Benjamin Britten News

Central City Opera's 2017 Summer Festival, which runs from July 8 through August 6, features Bizet's Carmen and Mozart's Così fan tutte performed in repertory in the historic Central City Opera House, and three one-act operas with limited runs—Britten's The Burning Fiery Furnace, Douglas Moore's Gallantry, and Amy Beach's Cabildo—performed in smaller venues located around the town of Central City. Complementing these five widely different operas are pre-performance lectures and talkbacks, staged opera scenes, elegant opening night dinners, and post-performance socials, which make for a full and enriching experience of entertainment and culture in one of Colorado's most historic mountain settings.  

Over 30 artists will make their Union Avenue Opera [UAO] debut during its 23rd Festival Season this summer.

Experimental and beautifully composed, Songs of the Soul Beams is a theatrical musical cycle by Felix Jarrar (composer, musical director, pianist) and Brittany Goodwin (librettist, stage director, Persephone) that fuses elements of opera, musical theater and dance in order to explore coping with death. The show made its debut on Sunday, June 4th in the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Fisher-Hillman Studio. I was excited to have the chance to catch up with the promising, young directors of the show and learn more about their process.

As The Music Center wraps up its 14th season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, Angelenos have the opportunity to see some of the world's finest dancers perform a mix of iconic ballets and new pieces in The Music Center's BalletNOW.  Following the popularity of the first BalletNOW in 2015, The Music Center commissioned this highly innovative three-performance program, featuring international ballet sensation and New York City Ballet Principal Tiler Peck as curator.  Peck created a mixed repertory to highlight the versatility and athleticism of today's ballet dancers including pieces that pair classical dancers with their contemporaries in other dance genres. 

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre has today announced completed casting for Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar, which returns to the theatre from 11 August in an extended run through to 23 September 2017.

Des Moines Metro Opera's (DMMO) General and Artistic Director, Michael Egel, has announced the full casting for the Company's 45th Summer Festival Season, which runs from June 23 through July 16, 2017, and offers 17 performances of four different operas.

Ehrenkranz Artistic Director Jane Moss today announced Lincoln Center's 2017 White Light Festival, which runs from October 18 through November 15. With more than 35 events presented in 13 venues throughout the city, including U.S. and New York premieres and nine commissions, the eighth annual international festival will explore transcendence, interior illumination, and faith in the human spirit, as exhibited through artistic expression across continents and centuries. The multidisciplinary festival takes its name from a quotation by Estonian composer Arvo Part: "Icouldcomparemymusic to white light, which contains all colors. Only a prism can divide the colors and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener."

The Festival's theater offerings feature four North American premieres from the U.K., Syria, and Israel, challenging audiences to look backward and forward, while offering perspectives that confront assumptions about human nature.

Violinist Lara St. John will perform with Ensemble LPR on June 27, 7:30pm, as part of the 112th Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, a free concert series founded in 1905, held at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park.

Concord Bicycle Music has announced the acquisition of global independent music publishing and theatrical rights company Imagem Music Group. Unique for its leadership role in Broadway, classical, and pop music, Imagem Music Group's vast and historic catalogue of music assets totals more than 250,000 copyrights and includes compositions by some of the most significant and successful artists and songwriters in music history. The landmark agreement brings Concord Bicycle Music's combined publishing catalogue to 380,000 copyrighted works, further underscoring the company's position as a fully integrated independent recorded music and publishing powerhouse.

Concord Bicycle Music has announced the acquisition of global independent music publishing and theatrical rights company Imagem Music Group. Unique for its leadership role in Broadway, classical, and pop music, Imagem Music Group's vast and historic catalogue of music assets totals more than 250,000 copyrights and includes compositions by some of the most significant and successful artists and songwriters in music history. The landmark agreement brings Concord Bicycle Music's combined publishing catalogue to 380,000 copyrighted works, further underscoring the company's position as a fully integrated independent recorded music and publishing powerhouse.

Musica Viva NY-a chamber choir under the artistic direction of Dr. Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez-celebrates its 40th anniversary throughout the 2017-18 season, continuing its commitment to performing beloved as well as rarely heard works from various periods of musical history and from diverse cultures worldwide together with the Aeolus Quartet, quartet in residence. Highlights of the season include Orff's Carmina Burana, a concert featuring pianist and composer Seymour Bernstein, an appearance by Musica Viva NY's founder Walter Klauss, a performance commemorating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. featuring Alice Parker; and the world premiere of a work by Elena Ruehr, commissioned by Musica Viva NY. All performances take place at All Souls Church (80th Street and Lexington Avenue).

Over 30 artists will make their Union Avenue Opera [UAO] debut during its 23rd Festival Season this summer.

Lucy Durack and Jemma Rix are joining the cast of the world's favourite musical, The Wizard of Oz, to play Glinda the Good Witch and The Wicked Witch of the West respectively, alongside Anthony Warlow who will be playing The Wizard and Professor Marvel.

This August, Carriageworks presents Sydney Chamber Opera's (SCO) new co-production with Victorian Opera, Benjamin Britten's opera in two acts, The Rape of Lucretia. Directed by Helpmann Award Winner, Kip Williams, the production stars Mezzo Soprano Anna Dowsley (Le Nozze di Figaro for Opera Australia; SCO's Ich habe genug) in a career-defining title role. Conducted by SCO's Artistic Director, Jack Symonds, Costume Design and Associate Direction is by Elizabeth Gadsby; Set Design is by David Fleischer; and Lighting Design is by Damien Cooper. Six performances of this world premiere season will be presented at Carriageworks from 19 - 26 August 2017.

Bringing two of Charles Dickens's most popular stories out in the open as part of the 2017 season at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, Dickens Uncovered celebrates the greatest storyteller of London life.

The Orchestra of the League of Composers, Louis Karchin, Music Director, and David Fulmer, conductor, will present works by Clement, Bielewa, Lerdahl and Part on Thursday, May 25 at 7:30 PM at Miller Theatre at Columbia University, 2960 Broadway, New York, NY.

Unison Media's acclaimed concert series continues its second season on May 31, with a special preview of Opera Philadelphia's hotly-anticipated new opera Elizabeth Cree, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning team of Puts and Campbell

The Sarasota Ballet's Director Iain Webb announces the Company's 2017 - 2018 Season, with seven programs, including 12 ballets by some of the most celebrated and prestigious choreographers and composers of the ballet world.

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre has today announced that four cast members from the 2016 Olivier and Evening Standard Award-winning production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar will be reprising their performances this summer.