Angela Meade News

It's just about time to wish you all a happy 2018--but I'm not quite ready to put 2017 to rest. Though it won't go into the annals as one of the best years ever, there were quite enough performances and performers that made this year a winner for me, operatically speaking at least, in my corner of the world.

Over 600 opera aficionados - including Honored Guests Martina Arroyo, Candice Bergen, Kristin Chenoweth, Marilyn Horne, James Morris, Diane Sawyer and Teresa Stratas - attended the 83rd Annual Metropolitan Opera Guild Luncheon at Cipriani 42nd Street on Thursday, December 7th. This year's honoree, Ren e Fleming, was acknowledged for her immense contribution to opera and music. BroadwayWorld has photos from the event below!

Over 600 opera aficionados including Honored Guests Martina Arroyo, Candice Bergen, Kristin Chenoweth, Marilyn Horne, James Morris, Diane Sawyer and Teresa Stratas attended the 83rd Annual Metropolitan Opera Guild Luncheon at Cipriani 42nd Street on Thursday, December 7th. This year's honoree, Ren e Fleming, was acknowledged for her immense contribution to opera and music. Spoken and musical tributes were delivered by Peter Gelb, Ann Patchett and Luca Pisaroni, along with a performance by The Metropolitan Opera Guild's Urban Voices, a choral music initiative that involves nearly 4,000 students and teachers every year.

Palm Springs Opera Guild, one of the longest-standing cultural institutions in the Coachella Valley, has selected eight emerging opera stars to compete at the upcoming 34th Annual Dorothy Nocita Memorial Palm Springs Vocal Competition on Sunday, December 3, 2017 from 3 5:30 PM. This annual free event provides an opportunity for eight emerging young opera singers to compete for nearly $40,000 in prizes, earn community recognition for their achievements, and advance their careers. The event will take place at the Helene Galen Performing Arts Center, located at 31001 Rattler Road in Rancho Mirage.

Alcina showcases all the best aspects of Handel's skill without getting bogged down by melismatic asides. Every aria has a purpose. Every word moves the plot forward or gives depth to the characters. Indeed, the show moves briskly. (The 'approximately three hour' run time is a bit of an overstatement.)

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2017 2018 season with the company premiere of Handel's magical Baroque opera Alcina - starring megawatt soprano Angela Meade in the title role - November 4 19, 2017, in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2017 2018 season with the company premiere of Handel's magical Baroque opera Alcina - starring megawatt soprano Angela Meade in the title role - November 4 19, 2017, in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

The trio of soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, mezzo Joyce DiDonato and tenor Joseph Calleja promised a fine evening of singing for the Met's new NORMA and, for the most part, there wasn't much to quibble about. Too bad Sir David McVicar--and his design team--couldn't come up with something a little bolder, a little braver, a little more inventive than wandering trees and a giant lair that looked like an igloo in the off season to anchor its new production.

NORMA opened the Metropolitan Opera's 2017-18 season last night, and the critics are weighing in!

Palm Springs Opera Guild of the Desert, one of the longest-standing cultural institutions in the Coachella Valley, will host the 34th Annual Dorothy Nocita Memorial Palm Springs Vocal Competition on Sunday, December 3, 2017 from 3 6 PM. This annual free event will highlight eight emerging young opera singers as they compete for the opportunity to win more than $40,000 in prizes. The event will take place at the Helene Galen Performing Arts Center, located at 31001 Rattler Road in Rancho Mirage. The event allows young singers to earn cash scholarships, community recognition of their achievements and the opportunity to advance their careers.

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion for American opera, announces its 2017 2018 season of Onstage at the Opera Center, which begins on Thursday, October 5, 2017, and runs through May 2018.

The Metropolitan Opera will open its 133rd season on Monday, September 25 with a new production of Bellini's bel canto tragedy Norma. Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky returns to the Met as one of the world's leading interpreters of Norma, singing her first season opening performances.

Tickets go on sale today for the Met's Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning Live in HD series' 2017-18 season, which begins on October 7 with the company's new production of Bellini's Norma.

Chemistry in an opera performance is a funny thing. It's not always easy to explain why it's there, but you know when it isn't. But when it works, it works—and, boy, the Caramoor Festival's concert staging of Bellini's IL PIRATA on Saturday was on fire, with Angela Meade as the star soprano and Will Crutchfield on the podium.

Being an opera singer is a little like walking a tightrope without a net--no matter who you're singing with, you're out there on stage, alone, for the crowd to cheer but, also for everyone to hear each glitch or misstep in your singing. Soprano Angela Meade--who's starring as Imogene in Caramoor's concert performance of Bellini's IL PIRATA, a role debut, on July 8--not only did her first wire-walking with a major role but at a big house: the Metropolitan Opera.

Classic and contemporary, opera and orchestral, the music doesn't stop when the temperatures climb in New York, whether you're in New York City, or ready to travel to one of the festivals that dot the landscape of the Northeast. Musical life doesn't stop when the Met closes its doors: Here's a look “from here to eternity”…in the first part of our series on summertime's opera/vocal venues, covering New York City and Westchester.

The Orchestra of St. Luke's, one of America's most versatile and distinguished orchestras, returns to its summer home at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts to perform six varied programs ranging from opera to tango.

On June 17, 18, 23, 24, & 25, Long Beach Opera (LBO) will present five outdoor performances of the highly anticipated Southern California premiere of Frida. The opera celebrates the renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, her vivacious spirit, sexuality, fragility, and her tumultuous life with muralist Diego Rivera. Robert Xavier Rodriguez' brilliant score captures Frida with music as rich and haunting as her art.

Bernard Labadie (photo: Francois Rivard) Hailed as “one of the most versatile and galvanic ensembles in the U.S.” (WQXR), Orchestra of St. Luke's (OSL) was first formally founded at Caramoor 38 years ago, and has long made the idyllic estate its summer home. Fittingly, then, it is at Caramoor – 90 acres of picturesque Italianate architecture and gardens in Katonah, Westchester, just one hour's drive from Manhattan – that French-Canadian conductor Bernard Labadie makes his eagerly anticipated OSL debut this summer, before launching a four-year tenure as the ensemble's new Principal Conductor in the fall of 2018. One of the world's foremost exponents of 18th-century repertoire, Labadie leads an all-Mozart program, pairing three early symphonies with the charming Concerto for Flute and Harp (July 2).

In its seventh summer season, Russian Opera Workshop presents Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades (June 27, 28 & 29) and rarely performed Rusalka (August 1, 2 & 3), a bel canto inspired lyric opera by Alexander Dargomyzhsky. Other events include a series of master classes and concerts of Russian Romances.