Juan Diego Florez

Los Angeles is never lacking outstanding theatre, whether epic Broadway shows, engrossing dramas or bold fringe offerings. BroadwayWorld is rounding up our top recommended theatre every month. Coming up this month we've got fantastic picks from the LA Phil, LA Opera, CTGLA, and more!

Teatro alla Scala will present a special livestreamed concert, A Riveder Le Stelle, in lieu of its cancelled production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. The concert takes place on December 7.

Tenor Russell Thomas, whose performance combines Wagnerian stamina with Italian lyricism, received glowing reviews for his recent performance as Titus in The Clemency of Titus. Russell and pianist Kyung-mi Kim invite us to enjoy their Living Room Recital. Songs include: Schuberta??s An die Musik, Vaughn Williamsa?? Let Beauty Awake, Mascagnia??s Risveglio, Duparca??s La??Invitation au Voyage, Verdia??s La??Esule, Barbera??s Knoxville Summer of 1915, and Meeropola??s Strange Fruit.

The Met on Demand had another week of exciting performances, from the divine [Rossini's IL  BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA] to the, well, the divine [Adams's NIXON IN CHINA].

The Met's first cancellation due to coronavirus concerns was the revival of Rossini's LA CENERENTOLA, the opera retelling of the Cinderella story, set to star mezzo Tara Erraught in the title role and one of its biggest tenor stars, Javier Camarena as Don Ramiro, her prince. The opera holds a particular place in Camarena's history at the Met: It made him an overnight sensation when he was tapped to replace Juan Diego Florez and blew the roof off--a real-life Cinderella story.

The Metropolitan Opera production of Philip Glass's Akhnaten comes to the big screen in HD at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Sunday, December 1 at 12:55pm in an extra special encore presentation featuring a live Q&A on The Playhouse stage during intermission with The Met Opera's Susan Gomez Pizzo, Solo Ladies Wardrobe Supervisor, and Louis Valantasis, Principal Men's Wardrobe Supervisor.

Fashions in love (and lovers) swing as wildly as hemlines between the centuries. Massenet's Werther a?' brooding, poetic, Romantic to a fault a?' is pure 19th century, his heart beating to the fluttering pulse of lyric couplets. He translates poorly into today's more pragmatic world, but thanks to Charles Edwards' handsome designs his ill-fated passion for married Charlotte returns to the Royal Opera with plenty of nostalgic appeal.

Join us for a night at the opera with a full bar a?" see the Metropolitan Opera's stunning production of Aida in HD on the big screen at The Ridgefield Playhouse on Friday, August 16 at 7pm! During intermission, Louis Valantasis, head of men's wardrobe for The Metropolitan Opera, will be live on stage at The Playhouse to discuss the role of costumes in the Met's dazzling productions! 

Lighter than a macaron and every bit as deliciously Gallic, Donizetti's La fille du regiment swaps the composer's signature brand of robust, Italian comedy for something frothier, more melt-in-the-mouth. Add to that director Laurent Pelly - go-to Frenchman for whimsy and colour - and you have a classic operatic amuse-bouche.

Juan Diego Flórez gave an orchestral recital which failed to display his superlative assets.

I've already cheered tenor Javier Camarena's Herculean take on “Ah, mes amis!” in the Met's current FILLE DU REGIMENT--with 1 ½ dozen high Cs, including an encore--but there's more than the tenor in Met's current revival of the Donizetti gem to make the season suddenly seem grand. He and soprano Pretty Yende have made a potent comic once before--in Rossini's BARBIERE--but FILLE is something altogether different.

Tenor Javier Camarena set a record last night with his encore of “Ah, mes amis!” as Tonio in the season's first performance of Donizetti's LA FILLE DU REGIMENT. It was the first time that anyone was called out for an encore in three different operas—in his case Rossini's LA CENERENTOLA, Donizetti's DON PASQUALE and this one. That's more than Luciano Pavarotti or Juan Diego Florez—the only others to be brought out for a bis of an aria in the last 50 years.

Greenbrier Valley Theatre, in a partnership with the Met: Live in HD, will be presenting Verdi's La Traviata via live stream on Saturday, December 15th, 2018.

I interviewed Diana Damrau when she had just done her first Violetta, her role debut in the Met's old Willy Decker production. It was a part she lusted over from the time she saw the 1982 Zeffirelli film, but was careful about taking on--waiting for the right time in her vocal development. That was nearly six years ago and the good news is that she has developed into a first-rate Violetta, sounding better than she has in some time, and looking every inch the glamorous (yet consumptive) courtesan.

Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts Michael Mayer's richly textured new production of Verdi's La Traviata for The Metropolitan Opera, featuring a dazzling 18th-century setting that changes with the seasons. Soprano Diana Damrau plays the tragic heroine, Violetta, and tenor Juan Diego Florez returns to the Met for the first time in five seasons to sing the role of Alfredo, Violetta's hapless lover. Baritone Quinn Kelsey is Alfredo's father, Germont, who destroys their love. See La Traviata in HD on the big screen at The Ridgefield Playhouse Saturday, December 22 at 12:30pm, part of Atria Senior Living Classical Series with support from Whistle Stop Bakery, underwritten by Jeanne Cook, Liz and Steven Goldstone, & Sabina and Walter Slavin.

Tenor Javier Camarena--who completes his run as Nadir, the love-struck tenor lead in Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES (THE PEARL FISHERS) this Saturday--isn't finished wow-ing Met audiences for the season. Not by a long shot. He's back in February to throw off those nine High Cs in “Ah, mes amis!” the show-stopping aria--that toast to love and camaraderie--in Donizetti's LA FILLE DU REGIMENT (DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT) that Luciano Pavarotti made famous for modern opera audiences.

Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts Michael Mayer's richly textured new production, featuring a dazzling 19th-century setting that changes with the seasons. Soprano Diana Damrau plays the tragic heroine, Violetta, and tenor Juan Diego Florez returns to the Met for the first time since 2015 to sing the role of Alfredo, Violetta's hapless lover. Baritone Quinn Kelsey is Alfredo's father, Germont, who destroys their love. Later performances feature Anita Hartig, Stephen Costello, Artur Ruci?ski, and Placido Domingo.

Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts Michael Mayer's richly textured new production of Verdi's La Traviata for The Metropolitan Opera, featuring a dazzling 18th-century setting that changes with the seasons. Soprano Diana Damrau plays the tragic heroine, Violetta, and tenor Juan Diego Florez returns to the Met for the first time in five seasons to sing the role of Alfredo, Violetta's hapless lover.

Michael Tilson Thomas Makes MET Orchestra Debut with Soprano Pretty Yende Singing Mozart and Mahler on June 5   The MET Orchestra returns to Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage for a series of three concerts, led by three dynamic conductors, this May and June.

There have been starrier casts heading up Donizetti's L'ELISIR D'AMORE at the Met--put the opera's name in the NY Times search engine and the first one that shows up is the debut of the famed tenor Tito Schipa in 1932, with bass Ezio Pinza as the quack snake-oil salesman Dulcamara. But this year's principals, soprano Pretty Yende and tenor Matthew Polenzani, gave more than enough pleasure (and then some) to send the audience out cheering.