Alan Oke News

Last night Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic gave the World Premiere performance of David Lang's prisoner of the state - a fully staged reimagining of Beethoven's Fidelio, directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer. The program concludes the Orchestra's three-week Music of Conscience series, exploring how composers respond to the social and political issues of their times.

The New York Philharmonic will conclude the 2018-19 subscription season with Music of Conscience, May 22-June 8, 2019,three weeks of concerts and events exploring the ways in which composers have used music to respond to the social and political issues of their times. Music Director Jaap van Zweden will conduct all three orchestral programs: the World Premiere of David Lang's opera prisoner of the state, a retelling of Beethoven's Fidelio; John Corigliano's Symphony No. 1, his 'personal response to the AIDS crisis'; and Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony, about his struggles under Stalin, alongside Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, originally dedicated to Napoleon until the composer angrily redacted the inscription.

In June and September 2019, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen present Weimar Berlin: Bittersweet Metropolis at Southbank Centre, where it is Resident Orchestra. This new series is an ambitious journey through the music, science and culture of a period of intense political turbulence and explosive creativity in Germany and beyond.

This autumn, Welsh National Opera return to Birmingham Hippodrome with a major presentation of three epic Russian-themed works which marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution.

This autumn, Welsh National Opera return to Bristol Hippodrome with two Russian-themed operas which mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution.  Performing from 15 - 18 November, the Company will bring its productions of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Jana?ek's From the House of the Dead, based on the book by Dostoevsky to the city.

For a new production that was supposed to mark a farewell for soprano Renee Fleming to a role (the Marschallin) if not to staged opera performance in general, Robert Carsen's version of Richard Strauss's DER ROSENKAVALIER at the Met seemed more of a farce and less a tale of regret about passing time than usual. And the “star” role seemed more of an aside than the center of it all.

Under the leadership of General Manager Bernard Foccroulle, the 69th season of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence will present an exceptional collection of artists from around the globe in five major opera productions and 16 recital, chamber music and orchestral concerts from July 3 through 22, plus more than 60 events from the Academie du Festival d'Aix.

The Metropolitan Opera will open its 130th season on Monday, September 22 with a new production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, conducted by Met Music Director James Levine and directed by Richard Eyre.

British composer Thomas Ades conducts the Met premiere of his contemporary Masterpiece THE TEMPEST, an English-language opera based on Shakespeare's final play. The Met's fantastical new production by Robert Lepage airs on Great Performances at the Met today, March 17 at 12 noon on PBS (check local listings). Get a sneak peek below!

British composer Thomas Ades conducts the Met premiere of his contemporary Masterpiece THE TEMPEST, an English-language opera based on Shakespeare's final play. The Met's fantastical new production by Robert Lepage airs on Great Performances at the Met Sunday, March 17 at 12 noon on PBS (check local listings). Get a sneak peek below!

British composer Thomas Ades conducts the Met premiere of his contemporary Masterpiece The Tempest, an English-language opera based on Shakespeare's final play. The Met's fantastical new production by Robert Lepage airs on Great Performances at the Met Sunday, March 17 at 12 noon on PBS (check local listings). BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below.

British composer Thomas Ades conducts the Met premiere of his contemporary Masterpiece The Tempest, an English-language opera based on Shakespeare's final play.The Met's fantastical new production by Robert Lepage airs on Great Performances at the Met Sunday, March 17 at 12 noon on PBS (check local listings).

Bruce Sledge will make his Met role debut as the King of Naples in this evening's performance of Thomas Ades's The Tempest, replacing William Burden, who is ill.

Today, November 10 at 1pm, The Met: Live in HD series will continue at the Warner's Nancy Marine Studio Theatre with a Met premiere of Ades'sThe Tempest.

On Saturday, November 10 at 1pm, The Met: Live in HD series will continue at the Warner's Nancy Marine Studio Theatre with a Met premiere of Ades'sThe Tempest.

The Metropolitan Opera will resume performances tomorrow evening, October 31, with a 7:30 pm performance of 'The Tempest' by Thomas Ades.

Thomas Ades will conduct the Metropolitan Opera premiere of his opera The Tempest in a series of performances beginning October 23. Robert Lepage directs a new production of the critically heralded English-language opera, with a libretto by Meredith Oakes based on Shakespeare's play. Simon Keenlyside stars as Prospero, with Audrey Luna in the stratospheric coloratura role of Ariel; Isabel Leonard as Prospero's daughter Miranda;Iestyn Davies as the jester Trinculo; Alek Shrader in his Met debut as the shipwrecked nobleman Ferdinand; Alan Oke as the gentle-hearted monster Caliban; William Burden as the King of Naples; and Toby Spence as Prospero's usurper brother, Antonio.

David Salle will open Ariel and Other Spirits, an exhibition presented in conjunction with the Met premiere of Thomas Ades's The Tempest, at the Arnold & Marie Schwartz Gallery Met on September 25. Salle has created a suite of paintings and watercolors for the show, which relate to both Ades's opera and the Shakespeare play. Ariel and Other Spirits will be on display in Gallery Met through January 12. The Tempest, conducted by the composer and directed by Robert Lepage, opens October 23.

The 32nd Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards for the 2010/2011 season were handed out in a star-studded ceremony in Toronto on the evening of Monday, June 27 at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts' Bluma Appel Theatre, co-hosted by Gemini-nominated comedian/writer/actor Craig Lauzon of CBC-TV's Royal Canadian Air Farce and actress Michaela Washburn, Dora-nominated for her principal role in Theatre Passe Muraille's Such Creatures.