Dolora Zajick News

The Met: Live in HD continues today, February 8 at 1pm in the Warner's Nancy Marine Studio Theatre with Dvorak's Rusalka.

Mary Phillips will sing the role of Ježibaba in this evening's performance of Dvorák's Rusalka, replacing Dolora Zajick, who is ill.

Three Live in HD events from the Met and National Theatre in London will fill The Ridgefield Playhouse next month. Diva Renee Fleming will star in Dvo?ak's Rusalka on Sunday, February 9, at 12:55 p.m. Shakespeare's Coriolanus comes to life on Sunday, February 16, at 6:30 p.m., and Borodin's Prince Igor will mesmerize on Saturday, March 1, at 12 noon. For dinner-and-a-show, Bernard's (22 West Lane, Ridgefield) is offering a special $45 prix-fixe menu, or a free glass of wine with dinner before these events, when tickets are presented; reservations suggested beginning at 5 p.m. Visit ridgefieldplayhouse.org for video sneak previews of the Met Live in HD Series. This event 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 Met: Live in HD continues on Saturday February 8 at 1pm in the Warner's Nancy Marine Studio Theatre with Dvorak's Rusalka.

Renée Fleming returns to one of her signature roles, the title character in Dvorák's Rusalka, for six performances beginning January 23. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Met performances of the opera about a water spirit in love with a human prince, adapted from the same sources as Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale 'The Little Mermaid.' Check out highlights below!

Diva Renee Fleming will star in Dvorak's Rusalka Live in HD from the Met on Sunday, February 9, at 12:55 p.m. One of the most celebrated divas of our time, Renee Fleming returns to one of her signature roles, singing the enchanting 'Song to the Moon' in Dvorak's soulful fairy-tale opera Rusalka. Tenor Piotr Beczala co-stars as the Prince, Dolora Zajick is Ježibaba and dynamic young maestro Yannick Nezet-Seguin is on the podium.

Renée Fleming will return to one of her signature roles, the title character in Dvorák's Rusalka, for six performances beginning tonight, January 23.

Aspiring opera singers from the Gulf Coast will once again vie for the national spotlight during the annual Metropolitan Opera National Council District and Regional Auditions today, Jan. 11 and Sunday, Jan. 12 at Loyola University New Orleans. The winner of the regional auditions will advance to the national semi-final round, held Sunday, March 23 on the Metropolitan Opera Stage in New York City. The singers who advance to the finals Sunday, March 30 will be accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

The jury's in! Attending a Live in HD broadcast of an opera direct from the Met at The Ridgefield Playhouse is convenient, comfortable and so affordable. Dvorak's Rusalka stars the great Renee Fleming (pictured) on Sunday, February 9, at 12:55 p.m.

Renée Fleming will return to one of her signature roles, the title character in Dvorák's Rusalka, for six performances beginning January 23.

Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor David Hyde Pierce will take a star turn together when they co-host the Ninth Annual Opera News Awards, set to take place on Sunday, April 13, 2014, in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel in New York City. They will be joined by a distinguished line-up of presenters – Luca Pisaroni, Susan Graham, Renata Scotto, Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Francesca Zambello – who will pay tribute to five superb artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: the late director Patrice Chéreau, tenor Juan Diego Flórez, mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig,bass-baritone James Morris, and soprano Nina Stemme. First introduced in 2005, the Opera News Awards gala dinner, which features the hosts and presenters speaking about the awardees and introducing video performance clips, has become one of the most anticipated opera events of the season: an evening of celebration, appreciation, reuniting and celebrity-spotting that is without parallel in the industry.

Aspiring opera singers from the Gulf Coast will once again vie for the national spotlight during the annual Metropolitan Opera National Council District and Regional Auditions Saturday, Jan. 11 and Sunday, Jan. 12 at Loyola University New Orleans. The winner of the regional auditions will advance to the national semi-final round, held Sunday, March 23 on the Metropolitan Opera Stage in New York City. The singers who advance to the finals Sunday, March 30 will be accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Paul Nadler will conduct the February 15 performance of Dvorák's Rusalka, replacing the originally scheduled Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Nézet-Séguin will conduct the other five performances of Rusalka at the Met this season.

The Merola Opera Program and the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch are teaming up for Merola Goes to the Movies, a new, free series that presents great opera-themed movies.

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.

Giuseppe Verdi's 1871 opera AIDA is a worldwide phenomenon. It has been adapted into several films, Elton John and Tim Rice adapted it into a Broadway musical with the same title, and, as of 2007, New York City's Metropolitan Opera has given over 1,100 performances of the opera, making it their second most frequently produced work. Oozing with spectacle and pageantry, Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) current production of the beloved opera is a spellbinding and sumptuous beginning to their new season.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) opens its 2013-14 season tonight with a revival of its classic production of Verdi's Aida. The production, which runs through November 9, is conducted by Italian maestro Antonino Fogliani and stars the National Opera of Ukraine's Liudmyla Monastyrska as Aida, the role that garnered her critical acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera last year. The New York Times described Monastyrska in her U.S. debut in the title role as "gifted with a luscious round soprano that maintains its glow even in the softest notes." Mezzo Dolora Zajick returns to one of her signature roles, Amneris; Italian tenor Riccardo Massi sings Radames; and Texas baritone and HGO Studio alumnus Scott Hendricks sings Aida's father, Amonasro. The production is designed by British designer Zandra Rhodes, directed by Jose Maria Condemi, and choreographed by Dominic Walsh in the inaugural collaboration between HGO and Walsh's Houston-based Dominic Walsh Dance Theater.

On Monday, November 11, the Metropolitan Opera Guild's 79th Annual Luncheon presents "Welcome Home, Jimmy!" to salute music directorJames Levine on his triumphant return to the Met podium. A perennial highlight of the opera season, the luncheon will bring together a host of artists who have collaborated with the preeminent conductor over the course of his long and celebrated Met tenure, as well as opera fans and an array of New York's society, business, and civic leaders. "Welcome Home, Jimmy!" will feature musical tributes by Dolora Zajick, "a mezzo in a class by herself" (New York Times); Thomas Hampson, "America's foremost baritone" (International Herald Tribune); and Grammy Award-winning bass-baritone Eric Owens, all accompanied by the Met's Director of Music Administration, Craig Rutenberg. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Guild's education programs in New York City and throughout the country.

The Merola Opera Program and the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch are teaming up for Merola Goes to the Movies, a new, free series that presents great opera-themed movies.

Symphony Space opens its 2013-14 Music season with 'Kurt Weill on Broadway,' tonight, October 7 (8 pm) at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Broadway opening of Weill's One Touch of Venus. Ted Chapin hosts a stellar cast featuring Melissa Errico, Brent Barrett, Judy Blazer, and Ron Raines, plus winners of the international Lotte Lenya Competition.