Bel Canto News

New York City Opera has announced that Blythe Gaissert & Michael Kelly and Briana Elyse Hunter & Jorell Williams will comprise the rotating casts of its upcoming production of AS ONE.

Following a season of change and transition, Calgary Opera announced a fresh and innovative line-up of productions, programs and packages that will form their 2019-20 season today. This season, the company's 48th, includes three main stage opera productions at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium and a series of smaller performances at other venues across the city.

Considerada una institución en el ámbito operístico en México, la maestra y bailarina Eleonora Velázquez falleció ayer en esta ciudad, donde se desarrolló como coordinadora y asistente escénica y de dirección desde 1983.

The McCammon Voice Competition in collaboration with Fort Worth Opera is pleased to present Angela Meade in recital on Monday, May 6 at 7:00 pm at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden Auditorium. This intimate concert marks the eagerly-anticipated return of this world-renowned soprano to Fort Worth after winning first prize in the 2005 McCammon Voice Competition. Ms. Meade will be accompanied on piano by Fort Worth Opera Artistic Director and Conductor, Joe Illick. The evening's diverse program will consist of celebrated arias and art songs by Bellini, Meyerbeer, Korngold, and Strauss.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents the new Broadway production of the musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate, starring Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara, opening tonight!

Bang on a Can and MASS MoCA announce the launch of a new, three-day music festival called LOUD Weekend, presented for the first time from Friday, August 2 through Sunday, August 4, 2019, at MASS MoCA in North Adams, located in the Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts (1040 MASS MoCA Way). Dozens of concerts will take place in the museum's vast galleries and throughout its stunning collection of indoor and outdoor performing arts venues, over the three-day period. Early Bird tickets are available now for $60 (3-Day Pass), for a limited time.

Proving the enduring vibrancy and relevancy of the art form (while celebrating a milestone for its leader), Boston Lyric Opera's 2019/20 Season of new productions spans three centuries of composers -- focusing on works that reflect the highs and lows of power and politics, bringing passionate opera installations to new neighborhoods, and introducing audiences to rising stars from diverse backgrounds. Among the season highlights, Russian-born soprano Elena Stikhina returns to BLO, where she made her 2017 American debut, to sing the lead role in NORMA. Stanford Calderwood General & Artistic Director Esther Nelson marks her 10th programming season, which the company will commemorate throughout the year.

Winter Opera has opened a sumptuous production of Norma, Vincenzo Bellini's bel canto masterpiece from 1831.

There is something very noble about the mission of English Touring Opera to bring the art form to parts of the country that would normally never see it. They often bravely overlook the popular productions and turn to lesser-known ones such as Mozart's Idomeneo and Rossini's Elizabeth I. As part of their spring season, they look to Verdi's first adaptation of a Shakepearean play with Macbeth.

On April 5th at 7 pm, at Lisner Auditorium, Washington Concert Opera and Maestro Antony Walker will wrap up their 2018/2019 season with a performance of Gioachino Rossini's Zelmira.

At a time when black people were prohibited from walking through the front doors of public spaces, composer and soprano Ella Sheppard (1851-1915) and the Fisk Jubilee Singers performed on international stages for industry barons, cultural icons, and Queen Victoria. That trailblazing work was furthered by composer and baritone Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949), whose compositions - crossing racial, religious, and class lines - served to bridge the sound and identity of America. Sheppard and Burleigh's barrier-breaking contributions to the foundation of the American music tradition will be examined in an upcoming concert and conference hosted by the Harry T. Burleigh Society on March 2 and 3 at Carnegie Hall.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall this March for two back-to-back programs in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. In an all-Richard Strauss program on Tuesday, March 19 at 8:00 p.m., music director and conductor Andris Nelsons and the BSO are joined by world-renowned soprano Renee Fleming for the closing scene in the composer's final opera, Capriccio, on a program also including the Sextet and Moonlight Music from that opera, as well as the tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra.

Tenor Javier Camarena and soprano Pretty Yende team up for a feast of bel canto vocal fireworks -- including the show-stopping tenor aria "Ah! Mes amis," with its nine high Cs-- in an Encore in HD presentation of The Metropolitan Opera production of the comic French opera La Fille Du Regiment on Sunday, March 17 at 12pm at The Ridgefield Playhouse.

The Opera Company of Middlebury and Town Hall Theater proudly presents a very special concert featuring celebrated Cuban-American composer and Middlebury resident Jorge Martin. Mr. Martin will perform his works with tenor Brian Downen and mezzo-soprano Cherry Duke. 

On Saturday, March 2 at 1:00pm the Peterborough Players present, Live from the Metropolitan Opera, a screening of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment.

En los últimos meses, las funciones de ópera presentadas en el Palacio de Bellas Artes han acaparado la atención de decenas de mexicanos, incluso las localidades se han agotado con anticipación, pero sobre todo por la calidad que le pone el elenco, los músicos y el coro a las presentaciones del bel canto.

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion for American opera, is pleased to announce the recipients of its first-ever Civic Practice Grants, supported by OPERA America's Opera Fund endowment.

"Dangerous liaisons" is the overarching theme of The Atlanta Opera's landmark 40th anniversary season. From Puccini's Cio-Cio San to Rodriguez's Frida Kahlo, most of the featured protagonists share a propensity for self-destructive relationships that threaten to bring about their downfall.

Tenor Javier Camarena and soprano Pretty Yende team up for a feast of bel canto vocal fireworks -- including the show-stopping tenor aria "Ah! Mes amis," with its nine high C's-- in an Encore in HD presentation of The Metropolitan Opera production of the comic French opera La Fille Du Regiment on Sunday, March 17 at 12pm at The Ridgefield Playhouse.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced its 2019-2020 season. The season includes four mainstage productions at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, including spectacular productions of The Abduction from the Seraglio and Lucia di Lammermoor that are new to Kansas City, a beloved production of La boh me that was built right here by Lyric Opera, and the KANSAS CITY PREMIERE of The Shining. All performances will be accompanied by members of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra.