It’s that time of year again: The Eurovision Song Contest is just around the corner, coming to grace (or haunt) television screens across Europe and beyond on May 11. What began as an experiment in transnational broadcasting in 1956 has since become a global cultural phenomenon in which camp and geopolitics intertwine. Eurovision, now in […] The post An Operatic Eurovision Playlist appeared first on VAN Magazine ..read more

If Morteza Mahjoubi’s pianism is alive today, it is not out of devotion or praise for his person, but rather on account of something internal to his virtuosity: a sublime rubato that penetrates beneath the level of surface and releases melodies that cultivate and nourish the soul. Mahjoubi’s tone is so striking, its kinship to […] The post Sweet Fingers appeared first on VAN Magazine ..read more

In October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and never came out. A journalist for The Washington Post and Middle East Eye who was fiercely critical of his country’s regime, Khashoggi was ambushed by a 15-man Saudi hit team; he was suffocated to death and his body was dismembered with a bone […] The post Built on Sand appeared first on VAN Magazine ..read more

“Everybody’s so angry right now that nobody can listen or talk to anybody else,” Salman Rushdie said earlier this week in an interview with Jon Stewart. “And what’s more, we also believe that being offended is a sufficient reason for attacking something.… And if you go down that road, then we can’t talk to each […] The post John McWhorter Has Nothing to Say (And He’s Saying It) appeared first on VAN Magazine ..read more

Veteran opera manager Anthony Freud has led the Welsh National Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, and most recently the Lyric Opera of Chicago. This summer, he is retiring and returning to his home in London. On a Zoom call, we looked back at his long, varied career in opera. Freud spoke with practiced eloquence about […] The post The Opposite of Generic appeared first on VAN Magazine ..read more

The total population of Estonia is just 1.3 million, but the diversity of its cultural scene belies the country’s small size. Estonian classical music alone boasts the renowned Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, several opera ensembles, an active choral scene, and groups specialized in early and contemporary music. Composers have often taken on roles as public […] The post “All They Have is Their Culture” appeared first on VAN Magazine ..read more

On March 10, 1969, Philip Glass was performing his piano piece “Two Pages” at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam when an audience member rushed onto the stage. “The next thing I knew,” Glass recounts in his memoir, “he was at the keyboard banging on the keys. Without thinking, acting on pure instinct, I belted him […] The post Music to Not Listen to Music to appeared first on VAN Magazine ..read more

Back when Twitter was still (somewhat) good, someone by the user name @Swaefastide posted a portrait of Lord Byron, in traditional Albanian costume, with the caption, “I will NEVER apologize for being a wildly successful alpha male,” lampooning the words of Trump-endorsed author Nick Adams. Non-Trump-endorsed author Ryan Ruby took the parody one step further, […] The post A Lord Byron Playlist appeared first on VAN Magazine ..read more

I get itchy in temples and I make jokes at funerals. You could reasonably describe me as “irreverent.” But I have felt the divine. I was in college, and it was a Wednesday, and I was stuck in choir rehearsal. And we had a moment, together, in the middle of John Rutter’s “Requiem.” My voice […] The post Composers, Canonized appeared first on VAN Magazine ..read more

On film, characters go to the opera house for meetings, espionage, or murder; operas can bring about moments of revelation, connection, or catharsis. They progress the plot or add texture to the lived-in dimensions of the film’s world. But the best uses of opera in film boost something under the surface, and even add additional […] The post The Best Opera Scenes in Film  appeared first on VAN Magazine ..read more