Janai Brugger News

Rafael Davila will sing the role of Don Jose in the January 31 and February 3 performances of Bizet's Carmen, replacing the originally scheduled Marcelo Álvarez, who is ill.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced that countertenor John Holiday is the 2017 winner of the Marian Anderson Vocal Award.

Chicago's Grant Park Music Festival Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar today announced a rich array of programming for the Festival's 2017 season, including a world premiere commission by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Aaron Jay Kernis.

ontinuing a tradition inaugurated in 2006, the Met offers a holiday presentation sung in English for families this December and January. This year's production, Mozart's The Magic Flute, opens December 20 and includes reduced ticket prices.

ontinuing a tradition inaugurated in 2006, the Met offers a holiday presentation sung in English for families this December and January. This year's production, Mozart's The Magic Flute, opens December 20 and includes reduced ticket prices.

Always looking for new worlds to conquer, Gioachino Rossini wrote GUILLAUME TELL in French, as Paris became the center of the opera world. Despite his successes there, this was to be his operatic swan song, a story glorifying a revolutionary character--with a message that resonated, loud and strong, at the performance the night after the troubling American election.

A new production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell, the composer's final opera, will open at the Met on October 18 in the first company performances of the ambitious historical epic in more than 80 years-and its first-ever Met performances in its original French. The new staging is directed by Pierre Audi, the incoming Artistic Director of the Park Avenue Armory and conducted by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi. Rossini's opera tells the story of a Swiss revolutionary on a quest for freedom. Its famous "William Tell Overture" is one of the best-known and most performed pieces in the standard classical repertory, though the opera, which makes considerable demands on its stars, orchestra, and chorus, has rarely been presented in modern times. Gerald Finley will star in the title role, which he has made a specialty of in recent seasons, with Marina Rebeka as the Princess Mathilde;  Bryan Hymel as her suitor Arnold; Maria Zifchak as Tell's wife Hedwige; Janai Brugger as their son Jemmy; Italian bass Marco Spotti in his Met debut as Walter Furst; Kwangchul Youn as Arnold's father Melcthal; and John Relyea as Gesler. 

A new production of Rossini's Guillaume Tell, the composer's final opera, will open at the Met on October 18 in the first company performances of the ambitious historical epic in more than 80 years-and its first-ever Met performances in its original French. The new staging is directed by Pierre Audi, the incoming Artistic Director of the Park Avenue Armory and conducted by Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi. Rossini's opera tells the story of a Swiss revolutionary on a quest for freedom. Its famous "William Tell Overture" is one of the best-known and most performed pieces in the standard classical repertory, though the opera, which makes considerable demands on its stars, orchestra, and chorus, has rarely been presented in modern times. Gerald Finley will star in the title role, which he has made a specialty of in recent seasons, with Marina Rebeka as the Princess Mathilde;  Bryan Hymel as her suitor Arnold; Maria Zifchak as Tell's wife Hedwige; Janai Brugger as their son Jemmy; Italian bass Marco Spotti in his Met debut as Walter Furst; Kwangchul Youn as Arnold's father Melcthal; and John Relyea as Gesler. 

Marianna Pizzolato will make her Met debut as Isabella, the title character in L'Italiana in Algeri, which she now sings in all performances of Rossini's comedy at the Met this season. The Italian mezzo-soprano replaces Elizabeth DeShong, who has withdrawn from the run due to illness.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Washington National Opera seek nominations for the 2017 Marian Anderson Vocal Award, which celebrates excellence in performance by recognizing a young American singer who has achieved initial professional success in the area of opera, oratorio, or recital repertory, and who exhibits promise for a significant career.

The Metropolitan Opera has just announced a cast change advisory. Janai Brugger will sing the role of Pamina in the December 20, 23, 26, 30 matinee, January 2 and 5 performances of Mozart's The Magic Flute, replacing Layla Claire, who has withdrawn due to pregnancy.

Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced today the three exciting new productions that will comprise the company's 2017 Summer Festival, which will build on the company's commitment to producing masterpieces from the operatic cannon, important American works, and works in which dance plays an integral role.

Gustavo Dudamel, music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducts the final two performances of LA Opera's La Bohème, today, June 10 and June 12, 2016.

Gustavo Dudamel, music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will conduct the final two performances of LA Opera's La Bohème, June 10 and 12, 2016.

Lyric Opera brings great singers together for memorable production of Bizet's Carmen

La Bohème, one of the world's most beloved operas, will be the final mainstage production in LA Opera's 30th Anniversary Season. Giacomo Puccini's heartbreaking tragedy will have eight performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (135 N. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, 90012) from May 14 through June 12, 2016. 

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced that soprano Janai Brugger is the 2016 winner of the Marian Anderson Vocal Award. The Award, which honors trailblazing contralto Marian Anderson's personal and humanitarian achievements, celebrates excellence in performance by recognizing a young American singer who has achieved initial professional success in the vocal arts and who exhibits promise for a significant career. In addition to receiving a $10,000 cash prize, Ms. Brugger will perform a recital on Thursday, September 8, 2016 in the Kennedy Center Family Theater and will establish an educational residency at the opera workshop program of Washington's Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2016-17 season, the 50th anniversary of its home at Lincoln Center, will feature 225 opera performances of 26 operas in a varied repertory that ranges from 18th century masterpieces to one of the most acclaimed operas in recent years. Repertoire for the company's 132nd season will include the Met premiere of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's 2000 opera L'Amour de Loin, as well as new stagings of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Rossini's Guillaume Tell, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Dvo?ak's Rusalka, and Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. A gala concert on May 7, 2017 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the company's Lincoln Center location with performances by opera's leading stars honoring the Met's past and future. Ticket prices will not increase, remaining the same as in the current season, and audience development programs instituted by the company in recent years will continue.  

Mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel, in her New York Philharmonic debut, will replace Marietta Simpson, who has withdrawn due to illness, in In Their Footsteps: Great African American Singers and Their Legacy.

Eric Owens will begin his tenure as The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence by curating, hosting, and performing in In Their Footsteps: Great African American Singers and Their Legacy, conducted by Thomas Wilkins in his Philharmonic debut.