Opera is famously a grand synthesis of all the arts, or at least so its devotees would have you believe. It combines orchestral and vocal music, theater, dance, visual arts, literature and, ...

Despite the initial stir caused by this new experiment, “opera was, in fact, a slow-burn rise to success, rather than an instant hit,” Tim Carter, distinguished emeritus professor of music at the ...

African-American opera performers Shirley Verrett and George Shirley remember a black opera pioneer. Robert McFerrin was the first black male soloist to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. That was in ...

In her incisive book “Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement,” the musicologist Naomi André frames black opera—opera that foregrounds black experiences, voices, and bodies—as a kind of shadow culture ...

When Asa Irwin was growing up in Seattle, she knew talented black singers who performed in churches and sang in competitions. But “you never actually saw people of color performing in the major venues ...

This month in Tulsa, Okla., opera singer Lucia Lucas made her U.S. debut. She also made history. At the Tulsa Opera, Lucas sang the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni. Mozart's character is a ...

Phyllis Hernden Brissenden left the largest gift the organization has received. A beloved St. Louis philanthropist and life board member at the Opera Theater left the company a "transformative" gift ...