Beverly Sills News

Come, glimpse the beginning of the Roaring Twenties, Victor Herbert style!

Come, glimpse the beginning of the Roaring Twenties, Victor Herbert style!

Town Hall announces that this year's FRIEND OF THE ARTS AWARD - it's 97th annual - will honor Multimedia Performance Artist, LAURIE ANDERSON; TheaterWorksUSA Co-Founder, CHARLES HULL; and Nonesuch Records' Long-Time President, ROBERT HURWITZ.

The Weidner Center for the Performing Arts celebrates its 25th Anniversary Season with a homecoming of talented performers today, September 22, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. The 25th Anniversary Concert will feature Wayne Lin, Brad Little, Jessica Tyler Wright, the Youth Symphony Orchestra at St. Norbert and the Weidner Anniversary Orchestra. Tickets for this event can be purchased at www.WeiderCenter.com, by phone at 800-895-0071 or in person at the Ticket Star Box Office at the Resch Center (1901 S. Oneida St., Green Bay, Wis.).  

"The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death." So said Oscar Wilde's Salome, anticipating the theme running through all six of the works that make up The Atlanta Opera's 2018-19 season. The six are linked also by their novelty, for under the leadership of Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun, Atlanta's new season consists entirely of stagings conceived over the past few years. Created in collaboration with leading opera companies from around the world, four are ambitious mainstage productions: the blockbuster musical West Side Story, 19th-century classics Eugene Onegin and La traviata, and the Southeast premiere of Dead Man Walking, a major 21st-century addition to the canon. Rounding out the season, Charlie Parker's Yardbird and Maria de Buenos Aires will be presented in the Discoveries series, which breaks down barriers between artists and their audience by providing authentic, intimate and immersive experiences in nontraditional spaces. The winner of a "Best of Atlanta" award from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and an International Opera Award nomination, the series represents one of the many innovations behind the company's current wave of extraordinary creative and economic resurgence.

Anna Netrebko makes her Met role debut in the title role of the enslaved Ethiopian princess in Verdi's tragedy of ancient Egypt, Aida, opening September 26. Anita Rachvelishvili sings the role of her formidable rival, Amneris, following the Georgian soprano's critically acclaimed portrayal of Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore last season. The cast also features Aleksandrs Antonenko as the warrior Radames, Quinn Kelsey as Aida's father, Amonasro, Dmitry Belosselskiy as the high priest Ramfis, and Ryan Speedo Green as the King, under the baton of Nicola Luisotti. The October 6 matinee will be transmitted worldwide, kicking off the Met's new Live in HD series, now reaching more than 2,000 movie theaters in 73 countries around the world.

The University Musical Society (UMS) will bring the Philadelphia Orchestra to Hill Auditorium (825 N University Ave, Ann Arbor) for one performance on Thursday, September 27, 2018 at 7:30 pm. The performance marks the orchestra's 268th appearance under UMS auspices and its first return to Ann Arbor in 24 years.

New York City Opera, 'The People's Opera,' brings The Barber of Seville, Rossini's great comedic opera, to Bryant Park for the fourth and final performance from City Opera in Bryant Park. Don't miss this chance to hear Rossini's sparkling opera and the the hijinks of Figaro, opera's most famous barber.

Tune in to your local PBS station tonight, August 10th, at 10 PM ET to catch Great Performances: Chicago Voices, the gala held at Chicago's Lyric Opera in 2017. The evening was hosted by Renee Fleming who will be joined on stage by Carousel co-star Jessie Mueller, Greatest Showman star Michelle Williams and more!

A star-studded array of vocal talent with deep ties to Chicago gathers on stage at Lyric Opera to pay tribute to the city's wide-reaching influence across blues, jazz, rock, folk, hip-hop, gospel, opera and classical music in Great Performances: Chicago Voices, premiering nationwide Friday, August 10 at 10 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) and streaming the following day on pbs.org/gperf and PBS apps. Hosted by four-time Grammy-winning soprano Renée Fleming, the multi-genre concert special features performances by Fleming, Tony-winner Jessie Mueller (Waitress, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Grammy-winning rapper Lupe Fiasco, three-time Grammy-winning folk legend John Prine, Grammy-winning pop and gospel singer Michelle Williams (Destiny's Child), Grammy-winning jazz singer Kurt Elling and many more in a celebration of Chicago's rich and diverse vocal music legacy.

The Weidner Center for the Performing Arts celebrates its 25th Anniversary Season with a homecoming of talented performers on Saturday, September 22, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. The 25th Anniversary Concert will feature Wayne Lin, Brad Little, Jessica Tyler Wright, the Youth Symphony Orchestra at St. Norbert and the Weidner Anniversary Orchestra. Tickets for this event can be purchased at www.WeiderCenter.com, by phone at 800-895-0071 or in person at the Ticket Star Box Office at the Resch Center (1901 S. Oneida St., Green Bay, Wis.).  

The third of four extraordinary hour-long performances produced by New York City Opera in Bryant Park this summer, La Traviata (or 'The Fallen Woman') is Giuseppe Verdi's tragic and revered opera about courtesan Violetta Valéry. New York City Opera, 'The People's Opera,' brings La Traviata, one of the most beloved operas of all time to Bryant Park. Grab a blanket (and a tissue) and find the perfect spot to enjoy a one-hour adaptation of Verdi's classic that inspired Moulin Rouge, with instantly recognizable tunes famously featured in Pretty Woman.

See stars from New York City Opera's Pride Series productions (Brokeback Mountain and Angels in America) and other City Opera cast members, this concert includes music from West Side Story, La traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rigoletto, La boheme, and a special guest appearance from Stonewall librettist, Pulitzer Prize-winner Mark Campbell, as well as Eric Marcus, chair of the Stonewall at 50 Consortium. Featured singers include Michael Chioldi, Glenn Seven Allen, Brandie Sutton, Sarah Heltzel, Victor Starsky, Ken Overton, Lianne Gennaco, Michael Weyandt, and more!

New York City Center is sure to be a singular sensation this fall!

Due to illness, tenor Matthew Polenzani will be unable to perform in Verdi's Requiem on May 18, 2018.

The first of four extraordinary hour-long performances produced by New York City Opera in Bryant Park this summer, watch passions flare in this adaptation of Carmen, one of the world's most beloved operas. The innkeeper Lillas Pastia narrates the tempestuous story of the irresistible seductress Carmen and her hapless lover Don José in this hour-long presentation of highlights from Carmen, Bizet's beloved opera, from New York City Opera. Offered to the New York public free-of-charge, this presentation is a perfect introduction to opera for newcomers of any age.

San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra led by Nicholas McGegan anchors a presentation of Handel's pastoral three-act opera Atalanta in the Venetian Theater (July 22); and New York's On Site Opera presents a fully staged site-specific production of Mozart's charming early opera The Secret Gardener (La finta giardiniera) in Caramoor's Sunken Garden (July 13). Superstar mezzo Susan Graham will also be on hand this summer for a season-closing concert of Handel and Mozart arias with the resident Orchestra of St. Luke's (July 29); Metropolitan Opera favorite Isabel Leonard gives an intimate Spanish recital with guitarist Sharon Isbin (June 28); and San Francisco's beloved all-male chorus Chanticleer celebrates its 40th anniversary season with a centuries-spanning concert (July 26). The festival's 73rd summer season (June 16–July 29) offers these operatic and vocal events and much more, all presented on Caramoor's historic and idyllic Westchester estate: 90 acres of picturesque Italianate architecture and gardens just one hour's drive from Manhattan.

The first of four extraordinary hour-long performances produced by New York City Opera in Bryant Park this summer, watch passions flare in this adaptation of Carmen, one of the world's most beloved operas. The innkeeper Lillas Pastia narrates the tempestuous story of the irresistible seductress Carmen and her hapless lover Don Jose in this hour-long presentation of highlights from Carmen, Bizet's beloved opera, from New York City Opera. Offered to the New York public free-of-charge, this presentation is a perfect introduction to opera for newcomers of any age.

Donizetti's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR--the story of a fragile young woman, Lucia, who's caught in a feud involving her family, the Ashtons, and the Ravenswoods--is one of the mainstays of the repertoire at major opera houses around the world, famed particularly for its mad scene. It's long been a favorite at the Met, with the current performances the third cast of the season, starring soprano Pretty Yende, tenor Michael Fabiano and baritone Quinn Kelsey.

Soprano Nadine Sierra has been named the winner of the 13th annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera. The $50,000 award, the largest of its kind in the United States, is given to extraordinarily gifted singers between the ages of 25 and 40 who have already appeared in featured solo roles at the Met. The award, given in honor of Beverly Sills, was established in 2006 by an endowment gift from the late Agnes Varis, a managing director on the Met board. In 2009 Sierra became the youngest ever winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has gone on to make her mark at the Met with memorable performances in Verdi's Rigoletto, and Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Idomeneo and Don Giovanni. In the Met's 2018-19 season, Sierra will reprise the role of Gilda in Rigoletto.