Sondra Radvanovsky News

One of the world's most innovative and respected architects, Jeanne Gang, and her firm Studio Gang Architects (studiogang.net), are designing a new concert shell for Lyric Opera of Chicago. The shell will be used for the first time at Lyric's 60th Anniversary Concert, which takes place at the Civic Opera House on November 1, 2014, at 6:30 pm.

The Canadian Opera Company regrets to announce that Italian tenor Giuseppe Filianoti will not be returning to the company's production of Roberto Devereux, currently in performance at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. As previously announced, Filianoti withdrew from the title role for the first three of seven scheduled performances, and circumstances continue to prevent his return to the stage. American tenor Leonardo Capalbo stepped into the role on April 25, 29 and May 3, 2014 and was met with overwhelming popular and critical acclaim for his portrayal of Roberto Devereux.

The Canadian Opera Company regrets to announce that Italian tenor Giuseppe Filianoti will not be returning to the company's production of Roberto Devereux, currently in performance at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. As previously announced, Filianoti withdrew from the title role for the first three of seven scheduled performances, and circumstances continue to prevent his return to the stage. American tenor Leonardo Capalbostepped into the role on April 25, 29 and May 3, 2014 and was met with overwhelming popular and critical acclaim for his portrayal of Roberto Devereux.

In the final month of the 2013/2014 season, TSO musicians will claim the spotlight in an engaging Light Classics programme that includes the electrifying crescendo of Ravel's famous Bolero and Brahms's merry medley of German student songs. Led by RBC Resident Conductor Shalom Bard, Niccolo Paganini's Sonata per la gran viola will provide the dazzling showpiece for Principal Viola Teng Li, while Principal Oboe Sarah Jeffrey will steal the spotlight in Calla Lilies by Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich.

World renowned American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky returns to the Canadian Opera Company this spring in the ultimate diva role, Queen Elizabeth I, for the COC premiere of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux. The tumultuous final days of the reign of the Virgin Queen are depicted in this powerful drama of show-stopping vocal fireworks, directed by Stephen Lawless and conducted by Corrado Rovaris. Roberto Devereux is sung in Italian with English SURTITLES and runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts today, April 25, 29, May 3, 10, 15, 18, 21, 2014.

World renowned American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky returns to the Canadian Opera Company this spring in the ultimate diva role, Queen Elizabeth I, for the COC premiere of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux. The tumultuous final days of the reign of the Virgin Queen are depicted in this powerful drama of show-stopping vocal fireworks, directed by Stephen Lawless and conducted by Corrado Rovaris. Roberto Devereux is sung in Italian with English SURTITLES and runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on April 25, 29, May 3, 10, 15, 18, 21, 2014.

The winners of the 43rd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers were announced at the conclusion of the competition's final round this evening, which took place in a front of a capacity audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

Today, February 21, 24 finalists will perform for the judges and audience, hoping to win a George London Award, an honor that has been conferred upon hundreds of the best young singers since 1971.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season will feature 26 operas, three of them company premieres, in six new productions and 18 revivals showcasing the talents of the world's leading singers, conductors, and theater artists. The three operas that will have their first-ever Met performances, each staged by a director making his Met debut, are John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris, opening October 20; Rossini's La Donna del Lago, conducted by Michele Mariotti and directed by Paul Curran, opening February 16, 2015; and Tchaikovsky's one-act opera Iolanta, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Treli?ski. Iolanta will be presented in a double bill with a new staging of Bartok's one-act Duke Bluebeard's Castle, also conducted by Gergiev and directed by Treli?ski.

Lyric Opera of Chicago announced its 2014-2015 season today, which is set to include eight operas, a world premiere new opera, a one night only piano concert with internationally acclaimed pianist Lang Lang, and special family performances. Lyric's 2014-15 subscription season will offer 68 performances of eight different operas Saturday, September 27, 2014 through Sunday, March 15 , 2015. Lyric will also present 17 performances of a new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel in April 2015, continuing the company's American Musical Theater Initiative.

Over three days of preliminary auditions on February 17-19, 2014, 90 of the best young American and Canadian opera singers will compete to reach the final round of the 43rd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition.

General Director Plácido Domingo announced LA Opera's 2014/15 season, created in collaboration with Music Director James Conlon and President and CEO Christopher Koelsch. The upcoming season will include six mainstage productions, with 41 performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Additional performances will take place in other venues through an expansion of the Company's Off Grand initiative. The season will open on September 13, 2014, and will run through June 14, 2015.

General Director Plácido Domingo announced LA Opera's 2014/15 season, created in collaboration with Music Director James Conlon and President and CEO Christopher Koelsch. The upcoming season will include six mainstage productions, with 41 performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Additional performances will take place in other venues through an expansion of the Company's Off Grand initiative. The season will open on September 13, 2014, and will run through June 14, 2015.

On his debut solo recording – Power Players: Russian Arias for Bass (DE 3456) – Ildar Abdrazakov returns to his Russian roots, celebrating the iconic bass roles that are the hallmark of his homeland's operatic heritage.

Opera singer Martina Arroyo, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader and composer Herbie Hancock, pianist, singer and songwriter Billy Joel, actress Shirley MacLaine and musician and songwriter Carlos Santana received honors at THE 36TH ANNUAL KENNEDY CENTER HONORS, to be broadcast tonight, Dec. 29 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Below, check out performances by Broadway vets Patina Miller, Sutton Foster and more as they pay tribute to this year's honorees!

In recognition of her outstanding lifetime contribution to American culture, Martina Arroyo was saluted as one of five recipients of this year's Kennedy Center Honors in a star-studded gala celebration held on December 8 that will be broadcast nationwide as a two-hour prime time special on CBS-TV this Sunday, December 29 at 9pm, ET/PT. Seated with President and Mrs. Obama at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as with her fellow honorees (actress Shirley MacLaine and musicians Herbie Hancock, Billy Joel and Carlos Santana), the pre-eminent American soprano was introduced in a speech by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who also narrated a short video about Arroyo. She was then saluted by a musical tribute celebrating her legendary portrayal of the title role in Verdi's Aida. First, Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja performed Radames's aria 'Celeste Aida,' and soprano Sondra Radvanovsky sang Aida's aria 'O patria mia.' Then the two star singers were joined by graduates of the Martina Arroyo Foundation's programs-Ryan Speedo Green, Chantelle Grant, Robert Kerr, and Yuriy Yurchuk-as well as the Army Herald Trumpets and the U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club, to perform the opera's Act II finale.

One of the most innovative and powerful forces in the performing arts world today, director Peter Sellars returns to the Canadian Opera Company with an already acclaimed new COC production of Handel's Hercules, based on Sophocles' timeless tragedy. Sellars propels the Greek myth of Hercules into the modern day, directing the same star-studded cast that premiered this production to unanimous praise at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2011: American bass-baritone Eric Owens as Hercules (COC debut); British mezzo-soprano Alice Coote as Hercules' wife Dejanira; American countertenor David Daniels as Hercules' trusted aide, Lichas; American tenor Richard Croft as Hercules' son, Hyllus; and British soprano Lucy Crowe as the princess Iole (COC debut). Internationally renowned Baroque specialist Harry Bicket leads the COC Orchestra and Chorus through Handel's glorious music. The ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles was also a war general who knew first-hand the devastating psychological traumas facing returning veterans. With Hercules Sellars creates a healing work in which the untold horrors of war and the unspoken complications of reunion find their voice.

Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja gave a very special surprise performance at last night's presentation of the 2013 Kennedy Center Honors.

The grandeur of Italian opera Live in HD from the Met will feature Puccini's Tosca starring Patricia Racette and Sondra Radvanovsky on Saturday, November 9, at 12:55 p.m. at The Ridgefield Playhouse. Benjamin Britten stars in Alan Bennett's play The Habit of Art on Wednesday, November 20, at 6:30 p.m. Live in HD from London's National Theatre. For tickets ($25 adults, $20 seniors/members, $15 students, $18 each for all 10 in the series), call the box office at (203) 438-5795, or order online at ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

Patricia Racette and Sondra Radvanovsky will reprise their acclaimed performances of one of the most famous roles in opera, the heroine of Puccini's Tosca, at the Met this season. Racette sings the role beginning tonight, October 29, opposite Roberto Alagna as Cavaradossi and George Gagnidze as Scarpia.