by Gregory Moomjy When Opera Philadelphia commissioned Tyshawn Sorey to compose Save the Boys, a 20-minute piece based on a poem by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, they chose John Holiday to sing the premiere. Holiday is an example of that increasingly rare phenomenon in opera, a singer who has achieved mainstream success. His break came on NBC’s The…Continue reading REVIEW: Save the Boys

By Gregory Moomjy Throughout the past year, opera companies worldwide have had to rethink how they interact with their local communities.  One method is to hold concerts which not only showcase talented singers but also allows those artists to talk about their experiences as both performer and as opera lover as well as to illustrate their…Continue reading REVIEW: Mezzo Extravaganza Concert

By Gregory Moomjy I first heard of Viktor Ullmann’s opera The Emperor of Atlantis (Der Kaiser von Atlantis) while reading an Opera News article about James Conlon’s Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices. It is a “resource that encourages greater awareness and more frequent performances of music by composers whose careers and lives were disrupted—or worse—during…Continue reading REVIEW: The Emperor of Atlantis

By Gregory Moomjy Atlanta Opera recently aired its production of Pagliacci, directed by Tomer Zvulun. That opera is most famous for “Vesti la Giuba”, the crying clown’s aria. “Vesti la Giubba” is one of those pieces that everyone knows, but doesn’t necessarily realize they know­, at least by name. Referenced in everything from Hey, Arnold and The Big…Continue reading REVIEW: Pagliacci