Angela Meade, the soprano whose 57 competition wins include the Metropolitan Opera's 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Award, returns to the company in two prominent productions this fall. She launches the new season with her first Met performances in the title role of Norma (Oct 24 & 28), having demonstrated “her nearly mind-blowing mastery of Bellini's most challenging music” (Washington Times) in the same part earlier this year. Then, under the baton of James Levine, she makes her role debut as Alice Ford in a new-to-the-Met production of Falstaff (Dec 6–Jan 11) that will be beamed to movie theaters worldwide in the Met: Live in HD series (Dec 14). Meade's abundant honors include the 2011 Richard Tucker Award, and she graces a special gala concert to celebrate the legendary tenor's centennial at Avery Fisher Hall (Nov 17). She also looks forward to making two important European debuts this season: in Italy, where she gives her first performances as Mathilde in Rossini's William Tell at the Teatro Regio di Torino (May 7-18), and at the Frankfurt Opera, where she sings her first Fidelia in concert performances of Puccini's Edgar (Feb 16 & 18).
Renowned designer Lloyd Burlingame pulls back the curtain to reveal the triumphs, trials, tribulations, and travesties of a stage designer in his upcoming memoir, Sets, Lights, and Lunacy: A Stage Designer's Adventures on Broadway and in Opera. Sets, Lights, and Lunacy (Design Adventures, ISBN: 9781489587527, Full color illustrations) will be available wherever fine books are sold today, October 15, 2013. Sets, Lights, and Lunacy will also be available in an eBook edition.
Renowned designer Lloyd Burlingame pulls back the curtain to reveal the triumphs, trials, tribulations, and travesties of a stage designer in his upcoming memoir, Sets, Lights, and Lunacy: A Stage Designer's Adventures on Broadway and in Opera
Renowned designer Lloyd Burlingame pulls back the curtain to reveal the triumphs, trials, tribulations, and travesties of a stage designer in his upcoming memoir, Sets, Lights, and Lunacy: A Stage Designer's Adventures on Broadway and in Opera. Sets, Lights, and Lunacy (Design Adventures, ISBN: 9781489587527, Full color illustrations) will be available wherever fine books are sold on October 15, 2013. Sets, Lights, and Lunacy will also be available in an eBook edition.
Fabio Luisi, Grammy and ECHO Klassik Award-winner and Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, launches his second season as General Music Director of the Zurich Opera with new productions of Beethoven's Fidelio and Verdi's Aida. Luisi also leads three revivals in the 2013-14 season: Bellini's La straniera, Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, and Verdi's Don Carlo, and conducts Philharmonia Zurich's 'Big Five' concert series, revealing why he is as venerated in the concert hall as he is in the opera house. The coming season sees Luisi in collaboration with directorAndreas Homoki - the Zurich Opera General Manager - in Fidelio and German director Tatjana Gürbaca in Aida, as well as a roster of powerhouse performers including René Pape, Anja Kampe, Brandon Jovanovich, and Latonia Moore.
Soprano Susanna Phillips - winner of the Metropolitan Opera's Beverly Sills Artist Award in 2010 - is a singer who 'demonstrates rare stylistic fluency, canny pathos and dynamic finesse,' according to the Financial Times, which added: 'Susanna Phillips - remember the name.' The Alabama-born soprano has a higher profile than ever during 2013-14, including her sixth consecutive season at the Metropolitan Opera. Phillips starts her Met season tonight, portraying Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte under the baton of music director James Levine in his long-awaited return to the podium. The Dallas Morning News declared her to be 'a glorious Fiordiligi, her soprano honeyed and agile.' This Così runs until October 5, with a return in the spring; the final performance, onApril 26, will be transmitted to audiences worldwide in the Met's ever-popular Live in HD series. Phillips will also sing the role of Rosalinde in a new staging of Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus by two-time Tony Award-winner Jeremy Sams as part of the Met's New Year's Eve gala, with performances until February 22. At the Met again in April, she plays Musetta in Puccini's La bohème, reprising the role in which she made her house debut in 2008. After a recent Met performance, the New York Times said: 'Phillips sparkled as the sassy Musetta, her bright, nimble soprano tinged with a coquettish flair.' The April 5 La bohème will be her first Live in HD broadcast of the season. Phillips has been praised by the Aspen Times for her 'heart-tugging phrasing' in the role of Ellen Orford in Britten's Peter Grimes; she takes up the role again in a concert performance of Peter Grimes with David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony, in Missouri and at Carnegie Hall on the composer's 100th birthday (Nov 22).
Starring in the Musical Salute are Kennedy Center Award Honoree/Tony Award winner Barbara Cook, four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein, Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, record setting multi-Tony Award winnerHarold Prince, beloved TV and Stage Icon Charlotte Rae, multiple Academy, Grammy, Drama Desk Award winnerStephen Schwartz, Academy and Grammy Award winner David Shire and nine time Tony Award winner Tommy Tuneamong others, all performing songs with lyrics written by Mr. Harnick.
Fabio Luisi, Grammy and ECHO Klassik Award-winner and Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, launches his second season as General Music Director of the Zurich Opera with new productions of Beethoven's Fidelio and Verdi's Aida. Luisi also leads three revivals in the 2013-14 season: Bellini's La straniera, Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, and Verdi's Don Carlo, and conducts Philharmonia Zurich's 'Big Five' concert series, revealing why he is as venerated in the concert hall as he is in the opera house. The coming season sees Luisi in collaboration with directorAndreas Homoki - the Zurich Opera General Manager - in Fidelio and German director Tatjana Gürbaca in Aida, as well as a roster of powerhouse performers including René Pape, Anja Kampe, Brandon Jovanovich, and Latonia Moore.
Soprano Susanna Phillips, a star of New York's Metropolitan and Chicago's Lyric Opera stages, will headline a concert at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 13, in Anderson Chapel at North Park University, 5149 N. Spaulding Ave., Chicago, to benefit the spring 2014 Bach Week Festival in Evanston and Chicago.
In his second season as General Music Director of the Zurich Opera, Grammy and ECHO Klassik Award-winner Fabio Luisi premieres important new productions of Beethoven's Fidelio and Verdi's Aida, and conducts revivals of Bellini's La straniera, Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, and Verdi'sDon Carlo with René Pape, which also serves as the vehicle for his return to the Teatro alla Scala. As distinguished in the concert hall as the opera house, he leads four orchestral programs with the Philharmonia Zurich, makes his long-awaited London Symphony Orchestra debut, and returns to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Cleveland Orchestra, with which he launches the new season. As Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, the distinguished Italian conductor leads productions of Puccini's Madama Butterflyand Rossini's comedy La Cenerentola, which will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world in the Met's celebrated Live in HD series.
Tenor Matthew Polenzani, who has been praised as "perhaps the finest tenor voice of his generation" (Boston Phoenix), and fast-rising young star soprano Corinne Winters will launch the 2013-14 season of events of The George London Foundation for Singers with a recital at The Morgan Library and Museum on Sunday, October 20, 2013, at 4:30 PM. The George London Foundation Recital Series presents pairs of outstanding opera singers, many of whom were winners of a George London prize early in their careers or are recent George London Award recipients. Mr. Polenzani is a 1998 George London Award winner, and Ms. Winters won a George London Award in 2012 (watch Corinne Winters's George London Award-winning performance of Meyerbeer's "Robert, toi que j'aime"here).
In his second season as General Music Director of the Zurich Opera, Grammy and ECHO Klassik Award-winner Fabio Luisi premieres important new productions of Beethoven's Fidelio and Verdi's Aida, and conducts revivals of Bellini's La straniera, Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, and Verdi'sDon Carlo with René Pape, which also serves as the vehicle for his return to the Teatro alla Scala. As distinguished in the concert hall as the opera house, he leads four orchestral programs with the Philharmonia Zurich, makes his long-awaited London Symphony Orchestra debut, and returns to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Cleveland Orchestra, with which he launches the new season. As Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, the distinguished Italian conductor leads productions of Puccini's Madama Butterflyand Rossini's comedy La Cenerentola, which will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world in the Met's celebrated Live in HD series.
James Levine and The MET Orchestra return for their annual series at Carnegie Hall with three concerts this season in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. The series launches onSunday, October 13 at 3:00 p.m. with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato singing Rossini'sGiovanna d'Arco as well as arias from Mozart'sLa clemenza di Tito. Also on the program are Verdi's Overture to I vespri Siciliani, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A Major, and Elliott Carter's Variations for Orchestra. This marks Maestro Levine's first performance at Carnegie Hall since his triumphant return to the podium on May 19.
'Stravinsky Re-invented: From Paris to Los Angeles,' the second and final weekend of the 24th annual Bard Music Festival in New York'sAnnandale-on-Hudson, follows Igor Stravinsky from Europe to post-war Hollywood, investigating his subsequent shift in style from neoclassicism to serialism. The weekend opens tonight, August 16, with a screening of film clips that document the great Russian innovator, with commentary by Professor Charles M. Joseph, author of Stravinsky Inside Out. This special session is followed by the weekend's first concert, 'Against Interpretation and Expression: The Aesthetics of Mechanization,' a program of postmodernist ensemble classics by Stravinsky, Bartók, Varèse, Hindemith, and Messiaen; soloists include Grammy-nominated pianist Peter Serkin and So Percussion's Eric Beach.
'Stravinsky Re-invented: From Paris to Los Angeles,' the second and final weekend of the 24th annual Bard Music Festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson, follows Igor Stravinsky from Europe to post-war Hollywood, investigating his subsequent shift in style from neoclassicism to serialism. The weekend opens on Friday, August 16, with a screening of film clips that document the great Russian innovator, with commentary by Professor Charles M. Joseph, author of Stravinsky Inside Out. This special session is followed by the weekend's first concert, 'Against Interpretation and Expression: The Aesthetics of Mechanization,' a program of postmodernist ensemble classics by Stravinsky, Bartók, Varèse, Hindemith, and Messiaen; soloists include Grammy-nominated pianist Peter Serkin and So Percussion's Eric Beach.
For her final festival appearances of the summer, Beverly Sills Prize Winner Susanna Phillips returns to her hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, for the fourth season of Twickenham Fest, the chamber music festival that she herself co-founded. This year's festival will showcase the world premiere of Fragments from an Explanation, a new commission from 2013 composer-in-residence Christopher Weiss (Aug 31), bookended by programs of Schubert (Aug 30) and Messiaen (Sep 1). The soprano and her fellow co-founder, bassoonist Matthew McDonald, will be joined by a first-rate roster of guest artists, including violinist Itamar Zorman, cellist Matthew Zalkind, and pianist Roman Rabinovich, respective winners of the Tchaikovsky, Washington, and Rubinstein International Competitions. As the Birmingham News recognized in a five-star review last season, "Twickenham Fest is well on its way to becoming a driving force in classical music in Alabama."
The Met's annual concert series in New York City parks is one of the most popular summer traditions in the city. The Summer Recital Series returns in 2013 with six performances in the parks of all five boroughs. The series kicks off with a concert at Central Park SummerStage on July 16, featuring rising opera stars soprano Erin Morley, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and tenor Stephen Costello. The Brooklyn concert takes place at Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pier 1, the largest pier of the park on the East River.
New York City Opera is pleased to announce casting for numerous roles in its 2013-14 productions: Anna Nicole, a co-production with BAM that kicks off the 2013 Next Wave Festival, September 17 - 28 at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House; Johann Christian Bach's Endimione, February 8 - 16, 2014 at El Museo del Barrio; Bluebeard's Castle, a co-production with St. Ann's Warehouse, February 28 - March 15, 2014; and The Marriage of Figaro, April 19 - April 26, 2014 at New York City Center. The Company will announce additional casting soon.
David Rogers, Broadway playwright who also wrote for television, opera and night clubs, and authored novels and short stories, died on Wednesday, June 5th in Westport, Conn. He was 85.
Trinity Repertory Company previously announced that three local Rhode Island residents would be receiving Pell Awards this year in addition to Kate Burton, the recipient of the 2013 Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. The 17th annual Pell Awards will be held tonight, June 10, 2013 at Trinity Rep with a reception to follow next door at the Providence Public Library.
