In Verona, Italy, massive opera productions take place every summer in a Roman coliseum. In San Francisco and Washington, DC, operas will be simulcast on ballpark jumbotrons. Can stadiums and ballparks bring opera back to its populist roots?

Ann Patchett burst onto the literary scene in 2001 with her fourth novel, the award-winning Bel Canto. In a special podcast, she tells host Midge Woolsey about her latest novel, her musical inspirations and having drinks with Renée Fleming.

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.

Since 2004, Tora Yi has been the owner of Ido Sushi in the West Village. His restaurant features a traditional Japanese menu but it’s the sideline that elicits stares and puzzled remarks from passersby.

On WQX-Aria, blogger Fred Plotkin decries the use of microphones in opera. "I don’t care how good the 'sound design' is, the mediation of electronics between voice and audience inevitably flattens and cheapens the performance," he writes.

In polite society, we have been told, it is not nice to talk about religion, politics or sex. This would mean that opera lovers are not polite company, which is wrong. We just happen to be more open to topics that are central to the human experience than people who are confined to talking about the weather.

When I was asked to contribute to a blog about opera for WQXR.org I accepted without hesitation. Many people who know me say that I live on a metaphorical Planet Opera, which I take as a compliment even though opera is only part -- a wonderful part -- of the fabric of my life. I know that anyone who embraces opera, which is to say loves opera rather than merely “appreciates” it, lives more richly and is usually more in touch with the human experience. This is because opera addresses, on many levels, the core issues and questions of who we are.

One of the major operatic events of the international calendar opens this week in London: Anna Nicole, the opera by composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Richard Thomas. Would you see it if it came to New York?

With the opening of John Adams's Nixon in China at the Metropolitan Opera this week, New York audiences will finally have a chance to hear the work that spawned a flurry of operas based on real-life events -- the so-called “CNN operas."

Gender-bending has long been a staple in pop culture and fashion. On “Diva, Divo,” mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato shows its prevalence on the opera stage. Check out our Album of the Week and get a free download.

Marina Poplavskaya was an unknown in the U.S. just five years ago. But this season she has the unusual distinction of headlining back-to-back Metropolitan Opera premieres of major new Verdi productions. She tells us how she prepared.

As the opera fanatic on your list knows, the Metropolitan Opera loves anniversaries and it loves its James Levine. This year the company marked his 40th year working at the Met with James Levine: Celebrating 40 Years at the Met, two boxed sets, one on video and another on audio drawn from radio and TV transmissions, each with 11 live operas. 

There’s no mystery about why Elīna Garanča is a rising opera star. But whether playing a fiery gypsy or a "trouser role," the mezzo-soprano has her own way of researching characters.

Shirley Verrett, the American opera singer known for her powerful, dark voice, exceptional range and riveting characterizations, died Friday.

One of today's most respected Puccini sopranos, Patricia Racette tells Midge Woolsey about her ecclectic career that spans verismo to cabaret. And she reveals why she identifies with "complicated, conflicted" characters.