Metropolitan Opera

Florencia gives star Ailyn Pérez a rare chance to sing in Spanish. As the bilingual daughter of Mexican immigrants, she learned early on that language had the power to shape her experience and voice.

An opera about civil rights leader Malcolm X opens Friday — nearly 40 years after X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X premiered. The creative team says its message feels more relevant than ever.

WCPE had deemed operas dealing with race and LGBTQ issues "unsuitable" for broadcast. They reversed course "after careful deliberation...and hearing from our supporters, listeners and the public."

TPR's James Baker shares his personal connection to the late composer Daniel Catán, and looks forward to a performance of the opera "Florencia en el Amazonas" this fall, and the Momentos Musicales series on KPAC 88.3 FM, airing weekdays at 2:00 through Hispanic Heritage Month.

Terence Blanchard's work based on the troubled life of boxing champion Emile Griffith premieres at the Metropolitan Opera. (This piece originally aired on Weekend Edition on April 8, 2023.)

Kelli O'Hara, Renée Fleming, and Joyce DiDonato star in a new opera based on Michael Cunningham's book.

The big-voiced soprano is in her mid-thirties, and she didn't even hear an opera live until she was in her twenties. Now, she's a sought-after opera singer.

Star performers at the famed New York opera house, including soprano Anna Netrebko and conductor Valery Gergiev, have been closely associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The composer's magnetically powerful Fire Shut Up in My Bones lands with a force of authenticity, a too-rare window into Black life in an operatic setting.

Fire Shut Up in My Bones, based on the Charles M. Blow memoir of the same title, is the first work by a Black composer to be staged by the Metropolitan Opera.