Can we separate Wagner’s artistic achievements from his personal views?

Richard Wagner’s great-granddaughter Katharina Wagner is taking on the purists at opera’s most exclusive festival – and trying to exorcise its Nazi past.

BEIJING — When the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, traveled to China by armored train in early May, his visit was so shrouded in secrecy that domestic and global media were forced to speculate on its duration, its purpose — even if it were really taking place.

Ach, ich fühl’s from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, performed by our “Artist of the Month” Sandrine Piau.

So durch den Herz die Liebe from Holzbauer’s Der Tod der Dido, performed by our “Artist of the Month” Sandrine Piau.

Kurt Weill’s “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny”, the opera mentioned in an “In tune” article titled Alabama Song.

In 1999, when Paul Kellogg, then the general and artistic director of New York City Opera, inaugurated the VOX project, a laboratory for new American operas, he asked George Steel, the executive director of the Miller Theater, to host the workshops there. The idea was to present sizable excerpts from new and recent operas, and in some cases works in progress, in concert performances.

Per le porte del tormento from Handel’s opera Sosarme, performed by Bejun Mehta (countertenor), Rosemary Joshua (soprano), and Freiburger Barockorchester conducted by René Jacobs.

Puccini works well as a spaghetti western, writes Joyce Morgan.

Si, mi chiamano Mimì from Puccini’s La bohème, the opera mentioned in an “In tune” article by Tracy titled Falling in Love with Opera.