In 2012, I commented on a performance at the Salzburg Festival—a performance of Handel’s opera Tamerlano, in concert. I wrote, “There was a mezzo-soprano, previously unknown to me: Marianne Crebassa, ...

>>> The upcoming Blackhawk Chamber Music Festival presented a unique challenge to artistic director Jeffrey Cohan. The repertoire had to be chosen around the vocal range of mezzo soprano Vivien ...

Christa Ludwig, who poured a lustrous voice into dramatically taut performances of opera roles — especially those of Mozart, Strauss and Wagner — and intimately rendered art songs as one of the ...

If you’re going to have friends over for dinner, Sasha Cooke says, you have to give them a meal with balance. “You can’t give them all meat and potatoes, nonstop,” she said. “You’ve got to have ...

Pittsburgh Festival Opera has announced the winners of the 10th Annual Mildred Miller International Vocal Competition, Mezzo-Soprano Edition. This is the 10th year of the event that celebrated the ...

Seeing as the Minnesota Orchestra’s music director, Thomas Søndergård, established much of his European conducting reputation in the opera house, it’s appropriate that he should open the orchestra’s ...

Call it a confluence of divas. Before it devolved into a pejorative for someone who can be arrogant and difficult, diva was the Latin word for “goddess” and customarily was applied to a magnificent ...

In her decades-long career, star Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca has seen the ups and downs of the music industry first hand. But the business has changed drastically with the rise of social media ...

A Metropolitan Opera mainstay, she sang some 680 performances of more than 50 roles there, often in starry casts. She made her Broadway debut at 82. By Anthony Tommasini Rosalind Elias, an American ...

She was a beloved interpreter of Strauss, Mozart and Wagner roles, but equally admired for her rendition of art songs. By Daniel J. Wakin Christa Ludwig, who poured a lustrous voice into dramatically ...