Michael Chance News

Since its inception in 2017, The Grange Festival has swiftly developed a reputation as a destination venue for outstanding singers, top-notch conductors, world-class productions and discerning audiences - and the 2023 season is set to raise its standing amongst the cognoscenti even higher.

The annual Felicja Blumental International Music Festival has played an important role in the Israeli musical scene since its inception in 1999. Although the cosmopolitan city of Tel Aviv has always been well known for its classical music activities, it never before had a classical music festival that combines, in one intense and exciting week, chamber, orchestral and vocal music, as well as films, plays and folk music.

The celebrated tenor Kim Begley made his Royal Opera House debut in 1983 and has since then established himself at the forefront of the repertoire, with credits ranging from Britten to Busoni, Wagner to Brett Dean's opera of Hamlet. In keeping wih Shakespeare, if not this time round with singing, Begley has joined a starry lineup of British opera world names to perform King Lear later this month at the Grange Festival for three performances - and we're talking the play in its full, unadultered majesty and not the opera, with Sit John Tomlinson as Lear, Thomas Allen as Gloucester, and Begley as the Fool, and many other notable names besides. As it happens, Begley cut his teeth as a performer some years back with the Royal Shakespeare Company and explains this return to his classical roots below. 

On the cusp of their two year anniversary of being voted together on ABC's “Boy Band”, IRL announced today they will be releasing their long-awaited debut album, She Do, on August 23rd. The album can be presaved HERE.

The Grange Festival 2020 season, announced today on the opening night of their 2019 Festival, is set to start on 5 June 2020 with an exciting new programme of opera and dance at The Grange, Hampshire. Their residency partnership with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra continues next year with the orchestra accompanying all productions at the 2020 Festival.

The Grange Festival and Via Brooklyn present Goyescas, the 1915 opera by Enrique Granados, in collaboration with the Wallace Collection. Goyescas will be conducted by Mark Austin, with artistic direction by Michael Chance CBE. This unique, one-night event will take place in the Wallace Collection's Great Gallery on 11 November 2017.

The Grange Festival and Via Brooklyn present Goyescas, the 1915 opera by Enrique Granados, in collaboration with the Wallace Collection. Goyescas will be conducted by Mark Austin, with artistic direction by Michael Chance CBE. This unique, one-night event will take place in the Wallace Collection's Great Gallery on 11 November 2017.

Following a string of triumphant performances in music capitals across Europe, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir, and the English Baroque Soloists take their seven-month Monteverdi 450 tour across the Atlantic for performances in Chicago's Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance (Oct 12-15) and in New York's Alice Tully Hall as part of Lincoln Center's White Light Festival (Oct 18-21), bringing their epic journey to its conclusion.

The Knowledge is based on the iconic 1979 TV film comedy. Maureen Lipman not only played a leading role in the film, but is also Jack Rosenthal's widow. The stage premiere of The Knowledge is currently in previews at Charing Cross Theatre for an opening on 11 September and a run through 11 November 2017. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

The Knowledge will preview at Charing Cross Theatre from Monday 4 September and run 10 weeks to Saturday 11 November. Press night is Monday 11 September at 7.30pm.

The Knowledge is based on the iconic 1979 TV lm comedy. Maureen not only played a leading role in the film, but is also Jack Rosenthal's widow.

The Agency Theater Collective is pleased to announce its summer  production the world premiere of Nautilina, written by Brian Foster and co-directed by Sommer Austin and Anna Lucero, June 16 - July 16, at The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Elvis Costello will bring his legendary guitar licks and vocal stylings to Washington, D.C., this Saturday, April 29, when he performs at the official after-party for FULL FRONTAL WITH SAMANTHA BEE's first annual 'Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner,' presented by TBS.

On Monday (April 10), Sir John Eliot Gardiner Launches Seven-Month, 14-City “Monteverdi 450” World Tour with Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, and Cast of 18 International Soloists; Tour Concludes This October with Opera Trilogies in Chicago and New York.

Although Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) has long been recognized as the father of opera, only three of his contributions to the form survive. Next year marks the 450th anniversary of the Venetian master's birth, and to celebrate this musical milestone, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir, and the English Baroque Soloists have announced an ambitious international tour, with concert performances of all three operas – L'Orfeo, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, and L'incoronazione di Poppea – in the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, and the USA, between April and October of 2017. The tour will launch in Aix-en-Provence, where Gardiner – the winner of more Gramophone Awards than any other living artist – looks forward to leading Ulissefor the first time in his distinguished career. Additional European highlights include complete operatic trilogies in Paris and Bristol, as well as at the Berliner Festspiele, Lucerne Festival, and Venice's La Fenice, before the tour culminates with accounts of all three operas in multiple cities across America. In honor of the anniversary, Gardiner has been chosen to grace the cover of BBC Music early next year; as the magazine recently blogged: “It will be an exciting 2017, not just for music-lovers, but for Gardiner too, … who continues to stretch the boundaries of early music.”

Poetry Is Productions presents the Poetry Is Theatre festival, featuring the world premieres of world premieres of 'Medea' by Catherine Theis and 'Phaedra, Released.' by Robert Eric Shoemaker.

Following yesterday's highly competitive semi-final competition, nine young singers will advance to the final phase of the Metropolitan Opera's 2016 National Council Auditions, America's most prestigious vocal competition. The selected finalists, chosen by a panel of experts from the classical music industry, will compete on the Met stage on Sunday, March 13 at 3 p.m. The winners will receive individual cash prizes of $15,000 and the prestigious-and potentially career-launching-title of National Council Auditions Winner. The Grand Finals Concert will feature Antony Walker conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as each finalist performs two arias.

?Chicago's Halcyon Theatre announces casting for the World Premiere of Dreams of the Penny Gods by Callie Kimball. Directed by Jennifer Adams, Co-Founder of Halcyon Theatre, the company closes its 10th Anniversary season with this dark dramedy that captures the lies a family tells themselves. The cast of Dreams of the Penny Gods features Denise Hoeflich, Robert N. Isaac, Ted James, Shadana Patterson and Caity-Shea Violette. Dreams of the Penny Gods runs March 24 - May 1 at Halcyon Theatre, in residence at Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, 3253 W. Wilson Avenue. The official opening night performance is Thursday, March 31, at 8pm; the running time is approx. 110 minutes with one intermission.

The New Colony concludes its 2015 season with the world premiere dark comedy THE TERRIBLE by Morgan McNaught, directed by Jesse Roth, playing now through November 21, 2015 at its resident home, The Den Theatre's Main Stage, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. THE TERRIBLE features Chris Fowler, Andrew Hobgood, Jessica London-Shields and Shariba Rivers. BroadwayWorld has fresh photos of the cast in action below!