Paul Steinberg News

The International Opera Awards are pleased to announce the finalists for this year's Awards. These were selected by an international jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and classical music critic with The Daily Telegraph: 'It's gratifying to see how the International Opera Awards just keep growing. With a record number of nominations to consider, and our biggest and most international jury yet, I'm delighted to say that our exciting shortlists-covering six continents and around 30 countries-reflect the truly cosmopolitan nature of the art form. Despite the challenges faced by opera companies almost everywhere, opera is vibrantly alive.'

The first Broadway revival of David Henry Hwang's Tony Award -winning play, M. BUTTERFLY will play its final performance on Sunday, December 17, 2017, after playing 19 previews and 61 regular performances at the Cort Theatre (138 W 48th Street).

Between light and shadow, science and superstition, fear and knowledge is a dimension of imagination. An area we call the Twilight Zone. Adapted by Anne Washburn (Mr Burns) and directed by Olivier Award-winner Richard Jones, this world premiere production of the acclaimed CBS television series The Twilight Zone lands on stage for the first time in its history. Or its present. Or its future.

The first Broadway revival of David Henry Hwang's Tony Award-winning play, M. Butterfly will play its final performance on Sunday, January 14, 2018 after playing 19 previews and 93 regular performances at the Cort Theatre (138 W 48th Street).

When David Henry Hwang's 1988 Best Play Tony-winner M. BUTTERFLY, inspired by the romance between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Peking opera singer Shi Pei Pu, who the Frenchman didn't know was a) a Communist spy, and b) a man, first played on Broadway, there was a not so small detail that tended to baffle audience members.

In her Broadway debut, Den is acting in a play that she says 'had a orofound effect on me' from the time she first read it while in high school.

The Met's first new production since 1969 of Strauss's rich, romantic masterpiece stars Renée Fleming in one of her signature roles as the Marschallin, opposite El?na Garan?a as Octavian, the impulsive young title character, on Great Performances

The first Broadway revival of David Henry Hwang's Tony Award-winning play, M. Butterfly, directed by Tony Award winner Julie Taymor, stars Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award winner Clive Owen. M. Butterfly will open on Broadway at the Cort Theatre (138 W 48th Street) on October 26, 2017. Previews begin on October 7, 2017. Click below to see Owen in a brand-new trailer for the show!

For a new production that was supposed to mark a farewell for soprano Renee Fleming to a role (the Marschallin) if not to staged opera performance in general, Robert Carsen's version of Richard Strauss's DER ROSENKAVALIER at the Met seemed more of a farce and less a tale of regret about passing time than usual. And the “star” role seemed more of an aside than the center of it all.

Renee Fleming sings her final performances of one of her signature roles as the Marschallin in the Met's new production of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, opening April 13. Robert Carsen directs the new production-the company's first new staging of the piece since 1969-with Sebastian Weigle conducting all performances. The starry cast includes El?na Garan?a in her company role debut as the Marschallin's young lover, Octavian, opposite Erin Morley as Sophie, the innocent young woman who comes between Marschallin and Octavian; Gunther Groissbock as Baron Ochs, the Marschallin's oafish cousin; Marcus Bruck in his Met debut as Sophie's father Faninal; and Matthew Polenzani as the Italian Singer. Kathleen Kim sings Sophie in the April 28 and May 1 performances.  

English National Opera has been having a hard time with Don Giovanni lately. First there was Calixto Bieito's groggy, pastel-coloured nightmare (who could forget the pistachio leather dentist's chair), which paled into adequacy when compared to Rufus Norris's bafflingly unlovely (and just generally baffling) vision that followed. Richard Jones's new production is in no way a failure - there's far too much intelligence here for that, as well as more than one flash of utter brilliance - but it still feels like a show as yet not fully in focus. At his best Jones can make the most startlingly revisionist concept seem like it has always been staring you in face. Here his reading intrigues, compels, but never feels fully rooted in Mozart's music-drama.

LA MAMA presents COFFEEHOUSE CHRONICLES #134 "GABRIEL BERRY" - Saturday, APRIL 23, 2016 at 3:00pm - 5:00pm?-- Located at, La MaMa, Downstairs (66 East 4th Street, NYC).

Toronto – The world premiere of a new Canadian opera awaits Canadian Opera Company audiences this fall at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. In a new company production, the COC proudly presents Barbara Monk Feldman's first opera, Pyramus and Thisbe (2010), performed with two early Baroque opera classics, Claudio Monteverdi'sLamento d'Arianna (1608) and Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda(1624). Pyramus and Thisbe runs for seven performances on October 20, 23, 25, 28,November 5, 7 (two performances), 2015.

The 36th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards for the 2014/2015 season were handed out in a star-studded ceremony in Toronto on the evening of Monday, June 22 at Harbourfront Centre's WestJet Stage, hosted by the hilarious Gavin Crawford, whose eight seasons on CBC-TV's This Hour Has 22 Minutes earned him numerous accolades and who recently won an ACTRA Award for his leading role in the film Two 4 One.

The Met was running on all cylinders for the last performance of the season, with Verdi's UN BALLO IN MASCHERA in an energized version of the production that premiered in 2012. The trio of principals--soprano Sondra Radvanovsky as Amelia, tenor Piotr Beczala as Gustavo and baritone Alexey Markov as Anckarstrom--gave ringing, heart-felt performances in a concept from David Alden that previously seemed half-baked. Now, the singing and acting were so good that one could forget the conceit's shortcomings.

Toronto – The world premiere of a new Canadian work was one of the many operatic highlights revealed today at the public launch of the Canadian Opera Company's 2015/2016season at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The COC's 65th season is once again comprised entirely of company productions, four of which are new to Toronto audiences, and features the COC's first mainstage world premiere since 1999, COC premieres of opera rarities and the revival of classic masterpieces.

On Wednesday 14 January 2015, at HUSH in Mayfair, the finalists of the International Opera Awards 2015 were announced. These were selected by the jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and classical music critic with The Daily Telegraph.

The USITT-USA curatorial team chose two shows from Ripe Time Theatre in New York, a multimedia production from Paul Abacus, a “wandering opera” staged at LA's Union Station, and performance pieces from faculty at Auburn University in Alabama and Colorado College as the best overall productions for the exhibit.

CSC revives the abstract anti-war farce penned by a 28-year-old making his first dive into Berlin's post-war artistic renaissance.

“Dying is easy; comedy is hard” says the old show business quip. If anything, opera comedy is even harder. Why is it so difficult? Because it offers so many opportunities to do a disservice to the composer, the artists and the art form in one fell swoop. However, Robert Carsen's antic new production of Verdi's FALSTAFF at the Met, vividly conducted by Music Director James Levine, makes it look easy.