Kristine Opolais

Kristine Opolais’ world is one of raw emotions. Her no-holds-barred approach to the characters she portrays in the opera house reflects a life governed by an all-consuming passion for everything she does, on stage and off. Warwick Thompson meets Opera Now’s Guest Editor, one of the great actor-singers of her generation, a glamorous, rebellious individual whose glittering career has been punctuated by some very bleak moments

Our guest editor Kristine Opolais introduces the six Puccini roles that form the foundation stones of her career as an opera singer, exploring personality types from femme fatale to tragic victim. Meanwhile, Benjamin Ivry puts these roles into the context of legendary voices and historic performances from the time of Puccini to the present day

Working with Sir Richard Eyre on Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at the Met was one of high points of my opera-singing career. Richard recognised my abilities as an actress and really brought them to the fore. His own long experience in the theatre was invaluable for me to explore a truly complex role role that requires you to be vulnerable. I wanted to ask Richard about working with singers instead of actors, and how he explores the relationship between music and drama on the operatic stage – Kristine Opolais

George Jahn reports from the inaugural International Haydn Competition for Lied and Aria, celebrating the contribution of brothers Josef and Michael Haydn to the art of singing and rescuing the composers’ rich legacy of vocal music from unwarranted neglect

One of the most dynamic music festivals in Spain begins this month, celebrating European cultural traditions with a sense of daring and quirky individuality that is typical of the Costa Brava. Opera Now introduces this summer’s Castell de Peralada Festival

As she prepares to sing the title role in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa at Glyndebourne this summer, the distinguished British soprano Emma Bell talks to Opera Now about a career that has led seamlessly from Handel to Wagner, thanks to careful stewardship of her voice along with a generous dose of gut instinct

Once regarded as something of a wild child, Norwegian director Stefan Herheim has matured into one of the most thoughtful and challenging opera producers on the European circuit. He talks to Andrew Mellor about his reasons for taking the job as boss of the Theater an der Wien, where he hopes to develop a distinctive house style

An essay in the programme for Holland Park’s Così points out that the opera ‘can be presented in a hundred ways from farce to near-tragedy’. This production veered dangerously close to the former

This ‘concert staging’ of Strauss’s decadent shocker, still capable of making audiences squirm well over a century since it was first performed, showed once again that opera can have a tremendous impact without the need for complicated sets or lavish costumes. Opera North’s cast, orchestra and creative team focused their resources to communicate the psychological and dramatic import of Salome through its powerful and atmospheric score