Harry Bicket

Artist of the month

Harry Bicket is well known to opera goers for his stylish, revelatory interpretations of Baroque operas, persuading modern orchestras to take a historically informed approach to their playing. This year, as music director of Santa Fe Opera, he branches out into Bernstein, bringing his broader musical horizons into focus. Heidi Waleson met the Anglo-American conductor in New York during the recent run of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera

Robert Thicknesse meets Walter Sutcliffe who has joined Northern Ireland Opera as its new artistic director, holding the reins of an ambitious young company and bursting with ideas as he takes it to its next level of development in challenging times

Natalie Murray Beale’s appointment as creative director of Independent Opera has ushered in a new era for a company that has been unflagging in its support for emerging artists in the field of opera. She tells Opera Now how she sets out to identify distinctive and exciting talent which is worth long-term investment

The passion for Pavarotti has finally reached the shores of Oman on the Arabian peninsula, where the stunning Royal Opera House Muscat recently hosted an exhibition commemorating the great tenor’s life and career. Claire Jackson travelled to Oman to meet Pavarotti’s widow, Nicoletta Manotovani, who is taking the legendary tenor’s extraordinary operatic legacy to areas of the world which he was unable to reach during his lifetime

Last year saw the inauguration of Opera Philadelphia’s Festival O, exploring new approaches to performing and commissioning opera in unexpected formats and unusual venues across the city. Karyl Charna Lynn takes stock of the first event, and looks ahead to how it will evolve in its second instalment at the start of next season

One of the great stars of opera and lieder in the latter half of the 20th century, Christa Ludwig leaves a vast legacy of recordings and recollections of a gorgeous mezzo-soprano voice that could turn its hand to any style of singing, from the tragic darkness of Strauss’s Elektra to the lightest Viennese operetta