A new 600-page history of opera is a "bracingly intelligent postmortem" that "inspires a good deal of hope about a supposedly lifeless corpus," writes Marion Lignana Rosenberg.

Today we are tripping the light fantastic with F. Paul Driscoll, Editor-in-Chief of Opera News magazine. He joins WQXR Host Midge Woolsey in the studio to share his three favorite opera dance scenes.

Berenice is suddenly everywhere, writes Fred Plotkin. "In the past week I have encountered her in London, at Carnegie Hall and, Tuesday night she was at the Metropolitan Opera."

As many music lovers prepare for Thanksgiving meals, we've sniffed out the five tastiest feasts that are served up on the opera stage.

A visit to the Handel House Museum, the composer's former home in London, inspires blogger Fred Plotkin to consider his place in the operatic canon. 

"Michelangelo is to art what Beethoven is to music," writes Fred Plotkin. "Beethoven’s music is so life-affirming and we get a sense of the greatness of human potential in his music and in Michelangelo’s art."

When Opera Boston folded early this year and its ambitious plans were scrapped - almost. The planned centerpiece of the company’s 2012 season was reconceived as a concert opera Saturday night.

"Every musical career has an arc, and right now Joyce DiDonato is at the apogee of vocal and artistic splendor," writes Marion Lignana Rosenberg. Tenor Nicholas Phan "seems in thrall to his illustrious forebear Sir Peter Pears."

"Opera in English is particular, and often challenging, because our vowels are not always beautiful and unfriendly consonants tend to intrude," writes Operavore blogger Fred Plotkin.

From the first scene, the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Un Ballo in Maschera was to be a grand night for booing, writes Operavore critic David Patrick Stearns.

Other than Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), how many operas can you name that begin with the letter Z? Consult our Zagat-style guide to find out more.

In an age of texting, Twitter and e-mail, the hand-written letter can seem like a relic of ancient times. But not on the opera stage.

"The idea of optimism becomes difficult in difficult times," writes Fred Plotkin. "And yet it is a renewable tonic, one that is not based on naiveté as much as belief."

The Russian maestro speaks with Fred Plotkin about a range of topics, including concert hall construction in St. Petersburg, Russia, the stigma around Shostakovich and the benefits of constant touring.

Verdi's musical transformation of Shakespeare's Macbeth shines the spotlight so brightly on his ruthless and ambitious wife that perhaps the opera should be renamed in her honor.

After cancelling performances for two days, the Met returned Wednesday with – ironically – a scheduled performance of The Tempest, an opera based on Shakespeare by Thomas Adès.

Women and madness is a primal operatic theme, heard in everything from Monteverdi’s Arianna to Donizetti’s Lucia and on to Régine Saint Laurent, the overwrought title character in Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna.

Spells, potions, black cats, tarot cards and incantations are the stuff of great opera plots. Fred Plotkin considers some of the great scary characters in the opera canon.

"Nobody should be surprised that composer Hans Werner Henze was at the premiere of a new work days before he died on Oct. 27 in Dresden," writes blogger David Patrick Stearns. "He was unstoppable."