Alek Shrader News

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.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

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).

Lyric Opera of Chicago and its general director, Anthony Freud, announced the lineup for Lyric's 2013-14 season today. Joseph Calleja, Joyce DiDonato, Nathan Gunn, Thomas Hampson, Ana Maria Martinez, Matthew Polenzani, and Patricia Racette are among those headlining the new season's offerings. These comprise 67 performances of eight different operas, beginning October 5, 2013 and concluding March 23, 2014: new productions of Parsifal, La traviata, The Barber of Seville, and Rusalka (Lyric premiere); a revival of Otello; and new-to-Chicago stagings of Madama Butterfly, Die Fledermaus, and La clemenza di Tito. Lyric's music director, Sir Andrew Davis, will lead three operas, and guest conductors Marco Armiliato, Bertrand de Billy and Michele Mariotti will make their house debuts. Additionally, Lyric will present a new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music in the spring of 2014, continuing the company's American Musical Theater Initiative, and Davis will conduct a special Subscriber Appreciation Concert in March featuring Lyric's creative consultant - the star soprano Renee Fleming - with tenor Jonas Kaufmann.

Lyric Opera of Chicago and its general director, Anthony Freud, announced the lineup for Lyric's 2013-14 season today. Joseph Calleja, Joyce DiDonato, Nathan Gunn, Thomas Hampson, Ana Maria Martinez, Matthew Polenzani, and Patricia Racette are among those headlining the new season's offerings. These comprise 67 performances of eight different operas, beginning October 5, 2013 and concluding March 23, 2014: new productions of Parsifal, La traviata, The Barber of Seville, and Rusalka (Lyric premiere); a revival of Otello; and new-to-Chicago stagings of Madama Butterfly, Die Fledermaus, and La clemenza di Tito. Lyric's music director, Sir Andrew Davis, will lead three operas, and guest conductors Marco Armiliato, Bertrand de Billy and Michele Mariotti will make their house debuts. Additionally, Lyric will present a new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music in the spring of 2014, continuing the company's American Musical Theater Initiative, and Davis will conduct a special Subscriber Appreciation Concert in March featuring Lyric's creative consultant - the star soprano Renee Fleming - with tenor Jonas Kaufmann.

The Met presents an all-new holiday presentation: an abridged, English-language version of Rossini's classic comedy The Barber of Seville. Check out scenes from the production below!

What a delight to go to the opera house among so many children, each bustling with excitement for what I can only imagine was the first time for many. The Metropolitan Opera's new and abridged version of Rossini's comic opera The Barber of Seville - sung in the English-language is guaranteed fun for the whole family. Not only is the opera comic and sung in English, it is also cut down to only two hours, including the intermission. All of this combined makes for great holiday entertainment for anyone on your list.

This December, the Met will present an all-new holiday presentation: an abridged, English-language version of Rossini's classic comedy The Barber of Seville. Bartlett Sher returns to direct this adaptation of his hit 2006 production, which will have a running time of approximately two hours. Yves Abel conducts a cast led by Isabel Leonard as the feisty heroine Rosina, Alek Shrader as the handsome Count Almaviva, Rodion Pogossov as the local jack-of-all-trades Figaro, John Del Carlo as the wicked Dr. Bartolo, and Jordan Bisch as the music teacher Don Basilio. The new English-language libretto is by J. D. McClatchy, the American poet who also provided the translation for the Met's holiday production of Mozart's The Magic Flute. In keeping with the Met's recent tradition of family-oriented holiday programming, The Barber of Seville will feature sharply discounted tickets and a special weekday matinee performance.

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.

Polka dots, neon and pastel colors, and innovative use of projector technology comprise a cheerful and vivid new production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, which premiered Wednesday night at the San Francisco Opera Memorial House. Although it sometimes lacks the dramatics needed to keep a strong momentum, the production makes a strong addition to a long line of creative takes on the opera. Plus, its nonsensical plot makes it the perfect opera to share with friends who do not regularly attend opera. San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley's new modern English translation also adds to that note, although some audiences may miss the original German.

Dominant as ever in the concert hall this winter, Christine Brewer - styled "the ideal modern Wagnerian soprano" by the Los Angeles Times - joins the San Francisco Symphony and guest conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen for three concert performances of excerpts from Gotterdammerung, the closing chapter of Wagner's monumental Ring cycle (Dec 8-10). Following her recent account of the German composer's Wesendonck Lieder with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, "a performance that was a model of vocal allure and musical intelligence" (South Florida Classical Review), Brewer reprises the work - coupled with Beethoven's "Ah! perfido" - with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Ward Stare (Jan 20 & 21). She returns to Beethoven for four performances of the Missa solemnis with the Boston Symphony led by Kurt Masur, first at the orchestra's Boston home (Feb 23-25) and then at New York's Carnegie Hall (March 6). Early in the new year, the "superlative Strauss singer" (New York Times) assays the great late Romantic's Four Last Songs with the St. Louis Symphony under David Robertson (Jan 13 & 14).