I have always relished the feeling of being “backstage.” There’s a crazy lovely thing that happens when you get to feel a sort of ownership for a huge historical building or site, be it a concert hall, a cathedral or a museum. When I was a little kid, I spent the summers at Tanglewood in the Berkshires, where my parents taught. This was a Tanglewood more or less unchanged from the days of Koussevitzky, where Bernstein and Copland were to be found eating in the cafeteria, and where Seiji Ozawa could be found zooming around in his sports car.

Experiencing the Met's radio broadcasts is no longer an ephemeral experience, writes blogger Fred Plotkin on WQX-Aria. The Met, along with Sony, has begun to take some jewels out of the vault, including recordings of Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner operas.

WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti takes a look at Opera Feroce's upcoming production of Amor & Psyche, operatic pasticcio and entrepreneurial singers.

At the moment, there are few top Italian female singers known to international audiences, writes Fred Plotkin on WQX-Aria. But two getting fresh attention and are well worth hearing: Anna Caterina Antonacci and Daniela Barcellona.

As the news of death of the great bass Giorgio Tozzi (January 8, 1923-May 30, 2011) has begun to spread, a few people have asked, “Where in Italy was he from?” The answer was Chicago, writes Fred Plotkin on WQX-Aria.

With the Guggenheim's "Great Upheaval" drawing to a close, WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti examines opera during World War I in the second half of this two-part series.

As the Guggenheim Museum's illuminating exhibition, "The Great Upheaval," comes to a close, WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti considers the parallels between opera and art circa World War I in a two-part series.

Want to go out of town or keep it local? Do you crave fully-staged Strauss or Mozart with a single piano and seven singers? Olivia Giovetti breaks it all down in this guide to New York-area summer opera performances.

There are the famous, evergreen festivals including Bayreuth, Edinburgh, Glyndebourne, Salzburg, and Verona. All are great and deserve to be attended at least once. But there is so much more, in big cities and small towns.

"There are still great voices today, but they might reside in bodies that look more like those of the average person rather than an operatic Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt," writes blogger Fred Plotkin. "I have seen many pretty or handsome singers who bore me silly."

With her inaugural season at the helm of the Glimmerglass Festival less than six weeks away, director Francesca Zambello has been appointed artistic adviser to the Washington National Opera.

With the new and operatic Yves Saint-Laurent documentary now in cinemas, WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti turns a sartorial eye to the bridge between high fashion and opera.

In my post about operatic Genoa, I made passing reference to the grattacielo (skyscraper) there that contained a 1000-seat cinema where opera was presented from after World War II until 1992. Among the many artists who sang there were Renata Tebaldi and Maria Callas. This building is usually called the first skyscraper in Italy, a nation that still has very few buildings that merit this designation. This one, and the Pirelli Tower in Milan, are my favorites.

All of this talk of rapture and apocalypse has reminded blogger Fred Plotkin of what is known in German opera as the Schlussszene: a great dramatic closing scene that only a word with three consecutive S's could convey. Do you have a favorite closing scene in opera?

With NYCO's future outside of Lincoln Center a sure thing, WQX-Aria blogger Olivia Giovetti considers the immediate reaction to the late-breaking news.

On WQX-Aria, Olivia Giovetti recalls her introduction to opera following Tuesday night's celebration of Joan Sutherland at the Town Hall.

Gustav Mahler, who died a century ago today, was a New Yorker for the last three years of his life, and during this time he led several productions at the Met. On WQX-Aria, Fred Plotkin reflects on the composer's life, and why it may be perfect operatic fodder.

With the first-ever Gilbert and Sullivan sing-along taking place at Symphony Space and Caramoor kicking off its summer season with H.M.S. Pinafore, Naomi Lewin and Midge Woolsey talk about the timeless charm of the dynamic operetta duo.

After a weekend of new works at the VOX festival and a reaffirmation of their edgy artistic vision, could New York City Opera solve its problems with a move to a new venue and a commitment to the new and experimental? Blogger Olivia Giovetti considers this on WQX-Aria.

There has not been a new Mozart opera at the Met since 1984. But as WQX-Aria blogger Fred Plotkin explains, the composer's nearly forgotten gem, Mitridate, Re di Ponto, is finally getting some renewed consideration.