Don’t miss ‘The Future of Opera’ Webinar

Gathering via Zoom webinar to discuss opera’s future, clockwise from bottom left: Moderator and critic Heidi Waleson, critic Alex Ross, librettist and director Tazewell Thompson, composer Ellen Reid, producer and director Kristin Marting, and (center) librettist Royce Vavrek. Join them via Zoom on March 25.

The Music Critics Association of North America will host its first webinar March 25 with a panel discussion on contemporary opera entitled “New Opera Creators Consider the Future,” with an enticing lineup of opera artists and critics. To register in advance for the MCANA panel discussion, which begins at 5:30 pm ET, click HERE. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Interest in new opera was exploding just as Covid shut down live performance in 2020. What are composers, librettists, directors, educators, and producers thinking about and doing now? How have the challenges of this past year transformed their approach to the creation of new operas? What have we learned? How will the place of new work in the opera ecosystem be different? How should it be different? How do critics evaluate new operas created under unusual circumstances?

These questions and more will be discussed by our panelists, moderated by Heidi Waleson, critic with the Wall Street Journal. She is co-chair of the MCANA Best New Opera Award committee and author of Mad Scenes and Exit Arias: The Death of the New York City Opera and the Future of Opera in America.