Published monthly, Opera News offered opera-related feature articles; artist interviews; production profiles; musicological pieces; music-business reportage; reviews of performances in the United States and Europe; reviews of recordings, videos, books and audio equipment; and listings of opera performances in the United States.

Regular contributors to the magazine included its former features editor, Brian Kellow, William Ashbrook, Scott Barnes, Jochen Breiholz, Fred Cohn, Erika Davidson, Justin Davidson, Peter G. Davis, Matthew Gurewitsch, Joel Honig, Tim Page, Judith Malafronte, Mark Thomas Ketterson, Martin Bernheimer, Ira Siff, Joanne Sydney Lessner, Anne Midgette, Drew Minter, William R. Braun, Phillip Kennicott, Joshua Rosenblum, Leslie Rubinstein, Alan Wagner, Steven Jude Tietjen, Adam Wasserman, Oussama Zahr, and William Zakariasen.

Beginning with the December 1940 issue, the magazine began to concentrate much of its content on the weekly Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts.

The magazine at this point offered bi-weekly issues of an expanded size during the Fall, Winter, and Spring, but was on hiatus during the summers.

As time went on, the magazine began to take on a more international scope of coverage; but it still maintained a strong interest in the New York opera scene and the Met in particular.