Vladimir Stoyanov

The past decade has seen Vladimir Stoyanov building a formidable reputation as one of the finest dramatic baritones in the world. Mark Glanville meets a stylish, engaging singer who joins a distinguished pedigree of great Bulgarians who have excelled in opera

A weekend in Warsaw

It’s more than a decade since Poul Ruders’ opera The Handmaid’s Tale, was unveiled to huge acclaim. This year will see the birth of its successor, alongside international celebration of the composer’s 70th birthday. Andrew Mellor caught up with the composer at his home deep in the Danish countryside

He may be regarded as the epitome of Gallic operatic wit and one of the sharpest satirists of Second Empire France, but Jacques Offenbach was actually from Germany, born 200 years ago in Cologne. Simon Mundy looks forward to a year of musical festivities as the city of his birth prepares to celebrate Offenbach in high-kicking style

As Renée Fleming prepares to appear in the London premiere of the Broadway hit The Light in the Piazza, Benjamin Ivry takes a timely look back over a long tradition of great opera singers who have made the transition into musicals on stage and screen

Travelling to the opera can take you down all sorts of unexpected byways and into exotic backwaters. Opera Now’s team of adventurous correspondents and travel partners introduce some of their favourite haunts from around the world

Overcoming irritations and disappointments during a visit to Germany, Professor Anthony Ogus finds the stimulation he craves in a pair of comic masterpieces, one rare and the other rather more familiar

No La Scala premiere had been this eagerly awaited since Stockhausen’s Donnerstag aus Licht in 1981. Musical luminaries descended on Milan, and Viktor Orbán took time out for a night at the opera. Many feared Fin de partie, the debut opera of Hungarian composer György Kurtág, aged 92, might never emerge, but last November the work was finally unveiled

As the curtain fell on Damiano Michieletto’s new production of Macbeth for the Fenice there were boos among the cheers. The Venetian director is no stranger to controversy and Italians can be conservative when it comes to modern stagings of repertoire favourites

I can never understand why Le nozze di Figaro is considered a comedy. For me it’s about the abuse of power, written for an entitled audience having a laugh at one of their number, secure in the knowledge that none of their servants would ever behave like that. And tomorrow, after the Mad Day, things will be as they always were