Brigitte Reiffenstuel News

On New Year's Eve, the Metropolitan Opera unveiled a new production of Cilea's ADRIANA LECOUVREUR, with a high-powered, audience-pleasing cast--headed by Anna Netrebko--in a production by Met favorite David McVicar, appealingly designed and costumed, and played elegantly by the Met orchestra under Gianandrea Noseda's sweeping baton.

Soprano Anna Netrebko takes on for the first time at the Met the title role of the 18th century actress Adriana Lecouvreur. A co-production of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, Gran Teatre del Liceu - Barcelona, Wiener Staatsoper, San Francisco Opera and L'Opera National de Paris conducted by Gianandrea Noseda and directed by Sir David McVicar, who ingeniously sets the action in a working replica of a Baroque theatre.

Gianandrea Noseda-Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and newly-appointed General Music Director of the Zurich Opera starting in 2021-returns to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time since 2017 to conduct a new production of Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur starring Anna Netrebko in her house role debut, December 31, 2018 through January 26, 2019. The 2018-2019 season marks Noseda's second as Music Director of the NSO, including a full schedule of subscription concerts that recently included critically-acclaimed performances of Britten's War Requiem in November and Mahler's Symphony No. 1 earlier this month. On May 19, 2019, Noseda will bring the NSO to Carnegie Hall in a program that includes Rossini's rarely-performed Stabat Mater.

Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Verdi's Il trovatoreopens Saturday, Nov. 17, at 7:30pm. There are seven performances November 17 - December 9  at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago. Tickets start at $39 and are available now at lyricopera.org/Trovatore or at 312-827-5600.

Baz Bamigboye of The Daily Mail has just reported that world famous soprano, Renee Fleming, will make her London debut portraying Margaret Johnson in Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas' A Light In The Piazza. 

Young Vic has announced casting for Kwame Kwei-Armah and Shaina Taub's musical reworking of Twelfth Night. The Young Vic production is set in London's Notting Hill.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts, will begin its 13th season on October 6, with the Met's grand production of Verdi's Aida, starring one of the world's most acclaimed sopranos, Anna Netrebko.

Accelerating his arrival as Music Director by two seasons, Yannick Nezet-Seguin will take up the post in time for the start of the Metropolitan Opera's 2018-19 season, it was announced today.

The Met's first new production since 1969 of Strauss's rich, romantic masterpiece stars Renée Fleming in one of her signature roles as the Marschallin, opposite El?na Garan?a as Octavian, the impulsive young title character, on Great Performances

Renee Fleming sings her final performances of one of her signature roles as the Marschallin in the Met's new production of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, opening April 13. Robert Carsen directs the new production-the company's first new staging of the piece since 1969-with Sebastian Weigle conducting all performances. The starry cast includes El?na Garan?a in her company role debut as the Marschallin's young lover, Octavian, opposite Erin Morley as Sophie, the innocent young woman who comes between Marschallin and Octavian; Gunther Groissbock as Baron Ochs, the Marschallin's oafish cousin; Marcus Bruck in his Met debut as Sophie's father Faninal; and Matthew Polenzani as the Italian Singer. Kathleen Kim sings Sophie in the April 28 and May 1 performances.  

LA Opera's 30th Anniversary Season continues with Giacomo Puccini's beloved Madame Butterfly, starring soprano Ana María Martínez as Cio-Cio-San.

(Los Angeles) February 22, 2016 — LA Opera's 30th Anniversary Season continues with Giacomo Puccini's beloved Madame Butterfly, starring soprano Ana María Martínez as Cio-Cio-San.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2016-17 season, the 50th anniversary of its home at Lincoln Center, will feature 225 opera performances of 26 operas in a varied repertory that ranges from 18th century masterpieces to one of the most acclaimed operas in recent years. Repertoire for the company's 132nd season will include the Met premiere of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's 2000 opera L'Amour de Loin, as well as new stagings of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Rossini's Guillaume Tell, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Dvo?ak's Rusalka, and Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. A gala concert on May 7, 2017 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the company's Lincoln Center location with performances by opera's leading stars honoring the Met's past and future. Ticket prices will not increase, remaining the same as in the current season, and audience development programs instituted by the company in recent years will continue.  

Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky hadn't even opened his mouth, as the Count di Luna, when the audience went wild at the season's premiere of Verdi's IL TROVATORE. It was as if he had just sung Sondheim's “I'm Still Here”--after announcing earlier this year that he had a brain tumor and was cancelling most of the TROVATORE performances--and was proving his perseverance in the face of mortality.

State Opera of South Australia is presenting one of the grandest of grand operas, Charles Gounod's Faust.

The 36th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards for the 2014/2015 season were handed out in a star-studded ceremony in Toronto on the evening of Monday, June 22 at Harbourfront Centre's WestJet Stage, hosted by the hilarious Gavin Crawford, whose eight seasons on CBC-TV's This Hour Has 22 Minutes earned him numerous accolades and who recently won an ACTRA Award for his leading role in the film Two 4 One.

The Met was running on all cylinders for the last performance of the season, with Verdi's UN BALLO IN MASCHERA in an energized version of the production that premiered in 2012. The trio of principals--soprano Sondra Radvanovsky as Amelia, tenor Piotr Beczala as Gustavo and baritone Alexey Markov as Anckarstrom--gave ringing, heart-felt performances in a concept from David Alden that previously seemed half-baked. Now, the singing and acting were so good that one could forget the conceit's shortcomings.

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents Verdi's Il Trovatore in a revival of the acclaimed production from renowned director Sir David McVicar, conducted by Asher Fisch. It opens Monday, October 27 with 8 performances through Saturday, November 29. Performance dates: Oct. 27, Nov. 12, 15, 18, 21, and 29 at 7:30pm; and Nov. 5 and 9 at 2pm.

The Canadian Opera Company's 2014/2015 season opens with an opera hailed as the crowning achievement of Verdi's career, Falstaff. This new company production is led by master director Canadian Robert Carsen and COC Music Director Johannes Debus with internationally acclaimed Canadian bass-baritoneGerald Finley making a long-awaited return to the COC in his role debut as the impoverished, loveable knight, Sir John Falstaff. Falstaff is sung in Italian with English SURTITLESTM and comes to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts for seven performances today, October 3 and October 9, 12, 14, 25, 29 and November 1, 2014.

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents Verdi's Il Trovatore in a revival of the acclaimed production from renowned director Sir David McVicar, conducted by Asher Fisch. It opens on Monday, October 27 with 8 performances through Saturday, November 29. Performance dates are Oct. 27, Nov. 12, 15, 18, 21, and 29 at 7:30pm; and Nov. 5 and 9 at 2pm.