Richard Strauss News

Santtu-Matias Rouvali is set to become Chief Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony, the National Orchestra of Sweden. The 30-year old, recently hailed by the Guardian (London) as "the latest sit-up-and-listen talent to emerge from the great Finnish conducting tradition", will take up his new position at the beginning of the 2017-18 season. His appointment underlines the special relationship forged between conductor and orchestra in August 2014 with Rouvali's debut programme of works by Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Bernstein. Critical acclaim has followed their subsequent performances together, with Hakan Dahl of Goteborgs-Posten praising Rouvali as 'absolutely superb' (October 2015).

Vancouver, BC ~ On June 2, four of Canada's most talented singers will join forces with the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and Vancouver Opera Chorus for a celebratory concert featuring timeless opera favourites. BraVO!, a rare treat for music lovers, will be conducted by VO Music Director Jonathan Darlington and will recognize the retirement of VO's General Director James W. Wright, after 17 years at the head of the company.

This summer the 27th Annual Immanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival (TMF) will chart several musical firsts, including the TMF debut of distinguished Austrian conductor Hans Graf, who holds the distinction of having been the longest serving Music Director in Houston Symphony history. The June 3 - July 2 international music residency, based at the University of Houston (UH) Moores School of Music, attracts classical music's rising stars from top tier music conservatories worldwide to study and perform in concert with world-class soloists, conductors and faculty artists at the UH Moores Opera House and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.

After a sold-out run at the 1998 Lincoln Center Festival, the opera PATIENCE & SARAH returns to New York as a staged concert performance for two nights only - Thursday, June 23rd and Friday, June 24th at 7PM at the Players Theatre (115 MacDougal Street).

Orange County, Calif.—April 21, 2016—Two all-time favorite pieces of music provide a feast for the ears, while stimulating imaginations with their vivid, arresting beauty, when Pacific Symphony performs one of the most beloved works of the Baroque repertoire and then takes a stunning excursion through the Alps. First, Vivaldi's lyrical masterpiece “The Four Seasons,” which paints tantalizing pictures of the changing seasons, is performed and led by award-winning Russian-American violinist Philippe Quint. Revel in the celebration of the autumn harvest, the warmth of the winter fire and the languor of the summer sun as Vivaldi's Venetian tour de force unleashes all of the drama and splendor of the Baroque period and the lyrical beauty of the strings. Then, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, the Symphony retraces the majestic, musical depiction of a dawn-to-dusk hike up and down the Bavarian Alps, as brought to life by Richard Strauss' lush, splendid musical descriptions in his “An Alpine Symphony.” 

The Adelphi Orchestra presents 'Wagner Masterworks: Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod and Die Walkure : Act 1' on Sunday May 15 at 7:30 PM at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City in collaboration with the Wagner Society of New York.

Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung will replace The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Eric Owens, who has withdrawn due to illness, on advisement from his doctor, in selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, led by John Storga?rds in his Philharmonic debut, Today, May 12, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 13 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, May 14 at 8:00 p.m.

Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung will replace The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Eric Owens, who has withdrawn due to illness, on advisement from his doctor, in selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, led by John Storga?rds in his Philharmonic debut, Thursday, May 12, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 13 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, May 14 at 8:00 p.m.

The New York Choral Society will present Handel's biblical oratorio Israel in Egypt under the baton of Music Director David Hayes, today evening, May 10th, 2016, 8pm at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium. Composed entirely from selected passages from the Bible's Old Testament, Israel in Egypt relates the harshness of the Israelites' captivity in Egypt and their subsequent triumphant escape from the Pharaoh's oppressive regime. Israel in Egypt is atypical in Handel's choral output, as it contains little solo material and is dominated by large-scale virtuosic choruses that exhibit Handel's mastery as a musical storyteller.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2016 – The acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the United States, opens its 2016 Summer Festival with the popular Schwabacher Summer Concerts Thursday, July 7 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, July 9 at 2 pm at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Conducted by Eric Weimer and directed by Omer Ben Seadia, the Schwabacher Summer Concert features this year's Merola Opera artists performing extended scenes from operas including Handel's Serse, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, R. Strauss's Arabella, Wagner's Lohengrin, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, and Rossini's Le Comte Ory. Tickets for the concerts at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music range from $25 to $40, with a limited number of $15 student tickets. 

On May 5, at 17:00 Moscow time [14:00 GMT], the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra, conducted by People's Artist of Russia Valery Gergiev, held the 'Pray for Palmyra. Music Revives Ancient Ruins' concert on the stage of Palmyra's world-famous amphitheater.

Carnegie Hall's season-long 125th anniversary celebration reaches its pinnacle today, May 5 at 7:00 p.m.- exactly 125 years to the day that the Hall first opened its doors in 1891-when many of the world's most beloved musicians take to the Hall's legendary stage for an all-star gala benefit concert.

The Adelphi Orchestra, celebrating its 62nd season of 'Music for All'  presents a Grand Mother's Day concert Sunday May 8th in New Jersey. 'Wagner Masterworks: Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod and Die Walkure : Act 1.' The Wagner Masterworks Mother's Day concert will be the first of two performances, held on consecutive weekends, the second performance to take place in NYC at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.  The Adelphi Orchestra's special  Mother's Day performance of Wagner Masterworks is free and open to the public -  the first 50 individuals to reserve their seats through Eventbrite will receive a complimentary long stem rose at the concert for their Mother.

Vancouver, BC ~ On June 2, 2016, four of Canada's pre-eminent singers will join the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Music Director Jonathan Darlington, in “BraVO! A Vancouver Opera Concert” – a celebratory concert of opera excerpts honouring VO's General Director James W. Wright, who is retiring June 30th after 17 years at the head of the company. 

?HOUSTON (April 20, 2016) – Renowned maestro David Zinman will appear with the Houston Symphony and Chorus to conduct the Fauré Requiem at 8 p.m. April 28 and 30 and at 2:30 p.m. May 1. Zinman is the only American conductor to appear on this season's classical series.

Shortly after conquering the opera world with his scandalous masterpiece Salome, Richard Strauss turned to Hugo von Hofmannsthal's recent adaptation of Sophocles's Electra for his next project. The resulting opera is an intense and still-startling work that unites the commanding impact of Greek tragedy with the unsettling insights of early-20th-century Freudian psychology. The drama unfolds in a single act of rare vocal and orchestral power.

The Met's new production of Richard Strauss's ELEKTRA is something to behold, with Vincent Huguet recreating the original by the late Patrice Chereau from France's Aix-en-Provence Festival. Starring the glorious Nina Stemme in the title role--and backed by the stellar performances of Waltraud Meier as Klytamnestra, Adrianne Pieczonka as Chrysothemis and Eric Owens as Orest--this is a cast that would be hard to better. Add to it conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen's insightful, propulsive performance with the great Met orchestra. And, yet, there was…something missing: catharsis--no burst of rapture and the urge to jump up and applaud.

BroadwayWorld.com is giving away tickets to a special screening of ELEKTRA, the final performance of The Met: Live in HD 2015-2016 Series. Showing is Saturday, April 30 at 11:55 AM at a Houston-area movie theater! Enter to Win!

Carnegie Hall today announced that actor Richard Gere is set to host its 125th anniversary gala benefit concert on Thursday, May 5 at 7:00 p.m.