Beverly Sills News

The Metropolitan Opera and SummerStage continue their long-time collaboration to present some of The Met's finest young singers in showcase recitals taking place across New York City.

Angela Meade - who earlier this month added Washington National Opera's Artist of the Year honor to her 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Award and her 2011 Richard Tucker Award - is looking forward to a starry summer. The soprano portrays Donna Anna in the Cincinnati Opera production of Mozart's Don Giovanni (June 13, 15), with Verdi performances to follow at the Caramoor International Music Festivalin Katonah, NY (June 27, July 6), Bravo! Vail with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin (July 13), and the Grand Tetons Music Festival under Donald Runnicles (July 26-27).

Florida Grand Opera (FGO) announces its 73rd continuous season of grand opera featuring an innovative new vision with provocative repertoire under the direction of General Director and CEO Susan T. Danis. In addition to a wealth of exciting artists making their debuts with the company, the 2013-2014 season features: the Southeast American premiere of Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra followed by Verdi's Nabucco, Puccini's Tosca, and Massenet's Thaïs.

Following her resounding success in A Streetcar Named Desire at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Beverly Sills Artist Susanna Phillips returns to Santa Fe Opera as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro (June 29–Aug 23). In her first summer festival engagement, she celebrates the Britten centennial at the Aspen Music Festival, where she will make her role debut as Ellen Orford in a concert performance of Peter Grimes (July 27). At the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Phillips will join the Philadelphia Orchestra for Mahler's Fourth Symphony (July 12). And theworld premiere of a new commission from Christopher Weiss will crown Twickenham Fest, the festival that Phillips herself co-founded in her hometown of Huntsville, Alabama (Aug 30–Sept 1). After this full summer, the soprano looks forward to returning to New York's Metropolitan Opera, where she will star in three important productions next season.

Angela Meade has just been named Artist of the Year by the Washington National Opera (WNO). The May 13 announcement comes on the heels of the soprano's triumphant company debut, in which she "thrilled WNO devotees with her nearly mind-blowing mastery of Bellini's most challenging music" (Washington Times) in the title role of Norma. Previous recipients of the Artist of the Year award, which carries a $5,000 cash prize, include mezzo-sopranos Frederica von Stade and Denyce Graves, tenor Jerry Hadley, and conductor John Mauceri.

Legendary lyricist Sheldon Harnick will receive the Dutch Treat Club Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts on Monday, May 6th at The Harvard Club.

Dialogues des Carmelites, Poulenc's opera about a group of nuns whose faith is tested under the Terror of the French Revolution, will return to the Met repertory on May 4 for the first time since 2002. In role debuts, Isabel Leonard will sing the naive aristocrat Blanche de la Force and Patricia Racette will sing Madame Lidoine, the imposing Prioress of a Carmelite convent. Felicity Palmer will reprise her portrayal of the ailing Madame de Croissy, a role she sang to acclaim in the most recent Met revival of the opera. Louis Langree conducts his first Met performances of the work, with a cast that also includes Elizabeth Bishop as Mother Marie, Erin Morley as Sister Constance, and Paul Appleby as Blanche's brother, the Chevalier de la Force. The opera will be presented in John Dexter's acclaimed 1977 Met premiere production.

The Celebrity Series of Boston announced its 2013-2014, 75th anniversary season today, marking 75 years of bringing the world's greatest performing artists to Boston. Celebrity Series has a deep commitment to presenting vocal recitals by some of the most renowned singers in the genre, and the 2013-2014 season includes recitals by: soprano Deborah Voigt, baritone Gerald Finley, soprano Natalie Dessay, tenor Nicholas Phan and baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

The groans were audible--no, powerful--when the Metropolitan Opera's General Manager Peter Gelb stepped out in front of the curtain on the second night of the company's new David McVicar production of Handel's GIULIO CESARE. They grew louder as he announced that soprano Natalie Dessay was ill and would not be singing the pivotal role of Cleopatra. But I'd bet that these same operagoers were cheering along with the majority of the audience at the sensational portrayal of the replacement, soprano Danielle de Niese, whose brilliant coloratura took the runs, roulades and trills of this demanding score with ease.

She releases Poeme d'un jour, her debut solo album presenting French and Spanish songs, on the Opus Arte label (May 28 in the U.S., see full track list below).

In honor of this year's Verdi bicentennial, there will be a number of upcoming opportunities to hear her perform the great Italian composer's music. The first of these takes place this Monday, April 8, when Meade - winner of the 2011 Richard Tucker and 2012 Beverly Sills Awards - stars as Giselda in a concert performance of I Lombardi at New York's Lincoln Center.

Trinity Repertory Company announced today that three local Rhode Island residents will be receiving Pell Awards this year in addition to Kate Burton, who had previously been announced as the recipient of the 2013 Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. The 17th annual Pell Awards will be held on Monday, June 10, 2013 at Trinity Rep with a reception to follow next door at the Providence Public Library.

Tenor Bryan Hymel has been named the recipient of the eighth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera.

New York City Opera Announces 2013-14 Season.

This April, the company dubbed "the People's Opera" will return to the venue known as "the People's Theater" for the first time since 1965, when New York City Opera returns to New York City Center, its original home. The residency includes new productions of Gioachino Rossini's Moses in Egypt, conducted by Jayce Ogren and directed by Michael Counts (April 14-20); and Jacques Offenbach's La Perichole, conducted by Emmanuel Plasson and directed by Christopher Alden (April 21-27).

New York City Opera opens its spring 2013 season with a new production of Powder Her Face (1995), composed by Thomas Ades (b.1971) to a libretto by Philip Hensher (b. 1965).

Just announced is news that the Cole Porter classic, Can-Can, will kick up its heels in a new production to land on Broadway in Spring 2014. Presented by Jonathan Burrows, nephew of the musical's original book writer Abe Burrows, the new production features a revised book by David Lee (Two By Two and Gigi at Reprise, TV's "Frasier" and "Cheers") and Joel Fields (How I Fell in Love at Abingdon Theatre Company, TV's "Ugly Betty' and 'Raising the Bar'). Lee directs the production, featuring choreography byPatti Colombo (Peter Pan) and musical direction by Tony Award nominee Steve Orich (Jersey Boys). Prior to the Broadway production, a workshop will take place in New York in October 2013. Casting has yet to be confirmed.

Trinity Repertory Company announced today that celebrated stage and screen actor Kate Burton will be honored with the 2013 Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts at the 17th annual Pell Awards to be held on Monday, June 10, 2013 at Trinity Rep. The annual fundraising event will be co-chaired by Joe & Michele Madden and Elizabeth 'Beppie' Huidekoper. Mrs. Nuala Pell will serve as the event's honorary chair.

Angela Meade will sing the role of Leonora in tomorrow afternoon's performance of Verdi's Il Trovatore, replacing Patricia Racette, who is ill. The performance will be broadcast worldwide over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera Radio Network. As previously scheduled, Meade will also sing the role on Wednesday, January 16.

There's usually not much in the way of fireworks in New York between New Year's and July 4th, but there certainly is no shortage of pyrotechnics in the Met's new Maria Stuarda, which is having its long-overdue premiere in the house. It brings us two sensational performances: American mezzo Joyce DiDonato in the title role, Mary Stuart (Maria), and South African soprano Elza van den Heever as Elizabeth I (Elisabetta).