LATONIA MOORE

It was tough separating the opera from the event when FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES opened the first post-Covid pandemic season at the Met. Back then, in September 2021, FIRE made history as the first opera by a Black composer, Terence Blanchard with his librettist Kasi Lemmons (based on the book by Charles M. Blow), to make its way to the Met stage. This week, it returned to show that contemporary opera can have “legs” on the big stage of the company....

Watch as the dancers of this season’s revival of Terence Blanchard’s hit opera rehearse the Act III step dance with co-director and choreographer Camille A. Brown....

The Met has announced the winners of the 2024 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. Learn more about the winners here!...

It’s rather surprising, really, for the audience to embrace a contemporary piece like DEAD MAN WALKING, no matter how easily it falls upon the ears, considering the subject matter. In this Ivo van Hove production, it starts with a rape and double murder in a rather graphic piece of film, the use of video being one of van Hove’s trademarks. It ends with a death by lethal injection, also graphically shown in live video....

xThe reviews are in for the premiere production of the new Met season, Dead Man Walking. American composer Jake Heggie’s masterpiece, the most widely performed new opera of the last 20 years, has its highly anticipated Met premiere, in a haunting new production by Ivo van Hove....

While there’s always a great deal of talk about where the next generation of operagoers is coming from, there’s much less hand-wringing about the sources of the new generation of singers. After hearing the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition’s Grand Finals Concert at the Met on Sunday afternoon, we could plainly hear that the future of the Met roster is alive and well and waiting to take center stage....

The Met presents the winners of the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition: tenor Anthony León, mezzo-soprano Natalie Lewis, soprano Teresa Perrotta, mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino, bass-baritone Christian Simmons, and soprano Meredith Wohlgemuth. ...

Following this week’s semifinal competition, ten singers have advanced to the final round of the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. The finalists will compete on the Met stage on Sunday, April 23, at 3PM ET, hosted by Latonia Moore, the 2000 Grand Finals–winning soprano and star of the Met’s new production of Terence Blanchard’s Champion....

In search of new audiences, the Met has followed Terence Blanchard’s FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES with the jazz musician/composer’s first opera, CHAMPION, the story of closeted boxer Emile Griffith’s rise and fall from grace. Honestly, never have I heard people whose usual venues are Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium and Monday Night Football on ESPN talk about how they “wanted to see the new opera at the Met.”...

The Met Opera brings magic and splendor to cinemas across the country with The Met: Live in HD. ...

After their first, full, in-person season in over a year, AVA has announced their 2022/23 opera season! With last season's productions being called a 'complete triumph from its start to its finish' (Chestnut Hill Local), AVA's 88th season is sure to delight opera audiences....

After a season-long series of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, a panel of expert judges named six singers as the winners of the 2022 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. ...

The winners of the 50th George London Foundation Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers were announced at the conclusion of the competition’s final round this evening, which took place at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. While the event is usually held with in-person audience, this year’s audience was virtual. Susanna Phillips, international opera star and 2005 George London Award winner, was the livestream host. ...

There are so many things to like about the season’s revival of Gershwin’s PORGY & BESS, which was new in the 2019-2020 season, before Covid became the “song” that no one wanted to hear. PORGY on the other hand, is the music that everybody can take a liking to, with its fluid combination of opera, Broadway musical and versions of spirituals and Gullah folk music that nobody ever heard before. It has been best known for its songs, which have become “standards” in the Broadway songbook. The styli...

It’s been a long 18 months since the last opera on the Met’s stage. The Terence Blanchard-Kasi Lemmons FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES roared into Lincoln Center to let the audience know what it has been missing....

Fathom Events is partnering with the Metropolitan Opera to bring The Met: Live in HD, the Met's award-winning series of high-definition live cinema transmissions, to movie theaters nationwide for its 15th season....

After a months-long series of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, a panel of expert judges named five singers as the winners of the 2021 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. ...

Following today's semifinal competition, ten singers have advanced to the final round of the Metropolitan Opera's 2021 National Council Auditions—the Grand Finals Concert, which will be streamed live on Sunday, May 16, at 3pm ET. ...

On Wednesday, April 21, We begin this week’s tour with one of the Los Angeles Opera website’s most popular “Living Room Recitals.” Soprano, Latonia Moore sings with pianist Roberto Berrocal. After the recital, we leave for NYC. On arrival, we go to Shut Up and Eat, a most generous Toms River restaurant that offers a discount to patrons in pajamas. ...

As the year 2020 draws to a close, stars past and present of New York City Opera (NYCO) have come to the aid of “The People’s Opera” by participating in Un Zoomo in Maschera, a word from the artists of New York City Opera, a special year-end fundraiser which will be released on social media today....

The Met has announced a specially-curated, three-week schedule for its Nightly Met Opera Streams, a free series of encore Live in HD presentations and classic telecasts streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure. The schedule includes an All-Verdi week, a 20th-Century Classics week, and an All-French week....

For her delightful Los Angeles Opera Living Room Recital, soprano Latonia Moore is accompanied by pianist Roberto Berrocal. First, she sings: Tatiana's dramatic 'Letter Scene' from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. The young and naive girl, Tatiana, writes an expressive love letter to the sophisticated Onegin, who is shocked and rebuffs her....

Latonia Moore recently talked with OperaWire about her experiences as a black woman in the opera industry. She talked about playing the role of Aida, as well as times when her skin has been painted different colors, and why that doesn't bother her....

On June 15, the Metropolitan Opera will launch the Met Opera Global Summer Camp, a new educational initiative to engage and support students worldwide....

The 23 young opera singers who have won regional auditions around the United States will compete in the semifinal round of the country's leading vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, on Monday, February 24. The closed semifinal competition, held on the Met stage before a panel of judges, will determine the select group of finalists who will advance to the final round of the competition-the Grand Finals, which is open to the public and will be held on the Met sta...