Cecilia Bartoli News

The International Opera Awards announced today the postponement of their 2020 awards ceremony in light of the current Covid-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak.

San Francisco Conservatory of Music continues to invest in its Vocal and Opera & Musical Theatre programs, with five new high-profile faculty and guest appointments announced today. In the 2020-21 season, SFCM students will benefit from top-tier mentorship from opera superstar Marilyn Horne and world-renowned collaborative pianist Martin Katz, who will join SFCM as Artists-in-Residence; Grammy Award-winning conductor Joel Revzen, a Metropolitan Opera assistant conductor who will lead the spring opera production; and San Francisco Opera coaches Peter Grunberg and César Cañón, who will join SFCM's collaborative piano faculty. 

The International Opera Awards today announced the finalists for its 2020 Awards [Wednesday 5 February 2020]. The annual red-carpet event - which celebrates achievement in opera around the globe over the 2019 calendar year - recognises excellence in a wide range of categories that cover performance, design and direction as well as education and outreach.

For its first production of Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 masterwork, NORMA, in nearly 40 years, Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) brings back the international star it introduced to the U.S. just over two years ago. Elena Stikhina makes her debut in one of opera's most technically demanding roles a?' a powerful Druid priestess whose affair with the general of a warring Roman faction brings personal grief and despair. The Russian-born soprano made her American debut in BLO's 2017 production of Tosca. Her subsequent national and international acclaim includes a lauded 2018 Metropolitan Opera debut in Puccini's Il Trittico. Best known for its star-making aria a?oeCasta Diva,a?? BLO presents Bellini's dramatic bel canto opera for five performances from March 13-22 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. Tickets are on sale now at BLO.org.

The Hungarian State Opera Orchestra is the oldest theatre orchestra in Hungary. Due to the vast selection of performances offered by the Opera, it is the most employed Hungarian symphony orchestra. Its roots reach back as far as 1838, when Ferenc Erkel, the father of the Hungarian national opera as a genre organised an opera orchestra for the Hungarian Theatre of Pest. The orchestra moved into their present home, the Opera House after its inauguration in 1884 and was presided over by notable principal music directors including Gustav Mahler. 

El próximo jueves 4 de septiembre y hasta el 6 de octubre llega al Teatro Kamikaze la obra más musical de Pablo Messiez: LAS CANCIONES.

Soprano Patricia Westley will replace Mary Evelyn Hangley in the final recital of the 2019 Schwabacher Recital Series, presented by the Merola Opera Program and San Francisco Opera Center. Soprano and first-year Adler Fellow Mary Evelyn Hangley has withdrawn from the April 24 recital for personal reasons.

The Schwabacher Recital Series, presented by San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program, continues in April with the final two recitals of its 36th season. Showcasing the exemplary young artists who have participated in the prestigious training programs of San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program, the series offers music lovers an opportunity to hear opera's next generation of stars in the intimate and state-of-the-art Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco.

For the first time in history, Ariodante has stepped on the Monte-Carlo Opera stage, bewildering and enchanting the Monegasque audience in this 3+ hour opera by Handel. Following the success of the Salzberg Festival production (under the keen eye of Christof Loy), the opera is set in the captivating Salle Garnier with no other than Cecilia Bartoli playing the role of Ariodante. 

Cyrus Meher-Homji, General Manager, Classics and Jazz, Universal Music Australia is awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the performing arts, particularly through music. The Order of Australia is the pre-eminent means by which Australia recognises the outstanding and meritorious service of its citizens and announced today as part of the Australia Day 2019 Honours List. The award is approved by the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, representative of the Australian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program present the 36th season of the Schwabacher Recital Series, opening on February 13 and continuing through April 24. The four-recital series offers music lovers an opportunity to hear opera's next generation of stars in the intimate and state-of-the-art Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco.

Tenor Javier Camarena--who completes his run as Nadir, the love-struck tenor lead in Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES (THE PEARL FISHERS) this Saturday--isn't finished wow-ing Met audiences for the season. Not by a long shot. He's back in February to throw off those nine High Cs in “Ah, mes amis!” the show-stopping aria--that toast to love and camaraderie--in Donizetti's LA FILLE DU REGIMENT (DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT) that Luciano Pavarotti made famous for modern opera audiences.

On the heels of the release of his first solo album, Contrabandista, on Decca Classics, Mexican tenor Javier Camarena's “infectious” voice (New Yorker) and “brightly eloquent” performances (LA Times) take him to New York and across Europe this season. Already considered the pre-eminent Mozart and bel canto specialist of his generation, Camarena has just completed a run as Arturo in Bellini's I Puritani in Barcelona, followed yesterday by the Tucker Gala at Carnegie Hall, and is currently starting rehearsals for the role of Nadir in Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles at the Metropolitan Opera. The tenor returns to the Met stage in February as Tonio in Donizetti's La fille du régiment, and again, in the same production, later in the spring at London's Royal Opera House; sings Ernesto in the same composer's Don Pasquale at the Opéra de Paris and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Bayerische Staatsoper; and reprises Les pêcheurs at Spain's Ópera de Bilbao. In December and January, during a rare lull in his production schedule, Camarena keeps busy with concerts and recitals in Spain, Switzerland, the U.S. and Mexico.

Songs by Wagner, Schumann, Ravel, and Falla   Carnegie Hall today announced that pianist Kevin Murphy will replace Malcolm Martineau performing in recital with mezzo-soprano El?na Garan?a in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage next Tuesday, October 23 at 8:00 p.m. Mr. Martineau has withdrawn from this performance due to a death in his family. The evening's program, which features songs by Wagner, Schumann, Ravel, and Falla, remains the same. Full program information is listed below.

Before there was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, there was Antonio Salieri. Today, most people only know the latter as a character in the play AMADEUS and its Oscar-winning film version, and not as head of all things musical in Vienna for decades and a prolific composer. You've got to give points to the spunky little Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble for digging up Salieri's 1789 work LA CIFRA (THE CYPHER), an opera buffa popular in its time, and giving its US premiere.

Check out brand-new video below of opera and Broadway legend, Audra McDonald. tackling 'Climb Ev'ry Mountain' from the classic musical The Sound of Music, accompanied by the New York Philharmonic for her Sing Happy concert.

Decca Gold is proud to announce the digital release of Sing Happy, the live performance of the New York Philharmonic's 2018 Spring Gala starring Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald, and conducted by Andy Einhorn. Recorded live on May 1 at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, the recording represents McDonald's first collaboration with Decca Gold - as well as her first solo recording with full orchestra.

Decca Gold is proud to announce the forthcoming release of Sing Happy, the live performance of the New York Philharmonic's 2018 Spring Gala starring Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald. Recorded live on May 1 at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, the recording represents McDonald's first collaboration with Decca Gold - as well as her first solo recording with full orchestra.

The 2018 Schwabacher Recital Series concludes on April 4 with pianist Kevin Murphy and a quartet of current San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows-soprano Natalie Image, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, tenor Amitai Pati and bass-baritone Christian Pursell-in a program celebrating the great American composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein and music of Aaron Copland, Charles Ives and Gustav Mahler.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) announced today the winners of the 30th annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers that took place at Stude Concert Hall at Rice University. For the second time, the Concert of Arias was streamed live on Facebook, as well as on YouTube for the first time. The livestream was hosted by award-winning soprano and HGO Studio alumna Tamara Wilson. The winners were announced during the second portion of the program.