Francesca Zambello News

Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, announced today that the company will present a new production of Richard Wagner's monumental four-opera masterpiece, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) starting in 2016-17.

General Director Plácido Domingo announced LA Opera's 2014/15 season, created in collaboration with Music Director James Conlon and President and CEO Christopher Koelsch. The upcoming season will include six mainstage productions, with 41 performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Additional performances will take place in other venues through an expansion of the Company's Off Grand initiative. The season will open on September 13, 2014, and will run through June 14, 2015.

General Director Plácido Domingo announced LA Opera's 2014/15 season, created in collaboration with Music Director James Conlon and President and CEO Christopher Koelsch. The upcoming season will include six mainstage productions, with 41 performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Additional performances will take place in other venues through an expansion of the Company's Off Grand initiative. The season will open on September 13, 2014, and will run through June 14, 2015.

Queens Theatre (QT), in conjunction with the acclaimed Aquila Theatre, presents William Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, an innovative and exciting new production directed by Aquila Theatre Artistic Director, Desiree Sanchez (BAM's Herakles). TWELFTH NIGHT will play 4 performances only at Queens Theatre (14 United Nations Avenue South, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NY 11368). Performances are Friday, February 14, 2014 at 2pm, Saturday, February 15, 2014 at 2pm and 8pm, and Sunday, February 16, 2014 at 3pm. Tickets are $42 for Friday?s performance and $49 for Saturday and Sunday performances; Rear seating $25 (for all performances). Tickets are available online at www.queenstheatre.org/shakespeares-twelfth-night or by calling the Box Office at 718-760-0064. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the Queens Theatre Box Office, Monday 10am to 2pm, Wednesday through Sunday 10am to 6pm. (Senior discount available, $20 student rush tickets available day of).

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2013-2014 season with the east coast premiere of the new American opera Moby-Dick, February 22 to March 8 in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Written by composer Jake Heggie and featuring an English- language libretto by Gene Scheer based on Herman Melville's 19th-century literary classic, Moby-Dick sweeps audiences straight out to the high seas with its massive nautical sets and dazzling multimedia visual effects, in what is perhaps the most technically challenging opera WNO has ever mounted. Renowned American director Leonard Foglia leads a talented all- American cast in performances conducted by Evan Rogister, a dynamic young American maestro making his WNO debut.

The Atlanta Opera continues its 2013-2014 season with a production of Charles-François Gounod's grand opera Faust. The opera will be presented on March 8, 11, 14, and 16 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, and will be dedicated to Atlanta Opera Chorus Master Walter Huff in honor of his 25th anniversary with the company. Single tickets, ranging from $26-$133, can be purchased online at atlantaopera.org, or by calling 404-881-8885. Two-opera season ticket packages, which include Faust and the upcoming production of The Barber of Seville, are also available, offering patrons premium seating at discounted prices.

Whether massive festivals, unique productions, or simply an amazing take on a classic we all know well, the DC arts community rose to the challenge this year and offered something pretty great for everyone.

Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor David Hyde Pierce will take a star turn together when they co-host the Ninth Annual Opera News Awards, set to take place on Sunday, April 13, 2014, in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza Hotel in New York City. They will be joined by a distinguished line-up of presenters – Luca Pisaroni, Susan Graham, Renata Scotto, Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Francesca Zambello – who will pay tribute to five superb artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: the late director Patrice Chéreau, tenor Juan Diego Flórez, mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig,bass-baritone James Morris, and soprano Nina Stemme. First introduced in 2005, the Opera News Awards gala dinner, which features the hosts and presenters speaking about the awardees and introducing video performance clips, has become one of the most anticipated opera events of the season: an evening of celebration, appreciation, reuniting and celebrity-spotting that is without parallel in the industry.

Fun for the whole family, this is a solid offering by the Washington National Opera.

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2013-2014 season with the world premiere of a new holiday family opera: The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me, today, December 14-22 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2013-2014 season with the world premiere of a new holiday family opera: The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me, today, December 14-22 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

David M. Rubenstein, Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, today announced the selection of Deborah F. Rutter as the next Kennedy Center president. Ms. Rutter currently serves as the President of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and will assume her Kennedy Center duties on September 1, 2014. She will serve as the Kennedy Center's third president, following Michael M. Kaiser who will step down from the position on August 31, 2014.

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2013-2014 season with the world premiere of a new holiday family opera: The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me, December 14-22 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Check out the costume sketches by Erik Teague below!

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2013-2014 season with the world premiere of a new holiday family opera: The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me, December 14-22 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Check out a behind-the-scenes look below!

Conductor James Conlon, Music Director of LA Opera, will lead a series of Britten performances across the Southland as part of the Britten 100/LA celebration, in commemoration of the 2013 Benjamin Britten centenary.

Conductor James Conlon, Music Director of LA Opera, will lead a series of Britten performances across the Southland as part of the Britten 100/LA celebration, in commemoration of the 2013 Benjamin Britten centenary.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. – Since the appointment of Artistic & General Director Francesca Zambello in 2010, The Glimmerglass Festival has grown the number of events presented during its summer season, with concerts, lectures, question-and-answer sessions and more supplementing its core calendar of four mainstage productions.

As the Associated Press observes, Deborah Voigt boasts 'a stage presence that radiates an endearing charm.' This fall, the superstar soprano returns to Boston's Celebrity Series with two performances of Voigt Lessons at the Calderwood Pavilion on Thursday, November 21 and Friday, November 22, with Kevin Stites on piano. An intimate one-woman show, Voigt Lessons was developed in working sessions with award-winning playwright Terrence McNally and director Francesca Zambello at the famed MacDowell Colony, and takes the leading dramatic soprano's life and career as the basis for a revealing script that incorporates 18 songs and arias of special importance to her. At its premiere at the 2011 Glimmerglass Festival, Voigt Lessons impressed the New York Times as 'chatty, witty, and sometimes painfully poignant,' while Toronto's Globe and Mail pronounced it 'an absolute gem.'

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2013-2014 season with the world premiere of a new holiday family opera: The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me, December 14-22 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Conductor James Conlon, Music Director of LA Opera, will lead a series of Britten performances across the Southland as part of the Britten 100/LA celebration, in commemoration of the 2013 Benjamin Britten centenary.