I’m sure I’m not the only opera-lover happy to see New York City Opera finally back in full swing this spring. It was a tough slog for the company without a regular performance venue during theater renovations. I missed the opening-night gala performance of Chabrier’s L’Etoile on Thursday but made it to Madama Butterfly the [...]

Television commercials are probably as good an indicator of a society’s cultural health as any. And anyone looking for proof of the cachet that opera once maintained in American life would do well to consider these commercials, which Rice Krispies ran in the 1960s. To a certain generation of opera goers, these hilarious vignettes probably [...]

Meet Mark Lamos, the director of NYCO’s MADAMA BUTTERFLY, in this interview conducted by Thirteen’s president, Neal Shapiro. Learn about his roots with Channel Thirteen and the difference between directing for opera versus directing straight theater.

As an avowed opera-goer, my preferred locale is Manhattan’s Upper West Side. I’ll readily admit that I have painfully little patience for the throngs of tourists that make the Theater District an ambling, sight-seen garish miasma on the order of a mid-town Ellis Island. (“Give me your fanny-packed, your Drakkar Noir spritzed, your huddled masses [...]

…Continued from Part 1 Shu-Ying Li describes herself modestly as just “a Chinese girl trying to be a Japanese girl.” This week, she is at the end of a run of six performances at New York City Opera in the title role of Madama Butterfly, perhaps the most famous Japanese character in all of opera. [...]

Shu-Ying Li modestly describes herself as just “a Chinese girl trying to be a Japanese girl.” This week, she wraps up a run of six performances at the New York City Opera in the title role of Madama Butterfly, perhaps the most famous Japanese character in all of opera. Over the past few years, Cio-Cio [...]

SundayArts presents New York City Opera’s production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly from the New York State Theater, airing Sunday, March 23 at 12:00 p.m. on Thirteen (Live From Lincoln Center broadcast on March 20 at 8:00 p.m. on PBS). One of the most beloved operas of all time, Madama Butterfly premiered at the turn of [...]