Most operas hinge on one form of con or another, writes blogger Olivia Giovetti. Among the shadiest are Die Fledermaus, Madama Butterfly, and especially, the Mozart-Daponte trilogy.

In this edition of Opera in Brief, Driscoll explains the dynamic between the main characters in Carmen, and he identifies four memorable interpreters of the fiery gypsy.

Plenty of us know the concert-going routine: an empty seat opens up in a better location and you pounce. But blogger Fred Plotkin believes this is problematic. Here's why.

Poll: Are empty seats yours to take?

Yevgeny Nikitin, the Russian singer who cancelled from the opening of Germany's famed Bayreuth Festival after it was discovered he had a swastika tattoo on his body, has explained his body art.

One year after Amy Winehouse's death, Olivia Giovetti examines the soulful pop star's lasting legacy to the operatic world.

A baritone who was due to sing the lead role in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman at the Bayreuth opera festival withdrew from the event Saturday.

Operavore blogger Olivia Giovetti reviews Pina Bausch's "Orpheus and Eurydice," which fuses opera with dance at the hands of the Paris Opera Ballet as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.

"The greatest sound I heard (apart from the Opera Fairbanks performance of La Bohéme) were the ebullient barks and yelps of perhaps 70 Alaskan Huskies," writes blogger Fred Plotkin from Fairbanks.

A performance that includes nudity can still stir up controversy. But should it? Tell us what you think about nudity in opera and take our polls.

The day of a show is full of decisions for mezzo-soprano Kate Aldrich, important decisions like: Radicchio or porcini mushrooms? With sausage or without?

From Salome to Samson et Delila to Wagner's Rheinmaidens, opera singers are occasionally asked to bare all. "As a general rule," writes blogger Fred Plotkin, "nudity is fine if it is an integral part of the story."

"You probably think silence is not a significant part of opera but I believe that everything in our world and emotional lives has a place in opera, so silence can too," writes Operavore blogger Fred Plotkin.

With summer beach reading season underway, we turn to some of today's top singers and conductors and ask: what’s your favorite book?

Beethoven was never a man of the theater. He struggled to write his first opera against many odds. But Fidelio is worth hearing with fresh ears, writes Midge Woolsey.

The All-Star Game is the baseball equivalent of an opera gala, writes blogger Fred Plotkin. "The greatest practitioners of their craft gather in one place and give audiences pleasure and excitement."

With Bastille Day less than a week off, Operavore blogger Olivia Giovetti looks at the ten greatest French recital recordings.

Rossini was often thought of as a bon vivant who could dash off music with facile ease and then devote more of his time to food, wine and sex. But he was also a serious composer, writes Fred Plotkin.

Lincoln Center Festival is taking a lean approach to several of its dramatic and musical offerings this year, with a one-person play and operas for one or two people. Olivia Giovetti reports.

The American soprano died on Sunday at age 86. "She was a first-rate musician, a magnetic presence on the stage, analytical and thoughtful in rehearsal and fearless in performance," remembers Fred Plotkin.