Nestled in the middle of this year's Mostly Mozart Festival, a concert production of Handel's Orlando quietly slips in but guarantees a Baroque bang, writes blogger Olivia Giovetti.

Three weeks after it sparked online controversy, Nonesuch Records has changed the cover art for WTC 9/11, a forthcoming album featuring Steve Reich’s eponymous composition about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

They're getting the band back together. Well, the orchestra. Just four months after the Syracuse Symphony filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, plans are now afoot to revive the defunct orchestra.

Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Wagner's Siegfried and Sir William Walton's The Bear are just a few examples of operas involving grizzly adventures.

For your next road trip, WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti looks at some of the recent releases of opera recordings, including Handel, Rossini, Donizetti, Wagner and some Sciarrino for good measure.

Anyone who attends opera performances regularly at a local opera company develops a relationship with a whole group of people whom he or she may not know personally: The chorus.

Olivia Giovetti counts down the top 15 greatest opera moments in film, from Maria Callas in Philadelphia and Mascagni in Raging Bull to the sounds of Puccini in Fatal Attraction and Moonstruck.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, British soprano Lucy Crowe will make her Lincoln Center debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival. Previous entries in my series of “Unsung Singers” were artists further along in their careers who I feel deserve more recognition. Perhaps in the case of Ms. Crowe “unsung” should suggest that she has not yet performed in places where I could attend. Most of her career thus far has been in the United Kingdom.

Reviewing for WQX-Aria, blogger Olivia Giovetti wonders how the stark simplicity of conductor Iván Fischer's staging correlates with the addictive excesses of Don Giovanni's psyche.

The struggling New York City Opera has accused the head of its musicians’ union of threatening members who choose to take work with the company without a contract in place.

It was only a matter of time. Ravel’s Bolero, the world's longest and most seductive musical crescendo, has been given the flash-mob treatment.

On WQX-Aria, Fred Plotkin considers the operatic potential of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, including whether the character of the bear should have a singing part.

Following in the footsteps of Fiorello LaGuardia, Rudolph Giuliani and David Dinkins, Mayor Michael Bloomberg will conduct the Encores! Orchestra at the re-opening of New York City Center on October 25.

WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti reveals the names of the 2011 Opera News Awards recipients and examines their artistic credentials and pedigree.

The rehearsal process for an opera production is long and complex. Yet many younger of conductors don't dedicate themselves to working with singers properly, writes Fred Plotkin, which will be bad for the future of opera.

WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti investigates whether Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae is a neglected masterwork or a justifiably-overlooked Strauss opera. Read on for her verdict and to view a slideshow from Bard Summerscape's production.

A Conservative Member of Parliament has admitted to taking drugs with violinist Nigel Kennedy and dancing with him at a nightclub in the latest twist in the British phone-hacking scandal.

Reviewing the U.S. premiere of Poul Ruders's new opera, WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti writes, "Those who have seen Lars von Trier’s bleak Dancer in the Dark know that an opera based on the 2000 cult film is not going to be a feel-good night of family fun. However, no amount of gut-wrenching, emotional self-flagellation can prepare even the steeliest soul for Poul Ruders’s Selma Jezokvá."

Tonight, Richard Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae opens at Bard Summerscape. But is it a neglected masterpiece or second-tier Strauss? WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti speaks with the production's star, Meagan Miller.

Giuseppe Verdi understood the operatic potential of the tragedy Macbeth and made it his first work based on Shakespeare. It may be a rare case of an opera improving upon the original play, notes Fred Plotkin on WQX-Aria.