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.
Sir David McVicar's witty and efferverscent production of Handel's most popular opera, GIULIO CESARE, arrives at the Met with Natalie Dessay and David Daniels in the leading roles and Harry Bicket on the podium. BroadwayWorld has a first look below.
David Daniels and Natalie Dessay will sing the leading roles of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra inDavid McVicar's production of Handel's Giulio Cesare, which premieres at the Met April 4. Baroque specialist Harry Bicket will lead ten performances of the popular staging, originally produced at the Glyndebourne Festival, which incorporates many innovative elements into the story of Caesar and Cleopatra's unlikely romance-including extensive choreography by Andrew George. The other principal stars of this production include Alice Coote in the trouser role of the Roman youth Sesto, Italian baritone Guido Loconsolo in his Met debut as the scheming Egyptian general Achilla, John Moore as the Roman general Curio, and three stars of McVicar's original Glyndebourne Festival production: Patricia Bardon as the Roman widow Cornelia, Sesto's stepmother; Christophe Dumaux as Tolomeo, Cleopatra's brother and co-ruler; and Moroccan countertenor Rachid Ben Abdeslam in his Met debut as the Egyptian servant Nireno. The production features set design by Robert Jones, costume design by Brigitte Reiffenstuel, and lighting design by Paule Constable. The Saturday, April 27 matinee performance of Giulio Cesare will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series, which is now seen in more than 1,900 movie theaters in 64 countries around the world.
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).
The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.
The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.
The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.
The English Concert's spectacular performance of RADAMISTO had me from its first notes and swept me away to its unlikely but happy ending. Three-and-a-half hours never moved faster than it did at Carnegie Hall on Sunday.
It's easy to think of Carnegie as simply the premiere venue for symphony orchestras and plush sound, but it is also an ideal hall to hear small-scale operatic works, as exemplified by this performance by these early music specialists. It was notable for clarity and an intimacy that put the music in the spotlight, with a cast headed by star countertenor David Daniels.
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).
At 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 10, the Oakland Symphony Orchestra (OSO) will present the 16th Annual David Daniels Young Artists Concert, which will feature the winners of the Oakland University Concerto Competition. The competition is open to all OU music majors.
The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) welcomes alumnus Jesse Blumberg, baritone (MM, '03), and renowned collaborative pianist Martin Katz for free performances of Franz Schubert's two great Lieder cycles this February.
The Canadian Opera Company unveiled its 2013/2014 season today at a press conference at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The company's 64th season stars the world's best singers, conductors, directors and designers in a performance year with seven operas, including three COC premieres and three new COC productions. The COC presents Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème with a new production featuring some of Canada's brightest stars; COC Music Director Johannes Debus makes his Benjamin Britten debut when he conducts Peter Grimes with a production starring acclaimed Canadian tenor Ben Heppner in the iconic title role; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Così fan tutte with a new COC production by renowned film and theatre director Atom Egoyan with Debus conducting; Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera starring great Canadian diva Adrianne Pieczonka in a role debut; George Frideric Handel's Hercules with a COC premiere and new COC production by world-renowned director Peter Sellars with a star-studded cast; Gaetano Donizetti's Roberto Devereux with a COC premiere starring soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in a role debut; and Jules Massenet's Don Quichotte with a COC premiere featuring Debus in another conducting debut and the world's pre-eminent bass Ferruccio Furlanetto in the title role.
New York City Opera opens its spring 2013 season with a new production of Powder Her Face (1995), composed by Thomas Adès (b.1971) to a libretto by Philip Hensher (b. 1965).
Joyce DiDonato stars in the Met premiere of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, in a new production by Scottish director David McVicar, opening with a gala performance tonight, New Year's Eve.
New York City Opera has announced the appointment of Myra Huang, whom Opera News has praised as 'among the top accompanists of her generation' and 'a colouristic tour de force,' as Head of Music Staff. The announcement comes on the eve of a 2013 season full of new productions, beginning with Thomas Adès' Powder Her Face, directed by Jay Scheib, February 15-23 at BAM.
Joyce DiDonato stars in the Met premiere of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, in a new production by Scottish director David McVicar, opening with a gala performance on New Year's Eve.
The Richard Tucker Music Foundation holds its 37th annual gala, one of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season, tonight, November 11 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York's Lincoln Center. Soprano Ailyn Perez, winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award and the first Latina singer to be so honored, joins a dazzling array of special guests - including baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Gerald Finley; mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina; tenor Marcello Giordani; bass Ildar Abdrazakov; bass-baritone Erwin Schrott; and many more - in a program of favorite arias and ensembles, including selections by Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Massenet, Mascagni, Handel, and Wagner. Maestro Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director of Houston Grand Opera, leads the lineup of luminaries, supported by members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Choral Society.
Salt Lake Acting Company presents BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, a comedic Wild West rock musical about America's seventh President, the premiere production in SLAC's University Professional Theatre Program. It is now playing through November 4, 2012. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below.
