Dominic Armstrong News

Over three days of preliminary auditions on February 17-19, 2014, 90 of the best young American and Canadian opera singers will compete to reach the final round of the 43rd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition.

In the New York Philharmonic's concerts this week celebrating the centennial of English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, tenors Dominic Armstrong, Anthony Dean Griffey, and Michael Slattery will replace Paul Appleby, who has withdrawn due to illness. On November 21-22, 2013, Michael Slattery will make his Philharmonic debut in Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, and tenor Dominic Armstrong will make his Philharmonic debut in Britten's Spring Symphony. The concert on November 23 will feature tenor Anthony Dean Griffey in both works, and he will sing the Serenade on November 26 on a program that also includes Mozart's Symphonies Nos. 39 and 41, Jupiter.

Tenor Matthew Polenzani, who has been praised as "perhaps the finest tenor voice of his generation" (Boston Phoenix), and fast-rising young star soprano Corinne Winters will launch the 2013-14 season of events of The George London Foundation for Singers with a recital at The Morgan Library and Museum on Sunday, October 20, 2013, at 4:30 PM. The George London Foundation Recital Series presents pairs of outstanding opera singers, many of whom were winners of a George London prize early in their careers or are recent George London Award recipients. Mr. Polenzani is a 1998 George London Award winner, and Ms. Winters won a George London Award in 2012 (watch Corinne Winters's George London Award-winning performance of Meyerbeer's "Robert, toi que j'aime"here).

The International Beethoven Project, led by President and Artistic DirectorGeorge Lepauw, revealed today additional details about its world premiere presentation of a recently discovered Beethoven song for male voice and piano during Beethoven Festival: LOVE 2013-the organization's third annual multidisciplinary festival inspired by the genius of Ludwig van Beethoven, today, Sept. 7-15, 2013. Entitled 'Liebe' or 'Ich wiege dich in meinem Arm' (I cradle you in my Arms) Hess 137, the piece will be performed by tenor Dominic Armstrong, and pianist George Lepauw on Sunday, Sept. 8 at 3 p.m. at the LOVE 2013 headquarters, Merit School of Music's Joy Faith Knapp Music Center (38 S. Peoria Street).

The International Beethoven Project, led by President and Artistic DirectorGeorge Lepauw, revealed today additional details about its world premiere presentation of a recently discovered Beethoven song for male voice and piano during Beethoven Festival: LOVE 2013-the organization's third annual multidisciplinary festival inspired by the genius of Ludwig van Beethoven, Sept. 7-15, 2013. Entitled "Liebe" or "Ich wiege dich in meinem Arm" (I cradle you in my Arms) Hess 137, the piece will be performed by tenor Dominic Armstrong, and pianist George Lepauw on Sunday, Sept. 8 at 3 p.m. at the LOVE 2013 headquarters, Merit School of Music's Joy Faith Knapp Music Center (38 S. Peoria Street).

Lincoln Center Festival, which runs from today, July 6 through 28, 2013 will unfold in six venues on and off the Lincoln Center campus. Music figures prominently in the 2013 Festival with international productions by an eclectic range of renowned composers, singers, musicians and directors. In addition to performances, a panel discussion on Lera Auerbach's opera, The Blind, is scheduled. A chronological listing follows.

Lincoln Center Festival, which runs from July 6 through 28, 2013 will unfold in six venues on and off the Lincoln Center campus. Music figures prominently in the 2013 Festival with international productions by an eclectic range of renowned composers, singers, musicians and directors. In addition to performances, a panel discussion on Lera Auerbach's opera, The Blind, is scheduled. A chronological listing follows.

Starting tonight, Tuesday May 28th at 7pm EST, operamusicbroadcast.com will present a live webcast of InsightALT, a week-long festival that offers an intimate, inside look into American Lyric Theater's process of creating new operas at all stages of their development.

Starting May 28th at 7PM EST, operamusicbroadcast.com will present a live webcast ofInsightALT, a new festival that offers an intimate, inside look into American Lyric Theater's process of creating new creating new operas at all stages of their development.

Three international opera stars and three stars on the rise are the six artists who headline the 2013-14 season of events of the George London Foundation for Singers, which has been honoring, supporting, and presenting the finest young opera singers in the U.S. and Canada for more than four decades. Five of the artists are GeorgeLondon Award winners, and thus among the “scores of important singers [who] have been discovered by the [George London Foundation] competition over the years,” as Peter G. Davis wrote in The New York Times last year.

American Lyric Theater (ALT) today announced complete casting forInsightALT, the company's upcoming festival dedicated to providing an intimate, up-close look at its process of creating new operas.

American Lyric Theater (ALT) today announced details of InsightALT, the company's first festival dedicated to providing an intimate, up-close look at its process of creating new operas. Taking place between May 28 and June 3, 2013 at the Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Family Auditorium of the The JCC in Manhattan, a state-of-the-art theater on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the festival kicks-off with a special public master class by world-renown soprano Catherine Malfitano. At the center of the festival are concert readings of three new operas in different stages of their development at ALT: The Turing Project by composer Justine F. Chen and librettist David Simpatico; The Long Walk by composer Jeremy Howard Beck and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann (based on the book 'The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life that Follows' by Brian Castner); and La Reina by composer Jorge Sosa and librettist Laura Sosa Pedroza. All three operas will feature leading singers and rising-stars from the country's preeminent opera houses. Themes behind these works will be explored in two symposia led by ALT and Glyndebourne dramaturg Cori Ellison, one of the leading creative figures in the opera world today.

Andre Previn's operatic version of Tennesee Williams's A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, with a libretto by Andrew Littell, made its belated New York debut at Carnegie Hall on Thursday. It plays to Renee Fleming's vocal strengths, with her shimmering, lyric soprano and soaring high notes. This is not surprising since Previn wrote the role of Blanche specifically with her in mind and it shows with every note she sings. But is she Blanche? Unfortunately, she's too healthy, too sane and too much a star to be the character that Williams created, a woman clings to a false gentility--and her sanity--from the moment that she arrives on stage. It also doesn't help that she has zero chemistry with New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes the Stanley Kowalski of the evening. Rhodes' muscular baritone carries the threat that Blanche should feel, but he might as well be playing to the Merry Widow.

New York City Opera's production of Britten's chamber opera 'The Turn of the Screw' opened Sunday afternoon to a full house at Brooklyn Academy of Music's Howard Gilman Opera House as the Prologue, played by Dominic Armstrong, fills us in on the back story as it is played out onstage. The stark setting with desk and chair and overhead fluorescent lighting sets the mood to which the score builds upon throughout the prologue. We watch the Governess in an interview with a man to care for two orphaned children who we find out to be his niece and nephew. After accepting the position to help 'such a busy man', we eerily follow the Governess, played by Sara Jakubiak, down the country road to her new life. The scene is now set for Act I of this production which director, Sam Buntrock, describes as having been drawn 'from iconic films such as The Shining, The Exorcist and Poltergeist.

New York City Opera concludes its spring 2013 BAM residency and celebrates the centennial of composer Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) with a brand-new production of Britten's chamber opera The Turn of the Screw (1954). Based on the classic ghost story by Henry James, the opera's libretto is by Myfanwy Piper. The production, conducted by Jayce Ogren, marks the opera debut of Sam Buntrock, the theater director best known for his award-winning staging of Sunday in the Park with George in the West End and on Broadway.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) presents the opening production of their 2012 Season, and General Director Brian Dickie's last season with the company, with Shostakovich's Moscow, Cheryomushki. Performances are April 14, 20, 22, and 25 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) presents the opening production of their 2012 Season, and General Director Brian Dickie's last season with the company, with Shostakovich's Moscow, Cheryomushki. Performances are April 14, 20, 22, and 25 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) announces the final artistic teams for their upcoming 2012 Season. The season opens April 14 with Shostakovich's Moscow, Cheryomushki, followed by the concluding opera in COT's "Medea" trilogy, Handel's Teseo; and in September COT will present a new production of Mozart's The Magic Flute. Chicago Opera Theater's 2012 Season will be presented at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park.