Fred Plotkin

A home organization project prompts blogger Fred Plotkin to ask: What is the opera you have the most recordings of? Are there any operas you believe merit a new recording?

This summer has seen huge downpours interrupt several summer music festivals around the globe. Blogger Fred Plotkin considers the presence of rain storms off-stage and on (see: Rossini, Wagner).

The ballet Giselle was the inspiration for Puccini’s first opera, Le Villi. It could be argued that this work, seldom seen now, had a profound impact on how Puccini’s career would d...

The Italian tenor Giuseppe Filianoti recently encountered a lost aria from Francesco Cilea's 1897 opera L’Arlesiana. He tells blogger Fred Plotkin about his discovery.

What's the most popular operatic libretto of all time? It may be L’Olimpiade, which was set by dozens of composers in the 18th century. Blogger Fred Plotkin looks at the Olympic opera.

Plenty of us know the concert-going routine: an empty seat opens up in a better location and you pounce. But blogger Fred Plotkin believes this is problematic. Here's why. Poll: Are ...

"The greatest sound I heard (apart from the Opera Fairbanks performance of La Bohéme) were the ebullient barks and yelps of perhaps 70 Alaskan Huskies," writes blogger Fred Plotkin from Fairbanks.

From Salome to Samson et Delila to Wagner's Rheinmaidens, opera singers are occasionally asked to bare all. "As a general rule," writes blogger Fred Plotkin, "nudity is fine if it is...

"You probably think silence is not a significant part of opera but I believe that everything in our world and emotional lives has a place in opera, so silence can too," writes Operavore blogger Fred Plotkin.

The All-Star Game is the baseball equivalent of an opera gala, writes blogger Fred Plotkin. "The greatest practitioners of their craft gather in one place and give audiences pleasure and excitement."

Rossini was often thought of as a bon vivant who could dash off music with facile ease and then devote more of his time to food, wine and sex. But he was also a serious composer, writes Fred Plotkin.

The American soprano died on Sunday at age 86. "She was a first-rate musician, a magnetic presence on the stage, analytical and thoughtful in rehearsal and fearless in performance," remembers Fred Plotkin.

To many, Brussels brings to mind quarreling constituents in a large bureaucracy. But the city has a compelling musical scene that does not reveal itself as insistently as other cities, writes blogger Fred Plotkin.

A delightful exhibition of old New York restaurants recently opened at the New York Public Library. It reminds blogger Fred Plotkin of the tenor Enrico Caruso, who loved food and freq...

Sandrine Piau is what is often described as “a special artist.” This term implies that she is undeniably gifted but either favors or is most suited for repertory that is outside t...

Can you appreciate a performer's music if his or her personal beliefs are deeply repugnant to you? That question comes up with growing frequency in the age of Facebook, writes Fred Plotkin.

The best conductors and critics have a great deal to teach us, writes Fred Plotkin, whether we are performers or lovers of opera and classical music.

“I love opera!” Fred Plotkin is so frequently told. “I have seen The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables ten times each and have every record by Andrea Bocelli, Il Divo and the...

With many opera houses soon shutting their doors for the summer, if they have not done so already, those of us who love the art form must look elsewhere. Here are about a dozen opportunities.

Although no new music has been composed for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, taking place this week, an opera by Benjamin Britten deserves to be revived for the occasion, writes blogger Fred Plotkin.