While both companies tapped directors who chose unconventional approaches to this repertoire, they followed very different ...

Every so often, when I’m pontificating about opera, in print or in person, a reader or an editor will ask me, “But what exactly is bel canto?” And I’m brought up short. The quickest answer is, “It ...

It's easy for opera fans to toss around the term "bel canto." It's much harder to actually define it. Literally, bel canto means "beautiful singing" in Italian, but it's so open-ended that it's come ...

Bel canto, or “beautiful singing,” can be applied to most operas, but it has come to describe the hundreds of Italian works composed during the first half of the 19th century. Most have languished ...

Who do they think they are, these people who want to teach us our trade? We know it ever so much better than they do. Let composers stick to their méetier and let us do ours! Composers who write out ...

Massachusetts-born Cathy Berberian is not only a singer of note but also a singer of sounds. Her expressive voice, ranging three octaves from contralto to coloratura, enables her to handle every thing ...