On Friday, February 20 the Palm Beach Opera will present the first world premiere in its 53-year history with Ben Moore's Enemies, A Love Story. Hailed as “one of the most eagerly anticipated premieres of the season” (WQXR), the unprecedented new production is one of several original projects designed to bring opera to a wider audience at the Florida house, which remains one of American opera's most inspirational recent success stories. Highlighting the company's creative audience engagement initiatives, ticket prices have been substantially lowered on more than 600 seats per performance this season, and tickets for family concerts reduced to a single flat fee of just $5, giving an unprecedented level of accessibility to Palm Beach Opera's current offerings.
LA MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and Sheryl Lee Ralph and The D.I.V.A. Foundation present MAMA ROSE (A Solo Musical). This show gives a glimpse of Mr. Waits' life growing up in Buffalo, New York with his own MAMA ROSE, Rose Waits. In this dark comedy you'll find out that this 'southern belle' could have ruled the world...if they had only let her.
Soprano Michelle Bradley and pianist Michael Gaertner, winners of the 2014 Music Academy of the West Marilyn Horne Song Competition, will perform a program of lieder, spirituals, and other works by Beethoven, Strauss, Duparc, Faure, Poulenc, Bachelet, and H.T. Burleigh in recital appearances this May in Santa Barbara, Dallas, and New York City.
San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program present the 33rd season of the Schwabacher Debut Recitals, beginning February 8, 2015 with soprano Erin Johnson and pianist Sun Ha Yoon at Temple Emanu-El's Martin Meyer Sanctuary in San Francisco.
In a fun video for People, opera star Deborah Voigt confronts the little black dress that lost her the role of 'Ariadne' at London's Royal Opera House eleven years ago. She was fired after not fitting into the costume, but the experience only served to inform her new memoir CALL ME DEBBIE. Watch below!
The Collegiate Chorale announces the postponement of George F. Handel's Susanna from February 3, 2015 to the company's 2015/16 Season, with date and time to be confirmed.
The American Symphony Orchestra begins its 2015 Classics Declassified series with Tchaikovsky's impassioned and Romantic Symphony No. 4 at Symphony Space on Sunday, February 8, 2015. Discover why the composer said of his work, "Perhaps I'm mistaken, but it seems to me that this symphony is better than anything I've done so far" as Leon Botstein and the Orchestra shed new light on a time-honored masterpiece. Hosted by WQXR's Peabody Award-winning broadcaster and producer Elliott Forrest, the three-part format of Classics Declassified begins with an animated talk providing a guided tour of the work, followed with its full performance. Mr. Forrest then leads a dynamic Q & A with the audience that allows them to make the music personal in a whole new way.
The Collegiate Chorale continues its 2014-15 season with George F. Handel's Susanna on February 3, 2015 at 8pm at Town Hall, 123 W. 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036. Tickets are $30-$95 and are available at TicketMaster.com. For more information, visit http://collegiatechorale.org/performances/susanna.
92Y presents the New York City premiere of Voigt Lessons, starring internationally beloved opera starDeborah Voigt, on Thursday, February 26. In this one-woman show – co-created with Tony® Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally and acclaimed opera and theater director Francesca Zambello – Voigt performs arias, pop songs, standards and spirituals of deep personal significance, along with anecdotes and backstage stories describing her astonishing rise to operatic heights, despite her private challenges. Voigt Lessons, an evening imbued with Voigt's trademark warmth, candor and sense of humor, premiered at Glimmerglass in 2011 to rave reviews. The New York Times hailed it as “chatty, witty, and sometimes painfully poignant,” andToronto's Globe and Mail called it “an absolute gem.”
LA MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and Sheryl Lee Ralph and The D.I.V.A. Foundation present MAMA ROSE (A Solo Musical). This show gives a glimpse of Mr. Waits' life growing up in Buffalo, New York with his own MAMA ROSE, Rose Waits. In this dark comedy you'll find out that this 'southern belle' could have ruled the world...if they had only let her.
Janis Martin, American opera singer who sang leading roles first as a mezzo-soprano and later as a soprano in opera houses throughout Europe and the United States, has died at the age of 75. She was particularly known for her performances in the operas of Richard Wagner and sang at the Bayreuth Festival from 1968 to 1997.
American opera singer Janis Martin, best known for stretching her range from a mezzo-soprano to a soprano star, has died. Having suffered from diabetes for years, she passed away at home in San Antonio on Dec. 14, her son Robert confirmed. She was 75.
?On Sunday, January 11, Opera Index will present its 36th Distinguished Achievement Award to Susan Graham, one today's foremost opera stars, at its winter gala in the Grand Salon of the JW Marriott Essex House, 160 Central Park South, beginning at 6 p.m. with a reception at the Petit Salon. Presenting Ms. Graham with this year's award will be the revered American mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, a previous Distinguished Achievement Award-winner.
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Jane Chu has announced that The Collegiate Chorale is one of only 919 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. The Collegiate Chorale will receive a $30,000 grant in support of its May 2015 concert and CD recording of Kurt Weill and Franz Werfel's musical epic, The Road of Promise.
Television audiences have one more chance to celebrate with Deborah Voigt this holiday season. Tonight, Friday, December 19, the Grammy Award-winning soprano returns to the small screen when PBS/THIRTEEN broadcasts her special guest appearance in Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, recorded live in concert last season, and now also available on both CD and DVD. (Check your local PBS listings.)
