Richard Tucker News

Described by Opera News as the “lyric soprano who truly seems to have it all,” Ailyn Pérez takes the stage at leading opera houses on both sides of the Atlantic in 2014-15 for an exciting new season that features house debuts at both the Metropolitan Opera and Houston Grand Opera, the latter also serving as a role debut for Pérez as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello.

Ailyn Perez, born and bred in Chicago, returns to her hometown's famous Ravinia Festival for two performances (Aug 14 & 16) as Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni - a role that the Dallas Morning News has said shows her to be 'a singer of considerable nuance.' LA Opera Music Director James Conlon leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the run, which also features baritone Christopher Maltman in the title role, baritone David Bizi? as Leporello, soprano Tamara Wilson as Donna Anna and tenor Saimir Pirgu as Don Ottavio. The Chicago Tribune praised Perez's 2012 appearance at Ravinia, as Pamina in Die Zauberflote, as 'show-stopping…all floating pianissimos and diminuendos and delicate pathos, which roused the sold-out crowd to a long, well-deserved ovation.'

San Francisco Opera presents the Company premiere of Carlisle Floyd's two-act opera Susannah September 6 at the War Memorial Opera House. Soprano Patricia Racette returns to San Francisco Opera in her role debut as the innocent, strong-willed and falsely accused young woman Susannah Polk.

Legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman and renowned cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot join forces for a musical exploration of liturgical and traditional works in new arrangements for both chamber orchestra and klezmer settings on THIRTEEN's Great Performances

On a U.S. duo recital tour this September, Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez -- the husband-and-wife team dubbed “Pérello” by the BBC and “the Jay-Z and Beyoncé” of opera by Vanity Fair -- sing romantic favorites from their hit album release, Love Duets.

Music Director Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) kick off the 2014-2015 concert season with Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Mahler's Fourth Symphony on Thursday, September 18 at 8 p.m.

Music Director Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) kick off the 2014-2015 concert season with Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Mahler's Fourth Symphony on Thursday, September 18 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore, and Friday, September 19 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, September 21 at 3 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Baltimore native and Grammy award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn joins the BSO to perform Beethoven's Violin Concerto, which is widely considered the pinnacle of the violin literature. Also on the program is Mahler's Fourth Symphony, for which soprano Tamara Wilson will join the BSO for its final movement, "Das himmlische Leben." Please see below for complete program details.

Washington National Opera (WNO) presents An Evening with Stephen Costello and Ailyn Perez, featuring the celebrated husband-and-wife stars of last season's production of The Elixir of Love, Wednesday, September 10, 2014 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Washington National Opera (WNO) presents An Evening with Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pe?rez, featuring the celebrated husband-and-wife stars of last season's production of The Elixir of Love, Wednesday, September 10, 2014 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Accompanied on piano by Danielle Orlando, Costello and Pe?rez will perform songs, arias, and duets from popular works by Verdi, Puccini, Hahn, Tosti, Falla, Heggie, and more.

After receiving a record-breaking 600 applications in a single season, General Director Plácido Domingo has selected ten new participants who will enter LA Opera's Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program in the 2014/15 season. Approximately 250 of the original applicants were selected to sing live semi-final auditions in Los Angeles and New York before a panel of LA Opera's music staff and artistic administration. From those auditions, 21 singers were invited to sing a final audition for Mr. Domingo, who made the ultimate selection of the incoming participants.

Reviving important but neglected operas is one of the ways the Bard SummerScape festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson has established itself, and this year's immersion in 'Schubert and His World' - culminating in the 25th-anniversary season of the Bard Music Festival - is no exception. To enrich its exploration of the roots of Austro-German Romanticism, Bard presents Euryanthe (1823) by Schubert's contemporary Carl Maria von Weber, marking the opera's first American revival in 100 years. Headlined by Ellie Dehn, Bard's original staging is by Kevin Newbury, creator of SummerScape's production of Richard Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae. Euryanthe's five performances (July 25, 27 & 30; August 1 & 3) feature the festival's resident American Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of music director Leon Botstein, who also leads semi-staged performances of Schubert's own seldom-heard opera Fierrabras starring Joseph Kaiser, best known for his leading role in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of The Magic Flute, on August 17, and of a double-bill of rarities - Schubert's one-act Singspiel Die Verschworenen and Franz von Suppe's operetta Franz Schubert - on August 10.

Ailyn Perez, born and bred in Chicago, returns to her hometown's famous Ravinia Festival for two performances (Aug 14 & 16) as Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni - a role that the Dallas Morning News has said shows her to be "a singer of considerable nuance." LA Opera Music Director James Conlon leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the run, which also features baritone Christopher Maltman in the title role, baritone David Bizi? as Leporello, soprano Tamara Wilson as Donna Anna and tenor Saimir Pirgu as Don Ottavio. The Chicago Tribune praised Perez's 2012 appearance at Ravinia, as Pamina in Die Zauberflote, as "show-stopping…all floating pianissimos and diminuendos and delicate pathos, which roused the sold-out crowd to a long, well-deserved ovation."

The Dallas Opera is delighted to bring the hottest young couple in opera back to North Texas for a ravishing recital in a fabulous new venue for TDO: the Eisemann Center. These acclaimed American artists, soprano Ailyn Pérez (Don Giovanni) and tenor Stephen Costello (Moby-Dick) will perform selections from their newly released Warner Classics CD, Love Duets.

Warner Classics presents the most ambitious and extensive project ever undertaken in the name of the Maria Callas catalogue: a groundbreaking remastered edition of her complete recordings.

I'd call it “love at first sight” (or, more properly, “first hearing”), but this wasn't the first time I'd heard mezzo Jamie Barton. And I certainly hope it won't be the last. Her performances at opening of this year's Summer Recital Series from the Metropolitan Opera at Central Park's SummerStage in New York, on June 23, were sensational. She grabbed the audience by the lapels and refused to let go.

The highly-anticipated Free Lunchtime Summer Concert Series is back to make afternoons more festive in Lincoln Square this July and August. The favorite outdoor concerts at Richard Tucker Park will feature several new - along with a few returning - musical performers. Locals, visitors, music enthusiasts, and yogis are all encouraged to grab lunch and make their way to the park for complimentary refreshments from local eatery P.J. Clarke's, and live music by top musicians from MTA's Music Under New York, NYC's eclectic "underground" scene!

Angela Meade – fresh from Metropolitan Opera triumphs as Bellini's Norma and as Alice Ford in Falstaff (the latter seen worldwide in the Met's Live in HD series) – has a busy summer ahead. The soprano, whose honors include the Richard Tucker and Beverly Sills Artist Awards, will perform at festivals across the U.S. from June through August. She launches her summer season as soprano soloist in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Baltimore Symphony under Marin Alsop (June 5-8) before taking on the title role of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia in her return to the Caramoor International Music Festival (July 12, 18). The Washington State native also headlines two festivals in Oregon: she sings Violetta in Verdi's La traviata for the gala opening concert of the Astoria Music Festival (June 14), and the title role of Bellini's Norma for Portland's SummerFest (Aug 8).

Angela Meade – fresh from Metropolitan Opera triumphs as Bellini's Norma and as Alice Ford in Falstaff (the latter seen worldwide in the Met's Live in HD series) – has a busy summer ahead. The soprano, whose honors include the Richard Tucker and Beverly Sills Artist Awards, will perform at festivals across the U.S. from June through August. She launches her summer season as soprano soloist in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Baltimore Symphony under Marin Alsop (June 5-8) before taking on the title role of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia in her return to the Caramoor International Music Festival (July 12, 18). The Washington State native also headlines two festivals in Oregon: she sings Violetta in Verdi's La traviata for the gala opening concert of the Astoria Music Festival (June 14), and the title role of Bellini's Norma for Portland's SummerFest (Aug 8).

Even with its visions of damnation and redemption, Gounod's FAUST, with libretto by Barbier and Carre, is pretty tame stuff. In the wrong hands, it can be dull as well. Well, you can't accuse the Dutch National Opera's new production--by Barcelona's Alex Ollé and the theatre company La Fura dels Baus--of being “dull,” with its prosthetic breasts, Barbie doll chorus and simulated sex.

“The party's over,” wrote Betty Comden & Adolph Green in BELLS ARE RINGING. “It's time to call it a day.” The opera season at the Metropolitan said its farewells to 2013-2014 on May 10 with a bel canto doubleheader of Rossini's LA CENERENTOLA (a shot heard round the world via radio and The Met's LIVE IN HD) and Bellini's IL PURITANI--not a bad swan song, considering the singing talent involved.