Anna Netrebko News

Ilya Bannik will make his Met debut as King René in Thursday's performance of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, replacing Alexei Tanovitski, who is ill. The originally scheduled premiere of Iolanta was canceled as a result of yesterday's city-wide ban on road travel and the shutdown of public transportation due to adverse weather conditions. This Thursday's performance will now be the Met premiere of Iolanta, which will be presented in a double bill with Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle.

Ilya Bannik will make his Met debut as King René in tonight's performance of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, replacing Alexei Tanovitski, who is ill.

DALLAS, JANUARY 22, 2014 –The Dallas Opera and The Dallas Opera Guild are proud to announce historic levels of participation in the first phase of the newly expanded Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition, scheduled to take place on the weekend of April 18-19, 2015 in the acoustically acclaimed setting of the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

Beginning January 26, the Met will present a double-bill of two rarely performed one-act operas: Tchaikovsky's romantic fairy tale Iolanta, with Anna Netrebko in the title role of a blind princess and Piotr Beczala as Count Vaudémont, a knight who loves her; and Bartók's harrowing Bluebeard's Castle, with Nadja Michael as a bride who discovers the terrifying truth about her new husband, sung by Mikhail Petrenko. Valery Gergiev returns to the Met to conduct both operas, which will be presented in a production by acclaimed Polish director Mariusz Treli?ski in his Met debut. This season's performances will be the company premiere of Iolanta, Tchaikovsky's final opera, and the Met's first-ever staged performances of Bluebeard's Castle in the original Hungarian. The February 14 matinee performance will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 2,000 movie theaters in 69 countries around the world.

On Wednesday 14 January 2015, at HUSH in Mayfair, the finalists of the International Opera Awards 2015 were announced. These were selected by the jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and classical music critic with The Daily Telegraph.

The Merola Opera Program and the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch present Merola Goes to the Movies, the free, opera-on-film series.

For New York opera-goers, what was the event of the year? Undoubtedly, John Adams's THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER, not only for the kerfuffle caused by the [unfounded] claims of anti-Semitism but for the opera's exciting debut at the Met. (The Met's contentious labor negotiations nearly edged it out, though.) As we head into the spring season, here's a look back at some of the performances that put a song in my heart, not in any particular order.

New Year's Eve will be celebrated in high style on ?medici.tv with a free webcast of superstar soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Juan Diego Flórez in Emmerich Kálmán's operetta Die Csárdásfürstin (“The Gypsy Princess”), with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Christian Thielemann. Filmed live on December 28 and then webcast by medici.tv the next day, the performance will be available for free viewing up to 90 days afterward.

Opera Exposures, the not-for-profit opera company founded in 2004 by Edna Greenwich, will celebrate the end of its tenth year with a holiday concert on Sunday, December 21, 2014, at 3 PM at the same venue where it all began for the company in February 2004 - St. Marks Church in the Bowery, 131 East Tenth Street at Second Avenue in Manhattan.

The Merola Opera Program presents Opera & Ornaments: A Merola Opera Program Holiday Concert, Saturday, December 13, 2:00pm in the Community Hall of the Lafayette Library (3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd.). This special holiday concert features opera, classical and holiday selections performed by renowned opera performer Eugene Brancoveanu.

Tucker Award-winning tenor Stephen Costello returns to New York's Metropolitan Opera this Today (Dec 11) to make his house role debut as Alfredo in La traviata, when he gives the first of five performances in Willy Decker's celebrated production. Costello has already sung Verdi's hero in high-profile productions on both sides of the Atlantic. This summer, his performances of the role at San Francisco Opera included a simulcast in the company's Opera in the Ballpark series, which was attended by an audience of more than 25,000 people.

Tucker Award-winning tenor Stephen Costello returns to New York's Metropolitan Opera this Thursday (Dec 11) to make his house role debut as Alfredo in La traviata, when he gives the first of five performances in Willy Decker's celebrated production. Costello has already sung Verdi's hero in high-profile productions on both sides of the Atlantic. This summer, his performances of the role at San Francisco Opera included a simulcast in the company's Opera in the Ballpark series, which was attended by an audience of more than 25,000 people.

The best seats for the Met operas and London's National Theatre may just be at The Ridgefield Playhouse when stunning shows are broadcast in HD. There is also the bonus of behind-the-scenes tours and commentary by some of the genres' most revered stars. From London's National Theatre on Sunday, February 15, at 3:30 p.m. comes superlative family entertainment -- Treasure Island (suitable for 10+ years). From the Met on Sunday, February 22, at 12 p.m., Tchaikovsky's Iolanta and Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle will enchant and thrill. Broadcast live from the West End by National Theatre, Skylight starring Carey Mulligan and Stephen Daldry, will be screened on Wednesday, February 25, at 6 p.m.

Puccini's LA BOHEME has that magical ability to change its shape depending on the cast. When Pavarotti sang, it became his opera, with a Mimi hard pressed to take the spotlight, even in her death scene. When Stratas, Carreras and Scotto (as Musetta) led the cast, it became a glittery ensemble of shooting stars. At this week's performance with rising star Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Mimi, there was no doubt that she was the evening's “it” girl, even though the other principal singers added mightily to the performance's success.

Hosted by soprano Deborah Voigt, from the Grand Staircase of the Met, the special covers a wide range of operatic ground, from heartbreak to hilarity, delivered by such artists as Natalie Dessay, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Juan Diego Flórez, Jonas Kaufmann, and Anna Netrebko, along with Voigt herself. These extraordinary moments, selected from more than 75 productions, were initially seen as part of the Met's global Live in HD movie-theater transmissions, and later shared with PBS audiences as presentations ofGreat Performances at the Met.

The November 15th deadline is rapidly approaching, as the Dallas Opera Guild prepares for the most exciting vocal competition in its history! For the very first time, the 27th Annual Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition is accepting applicants from all fifty states and U.S. territories, aged 21 to 32.

The Bijou Theatre presents Il Trovatore, as a part of their Opera in Cinema Series playing on Monday, November 17th at 6:00pm. Tickets are $20 for general admission seating.

During the first week of November, the Mariinsky Theatre returns to the UK for an operatic showcase of Wagner's Ring in Birmingham at the historic Hippodrome and three operas originally written for the Mariinsky including the most recent Levsha (The Left-hander) by Rodion Shchedrin. With a 300-strong troop of musicians, soloists and chorus starting the tour in Cardiff with Prokofiev's Betrothal in a Monastery, Valery Gergiev proceeds to London to present Russia's national epic Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov followed by the UK premiere of The Lefthander, both in concert versions at the Barbican.

On Sunday, December 7 at 2:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall presents Teatro Regio Torino in a concert performance of Rossini's opera Guglielmo Tell (William Tell) conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and sung in Italian by an outstanding cast that includes baritone Dalibor Jenis in the title role, tenor John Osborn as Arnoldo, and soprano Angela Meade as Matilde. The concert is part of the opera company's first-ever North American tour, with stops in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Toronto.

Soprano Anna Netrebko was AWOL. Tenor Marcello Giordani wasn't there. Mezzo Isabel Leonard didn't make it either. At least tenor Richard Tucker (1913-1975) had the best excuse for not being at Avery Fisher Hall on Sunday evening. But, as they say “the show must go on”--and the annual gala of The Richard Tucker Foundation certainly did, despite all the cancellations. Celebrating the famed singer, as well as showcasing the newly anointed winner of its top award, tenor Michael Fabiano, the evening was filled with many pleasures.