The title of Gioacchino Rossini’s most famous work, identifying the occupation of a chief character, Figaro, derives from the subversive French play by Beaumarchais that helped accelerate the national campaign against aristocratic privilege that...

The Los Angeles Opera, whose general director Placido Domingo is arguably the world’s most dominant personality in grand opera, has become a favorite destination for many of the world’s great artists. Domingo’s casting choices show a keen eye for the...

Placido Domingo’s 20th century career was built on a  tenor repertory encompassing an amazing breadth of lyric, spinto and dramatic tenor roles. In the new millennium, with widespread recognition as the greatest and most famous of contemporary...

Wm: At the time of this interview, you are performing the title role of Verdi’s “Ernani”, a mid-nineteenth century Italian opera based on an early nineteenth century French play about the sixteenth century Spanish conception of “honor”. How...

Wm: You have had a long association with Francesca Zambello, and, in a difficult period, stepped in to assure that her conceptualization of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungs” would be completed and ready to be performed by the San Francisco Opera in full...