After the Premiere: A Queen Besieged — Power and Authority in Thea Musgrave’s “Mary, Queen of Scots” In Thea Musgrave’s opera, Mary Stuart’s Scottish years become a searching study of sovereign authority, male rivalry, and the political conditions that turn public power into personal danger.

Very happy to share this essay, and a few reflections on a charming discussion with Thea Musgrave and Peter Mark back in 2024 ahead of the English National Opera production of “Mary, Queen of Scots” in February 2025. 🎶🧨

After the Premiere: From Fairy Tale to Terezín — Lori Laitman, Children’s Operas, and the Work of Musical Memory By Justin Vickers

It was an unbelievable joy to get to visit with American composer Lori Laitman a few weeks ago and discuss her works for children and her profoundly moving “Vedem” for After the Premiere! 💛🎶

After the Premiere: Elizabeth Maconchy’s Children’s Operas through Nicola LeFanu’s Eyes Nicola LeFanu, Elizabeth Maconchy, and Opera for Children (Part 2 of 2)

open.substack.com/pub/justinvi...

After the Premiere: Fuzzy Bunch Takeover (April First Edition) Guest Editors: Josie, Clemmie, and Lucy take the reins from their Daddy Person

I don’t know how my kitties managed it, but they hopped into my Substack to surprise me for April Fools Day. Silly babies.
🥰🥸🫣🎶

After the Premiere: Windows into Nicola LeFanu’s children’s opera The Green Children Nicola LeFanu, Elizabeth Maconchy, and Opera for Children (Part 1 of 2)

I was delighted to speak with Nicola LeFanu about The Green Children, her remarkable opera for children, and about the seriousness, skill, and imaginative openness that writing for young performers demands. New on After the Premiere: children as co-makers with a composer. 🌿🥬🫛

After the Premiere: Being Heard. A Conversation with Ryan Bunch on Envoicing Childhood, Agency, and Opera’s Institutions On the Operatic Stage: Children as Subjects, Performers, and Audience Members (Essay #3 in the series)

📚📖🎶

☘️ It’s the perfect day for Lucy Walker and I to share the back/front cover of Elizabeth Maconchy in Context (CUP) ahead of its publication next month — & in celebration of Maconchy’s birthday this week! The collection contains marvelous new scholarship about this divine Irish-British powerhouse! 🎶

Would you e-mail me, please? I’m at vickers@ilstu.edu

I would love to stay in touch with you about this, Kate! 🎶

Bursting into Song and Being Heard: A Conversation with Ryan Bunch on Children’s Opera, Participation, and Envoicing Childhood On the Operatic Stage: Children as Subjects, Performers, and Audience Members (Essay #2)

My conversation with Ryan Bunch has so richly influenced my thinking and the space I hope to occupy as a scholar, educator, artist, and communicator. I’m beyond grateful. 🎶

After the Premiere: Children’s Opera. Defining the Genre and Making Childhood Audible On the Operatic Stage: Children as Subjects, Performers, and Audience Members (Essay #1)

I’m so excited about this new series, in anticipation of the release of “Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary since 1900”! Please subscribe, follow, and join in! 🎶

WTF

After the Premiere: When Is an “Epilogue” Not the End? Benjamin Britten’s Silent “Epilogue” to The Holy Sonnets of John Donne By Justin Vickers

In my eighth essay for After the Premiere, I look at an unknown song that Britten discarded from his cycle of Donne Sonnets. I hope you’ll subscribe, follow, share, and read along with me. 🎶❤️🇬🇧

After the Premiere: Avoiding the Comfortable. Michael Egel and the Mechanics of “Risk” at Des Moines Metro Opera By Justin Vickers

My latest After the Premiere looks at Des Moines Metro Opera’s Michael Egel and the mechanics of “risk” in contemporary opera: risk as a technology of listening and governance, not a slogan. I call it the “Egel Method.” Please subscribe and follow. 🎶

After the Premiere: Listening with the Composer. Ethics, Vulnerability, and the Afterlife of Missy Mazzoli’s “The Listeners” Listening as Power. A two-part After the Premiere essay on belief, authority, and the ethics of hearing in contemporary opera. (Part 2 of 2)

🎶 Speaking with Missy Mazzoli and finding myself immersed in her creative soundworld gets to the heart of The Listeners — and more broadly, the role of the composer in society. Please subscribe and follow! ⚡️

After the Premiere: Do You Hear It? Belief and Authority in Missy Mazzoli’s and Royce Vavrek’s “The Listeners” Listening as Power. A two-part After the Premiere essay on belief, authority, and the ethics of hearing in contemporary opera. (Part 1 of 2)

Just absolutely thrilled to share the first of this two-part Substack series on Missy Mazzoli’s opera The Listeners. Please check it out, subscribe and follow what is one of the only scholarly opera-focused blogs on Substack! I’d love you to join me. 🎶💛🎉

Trump Says Kennedy Center Will Close for 2-Year Reconstruction Project

Of course this project is intended to diminish the tsunami of justifiable criticism that Little Lord Trumpet has generated by appending his name to our nation’s performing arts center.

After the Premiere: Cal McCrystal, Comic Tradition, and the Serious Work of Making Opera Welcoming After the Premiere: “Three Visions of Opera Now”  (2/3) In this short series — “Three Visions of Opera Now” — I draw on recent conversations with three major figures working across very different corn...

Please have a look at the next chapter of my blog, “After the Premiere”! 🎶💛🎉

#RedbirdScholar

After the Premiere: Christopher Alden on Revival, Surrealism, and Why Handel Keeps Catching Up to Us After the Premiere: “Three Visions of Opera Now” (1/3) In this short series — “Three Visions of Opera Now” — I draw on recent conversations with three major figures working across very different corne...

Here we go!
Dive in with me….
💛🎶🎉

Opinion | I’m Bidding My Opera Career Adieu. Here’s Why.

Amazing column. I’m Bidding My Opera Career Adieu. Here’s Why. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/o...

“After the Premiere”: Why Does Justin Vickers Have a Blog, Anyway? Welcome to “After the Premiere”Opera, Vocal Music, Archives, the Industry, and Musical AfterlivesBy Justin VickersOpera culture invests enormous symbolic weight in premieres. We mark first performance...

I did a thing…. & it’s really scary! Please have a look at my new blog, “After the Premiere.” I’ve got a great opening series of essays based on recent discussions with Christopher Alden, Cal McCrystal, and André de Ridder. I hope you’ll join me, & share with your networks. 💛🎶

www.justinvickers.com

We’ve got a cover reveal! #ChildhoodandtheOperaticImaginary Such an exciting journey. @oxfordunipress.bsky.social Editing this with Joy Calico has been absolutely incredible! And our contributors’ essays on four continents’ children’s operas are awe-inspiring!

Catch the 'unmissable' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ BEN AND IMO, featuring the 'astonishing' Samuel Barnett and Victoria Yeates before 17 May at the OT.

🎟 orangetreetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/ben...
📸 Ellie Kurttz

Ordering!

OMG — how awesome! Let’s get a coffee if you have a moment!

The only apology that “she and her church” owe the public is that not enough churchgoers are incensed by this second term. His keen claims of “mental institutions” dumping immigrants here belies that 45**/47 is too stupid to comprehend the term asylum, and thus thinks it’s a mental asylum. (2/2)

Bishop Budde struck a nerve! I love his attempt to take away the years of learning and toil that culminated in achieving a Bishopric, and on the unironically-named Truth Social, at that. And at that, at the Washington National Cathedral — literally centered in the heart of American politics. (1/2)

Morten Morland: How I draw Donald Trump The Sunday Times cartoonist’s local art shop has had to order more orange ink since he was re-elected

www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Peter Pears (1910–1986) | Art UK Peter Pears (1910–1986) by Diana Cumming (1929–2024), 1961, from Britten Pears Arts

artuk.org/discover/art...