Susanne Mentzer News

Opera San José has announced it will present a new fully staged production of Jake Heggie's chamber opera, Three Decembers, featuring world-renowned mezzo-soprano Susan Graham in the central role, alongside celebrated Opera San José Resident Artists soprano Maya Kherani and baritone Efraín Solís, in a world-class digital production offered via on-demand streaming beginning December 3, 2020.

The Met has announced themed lineups for the next three weeks of its Nightly Met Opera Streams, a free series of encore Live in HD presentations and classic telecasts streamed on the company's website during the coronavirus closure.

On July 20th, 2020, composer Gordon Getty's new opera Goodbye, Mr. Chips would have had its world premiere at Festival Napa Valley. But like so many other events, it became a casualty of COVID. 

Pianist Liza Stepanova has announced the August 28, 2020 release of her new album E Pluribus Unum on Navona Records. This collection showcases nine renowned American composers with immigrant backgrounds, including Lera Auerbach, Anna Clyne, Gabriela Lena Frank, Kamran Ince, Reinaldo Moya, Pablo Ortiz, and more.

The Colorado MahlerFest, which had previously announced the cancellation of this year's in-person festival, announces the 2020 Virtual Colorado MahlerFest, May 13-17, 2020. The festival has curated a collection of performances, films, a virtual symposium, art gallery, and more which will be released each day at 3:30 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. Materials will be released across a number of online platforms and collected at MahlerFest.org/MahlerFest-Online/

Today (May 4) Jennifer Tepper reveals the secrets of the August Wilson Theatre on BWW Book Club, The 2020 Pulitzer Prizes are announced, and so much more!

The Met has announced the Week 8 schedule for its Nightly Met Opera Streams, a free series of encore Live in HD presentations streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure.

Opera Saratoga announced today the three operas that will be featured at the center of the company's 2020 Summer Festival, to be presented at The Spa Little Theatre in Spa State Park, from June 20th through July 5th, 2020.

Opera Saratoga announced today the three operas that will be featured at the center of the company's 2020 Summer Festival, to be presented at The Spa Little Theatre in Spa State Park, from June 20th through July 5th, 2020.

Opera Saratoga announced today the three operas that will be featured at the center of the company's 2020 Summer Festival, to be presented at The Spa Little Theatre in Spa State Park, from June 20th through July 5th, 2020.

On Wednesday, July 24, 2019, Santa Fe Opera presented Leoš Janáček's powerful dramatic opera Jenůfa. Laura Wilde, a former Santa Fe Apprentice who performed the title role at English National Opera in 2016, again sang the lead while Patricia Racette, who has often sung Jenůfa, portrayed her stepmother, Kostelnička. Both artists gave glorious dramatic interpretations of their roles in this shattering but moving opera.

On Saturday, July 20, the Santa Fe Opera will introduce Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa to audiences for the first time in the company's 63 year history. A co-production between Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera and the English National Opera, David Alden's production of Jenůfa, now adapted to the Santa Fe Opera's stage, updates the mis-en-scène from an isolated, tight-knit community in 19th-century Moravia to an impoverished industrial section of Soviet-era Czechoslovakia. Alden's staging won the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production when it was produced at the English National Opera, and its 2016 revival there received additional critical acclaim. The Independent gave it a five-star review, headlining it as “brilliantly effective.” The Sunday Times proclaimed, “David Alden's staging…takes this coruscating music-drama a notch higher, turning the screw of the drama inexorably, shatteringly, ultimately movingly. Janáček's uplifting conclusions…is one of the most beautiful 'happy ends' in opera.”

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) today announces the appointment of baritone Matthew Worth to its voice faculty. Worth will lead a full studio at SFCM beginning in Fall 2019, joining the voice department led by chair Cesar Ulloa. Worth's appointment comes just after the announcement of Rhoslyn Jones joining SFCM's faculty.

The International Opera Awards today announces the finalists for its 2019 Awards.

The San Diego Opera's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro featured expressive singing, clever attractive sets, beautiful costumes, and strong comedic and dramatic acting. The work is generally called a comic opera, but as director Stephen Lawless pointed out during my interview with him, 'There are tears behind the laughter.' The difficult political and social issues hiding behind laughter came from the Beaumarchais play on which the opera was based, and Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte had to make light of them or risk censorship. The play's depiction of royal abuses probably contributed to the start of the French Revolution. Napoleon went so far as to say the it was, 'the Revolution already put into action.'

Stephen Lawless will be directing the San Diego Opera's production of The Marriage of Figaro this week. I met with him in the opera company's rehearsal room recently to discuss that, how he came to be a director, and his views of a director's responsibilities.

The George London Foundation for Singers has been honoring, supporting, and presenting the finest young opera singers in the U.S. and Canada since 1971. The foundation and the George London Awards (the prize of the foundation's annual competition) are named for the legendary Canadian-American bass-baritone, one of the greatest opera singers of 20th century, who devoted much of his time and energy in his later years to the support and nurturing of young opera singers.

Last night during the regularly scheduled meeting, The Board of The Solti Foundation U.S. acknowledged the dedication and hard work of Artistic and Awards Committee Chair Elizabeth Buccheri by naming the Foundation's Opera Residency Programin her honor.The program, an expansion of the organization's work to help award recipients further develop their talent and careers, is the brainchild of Ms. Buccheri. Introduced in the 2014-15 season, the program places former Foundation award recipients with a distinguished U.S. opera house for one-on-one mentoring and coaching of an opera during the company's professional season. Conductors cannot apply to the program but are instead selected by the Artistic and Awards Committee.

The George London Foundation for Singers has been honoring, supporting, and presenting the finest young opera singers in the U.S. and Canada since 1971. The foundation and the George London Awards (the prize of the foundation's annual competition) are named for the legendary Canadian-American bass-baritone, one of the greatest opera singers of 20th century, who devoted much of his time and energy in his later years to the support and nurturing of young opera singers.

On Friday, February 16, 2018, 16 of the best young American and Canadian opera singers will perform with pianist Craig Rutenberg before a panel of judges and an enthusiastic audience at The Morgan Library & Museum. At the event's conclusion, six of them will be named this year's winners of the George London Award, an honor that has been conferred upon hundreds of the best young singers since 1971. The award, currently a $10,000 prize, is named for the legendary Canadian-American bass-baritone, one of the greatest opera singers of 20th century.