many people are putting their usual visits to summer festivals or booking a place on an opera tour on hold until there is more ease and certainty around travel.
Here at Opera Now, we too are preparing for a return to a more ‘normal’ world. From September, we will publish monthly again. If the new seasons deliver their promise, then the amount of operatic activity around the world in the months ahead will be stupendous and should keep us all busy. Added to the mix of live performances, the legacies of the pandemic, such as streaming, virtual productions and alternative performances spaces, are here to stay. Given opera’s enterprising and imaginative response to months of crisis, it may be that Covid has left the art form stronger and more resilient than ever.
Ashutosh Khandekar
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Opera Now captures the drama, colour and vitality of one of the most powerful of all the performing arts. In our print and digital issues, we showcase the creative spirit of opera, both on stage and behind the scenes, with profiles of opera companies, singers, directors and designers. Our in-depth features reflect how diverse cultural elements have influenced opera, including travel, history, literature, art, architecture, politics and philosophy. Our lively reviews and opinion pages are a platform for writers and critics drawn from all over the world. Our aim is to inspire our opera-loving readers to broaden their knowledge and deepen their passion for this fascinating and stimulating artform.
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