Joyce DiDonato and David Hyde Pierce to Host Ninth Annual Opera News Awards, 4/13

Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor David Hyde Pierce will take a star turn together when they co-host the Ninth Annual Opera News Awards, set to take place on Sunday, April 13, 2014, in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel in New York City. They will be joined by a distinguished line-up of presenters - Luca Pisaroni, Susan Graham, Renata Scotto, Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Francesca Zambello - who will pay tribute to five superb artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: the late director Patrice Chéreau, tenor Juan Diego Flórez, mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig,bass-baritone James Morris, and soprano Nina Stemme. First introduced in 2005, the Opera News Awards gala dinner, which features the hosts and presenters speaking about the awardees and introducing video performance clips, has become one of the most anticipated opera events of the season: an evening of celebration, appreciation, reuniting and celebrity-spotting that is without parallel in the industry. Described by Opera News as "elegant, unaffected, and enchanting," mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato has won a world-wide following for her incomparable performances of Rossini, Handel, and Mozart roles, as well as her dedication to new music. She has brought her flexible, powerfully expressive voice, impeccable vocal technique, and dramatic intensity to the Metropolitan Opera premieres of Le Comte Ory and Maria Stuarda, as well as the Met's world premiere of The Enchanted Island. DiDonato returns to the company this spring for performances of Rossini's La Cenerentola, which will be transmitted live to movie theaters in sixty-four countries on May 10 as part of The Met: Live in HD series. DiDonato will also host the Met's Live in HDtransmission of La bohème on April 5. Honors bestowed on DiDonato include a 2009 Opera News Award, Musical America's 2013 "Vocalist of the Year," the Beverly Sills award from the Metropolitan Opera, the 2002 Richard Tucker Foundation Award and a 2012 Grammy Award for her Virgin Classics album "Diva Divo." She is also an avid photographer and active blogger. Perhaps best known for his multiple Emmy-winning work as Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom Frasier, David Hyde Pierce has had wide-ranging success in television, film and theater roles. Pierce's performance in Curtains on Broadway won him a Tony Award in 2007, and he earned another Tony nomination for his role in Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2013. Pierce, who directed the Barbara Anselmi and Brian Hargrove musical It Shoulda Been You at George Street Playhouse, as well as The Importance of Being Earnest at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, will next direct Vanya at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles from January 29 through March 9, 2014. Pierce discusses his love of opera in the January 2014 issue of Opera News, where he is featured as a "Listener of Note." Opera News's Editor-in-Chief F. Paul Driscoll comments: "We're thrilled that this year's Opera News Awards will be hosted by Joyce DiDonato and David Hyde Pierce. Joyce has been an Opera News Award-winner and presenter, and is, quite simply, one of the world's greatest singers. She is also one of the art form's most passionate advocates. David Hyde Pierce is a trained pianist as well as a superlative actor. He is also an opera lover. It will be a privilege to share this event with both of them." This year's gala will have a special though bittersweet poignancy: Eva Wagner-Pasquier, whose father invited Patrice Chéreau to mount the revolutionary and now-legendary centenary production of Wagner's "Ring" Cycle at Bayreuth in 1976, will offer a special appreciation of Chéreau, who died in October just weeks after it was announced that he had won the Award. Admired for his work in film - both as a director and as an actor - as well and in theater and opera, Chéreau made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2009 with a production of Janácek's From the House of the Dead, which was also seen in Vienna, Milan, and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Chéreau's staging of Richard Strauss's Elektra was the smash hit of the 2013 Aix Festival, and will be seen in spring 2014 at La Scala. A co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, the Chéreau Elektra will also bow in New York in a future season. Turning to the other presenters, bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, who performs with DiDonato at the Metropolitan Opera this spring, will present the Award to tenor Juan Diego Flórez, who appears in that same upcoming production of Rossini's La Cenerentola. Beloved American mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, herself an Opera News Award-winner, will present the award to German mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, one of her greatest inspirations. Legendary Italian soprano Renata Scotto, a previous Opera News Award-winner who has created some of the most touchingly funny moments at past galas, will present the award to bass-baritone James Morris, a justly revered Wagnerian singer who also appeared with Scotto in Italian works. Opera and theater director Francesca Zambello, who currently heads Glimmerglass Opera and the Washington National Opera, will present the award to Nina Stemme; Zambello directed the Swedish soprano in the San Francisco Opera production of Wagner'sDer Ring des Nibelungen, in which Stemme triumphed as Brünnhilde.

About the Opera News Awards

Created in 2005, the Opera News Awards recognize five individuals each year for distinguished achievement in the field of opera. Proceeds from the gala evening on April 13 will benefit the education programs of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. The official announcement of this year's honorees appeared in the October 2013 issue of Opera News. The April 2014 issue ofOpera News will contain tributes to the five awardees, all distinguished members of the international opera community. BNY Mellon Wealth Management is the Corporate Sponsor of the Opera News Awards. For the fourth consecutive season, the Opera News Awards includes a special sweepstakes that will give a lucky winner round-trip air transportation for two to New York as well as a two-night stay at the Trump International Hotel and Tower and VIP tickets to the Opera News Awards. No purchase is necessary to enter the sweepstakes; details are available atwww.operanews.com/ONawards. Beyond offering the opportunity to pay tribute to the distinguished achievements of some of the leading artists of our time, the Opera News Awards gala dinner has become an important and much-anticipated date on the opera community's calendar: a time for singers, artistic administrators, and managers - as well as social and political leaders who support opera - to come together in a spirit of camaraderie and celebration. Opera News has been published by the Metropolitan Opera Guild since 1936; it has the largest circulation of any classical music magazine in the United States. The magazine, published monthly, is a winner of three ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards for excellence in music journalism. Bios for each of this year's honorees, and additional information, can be found here: www.21cmediagroup.com/mediacenter/newsitem.php?i=1274. Trump International Hotel and Tower is the presenting sponsor for the Opera News Awards sweepstakes.

Previous Opera News Awards honorees:

Eighth (2012-13): Mirella Freni, Dawn Upshaw, David Daniels, Simon Keenlyside, Eric Owens Seventh (2011-12): Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Peter Mattei, Karita Mattila, Anja Silja, Peter Sellars Sixth (2010-11): Jonas Kaufmann, Riccardo Muti, Patricia Racette, Kiri Te Kanawa, Bryn Terfel Fifth (2009-10): Martina Arroyo, Joyce DiDonato, Gerald Finley, Philip Glass, Shirley Verrett Fourth (2008-9): John Adams, Natalie Dessay, Renée Fleming, Marilyn Horne, Sherrill Milnes Third (2007-8): Olga Borodina, Stephanie Blythe, Thomas Hampson, Leontyne Price, Julius Rudel Second (2006-7): Ben Heppner, James Levine, René Pape, Renata Scotto, Deborah Voigt First (2005-6): James Conlon, Régine Crespin, Plácido Domingo, Susan Graham, Dolora Zajick

Ninth Annual Opera News Awards

Sunday, April 13, 2014 in the Grand Ballroom at The Plaza in New York City A tribute to five superb artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: late director Patrice Chéreau, tenor Juan Diego Flórez, mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, bass-baritone James Morris and soprano Nina Stemme 6pm: Cocktail reception with the honorees, hosts and presenters 7pm: Dinner, followed by spoken and video tributes and award presentations To reserve, call Metropolitan Opera Public Programs at (212) 769-7009, or reserve online at www.metguild.org.

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