James Conlon, LA Opera's Richard Seaver Music Director, talks to Brian Lauritzen about Franz Schreker's The Stigmatized (Die Gezeichneten), which receives its long overdue American premiere this season. "This is a man who wrote eight major operas, three of which were so successful in his time that they could be considered among the most successful operas written in the late teens and twenties, alongside Strauss. The work is not about the political context. It was written as an opera to be played and performed."
James Conlon, LA Opera's Richard Seaver Music Director, speaks with Brian Lauritzen about the fourth and final chapter of the Ring cycle, Götterdämmerung. “From the first chord, you have an apocalyptic sense. You feel the end is impending from the very first note of the beginning of the prologue through the entire opera, the sense that somehow or other there is very little time left.”
James Conlon, LA Opera's Richard Seaver Music Director, talks to Brian Lauritzen about one of his favorite opera's Rossini's bel canto masterpiece The Barber of Seville. "I remember sitting in the front row with my friend watching this opera and from the moment the overture started being transported to another world and then feeling like I was, of course, laughing all night!"
James Conlon, LA Opera's Richard Seaver Music Director, talks to Brian Lauritzen about Siegfried, exploring why Wagner took a seven-year break during its composition, what exactly makes its hero "heroic" and why the final duet is “the most extraordinary burst of optimism...the leap into the universe toward the sun, one of the most spine-chillingly ecstatic scenes I know in all of opera.”
Tenor John Treleaven returns to LA Opera in the title role of Siegfried, considered to be the most difficult role in the entire operatic repertoire. “You really can’t escape from the fact that you need to be able to sing as beautifully at the end of the opera as you do at the beginning.” In this podcast, he speaks with Brian Lauritzen about why Siegfried leads to sleepless nights, the tight-knit community of Wagnerian singers and a potential dream collaboration with Plácido Domingo.
Brian Lauritzen speaks with soprano Nino Machaidze and tenor Giuseppe Filianoti, the stars of LA Opera’s Elixir of Love, about specializing in bel canto, the importance of good colleagues, and finding just the right touch for performing comedy.
In his fourth season as music director, James Conlon leads his first bel canto opera with LA Opera. The Elixir of Love is the first bel canto opera production for LA Opera in six years. Podcast host Brian Lauritzen talks to James Conlon about Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, the intricacies involved in singing bel canto and why there is a current resurgence in the bel canto repertoire.
James Conlon, LA Opera's Richard Seaver Music Director, talks to Brian Lauritzen about Franz Schreker's The Stigmatized (Die Gezeichneten), which receives its long overdue American premiere this season. "This is a man who wrote eight major operas, three of which were so successful in his time that they could be considered among the most successful operas written in the late teens and twenties, alongside Strauss. The work is not about the political context. It was written as an opera to be played and performed." 
Bejun Mehta talks to Brian Lauritzen about finding his voice as a countertenor and singing beside Plácido Domingo in Tamerlano. 
Tenor 
Brian Lauritzen speaks with soprano Nino Machaidze and tenor Giuseppe Filianoti, the stars of LA Opera’s 
In his fourth season as music director, James Conlon leads his first 
