Richard Tucker News

Richard Tucker Award-winning tenor Stephen Costello looks forward to singing opera arias and duets al fresco on both sides of the Atlantic this summer, with appearances in New York's Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series (July 16 & 19); with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra at the city's Stern Grove Festival (Aug 18); and at the inaugural Branscombe Festival on England's south-west coast (July 27). In both California and the UK, the tenor's partner will be his wife and frequent co-star, lyric soprano Ailyn Pérez; recently billed as 'opera's hottest couple' at Los Angeles Opera, Vanity Fair says they are 'a match made in verismo heaven.'

In the first public event of its 2013-14 season, the Metropolitan Opera Guild will pay tribute to one of the 20th century's great singing legends, Rise Stevens, who died in March at the age of 99, and whose centennial falls today, June 11. Hosted by Frederica von Stade, 'Rise: A Celebration of Rise Stevens' will take place in New York City's Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College on Wednesday, September 18, at 7:30pm.

Angela Meade - who earlier this month added Washington National Opera's Artist of the Year honor to her 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Award and her 2011 Richard Tucker Award - is looking forward to a starry summer. The soprano portrays Donna Anna in the Cincinnati Opera production of Mozart's Don Giovanni (June 13, 15), with Verdi performances to follow at the Caramoor International Music Festivalin Katonah, NY (June 27, July 6), Bravo! Vail with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin (July 13), and the Grand Tetons Music Festival under Donald Runnicles (July 26-27).

Angela Meade has just been named Artist of the Year by the Washington National Opera (WNO). The May 13 announcement comes on the heels of the soprano's triumphant company debut, in which she "thrilled WNO devotees with her nearly mind-blowing mastery of Bellini's most challenging music" (Washington Times) in the title role of Norma. Previous recipients of the Artist of the Year award, which carries a $5,000 cash prize, include mezzo-sopranos Frederica von Stade and Denyce Graves, tenor Jerry Hadley, and conductor John Mauceri.

Handel and Haydn Society Presents Handel Jephtha, conducted by Artistic Director Harry Christophers, in celebration of the 2015 Bicentennial. The piece premiered in the US by H&H in 1855. Performances are set for tonight, May 3, 2013 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 3pm at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Mass.

When Fabio Luisi took up his post as General Music Director of the Zurich Opera last fall, he helped launch a new era, marked by bold productions and inspired artistic collaborations. For the great Swiss opera house's newly announced 2013-14 season, he continues to build on this auspicious start. As the Intermezzo blog reports, "Zurich's programming is showing an increasingly adventurous touch," and Luisi has succeeded once again in attracting some of today's most visionary directors and conductors - with such young stars as Mikko Franck, Teodor Currentzis, Cornelius Meister, and Pavel Baleff - and in drawing together first-rate casts that juxtapose living legends like Cecilia Bartoli, Edita Gruberova, Anne-Sofie von Otter, Rene Pape, and Nina Stemme with emerging singers on the cusp of international stardom. Anchoring the new season are eleven new productions, 18 revivals, and six orchestral concerts. Having just won a Grammy Award for his leadership of Wagner at the Metropolitan Opera, in Zurich Luisi sets his sights on this year's other great operatic bicentennial, with four operas by Giuseppe Verdi. The conductor himself will play a major part in the new season, premiering important productions of Fidelio and Aida, as well as leading four programs with the Philharmonia Zurich and revivals of Don Carlo, Les contes d'Hoffmann, and Bellini's La straniera. By way of a prelude to the upcoming season, the company's new take on this bel canto classic will form the centerpiece of Luisi's summer in Zurich, which also sees him directing Rigoletto, Der Rosenkavalier, and concerts of Schumann's orchestral and choral music.

Reviving important but neglected operas is one of the ways the Bard SummerScape festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson has established itself as "a hotbed of intellectual and aesthetic adventure" (New York Times).

Dialogues des Carmelites, Poulenc's opera about a group of nuns whose faith is tested under the Terror of the French Revolution, will return to the Met repertory on May 4 for the first time since 2002. In role debuts, Isabel Leonard will sing the naive aristocrat Blanche de la Force and Patricia Racette will sing Madame Lidoine, the imposing Prioress of a Carmelite convent. Felicity Palmer will reprise her portrayal of the ailing Madame de Croissy, a role she sang to acclaim in the most recent Met revival of the opera. Louis Langree conducts his first Met performances of the work, with a cast that also includes Elizabeth Bishop as Mother Marie, Erin Morley as Sister Constance, and Paul Appleby as Blanche's brother, the Chevalier de la Force. The opera will be presented in John Dexter's acclaimed 1977 Met premiere production.

She releases Poeme d'un jour, her debut solo album presenting French and Spanish songs, on the Opus Arte label (May 28 in the U.S., see full track list below).

Handel and Haydn Society Presents Handel Jephtha, conducted by Artistic Director Harry Christophers, in celebration of the 2015 Bicentennial. The piece premiered in the US by H&H in 1855. Performances are set for Friday, May 3, 2013 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 3pm at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Mass.

In honor of this year's Verdi bicentennial, there will be a number of upcoming opportunities to hear her perform the great Italian composer's music. The first of these takes place this Monday, April 8, when Meade - winner of the 2011 Richard Tucker and 2012 Beverly Sills Awards - stars as Giselda in a concert performance of I Lombardi at New York's Lincoln Center.

Richard Tucker Award-winner Stephen Costello made his role debut as Tonio in La fille du regiment at San Diego Opera last month. This auspicious start marked the first of the tenor's three Donizetti leads this year, the next of which sees him return to the Vienna State Opera to sing Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore opposite his wife and frequent co-star, Ailyn Perez, (March 1-8) before taking on Edgardo in David Alden's groundbreaking staging of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Canadian Opera Company (April 17-May 24).

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

Richard Tucker Award-winner Stephen Costello made his role debut as Tonio in La fille du regiment at San Diego Opera last month. This auspicious start marked the first of the tenor's three Donizetti leads this year, the next of which sees him return to the Vienna State Opera to sing Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore opposite his wife and frequent co-star, Ailyn Perez, (March 1-8) before taking on Edgardo in David Alden's groundbreaking staging of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Canadian Opera Company (April 17-May 24).

“Go and see her. A huge star in the making is amongst us,” urged the Opera Creep blog after Ailyn Pérez's recital at London's historic St. John's Smith Square last March.

On Monday, March 11, at 8:00 p.m., the versatile and commanding mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, joined by frequent collaborator, pianist Warren Jones, makes her Carnegie Hall recital debut in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage with a deeply personal program of American song. Ms. Blythe's program features Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, a set of songs written for her by the late composer James Legg, and Samuel Barber's Three Songs, Op. 10, powerful settings of three poems by James Joyce. Also featured are songs by Tin Pan Alley songwriters Ray Henderson, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is back in New York City and Lincoln Square restaurants step up to the plate! The runways will be lit and the area's restaurants are sure to be packed with people taking advantage of Lincoln Square BID's successful dining promotions: Fashion Plate Prix Fixe and Lincoln Square Crew Cuts. The Event runs February 7-14 and the Upper West Side's most popular restaurants are hosting fashionably exceptional deals for everyone coming to, living in or working in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. The promotion expands each season with American Table Café & Bar, Andanada 141 and Arpeggio Food & Wine beingthree of the latest additions to the list of participating restaurants.