Andrew Davis News

CHICAGO – To open its 61st season, Lyric Opera of Chicago presents Mozart's joyous comedy The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Henrik Nánási in a glamorous new production from renowned director Barbara Gaines, founder and artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The Marriage of Figaro is Gaines' first non-Shakespearean opera, following her acclaimed operatic debut staging Verdi's Macbeth at Lyric in 2010.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) kicks its 2015/16 season off with the Chicago premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's passionate story of love, power, bloody conspiracies and revenge, 'Lucio Silla' at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance (205. E. Randolph Drive) Sept. 26 - Oct. 4, 2015. Directed and designed by COT General Director Andreas Mitisek and conducted by the acclaimed Francesco Milioto, the opera, was written by the musical prodigy as a teenager for Milan's Teatro Regio Ducal in 1772.

Three works for soloists and orchestra by composer and conductor Lucas Richman are featured in a recent release, “IN TRUTH: Lucas Richman,” from Albany Records. The recording went on sale September 1.

Boston, MA — Giacomo Puccini's indelible characters, led by doomed lovers Mimì and Rodolfo, make a 120-year leap from the 1840s to the 1960s as Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) premieres a new production of the much beloved, often-reinvented La Bohème.  Transitioning the story of mid-19thcentury Parisian bohemian artists to mid-20th century student artists on the brink of social change, thisBohème opens BLO's French-influenced 2015/2016 Season and runs October 2-11, 2015 at the Citi Performing Arts CenterSM Shubert Theatre.

San Francisco Opera Music Director Nicola Luisotti today announced that Company Resident Conductor Giuseppe Finzi has stepped down in order to accept a growing demand of international conducting assignments that conflict with his position in San Francisco. The Italian-born Finzi made his debut at the War Memorial Opera House in 2009 and has conducted numerous operas over the past six seasons including Puccini's La Bohème last November, Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Puccini's Turandot, Verdi's Aida and La Traviata and family performances of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore.

?The 2015-16 season marks two milestones for the George London Foundation for Singers, which has been honoring, supporting, and presenting the finest young opera singers in the U.S. and Canada since 1971:  the 45th annual George London Foundation Awards Competition, which gives George London Awards to young singers each year; and the 20th year of its acclaimed recital series, which presents pairs of singers, both established stars and recent George London Award winners, at The Morgan Library & Museum.

Music Director Alan Gilbert will conduct the New York Philharmonic in the World Premiere- Philharmonic Commission of Marc Neikrug's Canta-Concerto, featuring mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke; Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2, with Emanuel Ax as soloist; and Brahms's Tragic Overture. The performances take place Thursday, October 1, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, October 3, at 8:00 p.m. Alan Gilbert and the Philharmonic will also perform Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2, with Emanuel Ax as soloist, on a program that includes Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, on September 30, 2015, at 7:30 p.m., as well as at Long Island University's Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in Brookville, New York, on October 2, 2015, at 8:00 p.m.

Lyric Unlimited presents the world premiere of Second Nature, a new opera for youth from the acclaimed composer/librettist Matthew Aucoin, at Café Brauer at Lincoln Park Zoo (2021 N. Stockton Dr., Chicago). Four world-premiere performances will take place today, August 19 at 10am and 12pm, and tomorrow, August 20 at 4pm and 6pm.

PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra presents “Neighborhood Week,” an entire week of classical orchestral and chamber music in some of Pittsburgh's most beloved locales. Beginning on Monday, August 31, the Pittsburgh Symphony will be bringing music to the community with different events each day through Friday, September 4. All details about Neighborhood Week, including locations and ticket information, can be found at pittsburghsymphony.org/neighborhood.

THE MET: LIVE IN HD will screen an encore of Susan Stroman's production of THE MERRY WIDOW by Franz Lehar (originally transmitted January 17, 2015), hosted by Joyce DiDonato, today, July 22nd.

Lyric Opera of Chicago launches its new season with the 15th annual Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion on Friday, Sept. 11, at 7:30 p.m. The free outdoor performance, presented in cooperation with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, annually attracts capacity crowds of 16,000 to the pavilion, great lawn, and surrounding areas of the park.

THE MET: LIVE IN HD will screen an encore of Susan Stroman's production of THE MERRY WIDOW by Franz Lehar (originally transmitted January 17, 2015), hosted by Joyce DiDonato, on July 22nd.

Lyric Unlimited presents the world premiere of Second Nature, a new opera for youth from the acclaimed composer/librettist Matthew Aucoin, at Café Brauer at Lincoln Park Zoo (2021 N. Stockton Dr., Chicago).

Single tickets go on sale July 8 at 10:00am for Lyric Opera of Chicago's 61st season.

Broadway director and choreographer Susan Stroman, whose many credits include the Tony Award-winning musicals Crazy for You, Contact, and The Producers, makes her Met debut with a lavish new staging of Lehar's effervescent operetta The Merry Widow

As part of the New York Philharmonic's celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of its historic Concerts in the Parks, the Philharmonic will present Share the Stage in Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island, inviting local musicians to perform on the stage in their home boroughs before the Orchestra's performances.

Continuing every Saturday through July 11, The Lyric Opera Broadcasts of the 2014-15 Lyric Opera of Chicago season will be rebroadcast internationally by The WFMT Radio Network and heard locally on 98.7WFMT.

CHICAGO - American mezzo-soprano J'nai Bridges is one of 20 international finalists for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015 competition. Bridges, a third-year member of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, is currently portraying Vlasta in Lyric's mainstage premiere of Mieczys?aw Weinberg's The Passenger.

Acclaimed Polish film director Mariusz Treliski makes his highly anticipated Met debut with the Metropolitan Opera's new production, inspired by classic noir films of the 1940s, bringing together two rarely performed one-acts