San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald today announced the 12 recipients of the 2019 Adler Fellowship. Selected from participants of the Merola Opera Program, the ten singers and two pianist/apprentice coaches begin their fellowships in January 2019. The multi-year performance-oriented residency offers advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching and professional seminars, as well as a wide range of performance opportunities. Since its inception in 1977, the prestigious fellowship has nurtured the development of more than 180 young artists, introducing many budding stars to the international opera stage and launching active careers throughout the world as performers, production artists, arts professionals and educators.
In 2019, San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program will present the first opera commissioned in the Program's history, the world premiere of If I Were You, by distinguished American composer Jake Heggie and noted librettist Gene Scheer. This ground-breaking work will be presented August 1 - 6, 2019, at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre. Today it was announced the opera will be conducted by Nicole Paiement and directed by Keturah Stickann. Information is available at www.merola.org. Tickets will go on sale in Spring 2019.
On Sunday, October 21, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation's annual gala concert - one of the most highly anticipated operatic events of the season - will bring a galaxy of opera stars to the stage of Carnegie Hall. And opera-lovers around the world unable to make it in person will still have the opportunity to watch the performance live. Thanks to the foundation's partnership with medici.tv, the gala concert will be webcast live (6pm ET/3pm PT), free of charge, both on medici.tv and on medici.tv's Facebook page; the stream will subsequently be available for on-demand viewing for a limited period. In addition, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation continues its collaboration with WQXR 105.9 FM, New York's sole dedicated classical radio station, which will broadcast the performance to listeners in the New York metropolitan region and online at www.wqxr.org on November 10 at 1pm ET/10am PT.
In the video below, watch as the two leading ladies of Verdi's 'Aida' - Anna Netrebko and Anita Rachvelishvili, discuss their roles with host Isabel Leonard during the October 6 Live in HD transmission.
In the video below, watch as John Sellars, the company's Assistant General Manager, Production, discusses the use of the Met's stage lifts in 'Aida' with host Isabel Leonard during the October 6 Live in HD transmission.
Concluding its highly successful 61st season, the Merola Opera Program announces the establishment of an Advisory Council, comprised of leaders in the field of opera performance, young artist training, arts administration, performing arts, and philanthropy.
Anna Netrebko makes her Met role debut in the title role of the enslaved Ethiopian princess in Verdi's tragedy of ancient Egypt, Aida, opening September 26. Anita Rachvelishvili sings the role of her formidable rival, Amneris, following the Georgian soprano's critically acclaimed portrayal of Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore last season. The cast also features Aleksandrs Antonenko as the warrior Radames, Quinn Kelsey as Aida's father, Amonasro, Dmitry Belosselskiy as the high priest Ramfis, and Ryan Speedo Green as the King, under the baton of Nicola Luisotti. The October 6 matinee will be transmitted worldwide, kicking off the Met's new Live in HD series, now reaching more than 2,000 movie theaters in 73 countries around the world.
San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, culminates its 2018 Summer Festival with the Merola Grand Finale, featuring the 2018 Merola young artists in a dazzling array of opera's most exciting arias and ensembles.
Dolora Zajick's Institute for Young Dramatic Voices (IYDV) offers free master classes as well as a free concert of songs and arias sung by students with piano accompaniment. All these events are held at Nightingale Hall, 1335 North Virginia Street, Reno, NV, and no tickets are required for any of them.
Advance tickets go on sale today for the Richard Tucker Music Foundation's annual gala concert, one of the most highly anticipated operatic events of the season. Coming to Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on Sunday, October 21 at 6pm, the concert features bass-baritone Christian Van Horn, winner of the 2018 Richard Tucker Award, with a host of opera luminaries from around the world: soprano Anna Netrebko, tenors Javier Camarena and Yusif Eyvazov, and five past Tucker Award-winners: sopranos Christine Goerke, Angela Meade, and Nadine Sierra; mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe; and tenor Michael Fabiano. This starry lineup will join forces for an evening of favorite arias and ensembles under the baton of Marco Armiliato, with the support of the New York Choral Society and members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. The gala concert is presented by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation.
San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, offers audiences a look at the opera stars of tomorrow with a lively, fully-staged production of The Rake's Progress. Based loosely on the eponymous eight paintings and engravings by William Hogarth (1733-1735), Stravinsky's dramatic opera follows the decline and fall of a profligate heir who makes a devil's bargain with Nick Shadow, abandoning life in the country and his tender fiancee for the wicked temptations of London.The Rake's Progress will be performed 7:30pm, Thursday, August 2 and 2:00pm, Saturday, August 4 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. For tickets or more information, visit www.merola.org or call (415) 864-3330.
San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program presents the stars of tomorrow in Mozart's Il re pastore. Merola is one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, featuring 29 artists selected from more than 800 international applicants. This exquisite early Mozart work featuring a string of thrilling arias explores the competing pulls of love and duty, as a young shepherd finds he must renounce his true love in order to reclaim his lost throne. Il re pastore will be performed 7:30pm, Thursday, July 19, and 2:00pm, Saturday, July 21, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. For tickets or more information, visit www.merola.org or call (415) 864-3330.
This summer, the Met will rebroadcast four popular operas from the groundbreaking Live in HD series as part of the Summer Encores in select cinemas worldwide. The 2018 Summer Encore titles include: Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Verdi's Il Trovatore, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, and Puccini's Turandot.
Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced that the company's 2018 Summer Festival will feature new productions of four operas at The Spa Little Theatre in Spa State Park, along with a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events from May 26 through July 15 at venues throughout the region.
San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, launches its 61st season offering audiences a look at the opera stars of tomorrow. Some of opera's greatest moments will come to life as Merola's young artists perform staged scenes from Vanessa, Il tabarro, Les pecheurs de perles, and Don Giovanni in the Schwabacher Summer Concert.
American mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick is one of the world's leading exponents of the dramatic Verdi repertoire. Her talent was first noticed when she was a pre-med student at the University of Nevada in Reno. Some years after that, she debuted with the San Francisco Opera as Azucena in IL TROVATORE, and it brought her international stardom. Decades later, she is best known for her interpretations of Amneris in AIDA, Eboli in DON CARLO, Ulrica in UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, Ježibaba in Dvo?ak's RUSALKA, and Adalgisa in Bellini's NORMA.
More than 400 opera aficionados and performers – including opera stars Alice Coote, Jennifer Rowley and Laurent Naouri – were among those who attended the 13th Annual OPERA NEWS Awards at The Plaza Hotel last night.
National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company, under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, continues its 2017-2018 Season at Lincoln Center with Beethoven Symphony #9 on Friday, April 13, 2018 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC. Tickets are $30-$100 and are available at www.nationalchorale.com, or by calling (212) 333-5333.
Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced the complete casting and programming for the company's 2018 Summer Festival, which will feature new productions of four operas at The Spa Little Theater in Spa State Park, along with a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events from May 26th through July 15th at venues throughout the region. Single tickets, as well as subscription packages, are on sale now at www.operasaratoga.org.
National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company, under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, continues its 2017-2018 Season at Lincoln Center with Beethoven Symphony #9 on Friday, April 13, 2018 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC.
