(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…

We discovered London-based artist Claudillea Holloway by accident. Like many things these days, it started on Instagram. While scrolling through the stories of friend and tenor Elliott Paige, a video of Claudillea performing an operatic cover of The Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black appeared. Given OI’s love of all things that move the dial for opera, we literally fell out of our chair, screaming…

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…