Susan Graham News

The Metropolitan Opera has reason to celebrate; $2.5 million worth of tickets were sold on Sunday, the first day of sales, through its box office, telephone call center and Web site, up from $2 million on the first day of sales last year, according to the Associated press.

New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), founded by Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, who 'redefined the song recital with daring and dramatic programming,' (The New Yorker) announces its 22nd Season for 2009-2010 with performances at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center and at The Juilliard School.

The Collegiate Chorale returns for its fourth appearance as part of the 16th annual Verbier Festival in Switzerland from July 18 - 20, 2009.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) continues its 54 th season with Verdi's haunting and tragic tale Rigoletto. Rigoletto, which was last performed at HGO in 2001, returns to the Wortham Theater Centerwith a powerful new staging of Michael Yeargan's classic production that was inspired by Italianpainter Giorgio di Chirico.

Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center and New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) present a special non-subscription program, Songs of the Irish Poets, on Tuesday, March 17 at 8 PM at Kaufman Center's Merkin Concert Hall.

The Metropolitan Opera today announced the winners of the 2009 National Council Auditions. They are: Paul Appleby of South Bend, Indiana; Anthony Roth Costanzo of Durham, North Carolina; Sung Eun Lee of Seoul, South Korea; and Nadine Sierra of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Selected from eight finalists who performed arias with the Met Orchestra, conducted by Patrick Summers, at the Grand Finals Concert on February 22, each winner takes away a cash prize of $15,000.

This spring, the Metropolitan Opera will present The Audition, a documentary film about the intense challenges and pressures young opera singers face as they try to become opera stars. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, The Audition will be shown on 400 screens across the country on April 19 at 3pm EST (and in Canada on June 6 at 1pm EST) as part of the Metropolitan Opera's series of high definition presentations in movie theaters and performing arts centers. The Audition is a suspenseful competition narrative that provides a revealing behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to make it as an opera star. The feature-length film documents the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, where each year thousands of hopefuls compete for a cash prize, the chance to sing on the storied Met stage-and the opportunity to launch a major operatic career. The film focuses on the final week of the competition, as judges narrow the field down from 22 semi-finalists to11 finalists while the stakes get higher and the pressure grows more intense. The documentary crew was given unprecedented access to the singers, judges, and events backstage at the Met.

Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center and New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) present a special non-subscription program, Songs of the Irish Poets, on Tuesday, March 17 at 8 PM at Kaufman Center's Merkin Concert Hall.

The Metropolitan Opera today announced the names of eight finalists who will sing in the 2009 National Council Auditions Grand Finals Concert on February 22 at 3:00 p.m., with the Met Orchestra conducted by Patrick Summers.

Eight new productions, four of which are company premieres, will highlight the Metropolitan Opera's 2009-10 season. General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine jointly announced plans that include: the Met premieres of Rossini's Armida, Verdi's Attila, Jan?ček's From the House of the Dead, and Shostakovich's The Nose; new productions of Bizet's Carmen, Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Thomas's Hamlet, and Puccini's Tosca; and 18 revivals from the company's repertory. The season is the first to be entirely planned under Gelb's leadership, in collaboration with Levine (the past three seasons were planned before Gelb became General Manager in 2006-07 but included some productions, repertoire, and casting changes made by Gelb).

Kaufman Center and New York Festival of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), will present Voices of the Jewish Diaspora on Tuesday and Thursday, February 10 and 12, at 8 PM at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center. It is the third subscription program this season for the New York Festival of Song, whose 2008 CD Spanish Love Songs, featuring Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Joseph Kaiser, Steven Blier and Michael Barrett (Bridge Records) was named one of the 'Best Of the Year' by Opera News. The program features songs in many languages celebrating the culturally diverse Jewish communities that flourished as the tribes of Israel spread out across the globe: Sephardic melodies arranged by Roberto Sierra; Second Avenue specialties by Irving Berlin and Abraham Ellstein; art songs by Ravel and Mahler; plus music by Gershwin, Bernstein, and Harold Rome.

This spring, the Metropolitan Opera will present The Audition, a documentary film about the intense challenges and pressures young opera singers face as they try to become opera stars. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, The Audition will be shown on 400 screens across the country on April 19 at 3pm EST (and in Canada on June 6 at 1pm EST) as part of the Metropolitan Opera's series of high definition presentations in movie theaters and performing arts centers. The Audition is a suspenseful competition narrative that provides a revealing behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to make it as an opera star. The feature-length film documents the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, where each year thousands of hopefuls compete for a cash prize, the chance to sing on the storied Met stage-and the opportunity to launch a major operatic career. The film focuses on the final week of the competition, as judges narrow the field down from 22 semi-finalists to11 finalists while the stakes get higher and the pressure grows more intense. The documentary crew was given unprecedented access to the singers, judges, and events backstage at the Met.

Kaufman Center and New York Festival of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), will present Voices of the Jewish Diaspora on Tuesday and Thursday, February 10 and 12, at 8 PM at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center. It is the third subscription program this season for the New York Festival of Song, whose 2008 CD Spanish Love Songs, featuring Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Joseph Kaiser, Steven Blier and Michael Barrett (Bridge Records) was named one of the 'Best Of the Year' by Opera News. The program features songs in many languages celebrating the culturally diverse Jewish communities that flourished as the tribes of Israel spread out across the globe: Sephardic melodies arranged by Roberto Sierra; Second Avenue specialties by Irving Berlin and Abraham Ellstein; art songs by Ravel and Mahler; plus music by Gershwin, Bernstein, and Harold Rome.

In February 2009, The New York Philharmonic This Week a two-hour, national, weekly radio program of concerts by the New York Philharmonic will begin with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Orchestra in Oliver Knussen's Violin Concerto, featuring Pinchas Zukerman, and Mahler's Symphony No. 5. The following week, Riccardo Muti returns to conduct Haydn's Symphony No. 89; selected arias from Haydn operas Armida and L'anima del filosofo ossia Orfeo ed Euridice, with bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff as soloist; and Brahms's Serenade No. 1. The third broadcast, led by Kurt Masur, commemorates the bicentenary of Mendelssohn's birth in an all-Mendelssohn program featuring his Overture to Ruy Blas; Violin Concerto, with guest artist Anne-Sophie Mutter; and Die erste Walpurgisnacht with mezzo-soprano Christine Knorren (in her Philharmonic debut), tenor Jorma Silvasti (in his Philharmonic debut), bass-baritone Albert Dohmen (in his Philharmonic subscription debut), bass Thorsten Gr?mbel (in his Philharmonic debut), and the Westminster Symphonic Choir. The final February broadcast will be the 2008?09 New Year?s Eve Gala Concert with Music Director Lorin Maazel leading mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and the Philharmonic in a program that includes ?Deh per questo istante solo? from Mozart?s La clemenza di Tito; Vilja from Leh?r?s The Merry Widow; and ?L?Amour est un oiseau rebelle? (Habanera) and ?Pr?s des ramparts de S?ville? (Seguidilla) from Act I of Bizet?s Carmen; the orchestral pieces will include works by Verdi, Rossini, Saint-Sa?ns, Brahms, Offenbach, and Falla.

Today, November 29, the Metropolitan Opera Radio Saturday Matinee Broadcasts launches its 78th season of world-class opera heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network with the network premiere of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust.

Young singers from around the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico will compete for $15,000 cash prizes and the chance to perform in the Grand Finals Concert on the nation's most prestigious opera stage when the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions launches its 55th annual auditions program this fall.

Noted director Robert Lepage makes his Met debut with a technologically innovative new production of Hector Berlioz's masterpiece, La Damnation de Faust, opening on November 7. Music Director James Levine will conduct the first staging of the work at the Met since 1906, with Marcello Giordani in the title role, Susan Graham as Marguerite, and John Relyea as Méphistophélès.

On November 29, the Metropolitan Opera Radio Saturday Matinee Broadcasts launches its 78th season of world-class opera heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network with the network premiere of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust.

One of the Metropolitan Opera's popular open rehearsals will take place on November 4 with the final dress rehearsal of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, Robert Lepage's unusual production of a work that was last performed at the Met in 1907.

One of the Metropolitan Opera's popular open rehearsals will take place on November 4 with the final dress rehearsal of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, Robert Lepage's unusual production of a work that was last performed at the Met in 1907.