As part of The Metropolitan Opera's (Met Opera) urgent “The Voice Must Be Heard” fundraising campaign to support and protect the future of opera amid the COVID-19, more than 40 leading opera artists and members of the company's brilliant orchestra and chorus performed from their respective homes all around the world. The unprecedented virtual gathering of Met Opera's principal artists, ensemble, and orchestra, billed as At-Home Gala, was streamed live around the world in 162 countries on 25 April 2020, viewed by more than 750,000 global audience members.
The Met has announced the Weeks 13 and 14 schedules for its Nightly Met Opera Streams, which feature the Met's acclaimed productions of Philip Glass's Akhnaten and Satyagraha, both available to the public for the first time on the Met's streaming platforms.
San Francisco Opera announced today that it will stream performances from its archives beginning Saturday, May 9, with Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele. Each streamed opera will be presented on Saturdays at 10 am Pacific time at sfopera.com and remain available until midnight the following day.
The 2020-21 Boston Symphony Orchestra season, September 16-May 1, has been specially programmed to offer the BSO's most devoted audiences and newcomers alike a fascinating and wide-ranging spectrum of musical styles and periodsa?"awe-inspiring works with an extraordinary potential to move us through their thrilling beauty, power, and brilliance.
Now that the Metropolitan Opera has had a major success with its At-Home Gala, there are other opera companies with similar ideas. The Florence May Festival, (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), will offer its presentation on Friday, May 1, 2020, at noon. P.D.T. Since many opera lovers are working from home, the audience should be enormous.
On April 25, 2020, The Metropolitan Opera presented many of its top ranked artists performing from their homes or where they were staying on that date. Met General Manager Peter Gelb, the master of ceremonies, chatted with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin as they presented each performer. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, artists were recorded alone or with people they know well.
In the midst of this COVID-19 crisis that is gripping the world--and keeping so many people in quarantine--the Metropolitan Opera managed to pull off a brilliantly executed music coup. It connected stars, chorus members and orchestral musicians in an “At-Home Gala”--a combination fund-raiser for the Met with wonderful entertainment. And the technology worked!
For all you lovelorn, “live opera”-lovers, the Met is coming to the rescue from COVID-19 this afternoon, Saturday April 25, at 1pm New York time, with a gala concert featuring over 40 artists performing direct from their homes around the world.
The Met has announced the Week 7 schedule for its Nightly Met Opera Streams, a free series of encore Live in HD presentations streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure.
Today, the Metropolitan Opera announced its 2020-21 season, the first in which Yannick Nézet-Séguin assumes his full breadth of musical duties as the company's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, conducting six productions. His schedule includes the Met premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, the first contemporary opera conducted by the maestro on the Met stage, as part of his ongoing commitment to opera of our time at the Met, which will expand in the seasons to come.
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.
In the video below watch The Met Orchestra, Chorus, and Children's Chorus perform an excerpt from the choral finale in the final dress rehearsal. Conductor: Edward Gardner.
Saturday afternoon saw the return of Berlioz's DAMNATION OF FAUST to the Met, not seen there since 2009. Because of logistical considerations it was mounted in concert form on the stage rather than in Robert Lepage's previous staging. The concert style proved to be an extremely effective format for what Berlioz called a 'legende dramatique', a work that did not neatly fit into either the opera or oratorio category.
On Sunday, February 9 at 2:00 p.m., beloved Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel returns to Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage for a recital featuring works by Ireland, Quilter, Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, selections from Vaughan Williams's Songs of Travel as well as additional selections to be announced from the stage. He is joined by pianist Natalia Katyukova. This concert marks his first recital at Carnegie Hall in ten years; for his complete performance history please click here. The full program is listed below.