Fred Plotkin

Operavore blogger Fred Plotkin rates the Met's recent new productions. The good: Madame Butterfly, Falstaff, Parsifal. Not so good: "Concept" productions.

"What’s wrong with the Metropolitan Opera?" is a question blogger Fred Plotkin is asked with troubling frequency. He considers why it has come to this point.

"There are times, throughout the career of an opera singer, when they need to be told that they are not ready for a role, not right for a role, or should consider retiring a role," writes Fred Plotkin.

Bass-baritone Eric Owens recently gave a masterclass at Juilliard, in which he worked with young singers on the nuances of the art. Blogger Fred Plotkin gives his account of the class.

Golf has a passionate following among many opera singers, from Matthew Polenzani and Bryn Terfel to Kiri Te Kanawa and Karita Mattila. Operavore's Fred Plotkin considers the links.

German playwright Bertolt Brecht asked his audience to react more with reason than emotion. But as Fred Plotkin writes, his writings made for some stirring operas.

Chicago has historically been derided on the coasts as the Second City lacking in cultural heft. But Fred Plotkin finds there's much to enjoy here, including its singer-rich opera company.

Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese is the subject of a current exhibition at London’s National Gallery. Fred Plotkin considers why he would be a model for scenic designers in opera.

In observance of World Voice Day (April 16), blogger Fred Plotkin asks several physicians, writers and singers about maintaining vocal health during periods of travel or vocal use.

Parisians often like to hate on their charmless, 1980's opera house, the Opéra Bastille. But Fred Plotkin believes the house has been a boon to the surrounding area and has served many productions well.

Visits to London are bracing because it is a place where ideas ferment and people seem engaged with culture as a means of understanding who they are, writes Fred Plotkin.

Now that brutal hibernal storms may finally be a thing of the past, Fred Plotkin says he can venture into a subject he has deferred for a long while: Schubert’s extraordinary song cycle, Die Winterreise.

Jean-Philippe Rameau, who died 250 years ago this September 12, composed more than 30 works for the stage. A few are coming to New York, and it's about time, writes Fred Plotkin.

As the Operavore stream devotes its Throwback Thursdays focus on the Italian baritone Tito Gobbi (1913-1984), Fred Plotkin offers this appreciation of the singer's career.

What is it the most beautiful tenor aria of all? Operavore's Fred Plotkin ventures a list of candidates, and supplies clips of the arias all sung by Placido Domingo.

Claudio Abbado’s passing set Fred Plotkin to thinking about conductors whom he would love to hear leading performances at the Met. Here are a dozen standouts.

Heroes in opera, theater and literature are characters created by insightful writers or composers. The real heroes are people in everyday life whose heroism too often goes unnotice...

Dominique Meyer, the director of the Vienna State Opera, talks with Fred Plotkin about the company's foray into on-demand video streaming.

There are many singers, especially young ones, who have big healthy voices and sing loud all the time. This is a problem, writes Fred Plotkin. Here's why.

"Vienna is contradictory to be sure," writes Fred Plotkin. "It is a city of amazing art, creativity and innovation, but also of a provincialism that is, most of the time, naively inward-looking."