Cornucopia Magazine Arts Diary

If you live or find yourself in London on August 14 or 15, the city’s only Turkish theatre, the Arcola in Dalston, is staging a version of Dikran Tchouhadjian’s (1837–1898) Gariné. Considered the first opera composer in the Ottoman Empire and known in his lifetime as ‘the Armenian Verdi’ and...

Posted in Music and Performing Arts, Opera

News for aspiring opera singers

The 8th Leyla Gencer Voice Competition

By Victoria Khroundina | May 14, 2015

There's just two more weeks to apply for this edition of the Leyla Gencer Voice Competition. Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) and the Accademia Teatro alla Scala – and named after the first lady of Turkish opera, the late Leyla Gencer – the competition is...

Posted in Music and Performing Arts, Opera, News

Ahmet Ertegün’s lasting legacy

By Victoria Khroundina | September 25, 2014

Fresh news from the Turkish Cultural Foundation that the young opera singer Önay Kağan Köse is the recipient of the 2014–2015 Ahmet Ertegün Memorial Scholarship. Köse has won the scholarship for the fifth time and in this coming year will be studying under Dr Robert C White Jr, a professor...

Posted in Music and Performing Arts, Opera, News

Rigoletto in Naples 1924 (Ankara Opera)

A personal opinion

By Haluk Direskeneli | March 24, 2014

Money doesn’t buy everything, but it can buy you an opera ticket, and when Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto was staged six times as part of Ankara State Opera’s 2013–14 season, I was there to see all six performances. Opera critics in Turkey are expected to be graduates of the conservatory and...

Posted in Music and Performing Arts, Opera

Opera in Ankara

An ‘Abduction’ in many tongues

By Haluk Direskeneli | March 10, 2014

One has to admire Yekta Kara’s staging of The Abduction from the Seraglio at the Ankara State Opera House. I was frankly sceptical about her previous productions, which I found unusual, not to say maverick. This is different. It is, in a word, fantastic. Elsewhere in the world, all the...

Posted in Music and Performing Arts, Opera