Opera Box Score

School is back in session, so we're heading back to school here on the OBS. Check out our 'Chalk Talk' segment, in which we tackle the Ins and Outs, the Pros and Cons, of undergraduate and graduate voice programs...

Tenor Matt Cummings joins us as a guest co-host. He's currently completing his Masters Degree in Voice and Opera from Northwestern. Recent credits include Little Bat in Floyd's 'Susannah' and Snout in Britten's 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream'. He also spent last summer as a Studio Artist at Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, in the city where he grew up...

Plus, you'll get all your opera headlines and all our hot takes in 'The Two Minute Drill'...

Hell, yeah, we had a show on a national holiday. Mezzo-soprano and blogger Daina Fischer (www.agentlewoman.com) joins George and Tobias live in-studio for 'Inside the Huddle'...!

Then, in 'Chalk Talk', we talk about the worst audition experiences ever, and we asked to hear your stories. Thanks to all of you who called and wrote. (All names and incriminating details have been changed...)

'The Two Minute Drill' is found in the final third of the episode...!

This week Patrick Dean Shelton joins the show as a guest co-host. A recent graduate of New England Conservatory of Music, where he was a student of soprano Jane Eaglen, Patrick is currently a Professional Diploma candidate at the Chicago College of the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. This past summer, he was a Fellow at the Music Academy of the West...

George, Oliver and Tobias go 'inside the Huddle' with Patrick, and learn how life has taken him coast-to-coast. Then, in our 'Chalk Talk' segment, we discuss YAPs (Young Artist Programs): are they totally essential to developing one's singing career, or are they a total con...?

Plus, we’ve got all your opera headlines in our ‘Two Minute Drill’ segment... Rock it!

This week we go ‘Inside the Huddle’ with Nick Hayman, a stage manager from England who’s worked at the Royal Opera House, in the West End and on tour through the UK and US. Don’t miss what he has to say when I ask him: “Isn’t stage management the least sexy thing in opera...?”

Then, in our ‘Chalk Talk’ segment, we reveal a recent slate of opera productions whose violence and sexual content have forced their producers to issue warnings to ticket buyers, lest they be offended by what they see. George asks Oliver if maybe operas should be given ratings, just like movies...

Plus, we’ve got all your opera headlines in our ‘Two Minute Drill’ segment...

This week we tackle a perennial topic perfect for the dog days of summer: when and why to make cuts in an operatic score. Matthan Black joins Tobias and George live in-studio to discuss...

Plus, 'Pop Quiz' returns in a piano-only version, and we've got all your opera news headlines in 'The Two Minute Drill'...

The Olympics have begun in Rio; here on the OBS, we follow suit and argue about Olympian feats of athleticism in singing...

Is it stamina? Is it hitting high notes? Is it volume...?

Guest co-host Matthan Black joins host Oliver Camacho and co-host Tobias Wright as they choose recordings and match up virtuosic performances to specific Olympic sports...

Game on!

We go 'Inside the Huddle' and are joined live in-studio with guest co-host Dr. Kevin Byrne, an assistant professor of dramaturgy at the University of Arizona. We get him to explain, once and for all, what a dramaturg actually does. The answer might surprise you...

Then, on our ‘Chalk Talk’ segment, we sing happy birthday to the Met in HD broadcasts, which turn ten years old this month. But is that ten years too many? Find out why some folks think these movie theater screenings of live opera performances should never have been born...

Plus, Oliver gives a tribute to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and we have all your opera headlines in 'The Two Minute Drill'...

Giovanna Jacques is back state-side from her trip to France and Italy. She’ll give you the latest on opera and culture from continental Europe...

But first, it’s war on our ‘Chalk Talk’ segment. Military conflicts have been central to opera stories ever since George Frederic Handel composed “Giuilo Cesare” in the early 1700s. Tonight we look at contemporary operas that are continuing to tell those stories, including such works as “Fallujah” by Tobin Stokes and Jeremy Beck’s “The Long Walk”...

Plus, we’ve got all your opera headlines in our “Two Minute Drill” segment, and at the bottom of the hour, we bring back some memories with one of the most famous opera memes ever to grace YouTube. See if you recognize it...

We took Independence Day off, so we’ve got a loaded show for you this week. Oliver Camacho goes ‘Inside the Huddle’ with baritone David John Pike, who talks about coaching the role of Scarpia from Puccini’s “Tosca” with Sherill Milnes, and also reflects on singing George Butterworth’s song cycle "A Shropshire Lad" on the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Somme...

But first, it’s our ‘Chalk Talk’ segment. Ticket sales are up at Los Angeles Opera and the Wiener Staatsoper, but down at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. What factors are pushing these numbers up (or down) and who’s responsible? Tobias Wright has some theories to share...

Plus, Giovanna Jacques checks in from the Bellini Museum in Sicily, we’ve got all your opera headlines in ‘The Two Minute Drill’, and Oliver plays ‘Monday Evening Quarterback’ after seeing Renée Fleming in concert...

There's a new piece at LA Opera called 'Anatomy Theatre'. Set in the 1700s, it dissects – literally – the body and mind of a murderer. We examine the gross-out factor of this opera, and see how it stacks up against other bloody opera productions we’ve seen...

Then, 'TKO' is back! This time our opera singer death match pits Luciano Pavarotti against Jussi Björling. Can the Swedish Caruso de-throne the King of the High C? We’ll put two of the greatest champions in the ring and let them "duke" it out in Verdi’s 'Rigoletto'. There will be blood, as Tobias Wright and Matthan Black take sides, and Oliver Camacho is the judge...

Plus, Giovanna Jacques checks in from the Teatro Massimo in Sicily and George has got all your opera headlines...