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WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 10 years after it was first imagined as an opera, “Grounded” is ready to take flight. With music by Jeanine Tesori and a libretto adapted by George Brant from his own play, “Grounded” tells the story of an F-16 fighter pilot who becomes pregnant and leaves the service. The opera has its world premiere at the Washington National Opera on Saturday, with performances continuing through Nov. 13. And next fall it will open the season at the Metropolitan Opera, which commissioned the work. “It’s not a story about, Oh it’s really hard to be a woman in a man’s world,” Cremo said.

Persons: Jeanine Tesori, George Brant, Paul Cremo, It’s, “, Millie ”, Jeanine, we’ve, ” Cremo, it’s, That’s, ” Brant, Cremo, he’d, ”, Tesori, Brant, —, Jess, Eric, Michael Mayer, Mimi Lien, ” Lien, Emily D’Angelo, ” D’Angelo, can’t, Daniela Candillari, ” Candillari, ” Critics, WNO Organizations: WASHINGTON, Washington National Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Dynamics Locations: Nevada, Manhattan, Canadian, Eric’s, Wyoming, “, New York

But “The Eras Tour” heralds something new and potentially game-changing in the movie industry. BTS earlier this year released a concert film, with higher ticket prices and limited showtimes. But “The Eras Tour” could be the start of an expansion of what, exactly, a movie theater can be. The movie, directed by Sam Wrench, would be a way for millions more to experience the Eras Tour. “The industry needs it and, frankly, so do consumers.”Meanwhile, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is poised to become the biggest concert film ever in about two days of release.

Persons: — Greg Marcus, they’ve, “ Taylor Swift, ”, Marcus, “, — Swift, Beyoncé, that’s, Swift, Sam Wrench, It's, Scott Swift, Travis Kelce, Adam Aron, Paul Dergarabedian, ” Dergarabedian, Makan Delrahim, Delrahim, ” Delrahim, Justin Bieber, Marcus ’, “ I’m, Jake Coyle Organizations: Marcus, Southern, Advance, AMC Theaters, Hollywood, Netflix, Metropolitan Opera, AMC, Kansas City Chiefs, NFL, Swift, American, Paramount, Department of Justice, “, Justice Department, Woodstock, Twitter Locations: Milwaukee , Wisconsin, Los Angeles, ”

☆ ‘Dead Man Walking’ Review: A Death-Row Drama at the Metropolitan Opera
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( Heidi Waleson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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Persons: Dow Jones, 4d43cb44

NEW YORK (AP) — Sister Helen Prejean remembered when she first spoke with Jake Heggie about adapting her book “Dead Man Walking.”“I don’t know boo-scat about opera,” she told him. It’s established in a lot of these abolitionist countries that there is no death penalty — the government, we don’t kill people for their crimes. The Met and Carnegie Hall plan to present excerpts at Sing Sing on Sept. 28 with DiDonato, Sister Helen as the narrator and inmates as the chorus. There have been 1,575 executions in the U.S. since the Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to be reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Twenty-four states have death penalty laws, 23 do not and three have governor-imposed moratoriums, the center said.

Persons: Helen Prejean, Jake Heggie, ”, “, you’re, Tony, Olivier, Ivo van Hove, Joyce DiDonato, Helen, ” Heggie, it’s, It’s, ” Prejean, Saint Joseph of Medaille, Prejean, Jason Epstein, Knopf Doubleday, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Heggie, Frederica von Stade, Lotfi Mansouri, Terrence McNally, Mansouri, ” McNally, ” “ Sondheim, Stephen Sondheim's, Robbins, McNally, Joe Mantello, Susan Graham, von, ” Joshua Kosman, ” DiDonato, DiDonato, “ I’ve, ” Von Hove, Graham, de, I’ve Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, Knopf, UCLA, UCLA's Center, Art, Cal, San Francisco Opera, Opera House, von Stade, San Francisco Chronicle, New York City Opera, Houston, City Opera, Sing, Illinois Youth Center, Carnegie Hall Locations: New Orleans, New York, New, Madrid, Francisco’s, Ossining , New York, Chicago, U.S

☆ André Bishop to Step Down After Three Decades Running Lincoln Center Theater
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( Michael Paulson | More About Michael Paulson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

On Wednesday, Carole Rothman, the president and artistic director of Second Stage Theater, said that after 45 years she would be leaving that institution, which she co-founded; Second Stage operates the Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway. And Roundabout Theater Company currently has an interim artistic director following the death in April of Todd Haimes, who led that organization for four decades; Roundabout operates three Broadway houses, including the American Airlines, the Stephen Sondheim and Studio 54. Lincoln Center Theater, which is a resident organization at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, has three stages of varying sizes, and has produced a wide variety of work. The company currently has an annual budget of $34.5 million and 55 full-time employees; Bishop received $783,191 in total compensation during fiscal 2022, according to an I.R.S. Lincoln Center Theater’s other Tony-winning productions during Bishop’s tenure include “Carousel,” “The Heiress,” “A Delicate Balance,” “Contact,” “Henry IV,” “Awake and Sing,” “South Pacific,” “War Horse,” “The King and I” and “Oslo.”

Persons: Carole Rothman, Helen Hayes, Todd Haimes, Stephen Sondheim, Bishop, Vivian Beaumont, ”, Tom Stoppard’s, Tony, ” “ Henry IV Organizations: Broadway, Nonprofit, Lincoln Center, Helen Hayes Theater, Roundabout Theater Company, American Airlines, Lincoln Center Theater, Performing Arts, Vivian Beaumont Theater, Radio City Music Hall, Metropolitan Opera Locations: New York, Utopia, “ Oslo

“The idea of the hysterical woman trope really does persist today,” the soprano said ahead of Thursday night’s premiere of Rene Orth’s musical adaptation at Opera Philadelphia. An all-woman creative team was commissioned to develop the work by Opera Philadelphia and Toronto’s Tapestry Opera. “I have a lot to say about women’s rights being taken away and how women are treated,” director Joanna Settle explained. Bryce-Davis views Roosevelt Island quite differently following her immersion in the traumatic story. “My sister lives on Roosevelt Island and so whenever I’m in New York, that’s where I am,” she said.

Persons: — Kiera Duffy, Nellie Bly, Rene Orth’s, “, you’re, ” Siobhan Duffy Gaffney’s, Bly, Joanna Settle, Britney Spears, Orth, ‘ ” Orth, Hannah Moscovitch, Moscovitch, David Devan, Harold Pinter’s, ”, ” Moscovitch, ” Duffy, Bess, Missy Mazzoli’s, Lars von Trier, “ I’m, Susannas, Mozart, Donizetti, Judith Blegen, Kathleen, I’m, Will Liverman, Josiah Blackwell, Raehann Bryce, Davis, Lizzie, Anthony Davis ’, Malcolm X, ” Soprano Laurel Pearl, Ratched, Daniela Candillari, Jeanine Tesori’s, Liverman, ” Liverman, ” Candillari, Andrew Leiberman, Bryce, Roosevelt Organizations: PHILADELPHIA, Opera Philadelphia, New York, Toronto’s, Philadelphia, Metropolitan Opera, Opera, Washington National Opera, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Wilma Theater Locations: New York, Vegas, Roosevelt, that’s

☆ Schubert at the Vast Park Avenue Armory: Intimate, Lonely, Exposed
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Joshua Barone | More About Joshua Barone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But the idea of mounting, say, Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder” didn’t appeal to Guth. “If you have this huge orchestra, it will be the same structure you have at a normal concert,” he said. “So, how to get this very specific situation of not being in the opera house or concert hall? We thought it would be great to have in this huge hall just this lonely singer exposed.”They arrived at the idea of a song recital. “It’s a thrilling space to put anything in, and in a way it’s your responsibility to do justice to it.

Persons: ”, Guth, Schubert, ” Guth, ” Levine, ” —, gesturing, “, I’ve, it’s Organizations: Armory, Metropolitan Opera

☆ Review: This London ‘Ring’ Is on the Met Opera’s Radar
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Zachary Woolfe | More About Zachary Woolfe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two years ago, the Metropolitan Opera went shopping for a new “Ring” in London and came home empty-handed. English National Opera’s first installment of Wagner’s four-part epic of gods and humans, lust and power, was judged a bit too scrappy and bare to transfer to the grand Met. And anyway, the English company was soon reeling from cuts to its government funding, putting the completion of the cycle in jeopardy. The Met would like to bring a “Ring” to New York in four seasons — a blink of an eye given opera’s glacial planning cycles and Wagner’s technical and casting complexities. The story is crystal clear, and its emotional and political stakes are taken seriously, without oversimplification or overstatement.

Persons: Barrie Kosky, “ Das Rheingold, ”, Wagner Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera Locations: London, New York

NEW YORK (AP) — A Ukrainian composer has been commissioned to write an opera about mothers from that country going into Russia to rescue their forcibly detained children. The Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater said Monday that 42-year-old Maxim Kolomiiets will compose the work to a libretto by George Brant, whose “Grounded” with composer Jeanine Tesori premieres at the Washington National Opera on Oct. 28 and travels to the Met in the autumn of 2024. Met general manager Peter Gelb hopes the company can present the new work by 2027 or '28. A piano-vocal score and libretto will be written in the next year or two and a workshop prepared. “It's my hope it will end up as a full-blown opera and hopefully on our stage,” Gelb said.

Persons: Maxim Kolomiiets, George Brant, Jeanine Tesori, Peter Gelb, Vladimir Putin, Maria Lvova, Gelb, Olena, Kolomiiets, Met dramaturg Paul Cremo, ” Gelb, Anna Netrebko, Keri, Lynn Wilson, “ Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, Washington National Opera, Met, Orchestra, Lynn Wilson . Works Locations: Ukrainian, Russia, Ukraine, The Hague, Russian, New York

☆ The Met Commissions an Opera About Abducted Ukrainian Children
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Javier C. Hernández | More About Javier C. Hernández | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Metropolitan Opera announced Monday that it had commissioned a new opera about Russia’s abduction and deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children, the latest action by the company to show support for war-torn Ukraine. The work, which will be written by the Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets, with a libretto by the American playwright George Brant, tells the story of a mother who makes a long and perilous trip to rescue her daughter, who is being held at a camp inside Crimea. While the characters in the opera are fictional, the story is based on real-life accounts by Ukrainian mothers who have described making the harrowing 3,000-mile journey from Ukraine into Russian-occupied territory, and back again, to recover their children from the custody of the Russian authorities. Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said the aim was to “support Ukraine culturally in its fight for freedom.”

Persons: Maxim Kolomiiets, George Brant, Peter Gelb, ” Organizations: Metropolitan Opera Locations: Ukraine, Ukrainian, American, Crimea, Russian

This is a season of transition for two of New York’s most important arts institutions. And Jaap van Zweden, the New York Philharmonic’s music director since 2018, starts his final year in the position with help from Yo-Yo Ma, Steve Reich and Schubert. Grand orchestras like the Chicago Symphony and Staatskapelle Berlin at Carnegie Hall; the Emerson String Quartet’s farewell; and premieres by Kate Soper and Ted Hearne are among the other highlights coming this fall. And Matthew Ozawa’s staging for Detroit Opera aims to be a corrective to stereotypes about Japanese women and culture (Oct. 7-15). DEATH OF CLASSICAL The impresario Andrew Ousley’s bleakly winking concert series, performed in crypts and catacombs, includes the Calidore Quartet, which will present Beethoven’s Op.

Persons: Jake Heggie’s, Malcolm X ”, Florencia, Jaap van Zweden, Ma, Steve Reich, Schubert, Kate Soper, Ted Hearne, Phil Chan, Matthew Ozawa’s, PERELMAN, ”, Mahani Teave, Andrew Ousley’s bleakly, Lowell Liebermann’s, Maxim Lando, Bach’s “ Goldberg, Hanzhi Wang, David Lang’s Pulitzer, “ Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, York, Chicago Symphony, Berlin, Carnegie Hall, Emerson Colonial Theater, Detroit Opera, Trinity Church Wall, Easter Locations: el Amazonas, Boston, American

☆ Renata Scotto, Opera Diva Who Inhabited Roles, Dies at 89
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Jonathan Kandell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Renata Scotto, the firebrand Italian soprano and Metropolitan Opera favorite who was acclaimed for her acting and insights into opera characters as much as for her voice, died on Wednesday in Savona, Italy. At her best, in roles like Puccini’s Cio-Cio San in “Madama Butterfly” and Mimì in “La Bohème,” Verdi’s Violetta in “La Traviata” and Bellini’s “Norma,” Ms. Scotto achieved a dramatic intensity that electrified audiences and elicited the highest praise from her fellow opera stars. “Renata is the closest I have ever worked with a real singing actress,” the tenor Plácido Domingo said in The New York Times Magazine in 1978. “There is an emphasis, a feeling she puts behind every word she interprets.”Vocally, Ms. Scotto could not match the sensuousness of Renata Tebaldi or the astonishing technique and range of Joan Sutherland. But Ms. Scotto’s charisma and stage presence made critics overlook her shortcomings.

Persons: Renata Scotto, Filippo Anselmi, ” Verdi’s Violetta, Bellini’s “ Norma, ” Ms, Scotto, “ Renata, ”, Plácido Domingo, Renata Tebaldi, Joan Sutherland, Harold C, Schonberg Organizations: firebrand, Metropolitan Opera, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, Carnegie Hall Locations: Savona, Italy, “, “ La, The

☆ Robert Gottlieb Didn’t Just Shape Manuscripts. He Shaped Dance, Too.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Alastair Macaulay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The world of letters has been mourning Robert Gottlieb, who died last week at 92, as a reader and editor of qualities that became legendary. The world of dance has been mourning him as well. He neither performed nor choreographed, but he played a major role, often behind the scenes, in fostering American dance. He ran influential works of dance criticism as editor of The New Yorker, and he later became a dance critic himself for The New York Observer. Perhaps less widely known was the key role he played behind the scenes at New York City Ballet, where he served on the board of directors.

Persons: Robert Gottlieb, Alfred A ., Mikhail Baryshnikov, Arlene Croce, Margot Fonteyn, Lincoln Kirstein, Natalia Makarova, Paul Taylor, “, Alfred Knopf, ”, ” Gottlieb —, Bob, —, George Balanchine, Balanchine Organizations: Alfred A . Knopf, Yorker, The New York Observer, New York City Ballet, The, City Center, Ballet Society, City Ballet, Sadler’s, Ballet, Metropolitan Opera House Locations: New

☆ Review: A Composer’s ‘Lear’ Freshens a Shakespeare Evening
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Zachary Woolfe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

With tolling bells, grim chords and an uneasy melody, the opening immediately brings to mind Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov,” another tale of a king gone mad. This first section, “The Divided Kingdom,” shows Aucoin’s talent for creating orchestral textures that are simultaneously granitic and flickering, like fast-shifting storm clouds. Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra, deserves credit for consistently leading this richly gifted composer’s works with both organizations over the past few years. (Aucoin is currently working on an adaptation of Dostoevsky’s “Demons,” planned for the Met.) The Tchaikovsky lacked the passionate opulence that is this score’s reason for being.

Persons: “, “ Boris Godunov, ”, Kurosawa’s, —, Yannick Nézet, Dostoevsky’s, Bernstein, Tchaikovsky Organizations: Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, hiccups Locations: “ Heath, ”

☆ The Art of Being a Flâneur
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Stephanie Rosenbloom | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

I followed the river toward the Uffizi Gallery where I stopped, enchanted by the scene below. It’s “a search for the delectable, delicious, almost gustatory delights of the moment,” as they put it. Other times, an object or architectural detail that piques your interest — a gate, a gargoyle — provides a portal to another time. Stories of vanished ages can be triggered by a single stone, then explored back home through books and websites. Being in a big city among so many strangers can be at turns exhilarating and disturbing.

Persons: Arno, Fred B, Bryant, Joseph Veroff, Puccini’s, Robert K, Merton, Elinor Barber, bento, Amer, plumb, Edgar Allan Poe’s “, Marie Roget, ”, Walter Benjamin, “ Charles Baudelaire Organizations: Uffizi, Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Opera House, Columbia University, Science, Metro, Poet Locations: Firenze, Florence, New York, Tokyo, Japan, Istanbul, Paris

☆ Is It the End of an Era at the Metropolitan Opera?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Zachary Woolfe | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Metropolitan Opera’s 2022-23 season may well have been the end of an era. As a repertory house and the country’s largest performing arts organization, it juggles multiple works at a time. The days of being America’s grand repertory company, of 20-plus titles a year, could be slowly entering the rearview mirror. So it was fitting that, last month, the Met said farewell to one of the shows that typified the era that’s ending: its “Aida” from the 1980s. The production was typical Met: hardly cheap but sturdy and flexible, into which you could toss singers with relatively little rehearsal.

Persons: it’s, Don Carlo, ” Organizations: Met

☆ The Los Angeles Opera, Post-Plácido Domingo
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Adam Nagourney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

It survived the downturn without running a deficit, relying on salary reductions, a handful of layoffs, a $5 million five-year loan against the endowment, and federal aid. Domingo’s downfall stunned Los Angeles and its opera company, which had been so closely identified with the star tenor, who had been singing there since the 1960s and was instrumental in the creation of the company. It is difficult to say precisely whether attendance was affected by the departure of Domingo, given that the coronavirus shutdown followed so soon afterward. For many years his performances had drawn the biggest crowds, and his image was as integral to the company’s marketing as Gustavo Dudamel’s is for its neighbor, the Los Angeles Philharmonic. “It is unmistakably a loss because he’s such a titanic figure in the world,” Koelsch said.

☆ ‘Don Giovanni’ Review: Ivo van Hove’s Grim Mozart at the Met
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Heidi Waleson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Peter Mattei and Adam Plachetka Photo: Karen Almond / Met OperaNew YorkThis final month of the Metropolitan Opera season features two Mozart production premieres with some high-profile debuts. On Friday, director Ivo van Hove and conductor Nathalie Stutzmann bowed with the first one, a blistering “ Don Giovanni .” Directors accustomed to the theater world are often stymied by the demands of opera, but Mr. Van Hove, best known in New York for Broadway productions including the recent dark, video-heavy “West Side Story,” reveled in them, and Ms. Stutzmann, a singer before she turned to conducting (she is currently the music director of the Atlanta Symphony), paced the evening for maximum dramatic effect. (She will also conduct the new “Die Zauberflöte,” directed by Simon McBurney , which opens on May 19.)

☆ Grace Bumbry, Barrier-Shattering Opera Diva, Is Dead at 86
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Alex Williams | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Grace Bumbry, a barrier-shattering mezzo-soprano whose vast vocal range and transcendent stage presence made her a towering figure in opera and one of its first, and biggest, Black stars, died on Sunday in Vienna. She was 86. Her death, following a stroke in October, was confirmed in a statement by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she was long a mainstay, performing more than 200 times over two decades. Growing up in St. Louis in an era of segregation, Ms. Bumbry came of age at a time when African American singers were a rare sight on the opera stage, despite breakthroughs by luminaries like Leontyne Price and Marian Anderson. But with a fierce drive and an outsize charisma, Ms. Bumbry broke out internationally in 1960, at 23, when she sang Amneris in Verdi’s “Aida” at the Paris Opera.

☆ These Opera Singers Throw a Mean Right Hook
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Charles Passy | Photographs Amir Hamja For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In the ever-dramatic world of opera, conflicts of all sorts play out behind the scenes. Deep in the bowels of New York City’s Metropolitan Opera on a recent Saturday afternoon, a fight of a more literal sort broke out: a boxing match with punches aplenty, a few blistering taunts and even an eventual knockout.

☆ A Drone Opera, Brought to You by General Dynamics? A Company Clarifies.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Javier C. Hernández | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the Washington National Opera announced that it would open its coming season with the premiere of “Grounded,” a new opera exploring the psychological toll of drone warfare, its star composer, Jeanine Tesori, got less attention than its listed sponsor: General Dynamics, the military contractor. Anger erupted online, with critics accusing Washington National Opera of serving as a mouthpiece for the defense industry. A think tank that advocates military restraint labeled it a “killer drone opera.” New York magazine gave the opera a “despicable” rating on its Approval Matrix, describing it as “the drone-bombing opera ‘Grounded,’ sponsored by General Dynamics.” RT, a state-owned Russian news outlet, said the work showed the strength of the American military-industrial complex. The creative team behind “Grounded,” an adaptation of an acclaimed Off Broadway play, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, which commissioned the opera, grew disturbed by how the new opera was being portrayed. They worked behind the scenes to push the Washington National Opera to make it clear that General Dynamics, which has been a major sponsor of the opera company since 1997, had nothing to do with the creation of the opera.

☆ How a Classical Music Power Couple Spend Their Sundays
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Tammy La Gorce | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Married for 18 years, Keri-Lynn Wilson and Peter Gelb spend a lot of time apart because of their high-profile careers. Ms. Wilson, 55, is a conductor with gigs all over the world. Mr. Gelb, 69, is the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera. Ms. Wilson, who will conduct, had the idea for the performances after Russia invaded Ukraine last year. SOPHISTICATED AND LUXURIOUS Mr. Gelb: I get up between 6 and 6:30.

☆ Pretty Yende, South African opera star will perform at King Charles' coronation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Gertrude Kitongo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —“Pretty, are you sitting down?” South African soprano Pretty Yende was performing in Vienna last December when she received a call from her manager. She had just been booked for the biggest gig of her life: a performance at the coronation of King Charles III. As one of three soloists at the ceremony, it’s thought that Yende is the first African to be invited to perform solo at a British coronation. The coronation will not be the first time King Charles has watched Yende perform; he saw the soprano sing at the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 75th anniversary gala, held at Windsor Castle in April 2022. Pretty Yende performs in "Lucia Di Lammermoor" at the Bastille Opera House in Paris in October 2016.

☆ The Maestro Wore Blue: Bringing Pizazz to the Pit at the Met
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Javier C. Hernández | Landon Nordeman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Metropolitan Opera’s music director, dressed in a blazing sapphire jacket and trim black pants, stood before a mirror backstage on a recent afternoon and smiled. “Oh my God, it’s so good,” he said, waving his baton. His outfit was modeled on one worn onstage by a band leader in Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production. Could the golden braid that dangled from his right shoulder be fastened, so it did not create a distraction in the pit? Was the jacket comfortable enough to accommodate the sweeping gestures that the music demanded?

☆ Don’t Be Surprised When the Boxers Start Belting Out Opera
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Charles Passy | Photographs Amir Hamja For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

NEW YORK—In the ever-dramatic world of opera, conflicts of all sorts play out behind the scenes. Singers make royal demands of management. Musicians push for better pay. Deep in the bowels of New York City’s Metropolitan Opera on a recent Saturday afternoon, a fight of a more literal sort broke out: a boxing match with punches aplenty, a few blistering taunts and even an eventual knockout.

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