Opera

The Bucharest National Opera (ONB) will broadcast online, on Friday, on the National Culture Day, six shows signed by Romanian composers within the project titled #DordeONB, from the Opera online series.

The finishing touches were being put on a glitzy show at the Sydney Opera House on Jan. 2, as the venue prepared to host an opera crowd for the first time since March.

"The Merry Widow" will open on Jan. 5 to masked audiences up to 75 percent capacity, in a sign of hope for a performing arts industry crippled by the pandemic, artistic director Lyndon Terracini told AFP.

2020 was undeniably the hardest one for culture and arts in Turkey, as it was all over the world, due to COVID-19 pandemic. The State Theaters (DT), State Opera and Ballet (DOB), the choirs affiliated with the Culture and Tourism Ministry, regional orchestras and movie theaters had to pull the plug on all their events in March when the virus was first seen in Turkey.

Soprano Lisette Oropesa was to be the first American to sing a title role in the gala season opener at La Scala since Maria Callas in the 1950s. Then Italy's virus cases surged.

An outbreak in both La Scala's chorus and its orchestra forced the country's premier opera house to cancel for the first time one of the top events on Europe's cultural calendar.

The Metropolitan Opera canceled its fall 2020 performances on June 1 and postponed several new productions to future seasons as the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc with New York's cultural life.

Igor Stravinsky's opera 'The Rake's Progress' will be staged by the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet (IDOB) throughout March. The opera, which was first staged in the world in 1951, will be at the Kadıköy Municipality Süreyya Opera Stage on March 13, 14, 17, 18, 20 and 21.

It seems hard to believe, but Monica Bellucci - who has spent four decades in the limelight as a model and actress - says she suffers from stage fight.    

Spain's culture ministry on Feb. 26 cancelled a performance by opera star Placido Domingo, a day after he accepted "full responsibility" in a sexual harassment scandal. 

Göbeklitepe, the world's oldest known temple, is the focus of a new upcoming opera directed by Murat Karahan, the tenor of the Turkish State Opera and Ballet. (Photos:Alamy)

The Bucharest-hosted George Enescu International Music Festival has been nominated for the first time for an International Opera Award 2020 to reflect the increasingly sustained promotion of opera in the festival's events.