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.
There used to be an ad campaign from a New York bakery company, “You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's rye bread.” Well, a similar statement could be made about Richard Wagner's final opera (or as he called it, a büenenweihfestspiel , or “a festival play for the consecration of the stage”): You don't have to be Christian to love PARSIFAL, with its themes of redemption, honor and loyalty.
It is a unique experience, regardless of one's faith, because the music's the thing. And I'd follow the cast, orchestra and chorus of the Metropolitan Opera's new production anywhere. Heard at the opera's second performance of the season, February 18, they were superb.
Based on a 13th-century epic poem, Wagner's epic, Parsifal, tells the story of the Arthurian knight and his quest for the Holy Grail. Its themes are hope, discovery and rebirth - themes that perfectly suit the arrival of springtime. The 5 ½-hour broadcast begins at noon on Saturday, March 2, at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater.
Wexford Festival Opera, long considered one of the finest opera festivals in the world, has been nominated in the Festival Opera category in the inaugural International Opera Awards, announced recently. This Oscars of the opera-world aims to bring its biggest stars of the art-form to an even wider audience.
The new production of PARSIFAL opens in just 2 days! Jonas Kaufmann stars alongside Katarina Dalayman, Peter Mattei, Evgeny Nikitin, and Rene Pape. Daniele Gatti conducts. Check out a sneak peek of Francois Girard's new production below!
Lyric Opera of Chicago and its general director, Anthony Freud, announced the lineup for Lyric's 2013-14 season today. Joseph Calleja, Joyce DiDonato, Nathan Gunn, Thomas Hampson, Ana Maria Martinez, Matthew Polenzani, and Patricia Racette are among those headlining the new season's offerings. These comprise 67 performances of eight different operas, beginning October 5, 2013 and concluding March 23, 2014: new productions of Parsifal, La traviata, The Barber of Seville, and Rusalka (Lyric premiere); a revival of Otello; and new-to-Chicago stagings of Madama Butterfly, Die Fledermaus, and La clemenza di Tito. Lyric's music director, Sir Andrew Davis, will lead three operas, and guest conductors Marco Armiliato, Bertrand de Billy and Michele Mariotti will make their house debuts. Additionally, Lyric will present a new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music in the spring of 2014, continuing the company's American Musical Theater Initiative, and Davis will conduct a special Subscriber Appreciation Concert in March featuring Lyric's creative consultant - the star soprano Renee Fleming - with tenor Jonas Kaufmann.
Lyric Opera of Chicago and its general director, Anthony Freud, announced the lineup for Lyric's 2013-14 season today. Joseph Calleja, Joyce DiDonato, Nathan Gunn, Thomas Hampson, Ana Maria Martinez, Matthew Polenzani, and Patricia Racette are among those headlining the new season's offerings. These comprise 67 performances of eight different operas, beginning October 5, 2013 and concluding March 23, 2014: new productions of Parsifal, La traviata, The Barber of Seville, and Rusalka (Lyric premiere); a revival of Otello; and new-to-Chicago stagings of Madama Butterfly, Die Fledermaus, and La clemenza di Tito. Lyric's music director, Sir Andrew Davis, will lead three operas, and guest conductors Marco Armiliato, Bertrand de Billy and Michele Mariotti will make their house debuts. Additionally, Lyric will present a new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music in the spring of 2014, continuing the company's American Musical Theater Initiative, and Davis will conduct a special Subscriber Appreciation Concert in March featuring Lyric's creative consultant - the star soprano Renee Fleming - with tenor Jonas Kaufmann.
Jonas Kaufmann will sing the title role in a new staging of Wagner's final opera, Parsifal, conducted by Daniele Gatti and directed by Francois Girard in his Met debut. BroadwayWorld has a behind-the-scenes interview with Director, Francois Girard. Check it out below.
Jonas Kaufmann will sing the title role in a new staging of Wagner's final opera, Parsifal, conducted by Daniele Gatti and directed by Francois Girard in his Met debut. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production below.
Jonas Kaufmann will sing the title role in a new staging of Wagner's final opera, Parsifal,conducted by Daniele Gatti and directed by Francois Girard in his Met debut. The new production of Wagner's transcendent masterpiece will open February 15 with an extraordinary cast of Wagnerian stars, including Katarina Dalayman as the mysterious Kundry; Peter Mattei in his role debut as Amfortas, the wounded King of the Knights of the Holy Grail; Rene Pape as the wise knight Gurnemanz; Evgeny Nikitin as the evil Klingsor; and Runi Brattaberg in his Met debut as Titurel, Amfortas's father. The production team for Girard's staging includes set designer Michael Levine, costume designer Thibault Vancraenenbroeck, lighting designer David Finn, video designer Peter Flaherty, choreographer Carolyn Choa, and dramaturg Serge Lamothe. The Saturday, March 2 matinee performance of Parsifal will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series, which is now seen in more than 1,900 movie theaters in 64 countries around the world.
You have to love the Italians--particularly the Milanese. Where else but at La Scala, the city's temple of dramma lirica, could you find a public so passionate that it complained loudly and bitterly when it was announced that a work by a German (Richard Wagner) was opening the season rather than an opera by a local boy (Giuseppe Verdi)? It's because they care--and it's rather comforting that it can still happen in the 21st century (unless you happen to be on the receiving end of their wrath, of course).
O fortuna! Carmina burana remains of the the most popular works of classical music ever written. On February 8 & 9 at the Peristyle, the Toledo Symphony is joined by large choruses and acclaimed soloists Philip Cutlip, Joshua Stewart, and Kathryn Lewek.
I missed the debut and broadcast of Andre Previn's operatic setting of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" from the San Francisco Opera back in 1998. But I can't say that anything I've read would compel me choose it over a couple of hours with Brando and Leigh on TCM or even a less than stellar [Stella?] production of the play. The fact is, how can Previn's score compare with the music of Williams?
Opera in Cinema presents LOHENGRIN, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy, an Opera in Three Acts, music by Richard Wagner, Captured live in performance on Opening Night, December 7, 2012, Sunday, January 20, 2013, Sung in German with English subtitles. Running time - 275 minutes, including two intermissions.
The Opera Orchestra of New York presents an opera-in-concert performance of Umberto Giordano's verismo opera, Andrea Chénier conducted by Music Director Alberto Veronesi at Avery Fisher Hall today, January 6, 2013 at 4:00 pm. Tenor Roberto Alagna sings the title role of Andrea Chénier, one of opera's most dramatic lyric-tenor roles, for the first time, with soprano Kristin Lewis as Maddalena di Coigny, baritone George Petean as Carlo Gérard, with a special appearance by mezzo soprano Rosalind Elias as Madelon.
The Opera Orchestra of New York presents an opera-in-concert performance of Umberto Giordano's verismo opera, Andrea Chénier conducted by Music Director Alberto Veronesi at Avery Fisher Hall on Sunday, January 6, 2013 at 4:00 pm. Tenor Roberto Alagna sings the title role of Andrea Chénier, one of opera's most dramatic lyric-tenor roles, for the first time, with soprano Kristin Lewis as Maddalena di Coigny, baritone George Petean as Carlo Gérard, with a special appearance by mezzo soprano Rosalind Elias as Madelon.
The 2012/2013 season of the Mariinsky Theatre marks the 25thanniversary of the leadership of General and Artistic Director Maestro Valery Gergiev, who has built the Mariinsky into one of the largest, most acclaimed and most dynamic performing arts institutions in the world. The Mariinsky will celebrate this anniversary with an impressive schedule of tours, performances, recordings and events, and will usher in a new era of even greater artistic possibilities with the inauguration of the new Mariinsky Theatre (Mariinsky II).
Already in this young season, Rene Pape has given a star turn as Philip II in Verdi's Don Carlos at the Vienna State Opera and made his recital debut at La Scala in Milan. The German singer - "the world's most charismatic bass," according to Opera News - is currently reprising his acclaimed Wotan at the Berlin State Opera in a production of Die Walkure conducted by Daniel Barenboim.
