Bel Canto News

General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler has announced the selection of the artists for the Resident Artists Program for the 2017-2018 season.

As previously announced, Writers Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma, opens its 2017/18 season with the World Premiere of TREVOR the musical.

Washington National Opera (WNO) announces the roster of emerging artists engaged for the 16th season of its Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, which begins in September.

SOOP Theatre Company brings the Tony Award-winning play, God of Carnage, to southern Westchester this fall.

The New York Philharmonic will return to Bravo! Vail in Colorado, celebrating its 30th season, for the Orchestra's 15th annual summer residency, July 21-28, 2017. The residency will include six orchestral concerts that honor the Philharmonic's legacy on the occasion of its 175th anniversary season and the conclusion of Alan Gilbert's tenure as Music Director.

On July 21, 2017, Santa Fe Opera presented Ron Daniels' production of Gaetano Donizetti's bel canto work, LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR. Beginning with a storm and several huge rainbows, the open sides of Santa Fe Opera's Crosby Theatre allowed the audience to watch the sun set as the orchestra played the opera's overture. Based on Sir Walter Scott's novel, THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR, the opera tells the story of a young woman who loses her reason when forced to marry a man she does not love.

The New York Philharmonic will return to Bravo! Vail in Colorado, celebrating its 30th season, for the Orchestra's 15th annual summer residency, July 21-28, 2017. The residency will include six orchestral concerts that honor the Philharmonic's legacy on the occasion of its 175th anniversary season and the conclusion of Alan Gilbert's tenure as Music Director.

Tickets go on sale today for the Met's Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning Live in HD series' 2017-18 season, which begins on October 7 with the company's new production of Bellini's Norma.

Following Odyssey Opera's 2016-17 season dedicated to works inspired by the writings of Oscar Wilde, Artistic and General Director Gil Rose today announced the company's 2017-18 season: Trial by Fire: Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years War, featuring operatic masterpieces that tell the story of martyr, saint, and military leader Joan of Arc (1412-1431). Representing a wide range of styles, Odyssey Opera presents five operas that interpret the mysterious medieval world Joan inhabited. Opening the season is Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans followed by L'assedio di Calais by Gaetano Donizetti, The Trial at Rouen by Norman Dello Joio, Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher by Arthur Honegger, and Giovanna d'Arco by Giuseppe Verdi.

Chemistry in an opera performance is a funny thing. It's not always easy to explain why it's there, but you know when it isn't. But when it works, it works—and, boy, the Caramoor Festival's concert staging of Bellini's IL PIRATA on Saturday was on fire, with Angela Meade as the star soprano and Will Crutchfield on the podium.

Being an opera singer is a little like walking a tightrope without a net--no matter who you're singing with, you're out there on stage, alone, for the crowd to cheer but, also for everyone to hear each glitch or misstep in your singing. Soprano Angela Meade--who's starring as Imogene in Caramoor's concert performance of Bellini's IL PIRATA, a role debut, on July 8--not only did her first wire-walking with a major role but at a big house: the Metropolitan Opera.

The Glimmerglass Festival has released the details of its 2018 schedule. For a second year, the Festival's programming will explore themes of home and country.

Opera Saratoga presents a new production of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, directed and choreographed by Lawrence Edelson, and conducted by noted Maestro John Mauceri (company debut), who has been responsible for many significant operatic restorations, including Blitzstein's Regina.

Parisian culture, Polish politics, and the piano are the focus of this summer's annual Bard SummerScape festival, with seven weeks of music, opera, theater, dance, film, and cabaret keyed to the theme of the 28th Bard Music Festival, 'Chopin and His World.'

Single tickets go on sale Monday, July 10 at 10am for Lyric Opera of Chicago's 63rd season.

Classic and contemporary, opera and orchestral, the music doesn't stop when the temperatures climb in New York, whether you're in New York City, or ready to travel to one of the festivals that dot the landscape of the Northeast. Musical life doesn't stop when the Met closes its doors: Here's a look “from here to eternity”…in the first part of our series on summertime's opera/vocal venues, covering New York City and Westchester.

This September, Italian conductor Carlo Rizzi steps onto the Metropolitan Opera's podium once again to open the 2017-18 season with Bellini's Norma, in a new production directed by Sir David McVicar.

Los Angeles Children's Chorus (LACC) continues to expand its global reach with two of its leading choirs touring this summer to Australia, New Zealand and British Columbia. The Concert Choir, led by LACC Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson, shares its stellar artistry and distinctive bel canto sound with audiences in British Columbia on a seven-day Canadian tour July 19-25, 2017.

As previously announced, Writers Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma, opens its 2017/18 season with the World Premiere of TREVOR the musical.

Spain's premier boychoir, Escolania de Montserrat, founded in the Catalonia region in the 13th century and considered one of Europe's oldest continuously operating boychoirs and music schools, makes its highly anticipated Southern California debut in a free concert presented by the Los Angeles Children's Chorus (LACC) on Saturday, July 8, 2017, 7 pm, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.  The 800-year-old chorus, led by Llorenc Castello and the subject of a 2014 New York Times video, is affiliated with the Benedictine abbey Santa Maria de Montserrat, located in Monistrol de Montserrat, and is "unique even among boychoirs…(for its) richer and darker…red wine…type of sound" (Washington Post).  The choir's repertoire spans the ages, from Gregorian chant and the music of Victoria and Schubert to works by contemporary Spanish-Catalan composers such as Albert Guinovart, Francesc Civil and Bernat Vivancos, the later two Escolania de Montserrat graduates.  LACC's Concert Choir, led by Artistic Director Anne Tomlinson, performs a selection of classical works and folk songs on the program as well.  Escolania de Montserrat's LA appearance, featuring 29 boys, is the final stop on its second  U.S. tour, which also includes performances in New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.