Francesca Zambello News

Washington National Opera has released a statement on the AGMA report related to Placido Domingo.

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater has announced the company for August Wilson's Seven Guitars. Tazewell Thompson (Arena's Jubilee) will direct this Tony Award-nominated play. Set in 1940s Pittsburgh, seven lives are interconnected when old friend and blues singer Floyd Barton vows to turn his life around after a surprise windfall leaves him hopeful for a second chance.

OPERA America is pleased to announce the three pairs of protégés and mentors selected for the organization's Mentorship Program for Women, now in its third year. The Mentorship Program for Women provides a unique opportunity for promising opera company administrators to be paired with established industry leaders who can help them identify barriers to advancement and develop plans for professional growth. 

Washington National Opera's (WNO) 2020-2021 season offers an ambitious mix of sweeping political epics and intimate stories of interpersonal relationships, centered on human pursuits of justice, power, and love. Led by General Director Timothy O'Leary and Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, WNO announces the six mainstage titles in the 2020-2021 season: Fidelio, Nixon in China, Boris Godunov, Rigoletto, Così fan tutte, and La bohème.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced the company's 2020-2021 season. It features four mainstage productions, including The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, both of which are being performed on a Lyric Opera of Kansas City stage for the first time. Two all-time favorites known for incomparable melodies - Verdi's beloved La traviata and Bizet's passionate Carmen - round out the extraordinarily diverse season. The Kansas City Symphony Orchestra will accompany all performances at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Find biographies of the casts and creative teams at Lyric Opera of Kansas City and find high-resolution photos here.

The International Opera Awards today announced the finalists for its 2020 Awards [Wednesday 5 February 2020]. The annual red-carpet event - which celebrates achievement in opera around the globe over the 2019 calendar year - recognises excellence in a wide range of categories that cover performance, design and direction as well as education and outreach.

At the University of Arizona's Centennial Hall. on January 28, 2020, the Tucson Desert Song Festival presented Thomas Hampson, baritone, with Lara Downes, piano, and the Beyond Liberty Players: Stephen Buck, synthesizer; Judy Kang, violin; Jesus Morales, cello; and Alex Laing, clarinet; The show libretto was based on an original work by Royce Vavrek which first appeared in a Francesca Zambello production at the 2018 Glimmerglass Festival in upstate New York

LA Opera President and CEO Christopher Koelsch today announced the company's 35th season, which will include six mainstage productions a?" one of them a company premiere and five productions new to Los Angeles a?" and two concerts presented at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with additional performances presented in other venues through the company's Off Grand and Connects initiatives.

The Atlanta Opera has announced its 41st season. True to the vision of Tomer Zvulun, the company's Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. General & Artistic Director, the 2020-21 lineup boasts major new productions of three critically important works: Das Rheingold, one of the most iconic in the canon; The Sound of Music, one of the best-loved classics of musical theater; and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, one of contemporary opera's most palpable hits, now receiving its Southeast premiere. Together with the Atlanta premiere of As One, Steve Jobs is one of two topical and much talked-about new operas in Atlanta's award-winning Discoveries series, which breaks down barriers between artists and their audience by providing intimate, immersive experiences in nontraditional spaces.

OPERA America is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2020 National Opera Trustee Recognition Awards. Now in their 13th year, these awards honor outstanding trustees of U.S. opera companies for their exemplary leadership and generosity on behalf of their respective organizations. OPERA America's Professional Company Members are invited each year to nominate one of their trustees for this award. 

The Wallis and Mark Cortale present An Evening With Christine Ebersole on Friday, February 28, 2020, 7 pm, in the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts' Bram Goldsmith Theater. The two-time Tony Award-winning star of 42nd Street and Grey Gardens returns to The Wallis to perform music from the American Songbook, Broadway and more. With music direction by Lawrence Yurman and special guest Scott Frankel, composer of War Paint and Grey Gardens, the evening is directed by Scott Wittman (Hairspray, Smash, Patti LuPone on Broadway).

Houston Grand Opera has announced its 2020a?"21 season, featuring a repertoire of beloved classics, company premieres, and a much-anticipated world premiere. The 66th season opens with audience favorite Carmen. American mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard makes her HGO and role debut as Carmen in the revival of Rob Ashford's acclaimed 2014 production of Bizet's classic. She is joined by tenor Andrea Caré as Don José, bass-baritone Christian Pursell as Escamillo, and Anita Hartig as Micaela, all making their HGO debuts. The production will be conducted by HGO Principal Guest Conductor Eun Sun Kim.

Washington National Opera (WNO) will present the D.C. premiere of Tony Award®-winning composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tazewell Thompson's poignant new opera Blue, March 15-28, 2020, in the Eisenhower Theater. Blue -a WNO co-production-positions one of America's most pressing social issues at the center of the opera stage at the nation's performing arts center.

Skylight Music Theatre today announced the cast and creative team for The Gospel at Colonus running January 17-26, 2020 in the Cabot Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway, in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward.

Ballet, opera and musical theater director Daniel Pelzig helms the musical version of Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn, playing at Musical Theatre West. This is Pelzig's fourth production with MTW, after My Fair Lady in 2015, Mary Poppins in 2017 and The Little Mermaid earlier this year.

With three original stories-one set in the cramped Bronx apartment of a first-generation immigrant, one following a Beverly Hills family in hot water, and one tracking an eye-opening road trip from a 1958 Chicago neighborhood to Tennessee-Washington National Opera (WNO) presents the eighth season of its acclaimed American Opera Initiative (AOI) with three world premieres January 10, 2020, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Voting is NOW OPEN and the first votes are in for the 2019 BroadwayWorld Chicago Awards, brought to you by TodayTix! The nominees are set, and now you can vote to make sure your favorite local theatres and performers are recognized!

On Monday, October 28, Sing for Hope held its 13th annual Sing for Hope Gala, uniting New York's philanthropic and cultural leaders for a magical evening in support of the organization's programs and commitment to bring the arts to under-resourced areas. The event, co-chaired by Ann Ziff, Jon Batiste, and Muhammad Yunus, was held at celebrity chef Danny Meyer's acclaimed Bay Room event space.

Verdi's heart-wrenching romantic drama Luisa Miller returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago for the first time in more than three decades on Saturday, October 12 at 7:30pm. Enrique Mazzola, Lyric's music director designate, will be on the podium.

Verdi's heart-wrenching romantic drama follows a pair of star-crossed lovers who are driven apart by one man's selfish plot. The battle between passionate love and violent jealousy is set to thrilling, electrifying music.