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  • Zachary Woolfe

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Ewa Podles, a Rare Contralto With Sweeping Range, Dies at 71

With her molten chest voice and commanding presence, Ms. Podles, a galvanizing Polish opera singer, developed a cult following.

Opera Greets the Morning at the Prototype Festival

The offerings at this annual presentation of new opera and music theater tend to be politically charged, scrappy and stirring.

Review: The Philharmonic’s Maestro Revels in the Classics

Jaap van Zweden returned to the orchestra for the first time since October with a conservative lineup of works by Wagner, Beethoven and Brahms.

The Metropolitan Opera Moves Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ to America

Starring a magnetic Aigul Akhmetshina, Carrie Cracknell’s lethargic staging updates Bizet’s opera to present-day America.

Bradley Cooper’s ‘Maestro’ Won’t Let Leonard Bernstein Fail

Bradley Cooper’s movie has an unrelenting focus on Bernstein’s marriage. What’s missing are his struggles as a musician.

Can One of Opera’s Greatest Singers Get Her Voice Back?

Anita Rachvelishvili, the once-blazing mezzo-soprano, has struggled with vocal problems since her pregnancy two years ago.

Trinity Church’s ‘Messiah’ Is Still the Gold Standard

The church’s urgent and eloquent version of Handel’s classic oratorio remains an inspired communal rite.

Review: Daniel Barenboim Misses His American Swan Song

The ailing conductor was to have led the Staatskapelle Berlin in Brahms’s symphonies at Carnegie Hall. Yannick Nézet-Séguin jumped in.

When Henry Kissinger Became a Character in an Opera

In 1987, “Nixon in China” meditated on what was then recent history, depicting Kissinger as a smooth diplomat with a brutal side.

Maria Callas Was Opera’s Defining Diva. She Still Is.

Callas would have turned 100 on Dec. 2. She and her flash of a career remain beacons of artistic integrity and profundity.