The late Anthony Minghella's critically acclaimed production of Puccini's classic Madama Butterfly comes to THIRTEEN'S Great Performances at the Met Friday, August 19 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).
MADAMA BUTTERFLY was never my favorite Puccini until the current production conceived by Anthony Minghella. Before, Butterfly always seemed too submissive, Pinkerton too brutish and their child, well, too cute. Now—particularly with the current cast, headed by the magnificent Kristine Opolais as the young geisha and the dashing Roberto Alagna as the clueless Pinkerton, her American husband--seemed to put my past reservations to rest. The result was a magnificent performance, from beginning to end.
Sometimes, the Metropolitan Opera seems like an endless Puccini festival. It's particularly apparent this season, when top dogs LA BOHEME, TOSCA and MADAMA BUTTERFLY are joined by TURANDOT and MANON LESCAUT, which are not second drawer, though certainly less popular than the first three. (Let's see how that descriptor applies to the latter when Jonas Kaufmann steps on stage for the new production of LESCAUT.)
Roberto De Biasio and Gwyn Hughes Jones will sing Pinkerton in the initial performances of Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Met this spring, replacing Massimo Giordano, who has withdrawn due to illness. De Biasio will sing Pinkerton on February 19, 22, and 27, and Hughes Jones will sing the role on March 2 and 5.
Enjoy an old fashioned Irish holiday celebration when A Christmas from Dublin with the Three Irish Tenors comes to Mayo Performing Arts Center on Friday, December 4, 2015 at 8 pm. Tickets are $29-59.
Soprano Diana Damrau did another of her high-wire acts at the Met this week, with her third role debut here in under two years. After last year's spectacular Amina in Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA, she's taken on the title role in Massenet's MANON and proven once again that she is one of the company's greatest assets.
After a critically acclaimed run in St. Louis in June of 2014, composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek's opera "27" will now be available to audiences around the globe, with the release of the world premiere recording of the opera on Albany Records. Recorded live in performance throughout the run of the opera, the album is the first commercial recording of a commissioned world premiere from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
The joint production of Santa Fe and Opera Philadelphia, Theodore Morrison's opera of the decline and fall of Oscar Wilde has its hits and misses. It's a magnificent production of an unripe work.
Heidi Stober will sing the role of Gretel in the January 1 and January 3 matinee performances of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. As previously announced, Aleksandra Kurzak sings Gretel on December 18, 23 matinee, 27, and 30 matinee, and Andriana Chuchman sings the role on January 8. As the Met's annual holiday presentation, the opera will be performed in English with family-friendly ticket prices and special weekday matinees.
Continuing a tradition inaugurated in 2006, the Met will offer a holiday presentation this December and January: an English-language performance of an opera, with special weekday matinees and discount pricing designed to make the Met affordable for families with children. This year's production, Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, opens tonight, December 18.
Continuing a tradition inaugurated in 2006, the Met will offer a holiday presentation this December and January: an English-language performance of an opera, with special weekday matinees and discount pricing designed to make the Met affordable for families with children. This year's production, Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, opens December 18 and will star Aleksandra Kurzak, Heidi Stober, and Andriana Chuchman as Gretel; Christine Rice and Jennifer Johnson Cano as Hansel; Michaela Martens and Dwayne Croft as Gertrude and Peter, the wayward children's parents; and Robert Brubaker as the wicked Witch who captures them. Sir Andrew Davis will conduct all seven performances of the opera, which plays through January 8. There will be special weekday matinees at 11 a.m. on December 23 and December 30.
Opera Philadelphia's 40th Anniversary Season continues in February with the highly anticipated East Coast Premiere of Oscar, the first opera from American composer Theodore Morrison with a libretto by the composer and John Cox. Countertenor David Daniels makes his Opera Philadelphia debut as Oscar Wilde in a beautifully tragic chronicle of the acclaimed writer's trial and imprisonment for gross indecency because of his homosexuality.
Heidi Stober will sing the role of Gretel in the January 1 and January 3 matinee performances of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. As previously announced, Aleksandra Kurzak sings Gretel on December 18, 23 matinee, 27, and 30 matinee, and Andriana Chuchman sings the role on January 8. As the Met's annual holiday presentation, the opera will be performed in English with family-friendly ticket prices and special weekday matinees.
The Canadian Opera Company's beloved production of Puccini's heartbreaking masterpiece of love, longing and loss, Madama Butterfly, comes to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts this October. An exquisite production by Canadian theatrical legend Brian Macdonald, designed by Susan Benson with lighting by Michael Whitfield, the COC'sMadama Butterfly has become a Toronto favourite, playing to sold-out audiences at its 1990 premiere and subsequent revivals in 1994, 1998, 2003 and 2009. Madama Butterfly is sung in Italian with English SURTITLESTM and runs for 12 performances on October 10, 11, 15, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30 and 31, 2014.
By this time in the Met's season, audiences can be a little “been there, done that”--but not when it came to Latvian soprano Kristine Opolais, singing the title role in Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY for the first time in New York. They nearly stormed the stage when she came out for her curtain call, and with good reason. She was spectacular.
Beginning March 24, three Met stars will sing their first company performances of the leading roles in Andrea Chénier, Giordano's tragic love story set during the French Revolution. Gianandrea Noseda conducts his first company performances of the opera, which will star Marcelo Álvarez in the title role of the real-life poet executed by revolutionary forces; Patricia Racette as the aristocrat Maddalena, whose privileged life is overturned by the revolution; and Željko Lu?i? as Carlo Gérard, a servant who becomes a leader of the insurrection. The cast also includes Jennifer Johnson Cano as La Bersi, Russian mezzo-soprano Olesya Petrova in her Met debut as Madelon, Tony Stevenson as Incredibile, Dwayne Croft as Roucher, Robert Pomakov as Mathieu, and Margaret Lattimore as the Countess.
The Glimmerglass Festival, the Central New York hub for lovers of opera and musical theater, has appointed bass-baritoneEric Owens as chairman of The Glimmerglass Festival Artistic Advisory Board, making him an ex-officio member of the company's Board of Trustees.
The Glimmerglass Festival, the Central New York hub for lovers of opera and musical theater, has appointed bass-baritone Eric Owens as chairman of The Glimmerglass Festival Artistic Advisory Board, making him an ex-officio member of the company's Board of Trustees.
Three sopranos will sing their first Met performances of the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Met this season.
The Dallas Opera has announced that, through the generosity of The Titus Family, a brand-new recital series has been created to showcase well-established singers in programs dedicated to preserving the fine art of “art song.” The series launch will take place tonight, January 4, 2014 in Dallas City Performance Hall (2520 Flora Street, Dallas) at 7:30 p.m.
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