Anthony Tommasini News

Get a first look at LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST at The Met below! Soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek sings Puccini's gun-slinging heroine in this romantic epic of the Wild West, with the heralded return of tenor Jonas Kaufmann in the role of the outlaw she loves. Tenor Yusif Eyvazov also sings some performances. Baritone Željko Lu?i? is the vigilante sheriff Jack Rance, and Marco Armiliato conducts. 

On October 13, 2018, the Canadian Opera Company presented the highly anticipated world premiere of Hadrian by composer Rufus Wainwright and librettist Daniel MacIvor. The opera recounts the epic love story of Roman Emperor Hadrian and his young lover, Antinous. Erased by history, their story is reclaimed for the 21st century by its creators in a star-studded production from renowned Canadian director Peter Hinton. Hadrian runs for seven performances through October 27, 2018.

A new series for the 10th anniversary concert season brings Canadian trailblazers, each with a unique voice and perspective. The series continues with Canadian saxophone and flute master Jane Bunnett & Maqueque All-Stars on November 30. Bunnett once again brings the soul of Cuba to the hearts of Canadian music lovers with current and former Maqueque band members, including vocalist Dayme Arocena.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at SAMON ET DALILA at The Met Opera! Check out photos of the Darko Tresnjak directed production below!

EXPERIMENTS IN OPERA Presents 'Modularias' Friday November 2, 2018 at 7:00pm and Saturday November 3, 2018 at 3:00pm and 7:00pm.

Conductor Jaap van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents over the past decade. The 2018–19 season marks his first as the 26th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. He continues as Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, a post he has held since 2012. Guest engagements this season include the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, San Francisco Symphony, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra — where he is Conductor Laureate, having just completed a ten-year tenure as Music Director. He has appeared as guest conductor with many other leading orchestras around the globe, among them the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre national de France, and London Symphony Orchestra.

The Ford Theatres presents legendary poet and performer Saul Williams, known for his distinctive marriage of "firebrand politics with metaphysical word play," joining with the adventurous Mivos Quartet, hailed as 'one of America's most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles' (The Chicago Reader) on Thursday, September 6 at 8:30pm.

The radically inventive Catalonian theater collective Fura dels Baus transforms Haydn's Enlightenment-era oratorio into an immersive theatrical experience in THE CREATION at Lincoln Center. Including visual pyrotechnics, three dozen large helium balloons, a 20-foot-tall crane, and a 250-gallon water tank, the work touches upon subjects from philosophy to genetics. Laurence Equilbey conducts Insula Orchestra, a period-instrument ensemble, along with three daring soloists and the accentus choir, who enact this musically and visually stunning portrayal of the emergence of life coupled with the continued presence of original sin. The concert is sung in German with English supertitles

Peak Performances kicks off its 2018-19 season with the world premiere of Hatuey: Memory of Fire, a rousing Afro-Cuban-Yiddish opera performed in English, Yiddish and Spanish, with music by Frank London, libretto by Elise Thoron, direction by Mary Birnbaum, and choreography by Maija Garcia.

In their astounding new opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, composer Mason Bates and librettist Mark Campbell explore the spiritual evolution of one of the most influential men of modern times as he creates a revolutionary new world of technological empowerment, then discovers a larger world within himself.

The New York City Opera series at Bryant Park Picnics continues with this hour-long presentation of highlights from Giacomo Puccini's classic opera, Madama Butterfly. Offered to the New York public free-of-charge, this presentation is a perfect introduction to opera for newcomers of any age.

From Sunday, June 3 through Friday, June 22, 2018, conductor Michael Christie will lead the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in the world premiere performances of An American Soldier, the new two-act opera by Huang Ruo and Henry David Hwang, at the Loretto-Hilton Center (130 Edgar Road). Tenor Andrew Stenson (Danny Chen), mezzo-soprano Mika Shigematsu (Mother Chen), and soprano Kathleen Kim (Josephine Young) make debuts with OTSL and join bass-baritone Wayne Tigges (Sergeant Aaron Marcum) and director Matthew Ozawa for this production.

The Met is hosting the return of Bartlett Sher's production of Gounod's sumptuous Shakespeare adaptation of Romet et Juliette, which was a hit of the 2016-17 Met season ('a revelation' declared the Huffington Post). Now the sweeping tragedy returns with Ailyn Pérez and Charles Castronovo as the star-crossed young lovers. Plácido Domingo conducts.

Sir David McVicar's “smashing new production” is “a grand triumph” (Huffington Post), offering a splendid backdrop for two extraordinary sopranos sharing the title role of the jealous prima donna: Sonya Yoncheva and Anna Netrebko. Vittorio Grigolo and Yusif Eyvazov alternate in the role of Tosca's revolutionary artist lover Cavaradossi, with Željko Lu?i? and Michael Volle as the depraved police chief Scarpia. Emmanuel Villaume and Bertrand de Billy share conducting duties

For the third and final concert of its 50th anniversary season, New Amsterdam Singers, led by Music Director Clara Longstreth, will perform the world premiere of The Wave Rises by Ben Moore, a work commissioned by the chorus as part of its 50-year celebration.

The spirited soprano makes her auspicious Seattle Opera debut as the title character in Francesca Zambello's upcoming Aida production

Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, set during the reign of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, is a bittersweet tale of love lost and found. Sweeping waltzes, unsurpassed ensembles—especially the gorgeous final trio—and stunning orchestration bring Hugo von Hofmannsthal's witty libretto to life. Rhapsodic, comic, and deeply moving, Der Rosenkavalier is Strauss's crowning operatic achievement.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage's 2018 Celebrity Opera Series concludes with the great opera stars Angela Gheorghiu and Vittorio Grigòlo, joining forces for a concert of thrilling arias and duets on Tuesday, May 1 with world-renowned conductor, Eugene Kohn. Performing together at The Broad Stage for the first time, this is an exclusive pairing of two international icons in concert.

Handel knew how to put on a show. With Rinaldo, the first Italian opera written for the London stage, he created a thrilling crowd-pleaser. Rinaldo dazzles with its expressive arias, like the plaintive "Lascia ch'io pianga," one of the most popular soprano arias ever written. Rinaldo's spectacular instrumental writing is unsurpassed, with rousing trumpets, drums, strings, and oboe in the martial aria "Or la tromba" and show-stopping harpsichord pyrotechnics-originally improvised by Handel-in the fiery aria "Vo' far guerra."

American soprano Kathleen Battle's luminous voice has been called '…without qualification, one of the very few most beautiful in the world' (The Washington Post ). Yet beyond the glory of her singing, in a career filled with countless accolades, honors and major milestones, what has perhaps distinguished her most is her almost magical ability to create an unwavering bond with her audience. Returning to Seattle for the first time in two decades, the legendary opera star takes the stage at the University of Washington's Meany Hall on April 14, 2018, to explore traditional spirituals and the writings of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. She is joined by acclaimed jazz pianist Joel Martin and local choirs The Sound of the Northwest and UW Chamber Singers.