Fred Plotkin

Charlotte Wesley Holloman, who died on July 30, led a remarkable life as an opera singer, voice teacher and member of an historic African-American community on Martha’s Vineyard.

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, the Sandman arrives while you are watching an opera, but there are ways to keep him at bay, writes Fred Plotkin.

In recent years, Opera Australia has taken a “modernize or die” approach to productions, casting and repertory. But while ticket sales have increased, opera is only part of the picture.

Fred Plotkin looks at dell’Arte Opera's August repertory entirely drawn from the writings of Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais.

Blogger Fred Plotkin digs into a new Metropolitan Museum John Singer Sargent exhibit and discovers many of his portraits of notable musicians from the time.

"The Magic Flute" is a bread-and-butter opera that audiences seem glad to return to or buy tickets for if they have never heard it. Fred Plotkin considers its staying power.

Among the two most ubiquitous works in upcoming opera seasons are Tosca and Die Zauberflöte. In the first of a two-part series, Fred Plotkin considers Tosca's popularity.

When opera singers or actors are called on to cook on stage, their job suddenly gets far more complicated – whether it's frying bacon or cleaning a fish.

New York City desperately needs to make real its sense of being the most consequential metropolis in the world, writes Fred Plotkin. This can happen through major arts projects.

three-quarters of the operas at the Met next season will be productions from the past, including Wagner's Tannhäuser. Fred Plotkin looks at the art of the revival.

There's a spontaneity in Italian culture that emphasizes usefulness, durability and beauty, writes Fred Plotkin. There's also fatalism, which underlies Italy's greatest operas.

Gaetano Donizetti, one of the greatest opera composers of all, has his share of haters, discovers Fred Plotkin. He considers the roots of the image problem.

Operavore blogger Fred Plotkin examines the iconic tree imagery throughout the history of Opera.

The New York philanthropist who was a passionate supporter of classical music, opera and the vocal arts dies at 85.

Blogger Fred Plotkin explains how in the current European clash, Germany and Greece may be cast in the roles of Apollo and Dionysus.

Attending four sensational opera performances in less than a week should be satisfaction enough for any music lover. But this city offers so much more, writes Fred Plotkin.

When Fred Plotkin lost his voice recently, he turned to opera professionals, who offered recommendations for nostrums, elixirs and behavioral adaptation.

Two recent films explore how different generations interact and understand each other. As Fred Plotkin writes, opera harbors something that every generation recognizes.

"Summertime opera in New York provides more unusual repertory and performance styles than any world city I can think of," writes Fred Plotkin.

Unlike most of Wagner's works, whose origins we find in his sketches, letters and readings, Tristan seems to have begun rather suddenly in the 1850s. Fred Plotkin asks why.