Bel Canto News

Legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920-1955) was 'a genius who lived fast and died young, revolutionizing an art form in a few short years' (NPR).

The Music Academy of the West will present the world-renowned New York Philharmonic in its first-ever performance at the historic Santa Barbara Bowl as well as a new production of Gioachino Rossini's comic opera Cinderella as part of the Academy's 68th annual Summer Festival. The Music Academy will present some 200 events, including more than 80 that are free, over the course of its coming season, which begins June 15 and concludes August 8. Additional highlights will include performances by pianists Jeremy Denk and Leon Fleisher, the Takács and JACK quartets, cellist Alban Gerhardt, and tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, as well as orchestra concerts led by Christoph von Dohnányi, Courtney Lewis, Nicholas McGegan, Larry Rachleff, and Osmo Vänskä. Throughout its 2015 Summer Festival, the Academy will highlight the music of living composers, including Carter Pann, Mason Bates, Kalevi Aho, Pierre Jalbert, Steve Reich, Thomas Adès, Caroline Shaw, and Pierre Boulez. Featuring the Academy's exceptionally talented fellows, together with distinguished guest performers and faculty, the events will be presented at the Academy's scenic Miraflores campus and in venues throughout Santa Barbara. Subscription sales have begun; individual tickets will go on sale Saturday, April 25.

Tenor Bryan Hymel's rapid rise is being followed by opera mavens worldwide.

The Collegiate Chorale announces that Ron Rifkin will join the cast of the US Premiere of Kurt Weill's The Road of Promise on May 6, 2015 at 8pm and May 7, 2015 at 7pm at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019.

It promises to be an evening of musical magic, touching accolades and tremendous excitement when the Los Angeles Children's Chorus (LACC) honors at its annual Gala Bel Canto the Oscar and Grammy Award-winning songwriters behind Disney's 'Frozen,' Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, and LACC President and Vice Chair Edward J. Nowak, Deputy General Counsel of The Walt Disney Company, on Tuesday, April 14, 2015, 6 p.m., at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion's Grand Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Opera opened THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO. From the breathless opening notes of the overture to the touching final curtain, Mozart's comic masterpiece under the baton of James Conlon brilliantly bucks the conventions of his time to deliver an ageless message of love and forgiveness.

The Collegiate Chorale concludes its 2014-2015 season with the US Premiere of Kurt Weill's The Road of Promise May 6, 2015 at 8pm and May 7, 2015 at 7pm at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019. Tickets are $30-$135 and are available at www.carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800, or the Box Office at 57th and Seventh. For more information, visit http://collegiatechorale.org/performances/the-road-of-promise.

Houston Ballet's MODERN MASTERS is excellence personified. It is an electrifying demonstration of the precision, perfection and artistry in movement.

Heartbeat Opera is a new company intent upon re-imagining opera in intimate spaces for a new generation. Employing a minimalism that allows the emotional integrity of the music to shine through, the company's work focuses on the body of the singer and the visceral power of the music. Co-Artistic Directors Louisa Proske and Ethan Heard, who trained together in the Directing program at the Yale School of Drama, are committed to nurturing the actor in every singer they work with. The company creates productions of classics and new pieces that are daring and visceral—productions that manifest the emotional grandeur and theatrical power of opera with minimal means. Heartbeat's one-act festival presentation of György Kurtág's Kafka-Fragments, directed by Heard, and the New York premiere of Jacques Offenbach's Daphnis & Chloé, in a new English translation directed by Proske, marks this young company's debut. Heartbeat Opera's resident music ensemble Cantata Profana, described by The New York Times as “a stylish early music ensemble,” will provide musical accompaniment.

New York Festival of Song marks its seventh annual residency at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts with BEL CANTO/CAN BELTO, to be performed today, March 17, 2015 at 8:00 p.m. at Merkin Concert Hall.

Acclaimed soprano Laura Claycomb has agreed to step in for soprano Nicole Cabell, performing this Wednesday, March 18 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage with The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Maurizio Benini. This concert is the final event in mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato's season-long Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Claycomb will join Ms. DiDonato and tenor Lawrence Brownlee for a program of bel canto arias, ensembles, and orchestral selections. Donizetti's 'Havvi un Dio che in sua clemenza' from Maria di Rohan has been removed from the program. The full updated program is below. Ms. Cabell has cancelled Wednesday's appearance due to illness.

The Collegiate Chorale concludes its 2014-2015 season with the US Premiere of Kurt Weill's The Road of Promise May 6, 2015 at 8pm and May 7, 2015 at 7pm at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019. Tickets are $30-$135 and are available at www.carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800, or the Box Office at 57th and Seventh. For more information, visit http://collegiatechorale.org/performances/the-road-of-promise.

The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Series continues in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre at 1 pm today, March 14, 2015 with Rossini's LA DONNA DEL LAGO.

Opera performers gave Rene Staub's production the sound Sondheim intended.

She caused a sensation at the Met Opera and elicited critical raves for her Brunnhilde at Canadian Opera Company

Heartbeat Opera is a new company intent upon re-imagining opera in intimate spaces for a new generation. Employing a minimalism that allows the emotional integrity of the music to shine through, the company's work focuses on the body of the singer and the visceral power of the music. Co-Artistic Directors Louisa Proske and Ethan Heard, who trained together in the Directing program at the Yale School of Drama, are committed to nurturing the actor in every singer they work with. The company creates productions of classics and new pieces that are daring and visceral—productions that manifest the emotional grandeur and theatrical power of opera with minimal means. Heartbeat's one-act festival presentation of György Kurtág's Kafka-Fragments, directed by Heard, and the New York premiere of Jacques Offenbach's Daphnis & Chloé, in a new English translation directed by Proske, marks this young company's debut. Heartbeat Opera's resident music ensemble Cantata Profana, described by The New York Times as “a stylish early music ensemble,” will provide musical accompaniment.

After a worldwide search, Houston Grand Opera has chosen seven new members for the 2015–16 HGO Studioprogram. One of the most respected and highly competitive young artist programs in the world, the HGO Studio provides comprehensivecareer development to young singers, pianist/coaches, and conductors who have demonstrated potential to make major contributions to thefield of opera. The HGO Studio received applications from 500 artists; of those, about 275 were heard in Houston, New York, Philadelphia,Cincinnati, and San Francisco. For singers, the audition process culminates in HGO's annual Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias, held this year on February 5.

Korean-American soprano Kathleen Kim returns as the power-hungry Chiang Ch'ing, aka Madame Mao

CHICAGO - American mezzo-soprano J'nai Bridges is one of 20 international finalists for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015 competition. Bridges, a third-year member of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, is currently portraying Vlasta in Lyric's mainstage premiere of Mieczys?aw Weinberg's The Passenger.

Maria Callas got the world used to hearing singing that was not always pitch-perfect yet still essential listening. I kept thinking about this at the Met the other night during the new production of Rossini's LA DONNA DEL LAGO with a cast headed by a couple of stars, mezzo Joyce DiDonato and tenor Juan Diego Florez, who are well known for their bel canto style.