Anna Christy News

Eminent artists, friends and peers of this year's five honorees converged in Washington, D.C., last night (Dec. 4) to present entertaining and heartfelt tributes at THE 34TH ANNUAL KENNEDY CENTER HONORS, an entertainment special to be broadcast Tuesday, Dec. 27 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, with Caroline Kennedy as host for the ninth consecutive year

During the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons, 33 U.S. opera companies both large and small and from coast to coast will perform works - including nine world premieres - by American composers, announced OPERA America, the national service organization for opera.

Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann ("The Tales of Hoffmann") returns to the Met stage in last season's acclaimed production directed by Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher, with Giuseppe Filianoti singing the title role for the first time at the Met. Ildar Abdrazakov, who sang the title role in last season's Met premiere of Verdi's Attila, makes his career role debut as the four villains.

Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann ("The Tales of Hoffmann") returns to the Met stage in last season's acclaimed production directed by Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher, with Giuseppe Filianoti singing the title role for the first time at the Met. Ildar Abdrazakov, who sang the title role in last season's Met premiere of Verdi's Attila, makes his career role debut as the four villains.

Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl Bramwell Tovey leads the orchestra in a concert version of Bernstein's comic operetta Candide, Thursday, September 2, at 8 p.m. The all-star roster of soloists in the production includes: Alek Shrader, as Candide, Anna Christy, as Cunegonde, Richard Suart as Pangloss/Martin, and Frederica von Stade, as Old Lady.

San Francisco Opera announced plans to return to KQED Public Television 9, a Northern California public broadcast station, with four grand operas recorded live in high definition at the historic War Memorial Opera House. The four opera series for television will be distinguished by program host Rita Moreno, artist and recipient of the four most coveted awards in the entertainment industry: the Oscar, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy.

Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl Bramwell Tovey leads the orchestra in a program of music by Wagner, Elgar and Beethoven, Tuesday, August 31, at 8 p.m. He is joined by young virtuoso cellist Daniel Müller-Schott in Elgar's poignant Cello Concerto.

Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl Bramwell Tovey leads the orchestra in a concert version of Bernstein's comic operetta Candide, Thursday, September 2, at 8 p.m. The all-star roster of soloists in the production includes: Alek Shrader, as Candide, Anna Christy, as Cunegonde, Richard Suart as Pangloss/Martin, and Frederica von Stade, as Old Lady.

San Francisco Opera announced plans to return to KQED Public Television 9, a Northern California public broadcast station, with four grand operas recorded live in high definition at the historic War Memorial Opera House. The four opera series for television will be distinguished by program host Rita Moreno, artist and recipient of the four most coveted awards in the entertainment industry: the Oscar, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy.

Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl Bramwell Tovey leads the orchestra in a program of music by Wagner, Elgar and Beethoven, Tuesday, August 31, at 8 p.m. He is joined by young virtuoso cellist Daniel Müller-Schott in Elgar's poignant Cello Concerto.

San Francisco Opera announced plans to return to KQED Public Television 9, a Northern California public broadcast station, with four grand operas recorded live in high definition at the historic War Memorial Opera House. The four opera series for television will be distinguished by program host Rita Moreno, artist and recipient of the four most coveted awards in the entertainment industry: the Oscar, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy.

Offering up greater variety, including more than 50 debuts from Sting to Wagnerian tenor John Treleaven, Ravinia Festival Chairperson Pamela B. Strobel and President and CEO Welz Kauffman today announced details of the 2010 season, including a Chicago Symphony Orchestra residency that celebrates major anniversaries of Mahler, Chopin, Schumann, Barber, Bernstein and Copland, as well as milestone birthdays of Music Director James Conlon, Christoph Eschenbach and Stephen Sondheim. The season, featuring 117 separate events, runs from June 3 through September 7.

As previously announced, this year's Ravinia Festival includes a new production of the musical Annie Get Your Gun; a gala concert celebrating Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday and featuring highlights from Ravinia's Sondheim productions; Ravinia Music Director James Conlon's 60th birthday celebration taking the Chicago Symphony Orchestra into the Martin Theatre for two Mozart operas, featuring mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade in Così fan tutte and baritone Nathan Gunn in The Marriage of Figaro; Leonard Bernstein's Vocal Suite from Candide; Broadway vocalist Kelli O'Hara and pianist Hershey Felder in intimate solo shows in the Martin Theatre; world premieres with Concert Dance, Inc. and the debut of Delfos Danza Contemporánea; the presentation of Ballet Folklorico de Mexico; and a national radio broadcast of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion. Today, the Ravinia organization revealed that George Hearn has been added to the cast of Annie Get Your Gun as Buffalo Bill Cody, joining Patti LuPone as Annie Oakley and Brian Stokes Mitchell as Frank Butler. Paul Gemignani will conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the show's three performances, Aug. 13-15. Hearn and LuPone also reunite with Michael Cerveris, Audra McDonald and the CSO for an all-Sondheim gala concert on July 31.

The latest in unauthorized gossip and buzz from the heart of Chicago's showtune video bars, and musical theater news from Chicago to Broadway. Liza Minnelli, 'Billy Elliot,' 'Ragtime,' Christine Ebersole, 'God Of Carnage,' 'It Takes A Village,' more.....

Offering up greater variety, including more than 50 debuts from Sting to Wagnerian tenor John Treleaven, Ravinia Festival Chairperson Pamela B. Strobel and President and CEO Welz Kauffman today announced details of the 2010 season, including a Chicago Symphony Orchestra residency that celebrates major anniversaries of Mahler, Chopin, Schumann, Barber, Bernstein and Copland, as well as milestone birthdays of Music Director James Conlon, Christoph Eschenbach and Stephen Sondheim. The season, featuring 117 separate events, runs from June 3 through September 7.

Seven new productions, including two company premieres and the first two parts of a new Ring cycle, featuring many of the world's greatest singers and conductors, will highlight the Metropolitan Opera's 2010-11 season.

On March 12, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., The Collegiate Chorale appeared with The New York City Opera Orchestra at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall in a performance of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's 1945 Broadway operetta The Firebrand of Florence.

On March 12, 2009 at 7:00 p.m., The Collegiate Chorale appears with The New York City Opera Orchestra at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall in a performance of Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's 1945 Broadway operetta The Firebrand of Florence. The performance, led by guest conductor Ted Sperling, stars baritone Nathan Gunn, soprano Anna Christy, baritone Terrence Mann, and soprano Victoria Clark. Krysty Swann, David Pittu and Patrick Goss complete the cast, and narration will be provided by Stage Director Roger Rees. Boasting a score by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by playwright and screenwriter Edwin Justus Mayer, The Firebrand of Florence had a short run on Broadway in 1945. The work was subsequently not heard for over a half-century until three presentations - Ohio Light Opera (1999), the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London (2000) and the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna (2000) - shed new light on the relatively obscure work. The performances were not only accepted, but widely acclaimed, thus giving hope for a new life in a new century. Variety's theater critic Steven Suskin says 'I have long believed that Firebrand in concert should be a dazzling delight.' Benvenuto Cellini, the great Florentine artist, is sentenced to hang, but he is pardoned when the duke realizes that he has not completed a previously commissioned sculpture. Freed, he is able to turn his attention to his favorite model (and object of his affections), Angela. The Duke also is interested in Angela. In a typical operetta plot, Cellini swashbuckles around the stage, keeping the Duke away from Angela, keeping himself away from the Duchess, and escaping yet another death sentence by fleeing to Paris, as the end of the show recapitulates the beginning.

Victoria Clark talks about Kurt Weill, motherhood and teaching the next generation of artists.