Inside Opera Cincinnati Opera

American opera director Robin Guarino chats with Evans about her work both on and off the stage. From her time being the first female stagehand at the Metropolitan Opera to her current position as the J. Ralph Corbett Distinguished Chair in Opera at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, she has made it her mission to combine blend art with activism. Hear about her experience directing both modern masterpieces and older classics as well as her run-ins with the biggest opera names of the 20th century!

American composer Gregory Spears chats with Evans about his rise into the opera world and two of his most notable works: Fellow Travelers, which Cincinnati Opera premiered in 2015, and Castor and Patience, which Cincinnati Opera will premiere during its 2021 Summer Festival. Listen in to hear about Spears’s musical origins, inspirations, and how he goes about writing for opera.

Grammy Award-winning opera singer Isabel Leonard chats with Evans about how to approach each role with compassion, what raising a son looks like as a professional performer, and her perspectives on operatic characters both old and new. Hear about why she prefers to be called a “singer” rather than a “soprano” or “mezzo-soprano”—to the point that she can’t wait to see an opera house list her as a tenor in a program!

Evans sits down with vocal coach, collaborative pianist, conductor, and long-time friend Marie-France Lefebvre to talk about her upbringing in rural Quebec and how she works hands-on with opera stars and students alike as a professor at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Plus, hear what it’s like to be one of the only people who can talk during a live opera performance: the prompter!

Take a peek into the life of a true supermom, hear about her work with composer Jake Heggie, and listen to her perspectives on being an artist during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Learn what it was like to see opera at the Cincinnati Zoo, about the Cincinnati classical music scene of the mid-1900s, and why the Pulitzer-Prize winning musical Hamilton has caught this opera conductor’s attention!