(San Francisco, CA) - Esa-Pekka Salonen’s announced 2025 departure from San Francisco Symphony still stuns, even several months on. With this piece, OI aims to:

• Explore the known why behind the financial crisis

• Explain why we oppose the company’s devastating, short-sighted cuts

• Provide guidance on how this legacy brand could begin repairing its self-inflicted wounds

Given his stature as the Bay Area’s classical music journalist, we first relied on San Francisco Chronicle’s Joshua Kosman and his reporting. Kosman’s first piece laid out the situation, Salonen’s terse statement, SFS musicians’ vocal support of their Maestro, as well as their demand for audited financials from CEO Mark Spivey and Board Chair Priscilla Geeslin...

(New York, NY) - We recently had the pleasure of experiencing Festival Opera’s artist showcase at the Point Richmond, CA home of General Director Zachary Gordin. The occasion was for East Bay-based for Festival Opera’s new production of “La voix humaine” and “Dido & Aeneas” at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center on July 12th and 14th; these operas will be paired in a one-of-a-kind way. From FestivalOpera.org: “A double-bill of short operas written 270 years apart, yet similar in themes of love and betrayal. Both Elle and Dido suffer the devastating consequences of heartbreak. Their stories resonate across time, bringing the audience in-close as they share these deeply human experiences.” Susie Hanson, Festival Opera Board of Directors, noted that these operas are linked by the common theme of women making powerful decisions for themselves…

(San Francisco, CA) - There are a few opera world provocateurs these days, but no one hits like Haus of Shmizzay on Instagram. Online research tells us that he’s a classically-trained tenor James Smidt, who’s studied at both the University of North Carolina School of the Arts' A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute and University of Maryland's Maryland Opera Studio, the latter for his master's degree in opera performance. In addition to being a voice teacher - the focus of our December 2023 chat - he's an in-demand speaker and one of opera's more excitingly unpredictable English-speaking voices on IG, with receipts from grateful and succeeding artists (client testimonials and work wins speak for themselves)…

(Paris, France) - Voice teacher Karen Nimereala first came to our attention through a friend in 2019. Classically-trainer and a former opera singer herself, some of Ms. Nimereala’s longtime clients include pop music icons Sting and Mylène Farmer. Prior to flying to Paris to see Ms. Farmer’s landmark residency, a friend mentioned that they had a social media connection to “Karen, Mylène’s voice teacher…did you know she was an opera singer?” A longtime fan of Ms. Farmer, this information had somehow eluded me…

(Santa Fe, NM) - Opera Innovation profiled David Lomeli just before he began his tenure as Santa Fe Opera’s Chief Artistic Officer. In the years and seasons since, David continues to drive artistic endeavors for Santa Fe Opera, The Dallas Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, and Operalia, but for his own startup businesses, too: Bolero Tech and the Vincerò Competition, respectively. In late April, we met David at Santa Fe’s famed Inn at the Loretto, for a wide-ranging discussion on the problems Bolero’s technology solves, new partnerships in the Americas, the future of opera and a game-changing algorithm…

(Paris, France) - The latest live album from French Pop Rock legends Indochine held more than a few surprises. Last summer’s Central Tour was a major cultural happening. Six massive concerts, in both attendance and scale, swept across five (5) French stadiums - once in a lifetime events for Indochine’s fervent fanbase…

(Washington DC) - While listening to a recent Monocle 24 on Saturday podcast, we caught Monocle’s DC correspondent Chris Cermak interviewing Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, National Endowment for the Arts Chair. Cermak’s questions for Dr. Rosario Jackson were focused on the post-pandemic state of the performing arts. We’re bringing this interview forward since it covers topics regularly discussed on the OI platform…

Something’s apparently rotten in the state of Colorado. We first heard about Central City Opera’s entanglement with AGMA (American Guild of Musical Artists) via the latter’s 15DEC statement on Instagram, which was shared and commented upon by a few individuals across the opera spectrum. THE JIST: Per Eden Lane’s Colorado Public Radio story: “Founded in 1932, Central City Opera is one of the oldest opera companies in the United States. Now the company is in a bitter dispute with the labor union representing its performers…

Most people with a working knowledge of the business of opera understand how artists are often represented by managers who help them navigate their careers and/or how getting a manager is a primary goal for most young singers. The concept of a Hollywood-style or rock-and-roll music agent is already culturally imprinted, but when those concepts are extrapolated to opera, it can often mean different things…

Klaus Nomi was genius. Having accidentally discovered him during the pandemic, I went down the rabbit hole on this legendary, German pop-countertenor who left us in August 1983, succumbing to AIDS. Exploring his catalogue on Apple Music (recommended), we began listening to “The Cold Song,” immediately realizing we were hearing notes originally written by English Baroque composer Henry Purcell…

Here at Opera Innovation HQ, there’s one production of Salome by which all others are compared (and we’re not even talking about the artists on stage or in the pit, as incredible as they were). Santa Fe Opera’s 2015 production, designed by Leslie Travers and directed by Daniel Slater, happened to be my introduction to Richard Strauss’ one-act opera…