Alfred Walker News

While McCaw Hall's stage may be dark, opera music continues to reverberate in the Pacific Northwest and beyond: Starting every Saturday on April 25, enjoy Seattle Opera Mornings on King FM. Classical KING FM 98.1 will broadcast recordings of previous Seattle Opera performances including Tosca, La traviata, The Magic Flute, and Madame Butterfly. Broadcasts will be available on the radio and at king.org every Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. 

American Symphony Orchestra has launched ASO Online, a new digital initiative in collaboration with Bard's Fisher Center. To stay in touch with its audiences and to help the community escape from stress through music during the COVID-19 pandemic, ASO will release a recording of a past performance for streaming on its website each Wednesday. Streaming content will alternate each week between a??live video recordings of operas from Bard's SummerScape festival featuring ASO as the orchestra-in-residence, and iconic symphonic audio recordings from the Orchestra's past seasons.

Thanks to the French online service, France.tv, opera-goers in New York have had a chance to see what lies ahead with the new production of Mozart's DON GIOVANNI by Ivo van Hove, that, health crisis be willing, will make its debut at the Met next March.

Boston Lyric Opera's (BLO) General and Artistic Director Esther Nelson and 99.5 WCRB Classical Radio Boston Manager Anthony Rudel announced today that a special audio recording of BLO's final dress rehearsal of Vincenzo Bellini's NORMA will be streamed on www.classicalwcrb.org and www.blo.org starting Sunday, March 29 at 3 PM.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced the Company's 98th season, which opens on September 11, 2020 with an Opening Night Celebration featuring soprano Albina Shagimuratova and tenor Pene Pati in concert with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by Music Director Designate Eun Sun Kim. Opening Night festivities include San Francisco Opera Guild's Opera Ball, BRAVO! CLUB's annual Opening Night Gala and two new events: the Opera Supper in the Veterans Building's elegant Green Room and, for the entire audience, a celebratory, post-concert toast to the season.

For its first production of Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 masterwork, NORMA, in nearly 40 years, Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) brings back the international star it introduced to the U.S. just over two years ago. Elena Stikhina makes her debut in one of opera's most technically demanding roles a?' a powerful Druid priestess whose affair with the general of a warring Roman faction brings personal grief and despair. The Russian-born soprano made her American debut in BLO's 2017 production of Tosca. Her subsequent national and international acclaim includes a lauded 2018 Metropolitan Opera debut in Puccini's Il Trittico. Best known for its star-making aria a?oeCasta Diva,a?? BLO presents Bellini's dramatic bel canto opera for five performances from March 13-22 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. Tickets are on sale now at BLO.org.

One of America's favorite operas returns to the Met for the first time in nearly 30 years! The 2019-2020 season of The Met: Live in HD will continue Saturday, February 1 with The Gershwins' PORGY AND BESS at 12:55 pm in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre.

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess returns to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time since 1990, in a new production directed by James Robinson in his company debut. Starring Eric Owens and Angel Blue and conducted by David Robertson. Porgy and Bess comes to the big screen at The Ridgefield Playhouse in a LIVE simulcast on Saturday, February 1st at 12:55pm, part of the Classical Series, underwritten by Jeanne Cook, Liz & Steven Goldstone, and Sabina & Walter Slavin with support from Whistle Stop Bakery.

San Francisco Opera presents Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, November 15–December 7.

San Francisco Opera presents Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, November 15–December 7. Last seen on the War Memorial Opera House stage nearly two decades ago, the popular fairy-tale opera returns in an “enchanting” (The Times, UK) new co-production with London's Royal Opera by director and production designer Antony McDonald. Humperdinck's sweeping score will be conducted by Christopher Franklin and sung in English translation by a cast including mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Hansel, Heidi Stober as Gretel and Robert Brubaker as the Witch.

Opening Night at the Metropolitan Opera! The very words tingle with palpable electricity and anticipation. Whether you attend in person, or go to the Times Square simulcast, or whether you listen on the radio or on the Met website, you are participating in one of the most thrilling events of the New York City musical year.

Porgy and Bess just recently began performances at the Metropolitan Opera. Get a first look at the cast in action!

Porgy and Bess just recently began performances at the Metropolitan Opera. What did the critics have to say?

Porgy and Bess just recently began performances at the Metropolitan Opera and we've got a first look for you! Check out the clips below!

Get a first look at rehearsals for James Robinson's new production of the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, which features choreography by Camille A. Brown and opens the 2019a?'20 season on September 23.

Get a first look at rehearsals for James Robinson's new production of the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, which features choreography by Camille A. Brown and opens the 2019a?'20 season on September 23.

Get a first look at rehearsals for James Robinson's new production of the Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, which features choreography by Camille A. Brown and opens the 2019a?"20 season on September 23.

Opening on Friday, July 26, Bard SummerScape presents the long overdue American premiere of The Miracle of Heliane ('Das Wunder der Heliane,' 1927). An original staging by German director Christian Räth of the grand opera that Erich Wolfgang Korngold considered his masterpiece, 'this show promises everything: symbolism, eroticism, political intrigue and gorgeous orchestration, all done up in the composer's signature 'more is more' musical style' (New York Observer). Featuring Ausrine Stundyte, Daniel Brenna, Alfred Walker and the American Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of festival co-founder and co-artistic director Leon Botstein, The Miracle of Heliane will be sung in German with English supertitles and will run for five performances between July 26 and August 4, with an Opera Talk, free and open to the public, before the matinee on July 28. SummerScape 2019 also provides the chance to sample some of the operettas written and arranged by Korngold and his contemporaries in 'Operetta's America' (August 11) and to see a semi-staged production of his best-loved opera, Die tote Stadt ('The Dead City'; August 18), during the 30th anniversary season of the Bard Music Festival.

Committed since its inception to reviving important but neglected operas, Bard SummerScape has long proven itself 'an indispensable part of the summer operatic landscape' (Musical America).

Proving the enduring vibrancy and relevancy of the art form (while celebrating a milestone for its leader), Boston Lyric Opera's 2019/20 Season of new productions spans three centuries of composers -- focusing on works that reflect the highs and lows of power and politics, bringing passionate opera installations to new neighborhoods, and introducing audiences to rising stars from diverse backgrounds. Among the season highlights, Russian-born soprano Elena Stikhina returns to BLO, where she made her 2017 American debut, to sing the lead role in NORMA. Stanford Calderwood General & Artistic Director Esther Nelson marks her 10th programming season, which the company will commemorate throughout the year.