Opera Newsroom Metropolitan Opera Star Jennifer Rowley Headlines Fort Worth Opera's 2019 Southern Soirée
by BWW News Desk on December 14, 2018 in Opera Fort Worth Opera is delighted to announce today that renowned soprano Jennifer Rowley will headline the company's Southern Soiree Gala on May 4 at The Stonegate Mansion, as part of the 2019 Fort Worth Opera Festival. Praised by The New York Times as "a singer of enormous gift and promise," a "force of nature" by OperaWire, and called "spectacular" by The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Rowley continues to garner critical praise for her exceptional voice, arresting stage presence, and richly varied repertoire. Her triumphant Metropolitan Opera role debut as Roxane in Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac was universally acclaimed, and she returned to the hallowed stage during the 2018 season to perform the title role in Puccini's Tosca and Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore. (more...)  Metropolitan Opera Cast Change Advisory: OTELLO
by BWW News Desk on December 14, 2018 in Opera Carl Tanner will sing the title role in Verdi's Otello in tonight's season premiere performance, replacing Stuart Skelton, who is ill. (more...)  Yannick Nézet-Séguin Conducts A Rare Revival Of Debussy's Pelléas Et Mélisande, Opening January 15
by BWW News Desk on December 14, 2018 in Opera Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, conducts five performance of Pelléas et Mélisande, Debussy's mysterious meditation on love and betrayal, January 15–31, 2019. The classic production by Sir Jonathan Miller returns to the Met for the first time since the 2010–11 season, and the cast features three young Met stars at the heart of a passionate love triangle: Isabel Leonard as Mélisande, Paul Appleby as Pelléas, and Kyle Ketelsen as Golaud. Ferruccio Furlanetto sings the role of Arkel and Marie-Nicole Lemieux makes her Met debut as Geneviève. Derrick Inouye conducts the January 31 performance. (more...)  BWW Review: HANSEL AND GRETEL, Royal Opera House
by Sophia Lambton on December 14, 2018 in Opera The spectacle is a hunger-inducing delight for the eyes. (more...) Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra Announces 90th Anniversary Season
by BWW News Desk on December 13, 2018 in Opera Chautauqua Institution today announced the repertoire and highlights of the upcoming 90th anniversary season of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, including 22 Chautauqua Amphitheater performances over the course of eight weeks of the Institution's 2019 summer season. The CSO season announcement accompanies news that Maestro Rossen Milanov, who in 2019 enters his fifth season as CSO music director and principal conductor, has agreed to a new five-year contract that ensures his well-regarded tenure at Chautauqua will continue through at least the 2024 season. (more...) Young People's Concerts Continue With ANIMALS INTO SONG- THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN
by BWW News Desk on December 13, 2018 in Opera The 96th season of the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts (YPCs) will continue on Saturday, January 12, 2019, at 2:00 p.m. with "Animals into Song - The Cunning Little Vixen," the second program in this season's series of YPCs, Music Across Borders. Conducted by Jakub Hr?ša, the program will explore how music can depict animals and settings, exemplified by Jana?ek's The Cunning Little Vixen Suite, featuring puppets designed and operated by students from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, led by ArtsConnection teaching artist Nehprii Amenii. (more...) 150th Anniversary Of Transcontinental Railway Commemorated With Utah Symphony Orchestral Work And 10-Minute Operas
by BWW News Desk on December 12, 2018 in Opera Utah Symphony and Utah Opera unveil a series of creative projects to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike, where the final railway spike north of the Great Salt Lake connected the rails of America's First Transcontinental Railway at Promontory Summit in May 1869. The projects are part of USUO's annual Cultural Festival which highlights a special theme each year that provides a new focus to connect our community through music and more. For more information visit https://utahopera.org/schedule/cultural-festival/ (more...)  BWW Review: It's All GREEK for Me, from Scottish Opera at BAM's Next Wave Festival
by Richard Sasanow on December 13, 2018 in Opera I hope somebody from New York City Opera was at BAM last weekend, because Mark-Anthony Turnage's GREEK--a modern retelling of the Oedipus myth from Scottish Opera/Opera Ventures, presented by BAM's Next Wave Festival--is just what the doctor ordered for that company. A great story, a small cast, a score that maybe won't leave you humming but moves like gangbusters, a simple production that doesn't look cheesy (except maybe in a mozzarella-ish way). And, oh yes, a happy audience for a work that deserves greater reach on these shores. (more...)  LA BOHÈME and CENDRILLON Return to Lyric Opera of Chicago
by BWW News Desk on December 12, 2018 in Opera Lyric Opera of Chicago kicks off 2019 with two acclaimed productions: the return of the new production of Puccini's captivating and tragic love story La boheme, and the Midwest premiere of a beloved production of Massenet's Cendrillon, based on the Cinderella story. La boheme is a quintessentially Italian opera and the plot is forever youthful and eternally fresh. Cendrillon features an enchanting blend of wit, sensitivity, and elegance against the backdrop of a familiar storybook kingdom. (more...)  COC Announces New Commission THE OLD FOOLS By Composer Ana Sokolovi And Librettist Paul Bentley
by BWW News Desk on December 11, 2018 in Opera The Canadian Opera Company announced today a new mainstage commission: The Old Fools by celebrated Montreal-based composer Ana Sokolovi? and seasoned British librettist Paul Bentley. La Reine-Garcon, first announced in 2015, is moving forward as a co-commission with the Opera de Montreal; it's the first mainstage collaboration of its kind between the two major Canadian opera companies and at its helm are two exceptional Canadian artists: Julien Bilodeau as composer and Michel Marc Bouchard as librettist. (more...)  The Moores School of Music Announces HANSEL AND GRETEL
by BWW News Desk on December 11, 2018 in Opera The Moores School of Music at the University of Houston presents Hansel and Gretel. (more...)  BWW Interview: Angela Meade Returns to her Native Land for 'Il Trovatore'
by Erica Miner on December 10, 2018 in Opera Washington state is justifiably proud to call Angela Meade a native. The star soprano has been a prizewinner in more than 50 top competitions (more...)  BWW Interview: Ted Rosenthal Composer of DEAR ERICH, NYCO at the Museum Of Jewish Heritage
by Peter Danish on December 10, 2018 in Opera BWW Interview: Ted Rosenthal composer of DEAR ERICH at Museum Of Jewish Heritage (more...)  BWW Review: Live from New York, It's On Site Opera's AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS
by Richard Sasanow on December 09, 2018 in Opera The touching, moving, brilliantly site-specific version of Gian Carlo Menotti's AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS, performed this week by New York's vibrant On Site Opera (OSO), had the audience at the Church of the Holy Apostles Church alternately in tears and cheering. (more...)  BWW Interview: Erica Miner Author of DEATH BY OPERA
by Peter Danish on December 10, 2018 in Opera BWW Interview: Erica Miner author of DEATH BY OPERA (more...)  VIDEO: See New Video From SILENT NIGHT at Washington National Opera
by BWW News Desk on December 07, 2018 in Opera The year is 1914 and the Great War has just been declared, dividing nations and sending millions into battle. As Christmas Eve falls on a battlefield near Belgium, soldiers in French, German, and Scottish trenches begin recalling songs of home, stepping into no-man's-land for a spontaneous truce. Once sworn enemies, they trade their weapons for merriment and camaraderie—resulting in one miraculous night of peace. (more...)  BWW Review: Damrau's a Top Violetta with the Met's New Maestro Nezet-Seguin in LA TRAVIATA from Mayer
by Richard Sasanow on December 06, 2018 in Opera I interviewed Diana Damrau when she had just done her first Violetta, her role debut in the Met's old Willy Decker production. It was a part she lusted over from the time she saw the 1982 Zeffirelli film, but was careful about taking on--waiting for the right time in her vocal development. That was nearly six years ago and the good news is that she has developed into a first-rate Violetta, sounding better than she has in some time, and looking every inch the glamorous (yet consumptive) courtesan. (more...)  MET Opera's LA TRAVIATA Comes to Peterborough Players
by BWW News Desk on December 06, 2018 in Opera On Saturday, December 15 at 1:00pm the Peterborough Players present, Live from the Metropolitan Opera, a screening of Verdi's La Traviata. (more...)  The Metropolitan Opera Issues New Audio Release On iTunes
by BWW News Desk on December 05, 2018 in Opera To commemorate the start of Yannick Nézet-Séguin's new position as the Jeanette Lerman Neubauer Music Director, the Met is releasing an audio compilation of performance highlights on iTunes, as well as a series (more...)  BWW Interview: Tenor Javier Camarena - High Cs and 'High Fives' at the Met
by Richard Sasanow on December 05, 2018 in Opera Tenor Javier Camarena--who completes his run as Nadir, the love-struck tenor lead in Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES (THE PEARL FISHERS) this Saturday--isn't finished wow-ing Met audiences for the season. Not by a long shot. He's back in February to throw off those nine High Cs in “Ah, mes amis!” the show-stopping aria--that toast to love and camaraderie--in Donizetti's LA FILLE DU REGIMENT (DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT) that Luciano Pavarotti made famous for modern opera audiences. (more...) Wexford Festival Opera Announces Dates And Main Evening Operas For 2019
by BWW News Desk on December 05, 2018 in Opera Wexford Festival Opera announced today the three main evening operas (more...)  BWW Interview: David Bennett, Juan Carlos Acosta, And Walter DuMelle at San Diego Opera
by Ron Bierman on December 04, 2018 in Opera Can a musical drama set on a grim WW I battlefield make an audience feel good? Those working on the San Diego Opera's staging of All Is Calm: the Christmas Truce of 1914 are certain it can. The work tells the true story of the spontaneous unofficial truce between WWI enemies who left their trenches and entered the no-man's land between them to join in a celebration of the Christmas holidays. Peter Rothstein wrote the drama for his Minneapolis-based company Theatre Latte Da, and based it on material from the period, the most important of which is the verbatim text of letters and war journals written by soldiers who participated in the truce. The cast sings many songs popular during the war and a few traditional Christmas carols. All were arranged by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach, and are sung a cappella in the English, German and French languages of the soldiers. Vanessa Dinning has taken on the challenge of coaching in nearly 20 different dialects. (more...)  VIDEO: Get A First Look At LA TRAVIATA at The Met
by BWW News Desk on December 04, 2018 in Opera Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts Michael Mayer's richly textured new production, featuring a dazzling 19th-century setting that changes with the seasons. Soprano Diana Damrau plays the tragic heroine, Violetta, and tenor Juan Diego Florez returns to the Met for the first time since 2015 to sing the role of Alfredo, Violetta's hapless lover. Baritone Quinn Kelsey is Alfredo's father, Germont, who destroys their love. Later performances feature Anita Hartig, Stephen Costello, Artur Ruci?ski, and Placido Domingo. (more...)  Seattle Opera Presents IL TROVATORE
by BWW News Desk on December 03, 2018 in Opera When Verdi sat down to compose Il trovatore, he had no idea that he was creating opera's version of Game of Thrones. But this is how stage director Dan Wallace Miller describes this tale of revenge, which opens at McCaw Hall in January 2019. Similar to a certain TV show, Il trovatore is dark and brutal-the most merciless of all nineteenth-century operas. And yet, it's also a crowd-pleaser, one known for lengthy applause during the middle of performances. Why? Miller says it's all about the music. (more...)  Bard College Appoints Renowned Opera Singer Stephanie Blythe New Director Of Graduate Vocal Arts Program
by BWW News Desk on December 03, 2018 in Opera Bard College announces the appointment of celebrated opera singer and recitalist Stephanie Blythe as artistic director of the Bard College Conservatory of Music Graduate Vocal Arts Program (VAP) beginning in July 2019. One of the most highly respected and critically acclaimed artists of her generation, mezzo-soprano Blythe possesses a repertoire ranging from Handel to Wagner and from German lieder to contemporary and classic American song. Blythe has performed on many of the world's great stages, such as Carnegie Hall; the Metropolitan Opera; Covent Garden; Paris National Opera; and San Francisco, Chicago Lyric, and Seattle Operas. She was named Musical America's Vocalist of the Year, received an Opera News Award, and won the Richard Tucker Award. Blythe recently released her first crossover recording on the Innova label with pianist Craig Terry. (more...) |
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