Francesca Zambello News

San Francisco Opera partners again with Sundance Kabuki Cinemas to present the latest installment of the San Francisco Opera Grand Opera Cinema Series for winter 2016.

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2016 National Opera Trustee Recognition Awards. Now in its ninth year, these awards honor outstanding trustees of U.S. opera companies for their exemplary leadership, generosity and audience-building efforts on behalf of their respective opera companies.

The Dallas Opera is proud to announce its spectacular 2016-2017 Season, consisting of five brilliant mainstage productions, including two repertoire classics never before performed by this company. 

San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley and Music Director Nicola Luisotti today announced the Company's 2016–17 Season repertory and roster of international guest artists, conductors and creative teams scheduled to appear at the War Memorial Opera House, as well as initial programming for SF Opera Lab 2017 presentations at the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera's Taube Atrium Theater. The Company's 94th Season will also mark Matthew Shilvock's inaugural year as San Francisco Opera's new general director, succeeding his mentor and internationally respected impresario, David Gockley, who will step down on July 31, 2016.

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 60th anniversary season with the company premiere of Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's LOST IN THE STARS, February 12-20 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater.

The Washington National Opera has always been a champion for young artists, both on stage and off. The WNO's American Opera Initiative's premier production of Better Gods is a testimony to that. Composed with ethnical truth by Luna Pearl Woolf, Better Gods is a stirring portrait of a determined Queen who must decide whether she should give up her crown or her soul.

(WASHINGTON)—Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced complete details and casting for the fourth season of the American Opera Initiative, its comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. Three pairings of new opera composers and librettists— Sarah Hutchings and Mark Sonnenblick (Twenty Minutes or Less), David Clay Mettens and Joshua McGuire (Alexandra), and Christopher Weiss and John de los Santos (Service Provider)—will premiere new one-act operas, each based on a contemporary American story, in semi-staged concert performances on December 2, 2015 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. The 7 p.m. performance is sold out; a second performance at 9 p.m. has just been added to accommodate demand.

Better Gods, a new opera by composer Luna Pearl Woolf, will have its world premiere at the Kennedy Center on January 8 and 9 presented by Washington National Opera, Francesca Zambello, Artistic Director. The story of the last queen of Hawaii and the fall of the Hawaiian monarchy, with a libretto by Caitlin Vincent, the one-hour opera is part of WSO's ambitious American Opera Initiative.  The music of Luna Pearl Woolf, praised for its “psychological nuances and emotional depth,” by The New York Times, is also featured on several new recordings and is the focus of major composer portraits in Washington, DC and in Montreal in 2016.

Fiddlehead Theatre Company announces the addition of 2 matinee performances during the company's production of Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID from November 27-December 6, 2015 at the Strand Theatre (543 Columbia Rd, Dorchester, MA 02125). 

Over the summer, the Glimmerglass Festival presented Bernstein's take on Candide. As philosophical as it is satirical, the productiontransports Voltaire's novella and its Enlightenment-era ideas to the stage, and features classic tunes such as 'The Best of All Possible Worlds,' 'Glitter and Be Gay' and 'Make our Garden Grow.' WQXR just featured the show as a part of its Saturday at the Opera series, and you can check out audio of the broadcast below!

San Francisco Opera today announced new details of its soon-to-be-completed $21 million renovation of 38,000 square feet in the Veterans Building's fourth floor and basement named the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera. Adjacent to the War Memorial Opera House, the Wilsey Center for Opera is scheduled to open in late February 2016, and consolidates most of the Company's operations into a single campus in the vibrant and emerging arts district of San Francisco's Civic Center. The 1932 Beaux Arts-designed Veterans Building recently reopened in September following a 26-month, City-financed $156 million seismic retrofit and renovation of the historic Herbst Theatre, Green Room, meeting rooms, offices and corridors throughout the first three floors.

(WASHINGTON)-Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced complete details and casting for the fourth season of the American Opera Initiative, its comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. Three pairings of new opera composers and librettists- Sarah Hutchings and Mark Sonnenblick (Twenty Minutes or Less), David Clay Mettens and Joshua McGuire (Alexandra), and Christopher Weiss and John de los Santos (Service Provider)-will premiere new one-act operas, each based on a contemporary American story, in semi-staged concert performances on December 2, 2015 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. The 7 p.m. performance is sold out; a second performance at 9 p.m. has just been added to accommodate demand.

The Glimmerglass Festival, which presents four mainstage productions of opera and musical theater every summer, rounds out each season with a schedule of guest appearances, concerts, public master classes, youth opera performances and more.

The Glimmerglass Festival, which presents four mainstage productions of opera and musical theater every summer, rounds out each season with a schedule of guest appearances, concerts, public master classes, youth opera performances and more.

Fiddlehead Theatre Company announces the addition of 2 matinee performances during the company's production of Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID from November 27-December 6, 2015 at the Strand Theatre (543 Columbia Rd, Dorchester, MA 02125). 

The multi-platinum, JUNO Award-winning band The Tenors have been thrilling audiences around the world with their powerful voices and memorable melodies. Blending classical music and contemporary pop, the vocal supergroup has achieved international success, showcasing their undeniable charm and diverse vocal styles in their newest release, Under One Sky (June, 2015). The music of Clifton Murray, Victor Micallef, Remigio Pereira, and Fraser Walters is rich and soulful with powerful anthems, classic covers, and songs written and co-written by The Tenors themselves.

MasterVoices will hold its Fall Gala and Concert, featuring the THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE; OR, THE SLAVE OF DUTY at Le Parker Meridian and the New York City Center tonight, October 15, 2015.

MasterVoices will hold its Fall Gala and Concert, featuring the THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE; OR, THE SLAVE OF DUTY at Le Parker Meridian and the New York City Center on October 15, 2015.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City continues its 58th season with a Lyric Opera Premiere production of Anton Dvo?ák's rarely performed opera Rusalka, November 7, 11, 13 and 15  at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The production will be sung in Czech with English titles. This is not only the first Dvo?ák opera produced by the Lyric Opera of Kansas City but the first Czech opera for the Company and Kansas City audiences.The production, directed by Academy-Award winning director Eric Simonson, will feature members of the Kansas City Symphony under the baton of Alexander Polianichko and a unique partnership with members of the Kansas City Ballet. One of the highlights of this lush production will be the spectacular lighting and video projections. 

The multi-platinum, JUNO Award-winning band The Tenors have been thrilling audiences around the world with their powerful voices and memorable melodies. Blending classical music and contemporary pop, the vocal supergroup has achieved international success, showcasing their undeniable charm and diverse vocal styles in their newest release, Under One Sky (June, 2015). The music of Clifton Murray, Victor Micallef, Remigio Pereira, and Fraser Walters is rich and soulful with powerful anthems, classic covers, and songs written and co-written by The Tenors themselves.