Zeljko Lucic News

Soprano Anna Netrebko was AWOL. Tenor Marcello Giordani wasn't there. Mezzo Isabel Leonard didn't make it either. At least tenor Richard Tucker (1913-1975) had the best excuse for not being at Avery Fisher Hall on Sunday evening. But, as they say “the show must go on”--and the annual gala of The Richard Tucker Foundation certainly did, despite all the cancellations. Celebrating the famed singer, as well as showcasing the newly anointed winner of its top award, tenor Michael Fabiano, the evening was filled with many pleasures.

Ever since I heard Anna Netrebko's “Verdi” album last year, which highlighted excerpts from the operatic treatment of Shakespeare's MACBETH, I knew her Verdi was the real deal and couldn't wait for her to take on the full Lady Macbeth on stage. Her performances in the Adrian Noble production currently at the Met confirmed my best expectations--and then some.

Just what the opera world needs: Another director who doesn't have an idea about what to do with an opera. How else could you explain the new Dmitri Tcherniakov production of Verdi's LA TRAVIATA that opened the season at Milan's La Scala, on Saturday December 7th? Seen in a HD broadcast from the Emerging Pictures' 'Opera in Cinema' series, it showed what a travesty the Russian director's production was.

The regular season just ended for the Metropolitan Opera--all that's left is a series of HD rebroadcasts on Lincoln Center Plaza and a couple of low profile concerts in New York City parks--and it's time for a look back at what kind of season it was. With seven new productions and 21 other operas in rep during a season that ran from the end of September to mid-May, the Met was nothing if not far-reaching in its repertoire. And that's the way it should be. But how did its ambitions work out?

Rigoletto, one of Verdi's most famous and popular operas, will be broadcast live on the Peterborough Players big screen today, February 16, 2013, at 1:00 pm, as part of the Metropolitan Opera's The Met: Live in HD 2012-13 season. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students.

Rigoletto, one of Verdi's most famous and popular operas, will be broadcast live on the Peterborough Players big screen on Saturday, February 16, 2013, at 1:00 pm, as part of the Metropolitan Opera's The Met: Live in HD 2012-13 season. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students.

Full disclosure: I'm not fond of updating operas. Most of them simply don't work, because the directors appear to have a disdain for the art form or, at least, for the particular opera they're staging. They assume that trashing 'Un Ballo in Maschera,' 'Don Giovanni' or 'La Sonnambula' is the only way to get anyone under 50 into an opera house. On the other hand, Michael Mayer, the Broadway director best known for his work on the musical 'Spring Awakening,' seems to actually like opera and is making his splendid Metropolitan Opera debut with the bold and brassy new production of Verdi's RIGOLETTO, which opened on January 28.

You have to love the Italians--particularly the Milanese. Where else but at La Scala, the city's temple of dramma lirica, could you find a public so passionate that it complained loudly and bitterly when it was announced that a work by a German (Richard Wagner) was opening the season rather than an opera by a local boy (Giuseppe Verdi)? It's because they care--and it's rather comforting that it can still happen in the 21st century (unless you happen to be on the receiving end of their wrath, of course).

Opera in Cinema presents LOHENGRIN, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy, an Opera in Three Acts, music by Richard Wagner, Captured live in performance on Opening Night, December 7, 2012, Sunday, January 20, 2013, Sung in German with English subtitles. Running time - 275 minutes, including two intermissions.

Music Director Gustavo Dudamel kicks off his two-week return to the Hollywood Bowl, summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with an exciting series of shows that pair Dudamel with revered cellist Yo-Yo Ma on Tuesday, August 7, and with prodigious pianist Yuja Wang on Thursday, August 9. In what is becoming an annual summer tradition, Gustavo Dudamel also continues to share his passion for opera in a special, one-night-only performance of Verdi's Rigoletto on Sunday, August 12, featuring an international cast led by baritone Željko Lu?i?, in his signature role as the hunchbacked court jester doomed by a sinister curse.

The Los Angeles Times confirmed today that the Hollywood Bowl's summer musical will be none other than THE PRODUCERS!

The Macbeth opera recently arrived at the Salzburg Festival 2011. Check out photos from rehearsal below!

Verdi's Il Trovatore opens at The Metropolitan Opera on Tuesday, October 26.

Zeljko Lucic will sing the title role in Verdi's Rigoletto this evening, replacing Roberto Frontali who is ill. Earlier this season, Lu?i? sang the role of Germont in La Traviata, and next week he begins a series of performances of Il Trovatore, in which he sings Count Di Luna.