James Darrah News

Gibney Company has announced its summer 2022 season in New York City with a program of three world premieres by internationally recognized choreographers Rena Butler, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, and Yin Yue at New York Live Arts, June 14 through 18.

The 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards featured a tribute to Stephen Sondheim, a win for Barlow and Bear's 'Unofficial Bridgerton Musical,' Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett for their 'Love For Sale' Cole Porter duets album, Olivia Rodrigo, and more. Check out the full list of winners now!

The Music Academy of the West looks boldly to the future in this milestone year. Programming has expanded year-round for community, fellows, and alumni. Classically trained musicians are provided opportunities to unleash their creativity and connect with audiences onstage and offstage.

Lyric Opera of Chicago today announced the company’s 2022/23 Season, featuring productions of classic operas, a continuing long-term focus on developing and presenting new work, plus the return of Lyric’s annual spring musical.

Lyric Opera of Chicago will present the acclaimed chamber opera by the award-winning team of composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek: Proving Up, performed at the Goodman’s Owen Theatre, January 22–30, 2022.

In La Voix Humaine, soprano Patricia Racette is enthralling as she engages with each twist and turn of the score as though it is an emotional punch. She created this role in several cities and in each she has pulled the audience into the immediacy of Elle’s predicament. The 40-minute musical work gives the soprano a wide range for expression.

Verdi’s Il Trovatore can be seen live online on Sunday, October 3 at 2:00 pm or on Wednesday, October 6 at 7:30 pm live streamed directly from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Streamed live, they will not be able to be re-visited. Access to these performances is $30.00, available by clicking on the link below.   LINK https://www.laopera.org/performances/2122-season-page/il-trovatore-3/

Music Academy of the West presents 'Mirrorflores.' Produced by Vocal Institute Creative Director James Darrah, starring Academy 2021 Vocal Institute fellows.

Long Beach Opera has announced an audacious 2022 season that seeks to usher in a new era for the company. In addition to the recent announcements of James Darrah as Artistic Director and Derrell Acon as Associate Artistic Director, LBO has announced the appointment of conductor Christopher Rountree as its new Music Director, beginning immediately. 

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Artistic Advisor Derrick Skye has been honored with the prestigious 2021 Princess Grace Award Honoraria in theater.

There are a number of parallels between the two operas I saw in Santa Fe (NM) this past weekend: The Benjamin Britten/Peter Pears treatment of Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and the world premiere of the John Corigliano/Mark Adamo THE LORD OF CRIES. The first was, for me at least, an all-around, marvelous success, while the other was a disappointment.

This fall, the star soprano takes her acclaimed interpretation of Elle from the stage to the screen in a new film adaptation of the French monodrama, streaming on the Opera Philadelphia Channel beginning on Friday, September 24.

The role of Elle, the lone character in Francis Poulenc's La voix humaine, has been called a true tour de force for Patricia Racette, who has brought her characterization of the one-act opera to life in productions in Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, and other cities over the past five years.

The Santa Fe Opera announces the following casting updates for the 2021 Season opening on July 10 and running through August 27: Laurie Feldman will direct The Marriage of Figaro after a concept by French Director Laurent Pelly, who is unable to travel to Santa Fe due to international travel restrictions and has therefore been following rehearsals and the progress of the production from France.

Desert in, created by Darrah and collaborators, is a groundbreaking, eight-part operatic mini-series full of colorful and mysterious characters who populate a supernatural story of love, loss and the price of memories we struggle to keep.

Long Beach Opera announced today that the company is promoting Dr. Derrell Acon to the position of Associate Artistic Director & Chief Impact Officer effective immediately. Dr. Acon has served as the company's Director of Engagement and Equity since 2019, as well as performing the role of Antron McCray in the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera The Central Park Five, and curating and managing the Community Conversations Initiative.

Operabox.tv, the new streaming service from Boston Lyric Opera, released today a clip of Tony-nominated trans activist and multi-hyphenate star Justin Vivian Bond singing 'My Boy,' a centerpiece song by Grammy-winning jazz musician Vijay Iyer in the new, queer-centered operatic streaming series, 'desert in.'

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concludes its critically acclaimed CLOSE QUARTERS interdisciplinary digital series melding musical and visual arts with a joyous and optimistic episode featuring Tchaikovsky's enduring masterpiece Serenade for Strings laced with a poignant visual tone poem that reflects the diverse artistic family that LACO built through the series and chronicles Los Angeles' emergence from the global pandemic.

After the successful reimagining of its 2020/21 Season, Lyric Opera of Chicago greatly looks forward to welcoming audiences once again to the Lyric Opera House this fall for the start of the company’s 67th Season. 

New film adaptations of Poulenc's La voix humaine starring Patricia Racette and Henze's El Cimarron starring Sir Willard White presented alongside an Academy of Music production of Verdi's Rigoletto and a Verizon Hall concert pairing Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex with George Walker's Lilacs