James Darrah News

Opera Philadelphia's adaptation of Lars von Trier's searing, Oscar-nominated 1996 film Breaking the Waves made its world premiere in September 2016. It has since earned the Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA)'s inaugural Best New Opera Award, an International Opera Award nomination for Best World Premiere.

While acknowledging that the landscape for future performing arts events is currently uncertain, Long Beach Opera is forging ahead with plans for its 2021 a?oeSeason of Solidaritya?? beginning in January. Both LBO and Interim Artistic Advisor Yuval Sharon believe that collaboration and creative thinking will be the key to returning to performing arts activities, and understand that adaptability may be necessary to return to the important work of connecting individuals and communities through live, in-person artistic expression.

Week 4 of Opera Philadelphia's Digital Festival O features the broadcast premiere of the 2018 chamber opera Sky on Swings, premiering on Friday, May 22, at 8:00 p.m. on YouTube and operaphila.org. Following Friday's digital opening night, the 2018 production will stream on-demand through Monday, August 31.

If you are still unable to get to the barber, Opera Philadelphia can at least bring a Barber to you! Week 3 of the company's Digital Festival O features a broadcast of Rossini's comic masterpiece The Barber of Seville, premiering on Friday, May 15, at 8:00 p.m. on YouTube and operaphila.org. Following Friday's digital opening night, the 2014 production will stream on-demand through Monday, June 29.

General Director Robert K. Meya today announced the cancellation of the Santa Fe Opera's 2020 Season scheduled to open on July 3 and run through August 29. The cancellation is a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of nonessential businesses, constraints on public gatherings and restriction of both domestic and international travel. These precautions, taken to protect public health and safety, have impacted the opera's ability to fully prepare and safely gather for its 64th Festival Season. 

Over the last five years, Opera Philadelphia has presented an impressive group of new operas it has commissioned, along with some classics from the standard rep. Starting tomorrow, we'll get a look at some of the best of them, with the company's Digital Festival running through May 29, available on YouTube and the company's website.

Over the past five years, Opera Philadelphia has presented no fewer than nine world premieres, scoring multiple awards and winning international audience and critical recognition. Now that the 2019-20 season has been cut short by the need for social distancing, the company is extending its season online with Digital Festival O.

UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) will present Jennifer Koh & Davóne Tines' Everything That Rises Must Converge on Friday, Apr 17, 2020 at 8 p.m. at Royce Hall. Tickets starting at $28 are available now at cap.ucla.edu, 310-825-2101 and the Royce Hall box office.

This winter, Trinity Church Wall Street's  program of ambitious musical offerings in lower Manhattan sees the return of the audience favorite Bach + One concert series, which will crown its season in the spring with a performance of three of Bach's cantatas at the Leipzig Bach Festival. Director of Music Julian Wachner has also just been announced as one of three finalists to become the next Artistic Director of the storied Oregon Bach Festival. On the heels of last August's release of Ellen Reid's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera p r i s m on the Decca Gold label, with Wachner leading The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity's in-house contemporary orchestra, NOVUS NY, the same forces reunite for the Washington D.C. premiere of the opera in the Kennedy Center's DIRECT CURRENT festival.

A season filled with thrilling music, captivating stories, world-class singers, and exciting productions goes on sale by subscription Thursday, February 13. Eight new-to-Chicago productions, including three Lyric premieres plus two original Lyric productions, will entertain and thrill audiences from September 2020 through June 2021.

Opera Omaha announces its third annual ONE FESTIVAL. The ONE Festival is a place for wild dreams, wilder execution, and exploration of those ideas on a grand scale. Programming is driven by the artists, not the executives. With an emphasis on experimentation and new worka?'yet not tethered to premieresa?'ONE fosters an environment that encourages and celebrates bold risks and transformative storytelling. At a glance, one might assume this is happening in NYC or LA; but this opera hothouse sizzles in the dead center of our country, far from the coasts. 

The works of Dai Fujikura are performed with regularity by conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel and by some of the most acclaimed orchestras and ensembles in the world.

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.

This year's edition of PROTOTYPE, which refers to itself as 'Opera-Theatre-Now,' has come and gone. You never know what to expect, for better or for worse: Try guessing what's going to be 'the next big thing' at your own peril, even if it has played somewhere else first, for they things might not be what you expected at all.

Opera Omaha has an outstanding 2020/2021 Season in store, filled with exhilarating productions and remarkable artists. We look forward to numerous exciting debuts as well as the return of some of Omaha's favorite artists who will thrill us once again.

'The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.' And so ends the Book of Revelation, with Chapter 22, in the New Testament...or does it? In speaking with creator-librettist Cerise Lim Jacobs, I find someone who clearly believes that too much is never enough. Thus, she decided that there was room for one more chapter after the Apocalypse of Revelation 22: REV. 23, an opera making its New York debut at the Prototype Festival 2020.

Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and Trinity Church Wall Street (Trinity), together with PROTOTYPE: Opera|Theatre|Now, are pleased to announce a multiyear partnership in which BMP and Trinity will commission and produce five cutting-edge new opera-theater works for premiere at the PROTOTYPE Festival over three seasons (2021a?"2023). These comprise a new work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer-director team Du Yun and Michael McQuilken; two new works by librettist Royce Vavrek, paired with Mary Kouyoumdjian and Julian Wachner, respectively; a work by composer Ted Hearne with text by Halim Flowers and rap from Momolu Stewart; and a work by Paola Prestini with poet Brenda Shaughnessy.

This winter, Trinity Church Wall Street co-produces the New York premiere of REV. 23, the latest opera by its own Director of Music Julian Wachner, along with the cutting-edge Prototype Festival and Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Performances take place at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater in Manhattan, on January 17 at 8pm and January 18 at 3pm and 8pm. Composed to an audacious, satirical libretto by Cerise Jacobs, founder of the Boston-based activist opera company White Snake Projects, which commissioned the work, REV. 23 explores an a?oeunpublisheda?? new chapter of the Book of Revelation. Los Angeles-based director James Darrah creates a striking new production for this New York premiere, leading the audience on a fantastical journey through the myths of the collective unconscious. Noted conductor Daniela Candillari leads Trinity's in-house contemporary orchestra, NOVUS NY.

Following a chorus of critical praise for creator and librettist Cerise Jacobs and composer Jorge Sosa's immigrant-themed opera, I Am a Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams, Jacobs's opera REV. 23, composed by Julian Wachner, will receive its New York premiere in new production by Los Angeles-based director James Darrah at the 2020 Prototype Festival (Jan 17-18).

Opera Atelier's 2019/20 Season opens with their ground-breaking period production of Don Giovanni from October 31a?"November 9, 2019 at the Ed Mirvish Theatre. This is the first time Opera Atelier's acclaimed production has been remounted for Toronto audiences since its 2011 premiere. Don Giovanni features Douglas Williams as Don Giovanni, Colin Ainsworth as Don Ottavio, Gustav Andreassen as the Commendatore, Mireille Asselin as Zerlina, Stephen Hegedus as Leporello, Carla Huhtanen as Donna Elvira, Olivier Laquerre as Masetto, and Meghan Lindsay as Donna Anna.