Joseph Calleja News

BWW Review: TOSCA at Metropolitan Opera

The traffic in midtown Manhattan was its usual horror at lunchtime last Friday--and Anna Netrebko was stuck in it. She was on the way to Cipriani 42nd Street, across from Grand Central Station, where the Metropolitan Opera Guild was celebrating the soprano at its 84th Annual Luncheon. Despite her delayed arrival, the soprano made some time to talk to me about her voice, her roles and what lies ahead--and, by the way, to be absolutely charming and laugh prodigiously in between her serious discussions about her voice and career.

Met favorite Sondra Radvanovsky and rising star Jennifer Rowley share the title role of the volatile diva at the heart of Puccini's operatic thriller. Joseph Calleja brings his stylish tenor to the role of Cavaradossi, and Wolfgang Koch and Claudio Sgura share the role of the nefarious police chief Scarpia. Carlo Rizzi conducts Sir David McVicar's resplendent production.

Wolfgang Koch has withdrawn from the Metropolitan Opera's fall performances of Puccini's Tosca, due to illness. Željko Lu?i? will now sing the role of Scarpia in the season premiere performance on October 25, and Claudio Sgura will sing the remaining six performances of the fall run.  Mr. Koch's Met debut will be delayed until March, when Tosca returns to the repertory for a spring run.

Fresh from new operatic triumphs in Paris and San Francisco, where she once again astounded audiences with her magnificent portrayals of opera's great dramatic heroines, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky returns to her hometown of Toronto for a rare and intimate recital with her long time pianist Anthony Manoli on Saturday, November 24 at 8pm at Koerner Hall, presented by ShowOne Productions.

On Saturday, November 10, 2018 at 7:00pm, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra presents Stars Aligned, an exploration of classical works by composers who revolutionized America's collective imagination and cultural heritage through film scoring, at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall. Stars Aligned features works by composers with deep cinematic roots - Nino Rota, Miklos Rozsa, and Franz Waxman.

Mezzo-Soprano Emily D'Angelo from Canada/Italy and Tenor Pavel Petrov from Belarus, have just been announced as the First Prize Winners of Operalia's 26th edition. D'Angelo also claimed the Birgit Nilsson Prize, the Pepita Embil Prize for Zarzuela and the Prize of the Audience for a first-time-ever clean sweep of all top honors in Operalia's 26 years history. 

Metropolitan Maestro Carlo Rizzi's 2018-19 season includes Tosca and Mefistofele at the Met, Falstaff in Tokyo, a new production of Un ballo in maschera at Welsh National Opera and symphonic concerts in Japan, Italy and Spain

The Metropolitan Opera's annual Summer HD Festival, which presents free outdoor screenings of operas on Lincoln Center Plaza, will return for the tenth time this summer, with one screening each night from Saturday, August 25, to Monday September 3, 2018 (Labor Day). The series will present ten recent performances from the company's acclaimed Live in HD series of movie theater transmissions. As a prelude to the festival, the Marx Brothers' classic film, A Night at the Opera, will be presented on the plaza on Friday, August 24, in association with the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Tickets go on sale today for the Met's Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning Live in HD series' 2017-18 season, which begins on October 7 with the company's new production of Bellini's Norma.

OPERALIA, the international Opera competition founded by Placido Domingo in 1993, will be presented in Portugal for the very first time this summer. The competition will take place at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, which is located in the historical center of Lisbon's Chiado District since its inauguration in 1793. A theatre of extraordinary architectural value and beauty, São Carlos has enjoyed a long prestigious history interrupted only by the Portuguese Civil War of the 19th Century and the repairs it sustained in the 1930s. It has welcomed numerous notable international artists, including Maria Callas, Alfredo Kraus, Monserrat Caballe and Placido Domingo, who made his debut in Lisbon in the title role of Verdi's Otello in 1989. The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos now welcomes the 26th Edition of the prestigious OPERALIA competition from August 27th to September 2nd, 2018. The competition will feature 40 competitors from 24 different countries, including two Portuguese singers.

American mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick is one of the world's leading exponents of the dramatic Verdi repertoire. Her talent was first noticed when she was a pre-med student at the University of Nevada in Reno. Some years after that, she debuted with the San Francisco Opera as Azucena in IL TROVATORE, and it brought her international stardom. Decades later, she is best known for her interpretations of Amneris in AIDA, Eboli in DON CARLO, Ulrica in UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, Ježibaba in Dvo?ak's RUSALKA, and Adalgisa in Bellini's NORMA.

16 premieres, 60 repertoire pieces, the inauguration of the Eiffel Arts Studios as well as the reopening of the Opera House are all featured in the 2018/19 season of the Hungarian State Opera. Until these venues are opened the resident companies of the Opera carry on touring: apart from guest appearances in county towns and Hungarian settlements beyond the borders of Hungary, the Opera is to visit New York, Berlin, the capitals of the Visegrad Group, and several Italian places that played an important role in the life of Puccini.

London's Royal Opera House production of Puccini's operatic thriller, TOSCA will be shown in HD at the River Street Theatre (RST) in Jaffrey on Sunday, March 11 and Wednesday, March 14, both at 2pm  This presentation is part of the RST's Stage2Screen Series.

Accelerating his arrival as Music Director by two seasons, Yannick Nezet-Seguin will take up the post in time for the start of the Metropolitan Opera's 2018-19 season, it was announced today.

Season 12 of Great Performances at the Met begins with a new production of Bellini's masterpiece about a woman scorned, conducted by Carlo Rizzi. Norma stars Sondra Radvanovsky as the titular druid high priestess, opposite Joyce DiDonato as Norma's new rival and Joseph Calleja as her unfaithful lover a casting dream for bel canto fans.

Over 600 opera aficionados - including Honored Guests Martina Arroyo, Candice Bergen, Kristin Chenoweth, Marilyn Horne, James Morris, Diane Sawyer and Teresa Stratas - attended the 83rd Annual Metropolitan Opera Guild Luncheon at Cipriani 42nd Street on Thursday, December 7th. This year's honoree, Ren e Fleming, was acknowledged for her immense contribution to opera and music. BroadwayWorld has photos from the event below!

Over 600 opera aficionados including Honored Guests Martina Arroyo, Candice Bergen, Kristin Chenoweth, Marilyn Horne, James Morris, Diane Sawyer and Teresa Stratas attended the 83rd Annual Metropolitan Opera Guild Luncheon at Cipriani 42nd Street on Thursday, December 7th. This year's honoree, Ren e Fleming, was acknowledged for her immense contribution to opera and music. Spoken and musical tributes were delivered by Peter Gelb, Ann Patchett and Luca Pisaroni, along with a performance by The Metropolitan Opera Guild's Urban Voices, a choral music initiative that involves nearly 4,000 students and teachers every year.

The Warner Theatre's 2017-2018 Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Season opens today, October 7 at 12:55 pm in the Nancy Marine Studio Theatre with a new production of Vincenzo Bellini's bel canto tragedy, NORMA. A complimentary 45 minute pre-opera lecture by Nunzio DeFilippis will be offered in the Studio Theatre Lobby two hours before the broadcast. 

The trio of soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, mezzo Joyce DiDonato and tenor Joseph Calleja promised a fine evening of singing for the Met's new NORMA and, for the most part, there wasn't much to quibble about. Too bad Sir David McVicar--and his design team--couldn't come up with something a little bolder, a little braver, a little more inventive than wandering trees and a giant lair that looked like an igloo in the off season to anchor its new production.