Danielle De Niese News

The Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island, a hit when it premiered at the Met in 2011, returns for its first revival on February 26. New cast members Susan Graham (Sycorax) and Andriana Chuchman (Miranda) join many of the principal singers who appeared in the work's world premiere: David Daniels as Prospero, Plácido Domingo as Neptune, Danielle de Niese as Ariel, Anthony Roth Costanzo as Ferdinand, and Luca Pisaroni as Caliban. The four mismatched Athenian lovers will be sung by Elizabeth DeShong, who sang Hermia in the world premiere, joined by new cast members Janai Brugger (Helena), Andrew Stenson (Demetrius), and Nicholas Pallesen (Lysander) completing the quartet of Athenian lovers. BroadwayWorld has a first look below!

On New Year's Eve, Tony Award-winning director Susan Stroman will make her Metropolitan Opera debut with a new production of Lehar's The Merry Widow, conducted by Andrew Davis.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season will feature 26 operas, three of them company premieres, in six new productions and 18 revivals showcasing the talents of the world's leading singers, conductors, and theater artists. The three operas that will have their first-ever Met performances, each staged by a director making his Met debut, are John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris, opening October 20; Rossini's La Donna del Lago, conducted by Michele Mariotti and directed by Paul Curran, opening February 16, 2015; and Tchaikovsky's one-act opera Iolanta, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Treli?ski. Iolanta will be presented in a double bill with a new staging of Bartok's one-act Duke Bluebeard's Castle, also conducted by Gergiev and directed by Treli?ski.

To experience the grand spectacle of opera, which embraces the best of the performing arts, there is no need to go to the big city when you can see Puccini's La Boheme on Sunday, April 6, at 5 p.m. and Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte on Saturday, April 26, at 12:55 p.m., in the comfortable, intimate Ridgefield Playhouse. Close-ups and interesting camera angles afforded uniquely thru the power of an HD broadcast and exclusive behind-the-scenes tours and interviews make going to the opera a pleasure. For dinner-and-an-opera, Bernard's (22 West Lane, Ridgefield) is offering a special $45 prix-fixe menu, or a free glass of wine with dinner before or after these events, when tickets are presented; reservations suggested beginning at 5 p.m. Visit ridgefieldplayhouse.org for video previews of the Met Live in HD Series. This series is underwritten by Jeanne Cook, Anita and Nicholas Donofrio, Liz and Steven Goldstone, Marilyn and Joe Kreitz, Joanne and John Patrick, Starbucks Coffee, Sabina and Walter Slavin, Taylor Zemo Foundation, The Ridgefield Press and Whistle Stop Bakery.

The Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island, a hit when it premiered at the Met in 2011, returns for its first revival on February 26. New cast members Susan Graham (Sycorax) and Andriana Chuchman (Miranda) join many of the principal singers who appeared in the work's world premiere: David Daniels as Prospero, Plácido Domingo as Neptune, Danielle de Niese as Ariel, Anthony Roth Costanzo as Ferdinand, and Luca Pisaroni as Caliban. The four mismatched Athenian lovers will be sung by Elizabeth DeShong, who sang Hermia in the world premiere, joined by new cast members Janai Brugger (Helena), Andrew Stenson (Demetrius), and Nicholas Pallesen (Lysander) completing the quartet of Athenian lovers.

BWW brings you exclusive footage of renowned baritone & Broadway star Nathan Gunn recording his contribution for the project, a stunning new interpretation of 'Calypso'.

Lyric Opera of Chicago and composer Jimmy Lopez are the recipients of the Prince Charitable Trusts 2013 Prince Prize for Commissioning New Original Work - the first time ever the Prince Prize has been awarded for an opera commission. The $75,000 award ($25,000 of which goes to the composer) was awarded for the opera Bel Canto, which is based on the best-selling Ann Pachett novel of the same name. The opera will receive its world premiere at Lyric in December of 2015 and will star renowned soprano Danielle de Niese in the central role. The libretto is by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz. Bel Canto will be directed by Kevin Newbury and conducted by Lyric Opera music director Sir Andrew Davis.

Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, announced today that the acclaimed American director Kevin Newbury will direct the world-premiere production of Bel Canto during the company's 2015-16 season. Newbury replaces Stephen Wadsworth.

The grand incomparable spectacle of opera returns to The Ridgefield Playhouse this fall with an impressive lineup broadcast from the Met Live in HD.Tonight, October 28, at 6:30 p.m., William Kentridge storms the Met in Shostakovich's The Nose.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theaters, will feature 10 productions in the 2013-14 season, offering a significant portion of the Met season to opera lovers around the world.

The grand incomparable spectacle of opera returns to The Ridgefield Playhouse this fall with an impressive lineup broadcast from the Met Live in HD. First up is Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, starring diva Anna Netrebko with Mariusz Kwiecie, today, October 5, at 12:55 p.m.

Check out the excerpt from Act I of Mozart's 'Così fan tutte,' conducted by James Levine in his first Met performance in two years.

Susan Graham - winner of a Grammy, an Opera News Award, Musical America's Vocalist of the Year, and hailed by the New York Times as 'an artist to treasure' - returns for another compelling season, highlighted by three role debuts. As Houston Grand Opera's 2013-14 Lynn Wyatt Great Artist, she undertakes Prince Orlofsky in the company's first staging of Die Fledermaus in 30 years.

Music Director James Levine returns to the Met podium after a two-year absence, greeted by a standing ovation to conducts Mozart's 'Così fan tutte' on September 24, 2013. Check out the video below!

Not many opera performances start with a standing ovation before a single note is sung, but the season's first COSI FAN TUTTE on September 24 was one of those rare occasions. It marked the return of conductor James Levine after a two-year absence, leading the performance from a motorized chair at a specially constructed podium. He had the orchestra—and the audience—in the palm of his hand.

After an absence of more than two years, Music Director James Levine returned to the Met podium in triumph last night, leading the season premiere of Mozart's Così fan tutte. Entering the orchestra pit, the maestro was greeted by a minute-long standing ovation and cheers from the packed house before launching into the performance. Levine, who had been sidelined by health issues, made his comeback with the Met Orchestra in concert at Carnegie Hall last May, but this was his first appearance at the opera house since the end of the 2010–11 season. “[He] led his beloved musicians like a man rejuvenated,” the Associated Press says. “This was prime Levine: a lithe, energetic, transparent account of Mozart's miraculous score, brisk but not rushed, polished and profound. His energy seemed never to flag throughout the long evening.”

The grand incomparable spectacle of opera returns to The Ridgefield Playhouse this fall with an impressive lineup broadcast from the Met Live in HD. First up is Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, starring diva Anna Netrebko with Mariusz Kwiecie, on Saturday, October 5, at 12:55 p.m.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theaters, will reach its widest-ever global audience in its eighth season, which begins on October 5 with a new production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Met Music Director James Levine makes his highly-anticipated return to the screen with Verdi's Falstaff on December 14 and the first Live in HD performance of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte on April 26. The Live in HD series, the world's largest provider of alternative content, reaches more than 1,900 theaters in 64 countries, and offers subtitles in nine languages, including Swedish for the first time this season. To accommodate audience demand in Europe, more than 85 cinemas have been added to the HD network in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The grand incomparable spectacle of opera returns to The Ridgefield Playhouse this fall with an impressive lineup broadcast from the Met Live in HD. Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin stars diva Anna Netrebko with Mariusz Kwiecien on Saturday, October 5, at 12:55 p.m. On Monday, October 28, at 6:30 p.m., William Kentridge storms the Met in Shostakovich's The Nose.

Legendary music producer, Milt Okun along with composer Lee Holdridge are bringing some of the most famous names in opera to John Denver's famous hit songs on the new album 'Great Voices Sing John Denver'.