Jamie Barton News

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the Tudor tragedy Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) in a new production by Kevin Newbury conducted by Patrick Summers. It opens on Saturday, December 6 with 8 performances through Friday, January 16. Performance dates are Dec. 6, 9, 15, Jan. 7, 10, and 16 at 7:30pm; and Dec. 12 and 21at 2pm.

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced complete casting for its first full presentation of Richard Wagner's four-part Ring cycle. Three cycles will be presented from April 30 to May 22, 2016 and will be directed by Artistic Director Francesca Zambello and conducted by WNO Music Director Philippe Auguin. Contribution packages with priority seating for The Ring are on sale now. For more information, go to WNO's Ring website.

San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley and San Francisco Opera Association President Keith Geeslin today announced that Gockley will retire in July 2016, concluding a ten-year, seven-month tenure with the Company and capping an internationally acclaimed and award-winning career spanning 44 years as one of America's most prominent opera impresarios. Gockley, who will be 73 at the end of the 2015–16 season, became the Company's sixth general director when he joined San Francisco Opera in January 2006. Today's announcement was made at a War Memorial Opera House press conference.

Below are all the events at Carnegie Hall in February 2015.

San Francisco Opera today announced a cast change for the Company's current production of Vincenzo Bellini's Norma. American tenor Russell Thomas will sing the role of Pollione for the remaining five performances of the opera on September 14m, 19, 23, 27 and 30, 2014. Mr. Thomas replaces Italian tenor Marco Berti, who has withdrawn from the production for personal reasons.

American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, previously announced to sing Adalgisa for five of seven performances in San Francisco Opera's current production of Vincenzo Bellini's Norma, will sing the role for the entire run, including performances on September 19 and 23.

Founder and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement has announced details of Opera Parallèle's 2014--2015 season, which will feature the premiere of a new production of Jake Heggie's acclaimed Dead Man Walking--marking the 15th anniversary of one of the most widely performed operas of the 21st century--and the U.S. premiere of vibrant composer Tarik O'Regan's Heart of Darkness. Both operas, based on significant literary works, plumb the depths of human emotion, resilience, fortitude, hope and redemption, making them ideal subjects for the operatic stage and for Opera Parallèle's brand of story-telling and rich exploration of the human experience in provocative and intense stagings. Both original Opera Parallèle productions will be led by Paiement on the podium, with production design and direction by Opera Parallèle Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel and members of the creative team responsible for OP's acclaimed productions of Orphée, The Great Gatsby, Ainadamar, and Trouble in Tahiti.

San Francisco Opera recently announced a cast change for the Company's season-opening new production of Vincenzo Bellini's Norma, presented September 5-30, 2014 at the War Memorial Opera House. American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton--recent winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition--will make her Company debut as Adalgisa for five of the opera's seven performances today, September 5 and September 10, 14, 27 and 30. Ms. Barton replaces Daveda Karanas, who has withdrawn from the production for personal reasons. A casting update for the September 19 & 23 performances will be announced at a later date.

Michael Tiknis, President and Managing Director of the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, today unveiled Beyond the Aria, a new performance series produced by Harris Theater in a unique first-time association with Lyric Unlimited, on the Pritzker Pavilion Stage at Millennium Park.

San Francisco Opera today announced a cast change for the Company's season-opening new production of Vincenzo Bellini's Norma, presented September 5-30, 2014 at the War Memorial Opera House. American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton--recent winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition--will make her Company debut as Adalgisa for five of the opera's seven performances on September 5, 10, 14, 27 and 30. Ms. Barton replaces Daveda Karanas, who has withdrawn from the production for personal reasons. A casting update for the September 19 & 23 performances will be announced at a later date.

Houston Grand Opera's 2014–15 season, the company's 60th anniversary season, includes the world premiere of A Christmas Carol by Iain Bell—the company's 55th new commission —from award-winning Dickens authority Simon Callow; the continuation of HGO's first Ring cycle, with the American premiere of La Fura dels Baus's groundbreaking take on Die Walküre; the American premieres of Sir Nicholas Hytner's The Magic Flute and Lee Blakeley's Sweeney Todd; a 60th Anniversary Gala Concert featuring mezzo-soprano (and HGO Studio alumna) Joyce DiDonato; and a host of career-shaping role debuts that speak to Patrick Summers's gift for casting. Together with the company's first presentation of John Cox'sOtello, and the returns of Göran Järvefelt's beloved Così fan tutte and Michael Grandage's hit staging of Madame Butterfly, these rich offerings serve once again to illustrate some of the ways that HGO—still the only opera company with two Grammys, two Emmys, and a Tony—epitomizes “one model of what a forward-looking opera company could be” (Greg Sandow, Arts Journal).

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced details for the third season of the American Opera Initiative, its comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. Three teams of new opera composers and librettists—John Liberatore and Niloufar Talebi, Jake Runestad and David Johnston, and Rene Orth and Jason Kim—will premiere new 20-minute operas, each based on a contemporary American story, in a semi-staged concert performance on November 21, 2014 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced details for the third season of the American Opera Initiative, its comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. Three teams of new opera composers and librettists—John Liberatore and Niloufar Talebi, Jake Runestad and David Johnston, and Rene Orth and Jason Kim—will premiere new 20-minute operas, each based on a contemporary American story, in a semi-staged concert performance on November 21, 2014 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Houston Grand Opera capped a financially and artistically successful 2013–14 season by presenting Mieczyslaw Weinberg's The Passenger —the Polish-Jewish composer's long-suppressed Holocaust opera—to wide acclaim at New York's Park Avenue Armory as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, July 10–13. Earlier this year, HGO gave the American premiere of the work in Houston with the same cast. There was special praise for the production and performances, conducted by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. New York magazine described David Pountney's staging as “a multi-story set so vivid you can practically smell the machine oil and coal smoke,” while the Financial Times said: “The production, imported from Houston, is imposing in every way.” The New York Times called the cast “flawless,” adding: “The conductor, Patrick Summers, drew a surging, textured, richly detailed performance of this challenging score (lasting three hours) from the inspired musicians of the Houston Grand Opera.” WQXR's Operavore summed up the import of the performances: “The Passenger shows how a Holocaust opera can hold the stage while examining important, complex issues—and could certainly point the way for future composers to deal with such important but delicate subject matter.”

I'd call it “love at first sight” (or, more properly, “first hearing”), but this wasn't the first time I'd heard mezzo Jamie Barton. And I certainly hope it won't be the last. Her performances at opening of this year's Summer Recital Series from the Metropolitan Opera at Central Park's SummerStage in New York, on June 23, were sensational. She grabbed the audience by the lapels and refused to let go.

This summer, Nicholas Phan returns to his roots, joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood to sing the title role in Bernstein's Candide, the work that first inspired him to pursue a career in opera (Aug 16). In his third consecutive residency at the Oregon Bach Festival (June 26–July 10), the tenor takes part in performances of Vespers by Monteverdi and Rachmaninoff; Mozart's Requiem, led by Festival Director Emeritus Helmuth Rilling; an evening of Strauss Lieder; and after proving himself “the standout among the vocal soloists” (New York Times) in Bach's St. Matthew Passion at Carnegie Hall last month, a reconstruction of the Baroque master's St. Mark Passion. Phan also makes his Seattle Chamber Music Festival debut with Vaughan Williams and Brahms (July 18 & 21), and returns to New York's Bard Music Festival, now celebrating its 25th anniversary season, to sing Schubert in recital and with members of the American Symphony Orchestra (Aug 8 & 10).

This summer, Nicholas Phan returns to his roots, joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood to sing the title role in Bernstein's Candide, the work that first inspired him to pursue a career in opera (Aug 16). In his third consecutive residency at the Oregon Bach Festival (June 26–July 10), the tenor takes part in performances of Vespers by Monteverdi and Rachmaninoff; Mozart's Requiem, led by Festival Director Emeritus Helmuth Rilling; an evening of Strauss Lieder; and after proving himself “the standout among the vocal soloists” (New York Times) in Bach's St. Matthew Passion at Carnegie Hall last month, a reconstruction of the Baroque master's St. Mark Passion. Phan also makes his Seattle Chamber Music Festival debut with Vaughan Williams and Brahms (July 18 & 21), and returns to New York's Bard Music Festival, now celebrating its 25th anniversary season, to sing Schubert in recital and with members of the American Symphony Orchestra (Aug 8 & 10).

It was in a supporting role at Carnegie Hall with Eve Queler and the Opera Orchestra of New York that Stephen Costello first launched his professional career. Now the Tucker Award-winning tenor makes a hero's return, rejoining the same forces at the storied New York venue to headline a concert performance of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux tonight, June 5.