A Valentine's experience like no other, Mercury performs all of Bach's gleaming Orchestral Suites with internationally acclaimed guest conductor Harry Bicket on February 13, 2016 at 8 PM at the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater. Written over many years, the four Orchestral Suites (BWV 1066-1069), are filled with some of Bach's most recognizable and beloved melodies. This performance is a part of the 2016 Houston Early Music Festival (HEMF), generously funded in part by a grant from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance and the Texas Commission on the Arts. To purchase tickets or HEMF festival passes, or for more information visit www.mercuryhouston.org or call 713.533.0080.
Canada's greatest achievement in music, LOUIS RIEL, is returning to the Canadian Opera Company stage in a new production to help mark the 150th anniversary of the country's confederation. LOUIS RIEL is one of six landmark operas unveiled today at the public launch of the COC's 2016/2017 season at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the perfect midwinter getaway: a beautiful production of Richard Strauss's delectably bittersweet romantic comedyDer Rosenkavalier, which opens on Monday, February 8 for eight performances.
Lyric Opera of Chicago will begin a new chapter in its history with its 61st season - the first to be fully planned by general director Anthony Freud and music director Sir Andrew Davis. Lyric's two artistic leaders announced the repertoire and casting for the 2015-16 season today.
The Dallas Opera, in the latest installment of The Robert E. and Jean Ann Titus Art Song Recital Series, will present the phenomenal American tenor,Matthew Polenzani, in an exclusive, one-time-only recital on the afternoon of Sunday, January 11, 2015 at Southern Methodist University's popular Caruth Auditorium (an intimate 490-seat venue located in the Owen Arts Center, 6101 Bishop, Dallas, TX 75205). The two o'clock recital will also feature the exciting and accomplished playing of Mr. Polenzani's frequent recording partner, pianistJulius Drake.
The great mezzo Joyce DiDonato stripped for her art at Sunday's wonderful performance of Handel's ALCINA with the English Concert under conductor Harry Bicket. For the first act, when she was still at the height of her powers as a sorceress, she came out in a gorgeous black and gray gown with the puffy sleeves she favors. Act II, she lost the sleeves but not the attitude, as her power waned. For the final act, powerless, she lost her petticoat and showed some leg. Oh yes: She sounded glorious all the while.
This season, celebrated mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato curates a multi-part Carnegie Hall Perspectives series that showcases her vocal creativity and multifaceted talents, ranging from programs that include familiar and forgotten repertoire from the Baroque and bel canto eras to works by Jake Heggie written expressly for her. Her series kicks off on Sunday, October 26 at 2:00 p.m. as she sings the title role in a concert performance of Handel's Alcina alongside Harry Bicket and The English Concert.
Outrage is ensuing as theatre critics walk a fine line between critique and insult. Comments over a young woman's physique in Glyndebourne's 'Der Rosenkavalier' opera has been the topic of criticism to many reviewers.
Internationally renowned director Peter Sellars returns to the Canadian Opera Company this spring with a new company production of Handel's Hercules that propels the Greek myth into the modern day, giving voice to the untold horrors of war and the unspoken complications faced by veterans returning home. The COC premiere of Hercules reunites Sellars with celebrated conductorHarry Bicket and the all-star cast that presented this co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago to unequivocal praise at its debut in Chicago in 2011. Hercules is sung in English with English SURTITLES and runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts today, April 5, 11, 15, 19, 24, 27, 30, 2014.
Internationally renowned director Peter Sellars returns to the Canadian Opera Company this spring with a new company production of Handel's Hercules that propels the Greek myth into the modern day, giving voice to the untold horrors of war and the unspoken complications faced by veterans returning home. The COC premiere of Hercules reunites Sellars with celebrated conductor Harry Bicket and the all-star cast that presented this co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago to unequivocal praise at its debut in Chicago in 2011. Hercules is sung in English with English SURTITLES and runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on April 5, 11, 15, 19, 24, 27, 30, 2014.
Internationally renowned director Peter Sellars returns to the Canadian Opera Company this spring with a new company production of Handel's Hercules that propels the Greek myth into the modern day, giving voice to the untold horrors of war and the unspoken complications faced by veterans returning home. The COC premiere of Hercules reunites Sellars with celebrated conductorHarry Bicket and the all-star cast that presented this co-production with Lyric Opera of Chicago to unequivocal praise at its debut in Chicago in 2011. Hercules is sung in English with English SURTITLES and runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on April 5, 11, 15, 19, 24, 27, 30, 2014.
One of the most innovative and powerful forces in the performing arts world today, director Peter Sellars returns to the Canadian Opera Company with an already acclaimed new COC production of Handel's Hercules, based on Sophocles' timeless tragedy. Sellars propels the Greek myth of Hercules into the modern day, directing the same star-studded cast that premiered this production to unanimous praise at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2011: American bass-baritone Eric Owens as Hercules (COC debut); British mezzo-soprano Alice Coote as Hercules' wife Dejanira; American countertenor David Daniels as Hercules' trusted aide, Lichas; American tenor Richard Croft as Hercules' son, Hyllus; and British soprano Lucy Crowe as the princess Iole (COC debut). Internationally renowned Baroque specialist Harry Bicket leads the COC Orchestra and Chorus through Handel's glorious music. The ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles was also a war general who knew first-hand the devastating psychological traumas facing returning veterans. With Hercules Sellars creates a healing work in which the untold horrors of war and the unspoken complications of reunion find their voice.
On Sunday, February 2, at 2:00 p.m., Harry Bicket conducts Handel's oratorio, Theodora, in concert at Carnegie Hall with acclaimed baroque orchestra The English Concert. In this concert production of Handel's second-to-last oratorio, celebrated countertenor David Daniels performs the role of Didymus opposite soprano Dorothea Roschmann (Theodora), leading a renowned cast including mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly (Irene), tenor Andrew Kennedy (Septimus), and bass-baritone Neal Davies (Valens), and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street led by Music Director Julian Wachner. Benjamin Sosland of The Juilliard School leads a pre-concert talk at 1:00 p.m. This concert marks the second year of multi-year Handel project by Harry Bicket, The English Concert and Carnegie Hall, following last February's Radimisto in which David Daniels sang the title role.
On Broadway, when a revival loses two out of three of its stars, the production might very well be put off until another season or, at worst, the producers might pack it in. In the opera world, companies don't have that luxury, particularly at a showplace like the Metropolitan Opera. Thus, we received Richard Strauss's DER ROSENKAVALIER, which made its season debut at the Met on Friday night, offering replacements in the two key roles of Sophie and Octavian, with variable results.
To commemorate the centennial of the opera's 1913 U.S. premiere at the Met, Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier returns for a series of performances conducted by Edward Gardner and featuring a cast of international singers making company debuts and role debuts. Viennese soprano Martina Serafin sings her first Met performances of one of her signature roles, the Marschallin. Alice Coote, who currently stars as Detective Anne Strawson in the North American premiere of Nico Muhly's Two Boys, sings the trouser role of the Marschallin's young lover, Octavian, while Mojca Erdmann makes her company role debut as Sophie, the innocent young woman who comes between the two. Peter Rose reprises his acclaimed interpretation of the Marschallin's oafish cousin, Baron Ochs; Hans-Joachim Ketelsen sings Sophie's protective father, Faninal; and Eric Cutler returns to the role of the Italian Singer. On December 3, German mezzo-soprano Daniela Sindram will make her Met debut as Octavian, a role she will also sing on December 7 and 10. On December 13, French mezzo-soprano Géraldine Chauvet will sing her first company performance of Octavian. At the December 3 performance, two graduates of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program will sing principal roles: Erin Morley as Sophie and Mario Chang as the Italian Singer.
Erin Morley will sing the role of Sophie in all performances of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier this season, replacing Mojca Erdmann, who is still recovering from a recent case of pneumonia.
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