“I had never done an opera with five protagonists before. I had to figure out how to do that. I was fascinated by group singing. Then I began thinking about that period in time, Take 6 and a lot of the boy groups that were popular in that time. I started looking at what I could do with close harmony for five voices.” – The Washington Post

Anne Midgette: “Preparing young musicians for a career in music looks different now than it did in 1988, when NOI began. A big part of instrumentalists’ training has always been learning to play orchestral excerpts as best they can, to land a job in an orchestra. But in today’s world, orchestra jobs are ever harder to come by, and orchestras are struggling with their identities, trying to figure out ways to become more diverse in their personnel and their programming. Institutions like NOI can play an active role in that kind of shift.” – The Washington Post

The diva posted a photo of herself in her dressing room at the Mariinsky, all done up as Verdi’s enslaved Ethiopian princess, and one commenter wrote, “Beautiful singing! But is the blackface really necessary?” Netrebko replied, “Black Face and Black Body for Ethiopien [sic] princess, for Verdi[‘s] greatest opera! YES!” And, of course, all hell broke loose. (It didn’t help when Netrebko called her critics “low class jerks.”) Olivia Giovetti considers why, in the opera world, there still has to be an argument over blackface. – Van

Streetwise Opera, the British company for people struggling with homelessness, founded the choir Uma Só Voz/With One Voice for the 2016 Olympics, and the city has kept it going. Two AFP reporters talk with members of the choir about what singing with the group has done for their lives. – Yahoo! (AFP)

“A common argument is that art should be a strict meritocracy, i.e., that the best music should be programmed regardless of who the composer is. But then, who determines what is of artistic quality, really? So goes one of the more philosophically heated debates in the classical music world at the moment.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Giddens, a conservatory-trained operatic singer as well as a banjo player (she co-founded the string band Carolina Chocolate Drops) and composer, will prepare the libretto and compose the music for a new work about Omar Ibn Said, the only African-American slave known to have written an account of his captivity in Arabic. The as-yet-untitled opera was commissioned by the Spoleto Festival USA, where it will premiere in 2020, in honor of Charleston’s 350th anniversary that year. – The Post and Courier (Charleston)

“The words ‘Trump’ and ‘opera’ occurring in the same sentence might seem far-fetched, but for composer Anthony Davis, whose latest work, The Central Park Five, has its world premiere at Long Beach Opera on June 15, inserting a Trump figure was, in fact, integral to the story. Based on the notorious case of a quintet of African-American teenagers falsely accused and convicted of rape and assault after a 1989 attack on a white jogger — one in which presidential hopeful Donald Trump played an infamous role — the opera tops off a series of so-called ‘ripped-from-the-headlines’ works that Davis has composed in his decades-long career.” – San Francisco Classical Voice

“Women in opera need to be not only acknowledged for their work, their passion and dedication to the artform, but placed front and centre, asked for their opinion, introduced as a driving force in the industry. The championing of the representation of women in opera, inviting women in, making space, and creating opportunities, enriches the opera ecology exponentially. Women in all facets of the opera creative industry – composers, directors, designers, conductors, singers, writers, producers – need to be recognised, supported and seen.” – Limelight (Australia)

“Despite not being staged while [composer Scott] Joplin was still alive, Treemonisha has had a lasting legacy. It was first performed in its entirety in the 1970s, and in 1977 Joplin posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for music. It’s been staged again since then, but now, it’s being rewritten and expanded with an entirely new team at the helm. [The Toronto company] Volcano and … a multitude of [creators and] performers are reviving the opera for its premiere in 2020. The entire creative team — and the orchestra, once the opera goes public — is composed of Black women.” – CBC

Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s Blue is about a black police officer whose son is shot by a white colleague. Jazz trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard and librettist Kasi Lemmons have adapted New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s memoir, Fire Shut Up in My Bones. And The Central Park Five has a text by Richard Wesley and a score by Anthony Davis, arguably the dean of America’s black composers. And those are just the pieces premiering this summer. – The New York Times

And he’s having a moment now, with the LA Philharmonic’s FLUXUS Festival. – San Francisco Classical Voice

“A charity which helps tackle homelessness and mental health issues has been hailed for changing people’s lives. Streetwise Opera runs musical groups in [the North Yorkshire city of] Middlesbrough, giving the singers confidence to move on with their lives.” (video) – BBC

“There are a lot of ways our music can come into contact with others, but there isn’t a lot of consistency in our field at large for how we evaluate works and provide opportunities for composers. (Sometimes it seems like every ensemble has their own method!) And, no matter what processes we use—from an open call-for-scores, to a competition format with specified prizes and a panel of judges, to a curatorial model that asks individual artists to build programs—we often face a series of similar challenges if we care about promoting works fairly.” – NewMusicBox

Seventy percent said they had kept their disability hidden because of worries it would damage a relationship with a venue, promoter or festival, while two thirds said they had to “compromise their health or wellbeing” to be able to perform live. – The Guardian

It’s a pop music festival, of course (where are we with that equal rep, classical and new music festivals?). But not of course, because no other festival has achieved anything like parity. Says the Primavera fest: “It can be done now and it should be done now, but you need to want it. We hope that our move can spark change.” – The Guardian (UK)

Among participants in the program, called Sinfonía por el Perú and founded by tenor Juan Diego Flórez in 2011, “[there has been] a 75% decrease in unwanted pregnancies, another 51% decrease in domestic violence as well as a significant increase in grades and even college admissions.” – Americas Quarterly

Says Negin Khpelwak, the 22-year-old leader of the Zohra Orchestra, “We can bring freedom, peace and honor to Afghanistan. Women can’t go back to the dark days — they can break our instruments, they can ban the music, but they never take it from our hearts.” – Bloomberg