Where is contemporary opera? | Claire Jackson

Opinion
Monday, June 26, 2023
| Opera Now

‘It’s perplexing to see that the Royal Opera House's 2023-24 season doesn’t feature a single contemporary work on the main stage’

'Although it requires elite performers, French Baroque opera is for all' - Laurence Cummings

Opinion
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
| Opera Now

Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music Laurence Cummings looks back on the history of French Baroque opera and considers why it is so neglected in the UK

Is it time to put the brakes on our intellectual superiority when talking about opera? | Andrew Mellor

Opinion
Friday, July 21, 2023
| Opera Now

Without tangible support, I fear that opera will truly wither | Harry Hyman

Opinion
Thursday, October 26, 2023
| Opera Now

In 2012 entrepreneur Harry Hyman set up the International Opera Awards with the aim of celebrating the art form and providing financial support to those in the profession. This year, more than ever, the awards provide a vital moment for celebration in the context of great adversity

'Week-in-week-out, I see examples of the ensemble system working brilliantly and failing miserably' | Opinion

Opinion
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
| Opera Now

How do you solve a problem like ensemble system?

Lila Palmer: ‘We do not have to choose between innovation and excellence – and we must not’

Opinion
Thursday, April 4, 2024
| Opera Now

The librettist Lila Palmer on setting the right direction for the development of opera in the 21st century

The importance of making legendary opera roles you own

Opinion
Friday, October 11, 2024
| Opera Now

Certain repertoire has the weight of history on its shoulders, but we should remember that previous singers were only interpreters

The Opera Trip: 'Opera is treated as something as ridiculous as it is wondrous and essential'

Opinion
Thursday, February 6, 2025
| Opera Now

The Opera Trip: how a Danish TV series is changing the game when it comes to talking about opera

'If we want people of all backgrounds to engage with opera, it needs to happen in places fully accessible by public transport' | Prompter – Andrew Mellor

Opinion
Wednesday, August 23, 2023
| Opera Now

Life beyond the country house – one summer weekend in the broadsheets crystallises the stark crossroads facing British opera

Queer inheritance, politics and opera – writing 'Bermondsey, 1983'

Opinion
Tuesday, September 5, 2023
| Opera Now

Homophobia surrounded the 1983 Bermondsey by-election. Robert Reid Allan's true-story opera looks at this landmark in queer history and questions how far we have still to go

If Taylor Swift was an opera composer…

Opinion
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
| Opera Now

Exploring the singer’s parallels with Puccini and why the opera stage should utilise up-and-coming songwriters

Excellence and relevance in opera are not mutually exclusive | Andrew Mellor opinion

Opinion
Monday, July 15, 2024
| Opera Now

The traditional operatic canon can still profoundly speak to us today

'I’m part of a growing trend of singers who are carving their own niche in the industry' | Melinda Hughes on injury, comedy and loneliness in opera

Opinion
Monday, November 4, 2024
| Opera Now

Melinda Hughes shares the journey from spinal injury to beginning her work as a successful operatic comedian

‘It's the end of the world as we know it... and I feel fine!': Ben Woodward on life amidst a fringe Ring Cycle

Opinion
Monday, January 20, 2025
| Opera Now

Ben Woodward writes honestly about the chaos, exhaustion and all-encompassing emotions of putting together Regents Opera's Ring cycle this February

Conservatoires need cultural change to fix their misconduct crisis | Leah Broad

Opinion
Thursday, October 19, 2023
| Opera Now

Scrapping one-to-one tuition might be an easy solution, but it’s not the right solution

Just how boring are modern piano recitals?

Opinion
Thursday, May 25, 2023
| International Piano

Piano recitals are boring. At least, some are. Charivari peruses concert programmes from another age and finds himself wishing that modern pianists were as willing to entertain

A financial cliff-edge: saving Streetwise Opera

Opinion
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
| Opera Now

A opera company working in frontline homelessness settings, Martin Constantine and Rachael Williams from Streetwise Opera ask how we can move beyond short-term emergency measures for funding social impact organisations

'In Europe, the industry treats "contemporary opera" as a problem' | Bill Bankes-Jones

Opinion
Tuesday, August 29, 2023
| Opera Now

Contemporary opera company Tête à Tête's Artistic Director on the future of new opera

Has opera had enough grey concrete?

Opinion
Thursday, April 4, 2024
| Opera Now

Why on earth am I being made to watch yet another operatic story told within grey concrete walls and under arid strip lighting?

Claire Jackson: 'There are times when fairness is not enough – and equity must prevail over equality'

Opinion
Thursday, February 27, 2025
| Opera Now

'Sometimes, positive discrimination exists as a conscious policy. Like others, I have had my doubts about the fairness of such decisions'

Should I be concerned about the widespread ignorance of classical music?

Opinion
Thursday, June 1, 2023
| International Piano

In the wider world, why is ignorance bliss when it comes to classical music, wonders a despairing Charivari

Folk won’t stop worrying about what to wear for opera, until we all stop talking about it | Opinion

Opinion
Monday, November 27, 2023
| Opera Now

'It’s due partly to the class trappings that still linger around opera, partly to media representation of it and partly to the general aura that we, the opera crowd, tend to emit.'

'Within the wider international opera community togetherness is lacking and that puts the art form even more at risk' - Harry Hyman | opinion

Opinion
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
| Opera Now

The International Opera Awards founder and entrepreneur argues the need for togetherness when campaigning for funding in the arts

'The essence of storytelling is about more than training' Tom Guthrie on Lewisham Creative Chorus

Opinion
Monday, July 15, 2024
| Opera Now

Founder of Lewisham Creative Chorus brings forward the power of storytelling through opera, no matter your background

If Manchester is to work, ENO needs to forget about London

Opinion
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
| Opera Now

Am I rejoicing about the announcement from ENO that it will ‘move’ to Manchester? Yes and no...