James Creswell News

Paul Ruder's opera, based on Margaret Atwood's celebrated novel, has, frighteningly, gained more relevance since its premiere in 2000

This February, multi award-winning actress Juliet Stevenson makes a highly anticipated return to the West End in the English National Opera’s (ENO) acclaimed operatic adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale.

The Handmaid’s Tale opera will return to the ENO in a highly anticipated production. Read more about the upcoming show including how to get tickets, and all about the new arrival.

The Met kicks off the holiday season with Julie Taymor’s family-friendly production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Notable company role debuts and the annual Holiday Open House make this a must-see event for all ages.

The Metropolitan Opera has announced a 2023–24 season with the most new works in the company’s modern history. See show details, performances dates, and how to purchase tickets!

This February comes The Rhinegold, the first opera in Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle, a radical political satire entrenched in magic and mythology.

Actor Alex Jennings will join the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) for the opening night of its 2022/23 season on Saturday 24 September when they perform Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall.

While I was watching the Met’s current beautiful yet somehow languid production of the Igor Stravinsky and WH Auden/Chester Kallman opera THE RAKE’S PROGRESS the other night--with only two more performances until it goes back into mothballs for probably many years--I couldn’t help wishing that the opera house was more like Broadway.

Stravinsky’s neoclassical masterpiece The Rake’s Progress, one of the 20th century’s great operas, will return to the Met stage for four performances May 30–June 11.

Raehann Bryce-Davis will sing Baba the Turk in the May and June performances of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, replacing Alice Coote.

This evening our online show is Los Angeles Opera’s La Traviata from 2006 with: Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazón, Renato Bruson, Suzanna Guzmán, Anna Akhimova, Daniel Montenegro, Philip Kraus, James Creswell, Sal Malaki, and Mark Kelley. James Conlon conducts the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. The stage director is Marta Domingo. Brian Large directs it for TV.

On October 14, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, in a well-thought-out production with an outstanding cast. Matthew Ozawa directed the action in a prison of the current era. There, Leonore, a prisoner’s wife disguises herself as a male worker and rescues her husband from unjust incarceration.

Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and cast in this monumental work in which love and courage overcome tyranny. Director Matthew Ozawa’s interpretation of the work updates its original eighteenth-century prison setting to a modern government detention center.

Los Angeles Opera presents its 2006 rendition of La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi. The performers are Renée Fleming, Rolando Villazón, and Renato Bruson, James Conlon conducts and Marta Domingo directs.LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZywmSJkKYE&t=83s

San Francisco Opera announced today repertory, casting and reopening plans for its 99th season. Commencing with a performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca on Saturday, August 21, the 2021–22 Season marks the inauguration of Eun Sun Kim’s tenure as Caroline H. Hume Music Director and a reemergence of opera at the War Memorial Opera House.

For her Los Angeles Opera Signature Recital, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, accompanied by Jeremy Frank, sings a collection of her favorite songs. They perform works  by 20th-century composer Kurt Weill, including 'Lonely House,' 'I'm a Stranger Here Myself,” and 'September Song.” LAO will stream the recital until July 1, 2021

Set sail on an audio-fueled journey into our 2014 production of 'Billy Budd.' Brace yourself for stormy seas and emotional swells as you endeavor through the story of the H.M.S. Indomitable and its crew. 

Full-length free opera streams continue in January with three titles that were simulcast previously from the War Memorial Opera House to the stadium of the San Francisco Giants.

This week on the Los Angeles Opera website soprano Ana María Martínez performs the famous 'Song to the Moon' from Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka, along with a selection of captivating Spanish songs. They include a?oeLa Peteneraa?? by Federico Moreno-Torroba, the a?oePoema en Forma de Cancionesa?? by Joaquín Turina, and a?oeMuñequita Lindaa?? by María Grever.

In a new a?oeLiving Room Recitala?? on LA Operaa??s website, bass-baritone Philip Cokorinos and pianist David Holkeboer perform songs by Schubert, Brahms and Cole Porter. Mezzo-soprano Gabriela Flores, accompanied by Head Coach of LA Operaa??s Young Artist Program Nino Sanikidze, gives a recital of songs from Spain, Cuba, Argentina, and Mexico.