Bel Canto News

Almost 200 years ago, three musical icons performed New York's first Italian opera, Don Giovanni, in lower New York. On May 23, they're back.

The internationally celebrated Grammy Award-winning coloratura soprano Sumi Jo returns to Australia this July for a series of unmissable performances, including a debut recital at Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) Brisbane on Saturday 21 July 2018.

The little OPERA theatre of ny (LOTNY), in collaboration with New York based period ensemble New Vintage Baroque,presents the New York City Premiere of Piramo e Tisbe at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue, NYC, from March 22-25, 2018, with performances on Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $35 and are available at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/35006. Based upon the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid's Metamorphoses with a libretto by Marco Coltellini, Piramo e Tisbe is byJohann Adolph Hasse, a pivotal opera composer of the 18th Century celebrated for his sweet and tender melodies. Sung in Italian with English supertitles.

BWW Feature: APRILE MILLO TO PERFORM ADRIANA LECOUVREUR at Theatro Municipal, Rio De Janairo

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) presents 'Il Pigmalione' & 'Rita,' a double-bill that spans the life and career of one of opera's premier bel canto composers, Gaetano Donizetti. The two works will be woven together to create a cohesive theatrical production featuring the talents of Javier Abreu (Pigmalione/Beppe), Angela Mortellaro (Galatea/Rita) and Keith Phares (Gasparo). Donizetti's first work and one of his last, are presented together as an exploration of love, fantasy and the blurry lines between them. The double bill is conducted by Francesco Milioto, directed by Amy Hutchison with movement by physical theater expert Adrian Danzig. The opening night and main press performance will take place on Saturday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Studebaker Theater (410 S. Michigan). Additional performances will take place on Friday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 22 at 3 p.m.

Opera's reigning queen of bel canto, Canadian-American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, returns to the Canadian Opera Company this spring to close its 2017/2018 season with Donizetti's Tudor drama, Anna Bolena. Last performed at the COC in 1984, the opera captures the tumultuous final days of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, as she fights for her honour and her life. Anna Bolenaruns for nine performances on April 28, May 3, 5, 8, 11, 16, 20, 24, 26, 2018.

The internationally celebrated Grammy-award winning coloratura soprano Sumi Jo returns to Australia this July for a series of unmissable concerts in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

The 2018 McCammon Voice Competition judges have chosen the semi-finalists for the eighteenth biennial competition, to be held on March 16, 2018 at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The finals will be held March 17, 2018 at Bass Performance Hall. This year's competitors are David Araujo, Amanda Blue, Nicolette Book, Ryan Bradford, Rachael Braustein, Kathleen Buccleugh, Chelsea Coyne, Danielle Davis, Peter Scott Drackley, Helen Huang, Hao Hu, Emily Michiko Jensen, Abigail Kempson, Chonghwa Kim, Abigail Levis, Brandon Morales, Elizabeth Moran, Langelihle Mngxati, Chong Yoon Noh, Brittany Nickell, Yulan Piao, Anthony Reed, Michael St. Peter and Andrew Wannigman.

On March 2, 2018, Opera Santa Barbara presented Gioachino Rossini's THE BARBER OF SEVILLE. Based on a libretto by Cesare and staged in a more modern manner by director Josh Shaw, the California performance of the early nineteenth century work was thoroughly amusing from overture to final bow.

American soprano Kathleen Battle's luminous voice has been called by The Washington Post "...without qualification, one of the very few most beautiful in the world."  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 emotional bond between herself, her music and her audience.  On Thursday, March 29 at 8pm, that special bond will be on full display when Ms. Battle makes her debut at The Soraya with Kathleen Battle: Underground Railroad-A Spiritual Journey accompanied by pianist Joel Martin and the LA-based choir, The Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers.

The Peterborough Players will present a live screening of the Metropolitan Opera's Semiramde on Saturday, March 10 at 1:00pm.

This masterpiece of dazzling vocal fireworks makes a rare Met appearance-its first in nearly 25 years-with Maurizio Benini on the podium. The all-star bel canto cast features Angela Meade in the title role of the murderous Queen of Babylon, who squares off in breathtaking duets with Arsace, a trouser role sung by Elizabeth DeShong. Javier Camarena, Ildar Abdrazakov, and Ryan Speedo Green complete the stellar cast.

This masterpiece of dazzling vocal fireworks makes a rare Met appearance-its first in nearly 25 years-with Maurizio Benini on the podium. The all-star bel canto cast features Angela Meade in the title role of the murderous Queen of Babylon, who squares off in breathtaking duets with Arsace, a trouser role sung by Elizabeth DeShong. Javier Camarena, Ildar Abdrazakov, and Ryan Speedo Green complete the stellar cast.

Theater for the New City's annual LOVE N' COURAGE Gala - which benefits the company's ever-important program that supports emerging playwrights - will be held this year on Monday, February 26 at 6 pm at the Players (16 Gramercy Park South) in New York City, it has been announced by TNC's Executive Director Crystal Field.

While not entirely rare for a single family to possess multiple musical talents, it's certainly unusual to see two people from the same family as leads in the same performance. Washington Concert Opera's Sunday evening performance of Maria di Rohan was such an anomaly: an opera featuring sisters. Maria di Rohan is a seldom-seen Donizetti gem that bridges the gap between Donizetti's contemporary on the Bel canto scene, Rossini, and the earlier vocal works of Verdi.

Travel back to ancient Babylon when Assur, a prince descend­ed from Baal, brings offerings to the temple in hopes that Queen Semiramide will choose him as successor to her late husband. But, with a flash of lightning, the sacred altar flame goes out…

Teatro Nuovo, the new organization led by Will Crutchfield, is proud to announce its inaugural Bel Canto Festival at Purchase College, The Dawn of Romantic Opera, July 28-August 5 2018, in collaboration with The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College.

Teatro Nuovo, the new organization led by Will Crutchfield, is proud to announce its inaugural Bel Canto Festival at Purchase College, The Dawn of Romantic Opera, July 28-August 5 2018, in collaboration with The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College. The Festival will present semi-staged productions of Rossini's Tancredi, Mayr's Medea in Corinto, two operas premiered in 1813; one by a mature master and the other by a budding genius, both pointing the way for opera's Romantic century. The Festival will also include a second version of the Rossini score, Tancredi rifatto, incorporating extensive music that the composer wrote for later revivals. Teatro Nuovo will also introduce a radical new adventure with early 19th-century performing style and period orchestral instruments.

Rossini's Semiramide is presented at the Met for the first time in 25 years, with eight performances beginning February 19, 2018, led by Maurizio Benini. The cast, comprised of artists considered by many to be amongst the world's leading bel canto singers, includes Angela Meade in the title role, Elizabeth DeShong as Arsace, Javier Camarena as Idreno, Ildar Abdrazakov as King Assur and Ryan Speedo Green as the High Priest Oroe. On March 10, 2018, the production will be transmitted to cinemas throughout the world as part of the Met's Live in HD series.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts, will begin its 13th season on October 6, with the Met's grand production of Verdi's Aida, starring one of the world's most acclaimed sopranos, Anna Netrebko.