Diana Damrau News

L.A. Opera presented TALES OF HOFFMANN, now playing through April 15th.

After a lavishly praised star turn in Washington National Opera's revival of Dead Man Walking this winter, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham turns to a U.S. tour in April of her equally successful and wide-ranging recital program, “Frauenliebe und -leben: Variations,” inspired by and centered on Schumann's iconic song cycle, with longtime recital partner Malcolm Martineau. She also joins a cast of the world's greatest opera luminaries to celebrate the Metropolitan Opera House's 50 Years at Lincoln Center in an Anniversary Gala; performs selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Met Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen in Carnegie Hall; and sings Berlioz's La mort de Cléopâtre, a staple of her signature French repertoire, with the San Antonio Symphony.

Die DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN gibt Ausblick auf die Saison 2017/18

The Met's new production by director Bartlett Sher also features Virginie Verrez as Stéphano, Elliot Madore as Mercutio, and Mikhail Petrenko as Frère Laurent. Gianandrea Noseda conducts the sumptuous score.

General Director Placido Domingo announced today that soprano Diana Damrau and bass-baritone Nicolas Teste will join him and Sondra Radvanovsky for a one-night-only concert on April 1, 2017, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program.

Hailed by The New York Times for singing 'with white-hot sensuality and impassioned lyricism,' Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo star as the tragic lovers in Shakespeare's classic story. Gounod's Romo et Juliette airs on Great Performances at the Met Friday, April 14 at 9 p.m. on PBS. (Check local listings.)

Check out the top stories from Los Angeles you might have missed this week and more!

In addition to the previously announced artists appearing at the Met's 50th Anniversary at Lincoln Center Gala on May 7, singers slated to appear include Stephanie Blythe, Joseph Calleja, Dwayne Croft, David Daniels, Yusif Eyvazov, Vittorio Grigolo, Christopher Job, Latonia Moore, Yunpeng Wang, and Dolora Zajick.

LA Opera has announced new casting details for the company's production of The Tales of Hoffmann, which stars tenor Vittorio Grigolo and opens on March 25.

In our time, IDOMENEO is the earliest of Mozart's operas regularly done, its full title being IDOMENEO, RE DI CRETA OSSIA ILIA E IDAMANTE--or IDOMENEO, KING OF CRETE, OR ILIA AND IDAMANTE. “Ilia” of the extended title is the daughter of Priam, the king of Troy. (“Idamante” is Idomeneo's son.) At the Met starting this week, Ilia is being sung by the skyrocketing young American soprano, Nadine Sierra.

Florida Grand Opera (FGO) General Director and CEO Susan T. Danis today unveiled plans for the company's 2017-18 season. Anchored by the theme 'Divas to Die For,' FGO's seventy-seventh season will boast a diverse range of works about women on dangerous emotional journeys.

General Director Placido Domingo has announced complete casting details for LA Opera's upcoming presentation of The Tales of Hoffmann.

The last time soprano Diana Damrau and tenor Javier Camarena appeared together at the Met, they reinvented the deadly Mary Zimmerman production of Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA and made it into something wonderful. This time around, while the duo tried their hardest, they still couldn't quite bring the company's elderly production of IL PURITANI (also by Bellini) back to life, although they came pretty close, using all the considerable star-power they could muster.

Tenor Vittorio Grigolo always seems most at home on stage when he's living close to the edge--portraying a character who's losing control (or about to) of his emotions. It was true earlier this season as Romeo, in Gounod's ROMEO ET JULIETTE at the Met opposite Diana Damrau and, in 2015, as Chevalier Des Grieux in Massenet's MANON, also with Damrau. (Might as well add Offenbach's Hoffmann to the mix.) Well, Massenet's back at the Met with WERTHER, also starring the gorgeous, sultry-voiced mezzo Isabel Leonard and all should be well with the world, with Grigolo as the poet who's losing his head (and mind) over a woman who can't (or won't) reciprocate. And yet…

Pretty Yende will sing the role of Elvira in tomorrow evening's performance of Bellini's I Puritani, replacing Diana Damrau, who is ill.

The Ridgefield Playhouse and Craig's Fine Jewelry Live in HD Series presents a live in HD screening of Gounoud's Romeo et Juliette today, January 21 at 12:55 p.m.

???????As part of their Arts on Screen Season, which includes the world's finest performances streamed in high definition to their theatre on Hadley Road, the Peterborough Players will present 2 screenings this weekend.

There's some famous and gorgeous music in Gounod's ROMEO ET JULIETTE—Juliet's waltz, Romeo's “Ah, leve-toi, soleil” and a number of duets —but this is definitely not one of those operas where the title characters can take turns with the showpieces but never look each other in the eye. Luckily, that wasn't the case with Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo in the Met's new Bartlett Sher production, where they lit some fires at Tuesday's performance.

The Warner Theatre's 2016-17 Met Opera: Live in HD Season continues with Gounod's Romeo et Juliette in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre on Saturday, January 21 at 12:55 pm.

Fresh from a triumphant turn as Didon in Chicago Lyric's production of Berlioz's Les Troyens, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham takes the concert stage this winter, performing selections from Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nezet-Seguin.