Jack Swanson News

Daniela Mack is Isabella, an Italian pilot, who makes an emergency landing in Algiers and is captured by its ruler, the Bey. He wants an Italian girl for a wife but she loves Lindoro, the Bey's Italian slave. L'ITALIANA has lots of good bel canto singing and plenty of comedy to keep you smiling all evening. There are three more performances, Aug 3, 9 and 17.

Portland Opera is pleased to announce programming for the company's 55th season, scheduled to begin in November 2018. The season will launch with the recently announced "November classic" - Verdi's heartbreaking romance La Traviata - bringing opera back to Portland in the fall months. In March, Portland Opera will present Laura Kaminsky's brave and beautiful coming-of-age story, As One, where two voices, a mezzo-soprano and a baritone, share the role of the transgender heroine Hannah. The season will continue in the spring with the company's annual Big Night concert and a bright and vibrant production of Rossini's great Il Barbiere di Siviglia. In July, the company will present Mozart's La Finta Giardiniera for the first time, followed by the company premiere of Philip Glass's exploration of the nature of justice, In the Penal Colony, based on Franz Kafka's short story.

Lyric Opera's production of 'The Barber of Seville' or 'The Useless Precaution' by Rossini opened Saturday evening at the Kauffman Center in the first of four performances. As is usual for the Lyric, this 'Barber' is slyly updated from the original 1816 version first performed in Rome.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation announced today that Christian Van Horn – “one of those treasurable singers in whose presence one can entirely relax, assured that everything he does will be delivered with solid interpretive insight and unfailingly attractive tone” (Opera News) – has been named as the winner of the 2018 Richard Tucker Award.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City concludes its 2017- 2018 season with Rossini's comedic jewel, The Barber of Seville, April 28; May 2, 4, and 6 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The production will be sung in Italian with English subtitles. High-resolution production and artists' photos can be downloaded here.

General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced the final performance in 2017-2018 Lyric Opera's ExplorationsSeries. The company will close the second season of this new and innovative series with American Voices on Saturday, March 24 with a 7:30 p.m. performance in the Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building. Continuing the theme of featuring eclectic performances in intimate spaces, this recital will feature Lyric Opera's Resident Artists performing art songs by prominent American composers, past and present.

LA Opera will present its premiere of Candide, Leonard Bernstein's 1956 musical comedy classic. Music Director James Conlon will conduct a cast led by Emmy winner Kelsey Grammer and Tony winner Christine Ebersole, both making their company debuts. Performances take place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90012).

Due to ticket demand, LA Opera has scheduled an additional matinee performance of Candide, Leonard Bernstein's 1956 Broadway classic. The added performance will take place on Saturday, February 17, at 2pm.

On January 27, 2018, Los Angeles Opera presented the Bernstein work at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with a cast that included Emmy-winning television star Kelsey Grammer. He is best remembered for his two-decade-long portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the situation comedies Cheers, Wings, and Frasier. As Voltaire and Pangloss, Grammer had a huge speaking role that he acquitted with a commanding personality and considerable wit. Surprisingly, he sang quite well, too.

From the moment the amazing James Conlon-conducted orchestra began their crisp, lively 'Overture' to 'Quartet Finale,' the close of Act One; this remarkable production of CANDIDE entranced the Dorothy Chandler audience. Then after a short intermission, these talented performers and musicians had the audience right back in the palms of their skilled hands, beyond the tears-inducing finale 'Make Our Garden Grow,' to the extended and most deserved standing ovation for the cast, orchestra, and creatives.

General Director Pl cido Domingo has announced final details about LA Opera's company premiere of Candide, Leonard Bernstein's 1956 musical comedy classic. Music Director James Conlon will conduct a cast led by Emmy winner Kelsey Grammer and Tony winner Christine Ebersole, both making their company debuts. Performances take place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90012).

Broadway legend Christine Ebersole will make her LA Opera debut in the company's 2018 production of Candide, composer Leonard Bernstein's 1956 Broadway classic.

General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler has announced the selection of the artists for the Resident Artists Program for the 2017-2018 season.

Well, no one can accuse Mostly Mozart of being in a rut. Even though the name of this season's first program, “The Singing Heart,” under Music director Louis Langree (heard on the 26th), is not so different from last year's opener, “The Illuminated Heart,” the two evenings couldn't have been more different. They did have one thing in common: They were both wonderful.

Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival , one of New York's premier summer performance series, kicks off its 51st season on July 25. Among the highlights in the first two weeks are a special opening concert led by Louis Langrée, Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director, featuring traditional and indigenous songs from Mozart's time; a choral presentation by Les Arts Florissants; and guest conductors Edward Gardner and Gianandrea Noseda; festival debuts by more than 10 artists, including Kit Armstrong, Janai Brugger, Jennifer Johnson Cano, S? Percussion, Beatrice Rana, Ksenija Sidorova, and the Young People's Chorus of New York City; and the New York premiere of David Lang's concerto for percussion, man made. A complete listing of events from July 25 through August 6 follows.

Broadway star Bernadette Peters, who currently appears in the Amazon hit show Mozart in the Jungle, will host the opening-night presentation of the Mostly Mozart Festival, The Singing Heart, on Tuesday, July 25, at 8:00 pm. Ms. Peters, a three-time Tony Award winner, will introduce this program, which celebrates the sense of optimism that emerged during Mozart's time, embodied in the composer's music and that of his contemporaries. The performance also features Renee and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langree leading the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, pianist Kit Armstrong, the Young People's Chorus of New York City , and soloists who join together for Beethoven's rousing Choral Fantasy.

Classic and contemporary, opera and orchestral, the music doesn't stop when the temperatures climb in New York, whether you're in New York City, or ready to travel to one of the festivals that dot the landscape of the Northeast. Musical life doesn't stop when the Met closes its doors: Here's a look “from here to eternity”…in the first part of our series on summertime's opera/vocal venues, covering New York City and Westchester.

Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival , one of New York's premier summer performance series, kicks off its 51st season on July 25. Among the highlights in the first two weeks are a special opening concert led by Louis Langrée, Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director, featuring traditional and indigenous songs from Mozart's time; a choral presentation by Les Arts Florissants; and guest conductors Edward Gardner and Gianandrea Noseda; festival debuts by more than 10 artists, including Kit Armstrong, Janai Brugger, Jennifer Johnson Cano, S? Percussion, Beatrice Rana, Ksenija Sidorova, and the Young People's Chorus of New York City; and the New York premiere of David Lang's concerto for percussion, man made. A complete listing of events from July 25 through August 6 follows.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City General Director Deborah Sandler today announced that the organization has been awarded an Art Works award of $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts in support of the Lyric Opera's 2017 production of Everest by composer Joby Talbot and librettist Gene Scheer, the second production of this important new work since its world premiere at The Dallas Opera in 2015.

Kelsey Grammer will make his LA Opera debut in the company's 2018 production of Candide, composer Leonard Bernstein's 1956 Broadway classic.