John Relyea News

The Met's Summer HD Festival returns for its fifth year today, August 24, with ten free outdoor screenings of popular performances from the Met's award-winning Live in HD series.

'Stravinsky Re-invented: From Paris to Los Angeles,' the second and final weekend of the 24th annual Bard Music Festival in New York'sAnnandale-on-Hudson, follows Igor Stravinsky from Europe to post-war Hollywood, investigating his subsequent shift in style from neoclassicism to serialism. The weekend opens tonight, August 16, with a screening of film clips that document the great Russian innovator, with commentary by Professor Charles M. Joseph, author of Stravinsky Inside Out. This special session is followed by the weekend's first concert, 'Against Interpretation and Expression: The Aesthetics of Mechanization,' a program of postmodernist ensemble classics by Stravinsky, Bartók, Varèse, Hindemith, and Messiaen; soloists include Grammy-nominated pianist Peter Serkin and So Percussion's Eric Beach.

'Stravinsky Re-invented: From Paris to Los Angeles,' the second and final weekend of the 24th annual Bard Music Festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson, follows Igor Stravinsky from Europe to post-war Hollywood, investigating his subsequent shift in style from neoclassicism to serialism. The weekend opens on Friday, August 16, with a screening of film clips that document the great Russian innovator, with commentary by Professor Charles M. Joseph, author of Stravinsky Inside Out. This special session is followed by the weekend's first concert, 'Against Interpretation and Expression: The Aesthetics of Mechanization,' a program of postmodernist ensemble classics by Stravinsky, Bartók, Varèse, Hindemith, and Messiaen; soloists include Grammy-nominated pianist Peter Serkin and So Percussion's Eric Beach.

The Met's Summer HD Festival returns for its fifth year on August 24, with ten free outdoor screenings of popular performances from the Met's award-winning Live in HD series. The festival, which more than 40,000 people attended last year, kicks off with a screening of the Met's acclaimed production of Verdi's La Traviata starring Natalie Dessay, Matthew Polenzani, andDmitri Hvorostovsky. Three new productions from the Met's 2012-13 season will be screened in this year's festival: Donizetti's Maria Stuarda starring Joyce DiDonato in the title role, Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera with Sondra Radvanovsky, Marcelo Álvarez, and Hvorostovsky, and Thomas Adès's The Tempest starring Simon Keenlyside. The festival will also feature a variety of operas from past Live in HD seasons, including Massenet's Manon starring Anna Netrebko, Verdi'sOtello with Johan Botha and Renée Fleming, and the Met's popular production of Verdi's Aida, which will close out the festival on Labor Day.

The Met's Summer HD Festival returns for its fifth year on August 24, with ten free outdoor screenings of popular performances from the Met's award-winning Live in HD series. The festival, which more than 40,000 people attended last year, kicks off with a screening of the Met's acclaimed production of Verdi's La Traviata starring Natalie Dessay, Matthew Polenzani, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

The Philadelphia Orchestra launches an exciting 2013 summer season tonight, July 2 with a free Neighborhood Concert under the stars on the RiverStage at the Great Plaza at Penn's Landing. This quintessential summer concert, presented by Wells Fargo and conducted by Philadelphia Orchestra Associate Conductor Cristian M?celaru, is followed by a spectacular fireworks display on the Delaware River. Philadelphia audiences will enjoy an array of other performances in the tri-state area this summer, with a July concert in Princeton, New Jersey's Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall-the Orchestra's first concert in Princeton in nearly 50 years; two performances at the lush Meadow at LongwoodGardens; and two weeks of concerts at the Mann in beautiful and expansive Fairmount Park.

The Philadelphia Orchestra launches an exciting 2013 summer season on July 2 with a free Neighborhood Concert under the stars on the RiverStage at the Great Plaza at Penn's Landing. This quintessential summer concert, presented by Wells Fargo and conducted by Philadelphia Orchestra Associate Conductor Cristian M?celaru, is followed by a spectacular fireworks display on the Delaware River. Philadelphia audiences will enjoy an array of other performances in the tri-state area this summer, with a July concert in Princeton, New Jersey's Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall-the Orchestra's first concert in Princeton in nearly 50 years; two performances at the lush Meadow at LongwoodGardens; and two weeks of concerts at the Mann in beautiful and expansive Fairmount Park.

Three international opera stars and three stars on the rise are the six artists who headline the 2013-14 season of events of the George London Foundation for Singers, which has been honoring, supporting, and presenting the finest young opera singers in the U.S. and Canada for more than four decades. Five of the artists are GeorgeLondon Award winners, and thus among the “scores of important singers [who] have been discovered by the [George London Foundation] competition over the years,” as Peter G. Davis wrote in The New York Times last year.

Reviving important but neglected operas is one of the ways the Bard SummerScape festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson has established itself as "a hotbed of intellectual and aesthetic adventure" (New York Times).

Since its premiere in 1859, Faust has been a moderate success in comparison to its counterpart, Goethe's epic drama of the same name, and the Mets current revival of the 2011 production holds true. This production, directed by Tony Award winner Des McAnuff does well to add interest where the original opera falls short. Looking at the opera for its musicality, the production is spot on; for its modernized atomic design complete with beautiful projections that fill the Met stage, the production is again spot on; though somehow when combined with the five act score, expertly conducted by Alain Altinoglu, the night at the opera tends to be remembered as again just a moderate success.

Tenor Bryan Hymel has been named the recipient of the eighth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera.

Piotr Beczala will sing the title role in Gounod's Faust for the first time at the Met beginning tonight, March 21, opposite Marina Poplavskaya as Marguerite, a role she sang in the 2011 premiere of Des McAnuff's production. Alain Altinoglu, who led Faust at the Met last season, returns to conduct the opera, which also stars John Relyea as the diabolical Mephistopheles, Alexey Markov as Valentin, and Julie Boulianne as Siebel.

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 2013-14 season. Music Director Franz Welser-Most will introduce a Fall Festival, pairing symphonies by Beethoven and Shostakovich, and an all-Brahms weekend with two programs featuring Brahms's Violin Concerto and his Second and Fourth Symphonies. Mr. Welser-Most brings opera back to Severance Hall, with a semi-staged production of Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen. Guest artists returning to Severance Hall include Leon Fleisher, Mitsuko Uchida, Radu Lupu, and conductors Christoph von Dohnanyi, Pierre Boulez, and Herbert Blomstedt. The Orchestra celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Britten with performances of his Spring Symphony, Violin Concerto, and Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings.

Piotr Beczala will sing the title role in Gounod's Faust for the first time at the Met beginning March 21, opposite Marina Poplavskaya as Marguerite, a role she sang in the 2011 premiere of Des McAnuff's production. Alain Altinoglu, who led Faust at the Met last season, returns to conduct the opera, which also stars John Relyea as the diabolical Mephistopheles, Alexey Markov as Valentin, and Julie Boulianne as Siebel.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theaters, will feature 10 productions in the 2013-14 season, offering a significant portion of the Met season to opera lovers around the world.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

On Monday, March 11, at 8:00 p.m., the versatile and commanding mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, joined by frequent collaborator, pianist Warren Jones, makes her Carnegie Hall recital debut in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage with a deeply personal program of American song. Ms. Blythe's program features Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, a set of songs written for her by the late composer James Legg, and Samuel Barber's Three Songs, Op. 10, powerful settings of three poems by James Joyce. Also featured are songs by Tin Pan Alley songwriters Ray Henderson, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin.

The Canadian Opera Company has announced that, after four months of negotiations, the company's offer to the membership of Canadian Actors' Equity Association and the Toronto Musicians Association has been rejected. An agreement would have allowed the COC to continue to produce, in partnership with the CBC, broadcasts of the COC's entire 2012/2013 season on CBC Radio 2 and Radio-Canada's Espace Musique. These broadcasts have been in place since the fall of 2009.