Eugene Brancoveanu News

This February, Opera San José will highlight the raw emotions that drive Giuseppe Verdi's turbulent tale of love and revenge in its production of Il trovatore. Featuring an emotional, heart-stopping score, this mesmerizing story of romance, obsession, and retribution will be conducted by Joseph Marcheso, Opera San José's Music Director and Principal Conductor, and directed by Brad Dalton, acclaimed for staging major opera productions for San Francisco Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, and many other international companies. It will be presented at the magnificent California Theatre, the elegant 1927 former movie palace meticulously restored to opulent splendor and now one of the world's most intimate opera houses.

Opera San José supporters gathered at the historic California Theatre tonight to welcome its new General Director Khori Dastoor and hear her unveil the company's new strategic vision and ground-breaking line-up for the 2020-21 season, including new productions, company premieres, artist debuts, and cultural collaborations in four mainstage productions a?" including one with Broadway roots, a company first. Last spring, the Opera San José Board of Directors announced the appointment of Dastoor as the company's third general director, to succeed retiring general director Larry Hancock. She assumed the position October 1, 2019, becoming one of only six women, and the only woman of color, leading a major opera company in the US (budget over $3 million). Since then she has been overseeing all aspects of artistic planning and business operations, and now announces her first season to be staged September 2020 through May 2021 at the beautifully restored California Theatre in downtown San Jose. Noting that Opera San José has been an integral part of the cultural fabric of the greater San Jose area for over thirty-five years, said Dastoor, a?oeOur current charge is to elevate the company as a vibrant artistic incubator in the heart of Silicon Valley,a?? announcing what she described as a season of renewal, growth, and, above all, impassioned music making and storytelling.

Opera San José is launching the holidays with a family-friendly production of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel that offers treats to go along with this irresistible fairy tale. Kids who attend will not only enjoy a fully produced opera, but will also receive a small gift upon entrance, treats, and opportunities to interact with costumed characters and be photographed in fun, fairy tale settings in the lobby. 

Opera San José is launching the holidays with a family-friendly production of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel that offers treats to go along with this irresistible fairy tale.

Opera San Jose is proud to introduce our new ensemble of resident artists. Conductor / Chorus Master / Principal Coach Christopher James Ray, Sopranos Kerriann Otaño and Elena Galvan, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Sanchez, and baritone Eugene Brancoveanu will join returning tenor Mason Gates during the 2019-20 season. 

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.

Tony Award Winning Broadway Star EUGENE BRANCOVEANU Returns to Yello!

San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald today announced the eleven recipients of the 2018 Adler Fellowship. Eight singers, two pianist/apprentice coaches and one director will take part in the program. 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. Adler Fellows are selected from the artists who have participated in the Merola Opera Program. The prestigious fellowship has nurtured the development of more than 175 young artists since its inception.

San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program present the 34th season of the Schwabacher Debut Recitals, opening on March 26 and continuing through April 30.

San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program present the 34th season of the Schwabacher Debut Recitals, opening on March 26 and continuing through April 30. The four-recital series offers music lovers an opportunity to hear opera's next generation of stars in the intimate and state-of-the-art Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco.

San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald today announced the thirteen recipients of the 2017 Adler Fellowship. Nine singers, three pianist/apprentice coaches and one director will take part in the program-a multi-year performance-oriented residency offering advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching and professional seminars, as well as a wide range of performance opportunities. Adler Fellows are selected from the young artists who have participated in the Merola Opera Program. The prestigious fellowship has nurtured the development of more than 175 young artists since its inception.

SAN FRANCISCO (October 12, 2015) –– San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald announced today the twelve recipients of the 2016 Adler Fellowship, a multi-year performance-oriented residency offering advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching and professional seminars, as well as a wide range of performance opportunities. Adler Fellows are selected from the young artists who have participated in the Merola Opera Program. This prestigious training program has nurtured the development of more than 150 young artists since its inception.

The Merola Opera Program presents Opera & Ornaments: A Merola Opera Program Holiday Concert, Saturday, December 13, 2:00pm in the Community Hall of the Lafayette Library (3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd.). This special holiday concert features opera, classical and holiday selections performed by renowned opera performer Eugene Brancoveanu.

Composers, Inc. announces the world premiere of a major new chamber opera MIDDLEMARCH IN SPRING by composer Allen Shearer and librettist Claudia Stevens, based on George Eliot's great romantic novel Middlemarch. The production will be featured as a part of the New Work series at Z Space in San Francisco, for four performances only, March 19-22, 2015.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic and Classical KUSC in partnership with WFMT Radio Network, have confirmed 150 markets nationwide will carry the annual radio broadcast concert series (a number that will grow throughout the coming year). The 2011 series was broadcast in 193 markets and reached over 2.6 million listeners.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic and Classical KUSC continue their annual radio broadcast partnership, which now reaches close to one million listeners. The 14 concerts, recorded during the LA Phil's 2011/12 season, feature the orchestra with an impressive roster of guest artists and conductors. The first broadcast presents Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 3, "Scottish" featuring LA Phil Music Director Gustavo Dudamel and violinist Janine Jansen, and airs locally on KUSC-FM 91.5 Los Angeles, Sunday, April 1, 2012, at 4 PM.

The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater, a celebration of Yiddish theater pioneers Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky by their grandson, Michael Tilson Thomas, Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, airs Thursday, March 29 at 8 p.m. (check local listings), on THIRTEEN's Great Performances.

Los Angeles Philharmonic Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale and soloists in the world premiere of the PROLOGUE TO ORANGO, Shostakovich's unfinished opera, at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Friday and Saturday, December 2 and 3, at 8 p.m., as well as Sunday, December 4, at 2 p.m. The satirical opera about a half-man, half-ape, was sketched in 1932, and discovered in 2006, at Moscow's Glinka Museum by Russian musicologist Olga Digonskaya. At the request of Shostakovich's widow and Digonskaya, British composer Gerard McBurney developed the orchestration of ORANGO in 2009.

'The Thomashefskys' were on stage again last night as Michael Tilson Thomas & the New York Philharmonic presented his acclaimed multi-media concert of the Music and Memories of Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky This years gala honored David and Sylvia Steiner as well as Tilson Thomas. Folksbiene is the sole surviving professional Yiddish Theatre in America and it preserves and adds to the legacy of Yiddish theatre, which flourished on Second Avenue and was domnated by Tilson Thomas's legendary grandparents ‘The Thomashefskys.'