Richard Strauss News

The Canadian Opera Company's 2018/2019 season presents the world premiere of Hadrian, a new opera from composer Rufus Wainwright and librettist Daniel MacIvor, which features the highly anticipated COC debuts of international opera stars Thomas Hampson and Karita Mattila.

The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School present an 'Evening of Verdi' in their seventh collaboration on Friday, February 23, 2018, at 8pm in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Evan Rogister, an alumnus of Juilliard and guest conductor at the Met this season, conducts scenes from Verdi's operas with singers from the Met Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Juilliard Orchestra. Stephen Wadsworth provides concert stage direction for excerpts from I Lombardi alla prima crociata, Stiffelio, Falstaff, and Rigoletto.

Maria Aitken will direct the Globe's handsome production of this timeless world classic-an unmissable opportunity to see what the London Telegraph calls 'the most perfect comedy in the English language.' The Importance of Being Earnest will run January 27 - March 4, 2018 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets start at $30.00 and are on sale now to the general public. Previews run January 27-31. Opening night is Thursday, February 1 at 8:00 p.m.

The New York Philharmonic will perform the New York Concert Premiere of The Marie-Jos e Kravis Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen's Helix, conducted by the Finnish composer's compatriot Susanna M lkki, Musical America's 2017 Conductor of the Year.

Chicago's Grant Park Music Festival Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar today announced a rich array of programming for the Festival's 2018 season, including a large-scale world premiere commission for orchestra and chorus by the Latvian composer, ?riks E envalds. Kalmar will lead the Grant Park Orchestra, along with Chorus Director Christopher Bell and the Grant Park Chorus, in a ten-week season, taking place from June 13 August 18 at Millennium Park's Jay Pritzker Pavilion and other venues throughout the city.

Houston Grand Opera ( HGO ) presents Richard Strauss's chilling one - act drama, Elektra, January 19 February 2, the first HGO performances in 25 years. The Sir David McVicar production stars internationally acclaimed soprano Christine Goerke, who owns the title role as one of the most fearless and formidable dramatic sopranos of the day ( New York Times ).

The Old Globe's 2017 2018 Season continues with today's announcement of the complete cast and creative team of a top-notch revival of Oscar Wilde's endlessly entertaining comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. Maria Aitken will direct the Globe's handsome production of this timeless world classic an unmissable opportunity to see what the London Telegraph calls the most perfect comedy in the English language. The Importance of Being Earnest will run January 27 March 4, 2018 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets start at $30.00 and are on sale now to the general public. Previews run January 27 31. Opening night is Thursday, February 1 at 8:00 p.m.

Music Director Designate Jaap van Zweden will conduct the New York Philharmonic in a program pairing the New York Premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner John Luther Adams's Dark Waves with Act I of Wagner's Die Walk re (in concert), with soprano Heidi Melton as Sieglinde, tenor Simon O'Neill as Siegmund (in his New York Philharmonic debut), and bass John Relyea as Hunding.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage's 2018 Celebrity Opera Series commences on January 15 with Jonas Kaufmann, tenor with Helmut Deutsch, piano. The Telegraph has singled out Jonas Kaufmann as the world's greatest tenor.

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the baton of its newly appointed Chief Conductor Daniele Gatti returns to Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage for two back-to-back concerts in January, marking the first time the orchestra will travel to the United States with Mr. Gatti, who is only the seventh Chief Conductor in the orchestra's 129-year history. For the first concert, on Wednesday, January 17 at 8:00 p.m., the orchestra performs excerpts from Wagner's final opera Parsifal, including the Prelude to Act III and Good FridaySpell, on a program that also features Bruckner's final Symphony No. 9 in D Minor.

The Emerson String Quarte t, one of the giants of the classical music world and a cornerstone of the Center's annual Chamber Series, is joined by the exceptional young Calidore String Quartet to perform works from th e string quintet, sextet and octet repertories on Thursday, February 8 at 7 : 45 p.m. in Samueli Theater.

Very few works of art retain the power to shock and disturb that they showed on their opening night decades earlier. One of those is Richard Strauss's 1905 operaSalome. When it first appeared, this steamy brew of eroticism and religion so unnerved audiences that it was banned in Vienna and London. The opera's troubles didn't end there. In 1907, at New York's Metropolitan Opera, it was yanked from the company's repertoire just days after its premiere. At a semipublic dress rehearsal, the way in which the company's Salome, soprano Olive Fremstad, planted a passionate kiss on the severed head of John the Baptist, proved too disturbing for many of the timid Met patrons. The board revolted, demanding that General Manager Heinrich Conried bring Salome'srun to a halt. A statement was issued declaring that the work itself was objectionable and detrimental to the best interests of the Metropolitan Opera House.

Returning for its annual Kennedy Center engagement, American Ballet Theatre (ABT) brings two different programs to the Opera House stage,January 30 February 4. Whipped Cream, the acclaimed all-new, evening-length work from world-renowned choreographer and ABT Artist-in-Residence Alexei Ratmansky, makes its D.C. premiere February 1 4, while a program of repertory works, January 30 and 31, includes the D.C. premieres of Ratmansky's Serenade after Plato's Symposium and Benjamin Millepied's I Feel the Earth Move.

Six Rice University graduate students have been selected to participate in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program, part of the New York Philharmonic Global Academy partnership launched in fall 2015 between Rice's Shepherd School of Music and the New York Philharmonic.

The 27th annual Arizona Musicfest Winter Festival will bring a deeply diverse lineup of exceptional artists, repertoires and musical styles to Valley venues beginning with Chita Rivera and Tommy Tune: Just in Time on Jan. 26. The 19-concert schedule concludes on March 16 with Decades Rewind that turns back the clock to the music of the 60s, 70s and 80s.

From January 23 28, 2018, Carnegie Hall celebrates the legendary mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, who will lead The Song Continues in her final season as Artistic Advisor before passing the torch to acclaimed soprano Ren e Fleming, who will continue this beloved tradition in years to come.

The Chamber Orchestra of New York, Salvatore Di Vittorio, Music Director and Conductor, will be in concert today, December 9 at 8:00 PM, performing Strauss, Thomas Tallis Fantasia, and Grieg's Holberg Suite, the second concert of its 10th Anniversary 2017-2018 Masterworks series at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, 57th Street at Seventh Avenue in Manhattan.

The 70th anniversary season of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence will present six full-scale opera productions and an international roster of exceptional artistry from July 4 through 24, 2018. The anniversary season also marks a milestone, as it celebrates the conclusion of Bernard Foccroulle's eleven-year tenure as general manager of the Festival. His legacy will be demonstrated in the coming season with commissions, new productions, major participatory events, and significant outreach to Arab, Mediterranean, and local audiences. Foccroulle will be succeeded by Park Avenue Armory artistic director and Dutch National Opera director Pierre Audi in September, 2018.

'PREFORMANCES WITH ALLISON CHARNEY' first evening concert of the 2017-18 season will feature preeminent musicians Kajsa William-Olsson, Elizabeth Mann, Donna Weng and the ARK trio (soprano Allison Charney, cellist Kajsa William-Olsson, pianist Reiko Uchida) in exclusive preview 'preformances' - anticipating their upcoming appearances on the world's most prestigious stages. The November 27th concert program taking place at 7:30 pm at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center will present works by master composers of the 20th century - Czech composer Bohuslav Jan Martin? and Russian composer Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev as well as new classical works by American contemporary composer Michael Ching.

The internationally and locally acclaimed performance of Wagner's complete Ring Cycle given by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil), reaches its fourth and last part - G tterd mmerung - on 18 and 21 January 2018 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Once again, the HK Phil's Music Director Jaap van Zweden conducts the performances and is joined by a cast of world-renowned Wagnerian singers and outstanding choruses.