OPERA CLASSICAL MUSIC NEWS COVERAGE
The latest news on performances of Classical Music in Opera.
Benjamin Robinson To Lead Opera Ithaca
by Alan Henry - May 31, 2019
Opera Ithaca announced today that Benjamin Robinson has been engaged as its Artistic Director beginning with its 2019-2020 season. Currently Artistic Director of Raylynmor Opera in Keene, New Hampshire, a position he will retain, Robinson is an experienced opera administrator, director, and singer. ...
Photo: Exclusive Poster From Fathom Events PAVAROTTI
by Alan Henry - May 23, 2019
Fathom Events will bring beloved entertainer Luciano Pavarotti's story to movie theaters across the country on June 4 with a screening event designed to bring the life and performances of one of the great operatic voices to the masses. This exclusive screening will give audiences the first chance to...
BWW Feature: New York City Opera Brings Music To Bryant Park
by George Weinhouse - May 21, 2019
When I was a child, my father took me to a series of outdoor concerts at a park near our home. One of the programs featured excerpts from Bizet's opera CARMEN. This was one of my first exposures to opera and since then I have become a major devotee. I have since joined the Patron Program at the Me...
Classical Artists Amy Owens And Michael Barrett Announce IT'S GOTTA BE BAD TO BE GOOD: SONGS OF LEONARD BERNSTEIN
by Julie Musbach - April 26, 2019
Critically-acclaimed Soprano, Amy Owens, collaborates with Grammy-winning pianist and music director, Michael Barrett, delivering their brilliant new album, 'It's Gotta Be Bad To Be Good: Songs of Leonard Bernstein.'...
Regina Opera Company Presents a Free Sneak Peek of IL TROVATORE
by Stephi Wild - April 25, 2019
Regina Opera Company, Brooklyn presents a free sneak peek of 'Il Trovatore” on Monday May 6, 2019 at 7:30PM at Our Lady of Perpetual Help school, 5902 6th Avenue, Brooklyn, between 59th and 60th Streets....
Amore Opera To Close Out Tenth Anniversary Season With Verdi's UN BALLO IN MASCHERA
by Julie Musbach - April 22, 2019
Amore Opera concludes its 2018-19 season at the Riverside Theatre at Riverside Church (91 Claremont Ave, New York, NY 10027) with a production of Giuseppe Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, sung in its original Italian; and with a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe, performed entirely by child...
BWW Interview: Isabel Leonard of DIALOGUES OF THE CARMELITES at The Metropolitan Opera
by Peter Danish - April 18, 2019
Isabel Leonard is one of, if not the, most in-demand opera singer in the world today. For the last decade her star has been on the rise all around the world both on the opera and concert stages. This season at The Met alone she's performing in three different production, singing three roles that cou...
BWW Showstopper: Ride 'Em, Valkyries, in Part Two of the Met's RING CYCLE
by Richard Sasanow - March 27, 2019
There's lots to enjoy in the Met's revival of DIE WALKURE, the second part of Richard Wagner's great tetralogy, DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN, better known simply as Wagner's Ring Cycle, which had its first performance of the season on Monday night--all five hours of it!--under the pulsating control of Ph...
BWW Interview: Composer Iain Bell and Librettist Mark Campbell - A Match Made at STONEWALL (and City Opera)
by Richard Sasanow - March 26, 2019
Was the pairing of Iain Bell and Mark Campbell--respectively, composer and librettist of New York City Opera's (NYCO) world premiere STONEWALL--'love at first sight”? I asked them. We were at the workshop in New York earlier this month that allowed them and director Leonard Foglia to cross the t's a...
Carlos Miguel Prieto Leads NYO Of Great Britain; Returns To Carnegie Hall In Summer 2019
by Alexa Criscitiello - March 25, 2019
Carlos Miguel Prieto, Musical America's 2019 Conductor of the Year, will return to the United Kingdom for the second time this season to conduct the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain's (NYOGB) spring concert tour, in April 2019. Prieto will lead three performances - in London, Liverpool, and...
BWW Review: What Retirement? Fleming Soars in Final Scene from CAPRICCIO with the Boston Symphony under Nelsons
by Richard Sasanow - March 22, 2019
Since my days as a pothead are long gone (LOL)—did anyone ever watch 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY without a little help from a friend?--I came to the Boston Symphony's (BSO) concert at Carnegie Hall the other night more interested in hearing the excerpts from Richard Strauss's CAPRICCIO, including Renee Fl...
Andre Previn - of Opera and Classical Music, as well as Hollywood, Broadway and Television - Dies at 89
by Richard Sasanow - March 01, 2019
Composer, conductor and pianist Andre Previn has died at the age of 89 on February 28. Previn was composer of the opera versions of Tennessee Williams's A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and Noel Coward's BRIEF ENCOUNTER, dozens of orchestral works, film scores, jazz works and the score for Tom Stoppard's ...
Canadian Opera Company Announces New Opera For Toronto Programming
by Stephi Wild - February 28, 2019
The Canadian Opera Company is bringing opera to new places and spaces with Opera for Toronto. The free programming initiative aims to introduce new audiences to the art form, with a special focus on opening up the COC's operations and rehearsal space, the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre at 227 ...
XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition Announced
by Stephi Wild - February 27, 2019
One of the most anticipated music events in the world, the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition will take place from June 17 - 29, 2019 in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia with support from the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, with a...
Review Roundup: Critics Weigh In On FALSTAFF at The Met Opera
by Alan Henry - February 25, 2019
Baritone Ambrogio Maestri brings his larger-than-life portrayal of the title role back for the first time since his Met role debut in the 2013-14 season. Robert Carsen's insightful production-which moves the action to postwar England in the 1950s-features an exceptional cast that includes soprano Ai...
Review Roundup: RIGOLETTO at The Met Opera
by Alan Henry - February 22, 2019
Verdi's tragic jester returns in Michael Mayer's neon-bedecked, Las Vegas-themed production. Baritones Roberto Frontali and George Gagnidze share the title role, and soprano Nadine Sierra reprises her portrayal of Gilda, the role that helped launch her now-blossoming Met career. Tenors Vittorio Grig...
The Met Announces 2019/20 Season; PORGY AND BESS, Premieres of AGRIPPINA and AKHNATEN, & More
by Julie Musbach - February 20, 2019
The Metropolitan Opera today announced its 2019 20 season, which opens on September 23 with a new production of the Gershwins' classic American opera Porgy and Bess, last performed at the Met in 1990, starring Eric Owens and Angel Blue, directed by James Robinson and conducted by David Robertson....
VIDEO: Get A First Look At CARMEN at The Met
by Alan Henry - February 12, 2019
Mezzo-soprano Clementine Margaine reprises her remarkable portrayal of opera's ultimate seductress, a triumph in her 2017 debut performances, with impassioned tenors Yonghoon Lee and Roberto Alagna as her lover, Don Jose. Omer Meir Wellber and Louis Langree share conducting duties for Sir Richard Ey...
BWW Showstopper: Getting the Jobs Done - Bates-Campbell (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS Wins Grammy for Best Opera Recording
by Richard Sasanow - February 11, 2019
The Mason Bates-Mark Campbell opera, THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS--which debuted at the Santa Fe Opera in summer 2017--walked off with this year's Best Opera Recording at the Grammys on Sunday night. Michael Christie conducted the Santa Fe Opera orchestra, and the cast. Directed by Kevin Newbury, ...
Anne-Sophie Mutter Embarks on North American Recital Tour
by Alexa Criscitiello - February 08, 2019
-Anne-Sophie Mutter, one of the world's greatest and most beloved classical artists, embarks on a six-city North American recital tour playing the works of Beethoven, Debussy, Mozart, Poulenc and Ravel, and a new work by Sebastian Currier, March 6 through 17, 2019. Mutter will be joined by her longt...
BWW Review: Renée Fleming brings the Catalan Audience to Tears with American Opera and Broadway
by Guest Critic: Iskritsa Ognianova - February 08, 2019
On Tuesday evening, Renee Fleming and the esteemed pianist Hartmut Holl united the audiences at Palau de la Musica Catalana with a diverse repertoire by Johannes Brahms, Antonin Dvo?ak, Franz Lehar , Francesco Tosti and Giacomo Puccini. ...
VIDEO: William Christie - A Modern Maestro at BAM
by Alan Henry - February 05, 2019
Conductor William Christie breathes new life into baroque music. As the foremost interpreter of early music, Christie and his acclaimed ensemble Les Arts Florissants have delighted BAM's audiences for 30 years. This season, they return with Rameau, maitre a danser, featuring two opera-ballets by Jea...
Leon Fleisher Announces Updated Program For 90th Birthday Celebration At Carnegie Hall
by BWW News Desk - February 05, 2019
Renowned pianist and pedagogue Leon Fleisher has updated the program for his celebratory 90th birthday recital at Carnegie Hall today, February 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall to include works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart, along with two selections by Leon Kirchner. Joining Mr. Fleisher on s...
BWW Review: NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC PREMIERES 'FIRE IN MY MOUTH' at David Geffen Hall At Lincoln Center
by Joanna Barouch - February 01, 2019
The American-born, Pulitzer Prize winning composer Julia Wolfe, has written a tour-de-force oratorio about the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of March 25, 1911, utilizing a huge cast of singers and instrumentalists. Fire in My Mouth(a quote drawn from an interview with fervent labor ac...
Carlos Miguel Prieto Returns To The UK In February And April
by Julie Musbach - January 31, 2019
Carlos Miguel Prieto, Musical America's 2019 Conductor of the Year, returns to the United Kingdom in February and April 2019 for performances with The Hallé Orchestra, The Hallé Youth Orchestra, and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. From February 14–21, 2019, Prieto will conduct seven p...
