Opera company directors often speak of a need for fresh theatrical values. But as Fred Plotkin writes, "'fresh values' only work if the director is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about opera."

Operavore Olivia Giovetti looks at some new lieder album releases, contrasted against some plucky opera recordings now available.

Classical concert-going is sometimes criticized as too formal and rigid. But blogger Fred Plotkin believes that more restraint is needed when it comes to one common audience affliction: uninhibited coughing.

To round out its first season away from Lincoln Center, New York City Opera has unveiled Telemann's Orpheus. Blogger Olivia Giovetti traveled to Spanish Harlem to hear the results.

Experiments in Opera, a composer-driven collective, presented its spring series last week. Blogger Olivia Giovetti considers the results, which featured laugh tracks, graphic novels and radio transmitters.

With three musicals currently on Broadway featuring depictions of Jesus, Operavore blogger Olivia Giovetti examines the religious figure's relative absence from the opera stage—for now, at least.

From Wagner to Joyce, Zurich, Switzerland has long welcomed creative types with strong viewpoints, writes Fred Plotkin. It's not because of its vaunted neutrality but its spirit of tolerance.

Gustav Holst may be best-known for his orchestral suite The Planets but he has a host of operas to his name written over the course of his life. Blogger Olivia Giovetti considers the merits of two standouts.

"The preparation of a single operatic role can take months or years as singers learn languages, acting, history, movement and make myriad emotional connections to the roles," writes Fred Plotkin. Here's why.

"The problems of opera in the 21st Century have nothing to do with age and everything to do with maturity," writes Olivia Giovetti, who considers a production called The Armida Project.

Tuesday at 7 pm on Operavore, Jeff Spurgeon talks with composer Kevin Puts about his Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Silent Night. Following the interview, we bring you the Minnesota Opera's complete performance.

This year is the birth centennial of Sir Georg Solti. Operavore blogger Fred Plotkin profiles the famous conductor. 

Olivia Giovetti looks at the connection between opera and the world of anime and manga, in light of a new production of Madama Butterfly that fuses both.

Olivia Giovetti puts the political controversies aside to examine the musical value of Huang Ruo's controversial opera, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen.

As the Metropolitan Opera's Ring comes to an end next week, we’d like to give you a chance to share your thoughts on this massive undertaking. Give us your review in 300 words or less.

Flanders is an essential part of Europe's opera scene, home to the Vlaamse Opera and the Flanders Festival, and the setting itself for a pair of major operas. Fred Plotkin reports on its musical riches.

Performance Lab 115's take on Wagner's Ring Cycle transfers the 16-hour music drama to an '80s wrestling ring. Blogger Olivia Giovetti gives her review.

We all love to talk about the operas that we have seen, but Olivia Giovetti believes it's more fun to talk about the operas we haven't seen. Share your confessions of oversights here!

In light of two new works based on Renaissance texts, blogger Olivia Giovetti wonders how much distance between event and art makes for an effective, historically-based opera.