Richard Strauss News

Larry Rachleff's final concert as Music Director with the RI Philharmonic on Saturday, May 6 at 7pm is almost sold out. Due to high demand, an additional performance of the farewell program has been added on Friday, May 5 at 7pm. The additional performance aims to give the entire community a chance to see Larry one last time before his retirement after twenty one years with the Orchestra.

The dream cast of Renée Fleming as the Marschallin and El?na Garan?a as Octavian star in Strauss's grandest opera, Der Rosenkavalier, which opened at the Met on April 13th. In his new production, Robert Carsen, the director behind the Met's recent Falstaff, places the action at the end of the Habsburg Empire, underscoring the opera's subtext of class and conflict against a rich backdrop of gilt and red damask, in a staging that also stars Günther Groissböck as Baron Ochs. Sebastian Weigle conducts the sparklingly perfect score.

BroadwayWorld reported in 2014 that opera diva, Renee Fleming said in an interview at the time, that she 'may stop singing in 3 years.'  Three years later, Fleming, who's starring in Richard Strauss's 'Der Rosenkavalier' at the Met, will give her final performance on the afternoon of Saturday, May 13.

German soprano Anne Schwanewilms will make a much-anticipated New York recital debut, accompanied by pianist Malcolm Martineau, on Sunday, April 16 at 5:00 pm at Alice Tully Hall. She performs works by Richard Strauss and selections from Hugo Wolf's Morike-Lieder as part of Lincoln Center's Great Performers "Art of the Song" series.

American Ballet Theatre's 2017 Spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House, May 15-July 8, will feature the New York Premiere of Alexei Ratmansky's Whipped Cream and the Company Premiere of Ratmansky's Souvenir d'un lieu cher. Tickets for ABT's Spring Season at the Metropolitan Opera House go on sale at the box office on Sunday, March 26 at 12 Noon.

Music Director Alan Gilbert begins his final weeks by leading the New York Philharmonic in Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. The program juxtaposes the tragedy and optimism of human experience through Schoenberg's depiction of the horror of the Holocaust and the message of hope, brotherhood, and joy in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw will feature Gabriel Ebert as narrator (in his Philharmonic debut) and the men of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, directed by Joe Miller. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony will feature soprano Camilla Tilling, mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack (debut), tenor Joseph Kaiser (debut), bass-baritone Eric Owens, and the Westminster Symphonic Choir, directed by Joe Miller. The performances will take place Wednesday, May 3, 2017, at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, May 5 at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, May 6 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m. The program will be presented without intermission.

The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct the New York Philharmonic in the U.S. Premiere of Tansy Davies's Forest, the New York Premiere of Stravinsky's recently rediscovered Funeral Song; and Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra. 

The Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion Presents Two Concert Events

On March 13th, the stars aligned and came out to shine for 'PREformances with Allison Charney' classical concert series, where celebrated classical musicians come to play before they appear on many of the world's most prestigious stages. Scroll down for photos from the concert!

Marking their first U.S. performances together, this spring Grammy and ECHO Klassik Award-winning conductor Fabio Luisi tours five California cities with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DNSO), where he launched his tenure as Principal Conductor this season. At concerts in Santa Barbara (March 28), Palm Desert (March 29), San Diego (March 30), Costa Mesa (March 31), and San Francisco (April 2 & 3), he and the orchestra will perform Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder with star soprano Deborah Voigt, whom Luisi conducted as Brünnhilde in Robert LePage's 2011 “Ring” cycle at New York's Metropolitan Opera. The music of Danish composer Carl Nielsen, long a DNSO staple, will also be featured: the Helios Overture, and, exclusively in San Francisco, the Symphony No. 6. At the first four concerts, the program will be completed by the spring-infused First Symphony by Mahler, whose Ninth Symphony Luisi conducted at the DNSO's season-opening concerts last fall; in San Francisco, he will instead lead music by Beethoven – the “Eroica” Symphony and Violin Concerto, with Arabella Steinbacher as soloist – and Richard Strauss. Shortly after the tour, Luisi returns to California to conduct the San Francisco Symphony (April 27–29) before bringing his U.S. spring season to a close on the East Coast, where he looks forward to leading The Orchestra Now (TŌN) at Bard College (May 28).

James Levine, Christoph Eschenbach, Gustavo Dudamel, Susanna Malkki, Kent Nagano, a "virtual" Esa-Pekka Salonen, and three conductors making Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts take the podium. 

No one can accuse the Met of skimping when it put together its current revival of Mozart's opera seria IDOMENEO. Yes, the production's 35 years old, but with this cast, it hardly mattered: tenor Matthew Polenzani in the title role, elegant and Mozartian to the nth degree, the suave and poignant mezzo Alice Coote as his son, Idamante, and the pristine, gorgeous soprano Nadine Sierra as Ilia, the captured Trojan princess, under Music Director Emeritus James Levine. But it was the fourth of the leading players, the full-bodied lyric soprano Elza van den Heever, as Elettra, who blew the roof off.

The Minnesota Orchestra announces plans today for Sommerfest 2017, unveiling a celebratory summer festival in which the Orchestra salutes two of its artistic leaders: Doc Severinsen on his 90th birthday, and Sommerfest Artistic Director Andrew Litton, who has announced that this summer will mark his final season as the head of the festival. Running from July 3 to August 5, Minnesota Orchestra's summer season includes two tribute concerts to Pops Conductor Laureate Severinsen; performances by Litton and his friends André Watts, William Wolfram and New York City Ballet dancers; and culminates with the opera Litton has long wanted to conduct in Minnesota, Strauss' Salome. The summer season also involves the annual Symphony for the Cities concerts, two previously announced regular season programs and the return of the Minnesota Orchestra Fantasy Camp.

Soprano Amber Wagner, a 2010 George London Award Winner, and baritone Reginald Smith, Jr., who won his George London Award in 2015, make their New York recital debuts at the final program in the George London Foundation Recital Series, and the final event in the foundation's season, on Sunday, April 2, 2017, at 4:00 pm. Alan Darling is the recital's pianist; a reception with the artists follows the concert.

On Saturday, April 8, 7:30 pm at the Baruch Performing Arts Center the award-winning Israeli Chamber Project joins forces with renowned violist Paul Neubauer for a program of classics. This concert takes place at Baruch Performing Arts Center's acoustically stunning Engelman Recital Hall at Baruch College, E. 25th Street between 3rd and Lexington Avenues. Ticket information is below.

The stars align and come out to shine for "PREformances with Allison Charney" first evening concert of 2017, where celebrated classical musicians come to play before they appear on the world's most prestigious stages. 

The stars align and come out to shine for "PREformances with Allison Charney" first evening concert of 2017, where celebrated classical musicians come to play before they appear on the world's most prestigious stages. 

This autumn the Victoria and Albert Museum, in collaboration with the Royal Opera House, will create a vivid and immersive journey through nearly 400 years of opera, exploring its passion, power and politics.

The legendary St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Russia's oldest musical ensemble, returns to New York today, March 4 to celebrate its 135th anniversary with a concert at Carnegie Hall, led by its esteemed Artistic Director and Principal Conductor, Yuri Temirkanov.

Florida Grand Opera (FGO) General Director and CEO Susan T. Danis today unveiled plans for the company's 2017-18 season. Anchored by the theme 'Divas to Die For,' FGO's seventy-seventh season will boast a diverse range of works about women on dangerous emotional journeys.