Puccini's La Bohème, the most-performed opera in Met history, will return to the repertory this season with 14 performances featuring a number of popular Met artists and rising stars in the leading roles. The opera opens January 14 with Joseph Calleja as Rodolfo, Maija Kovalevska as Mimì, Alexey Markov as Marcello, and Irina Lungu in her company role debut as Musetta. On March 19, Vittorio Grigolo returns to the role of his Met debut as Rodolfo, leading a cast that also includes Massimo Cavalletti in his first Met performances of Marcello and two debuting sopranos: Romanian Anita Hartig as Mimì and American Jennifer Rowley as Musetta. Susanna Phillips will reprise her Musetta on April 2 and 5, and Barbara Frittoli will sing Mimì on April 10, 14, and 18. Joshua Hopkins and Patrick Carfizzi share the role of Schaunard this season; Christian Van Horn, Nicolas Testé, and Oren Gradus sing Colline; and Donald Maxwell and Philip Cokorinos sing Benoit and Alcindoro. Stefano Ranzani will conduct all of this season's performances of La Bohème, which will be seen in Franco Zeffirelli's popular 1981 production. The April 5 matinee, starring Grigolo, Hartig, Phillips, Cavalletti, Carfizzi, Gradus, and Maxwell, will be transmitted live as part of the Met's Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 2,000 theaters in 64 countries around the world.
What's it like to be the most beautiful, most desired young woman who throws the wildest parties in all of Paris - and to be losing your life just as true love finally finds you? Welcome to the glittering, dark, hope-filled, doomed world of the Parisian demimonde, where the romantic tragedy of Verdi's La Traviata takes place.
Lyric Opera of Chicago's new production of Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata, opening on November 20 and continuing for nine more performances through December 20, will be performed absolutely complete, general director Anthony Freud announced today. Beginning with the company's inaugural season (1954), the work has been presented by Lyric in 13 seasons, but never with every note of Verdi's score included.
On November 20, Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja-Gramophone magazine's 2012 Artist of the Year-returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago to headline La traviata in an incisive new production from Princess Grace Award-winning director Arin Arbus (Nov 20-Dec 20). The tenor's most recent appearance at the venerable company was opposite Anna Netrebko in La boheme last season, when he "restored powerful and idiomatic singing to the character of Rodolfo" (Chicago Sun-Times), and justly "earned the torrent of applause he received" (Chicago Tribune). In October, Calleja released Amore, his latest album for Decca Classics. Drawing inspiration from legendary tenors-including Enrico Caruso, whom Calleja plays in James Gray's upcoming film The Immigrant, Amore includes such favorites as "Besame Mucho," "La Vie en Rose," "Time to Say Goodbye," and "You Raise Me Up."
What's it like to be the most beautiful, most desired young woman who throws the wildest parties in all of Paris - and to be losing your life just as true love finally finds you? Welcome to the glittering, dark, hope-filled, doomed world of the Parisian demimonde, where the romantic tragedy of Verdi's La Traviata takes place.
Producer Cameron Mackintosh recently gave a eulogy for Frank Conway, a former tenant at his Highland estate, and according to the Telegraph, the speech has caught the attention of the Catholic church.
Drei Vorstellungen von Giuseppe Verdis 'Simon Boccanegra' mit KS Thomas Hampson in der Titelpartie stehen ab Freitag, 27.° September 2013 auf dem Spielplan der Wiener Staatsoper. Ihre Rollendebuts im Haus am Ring geben Joseph Calleja als Gabriele Adorno, Adam Plachetka als Paolo und Jinxu Xiahou als Hauptmann. Tamar Iveri singt die Amelia, KS Ferruccio Furlanetto den Fiesco. Alain Altinoglu dirigiert erstmals 'Simon Boccanegra' an der Wiener Staatsoper. Reprisen: 1., 4. Oktober
Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov launches his 2013-14 in devilish style, opening the San Francisco Opera season by making his staged role debut as the title character of Boito's Mefistofele ( tonight, Sep 6-Oct 2).
The new season sees Thomas Hampson – “America's foremost baritone” (International Herald Tribune) – return to the world's greatest opera houses and festivals, including London's Royal Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, theBavarian State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and New York's Metropolitan Opera, where he will make hisrole debut as the eponymous antihero of Berg's Wozzeck. Equally active on the concert stage, Hampson looks forward to collaborations with such top international orchestras as Washington's National Symphony, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Staatskapelle Dresden, and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, which he will join for a twelve-stop European tour. Having been hailed as “an artist fully in control of a remarkable instrument” (Los Angeles Times), the baritone will take his celebrated lieder recitals to London's Wigmore Hall, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and to Coburg, Heidelberg, Brussels, and Berne. In the wake of his recent induction into the Gramophone Hall of Fame, the baritone's star turn in the title role of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra – recorded live at the Vienna Konzerthaus – is due for September release on the Decca label.
Lyric's fabulous 2013-14 season is about to begin! To help audiences make the most of their opera experience, Lyric Opera of Chicago offers an array of lectures, tours, galas, and other special events during its 59th season, September through May. Please take note of these highlights for your season-preview coverage and calendar listings.
In conjunction with Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Sony Masterworks is proud to present The Toast of Hollywood, a new 2-CD set celebrating legendary tenor Mario Lanza's extraordinary film and recording career, available on August 27, 2013.
Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov launches his 2013-14 in devilish style, opening the San Francisco Opera season by making his staged role debut as the title character of Boito's Mefistofele (Sep 6-Oct 2).
The Season sees seven new productions on the Main Stage including new productions of Parsifal, Les Vepres siciliennes, and Die Frau ohne Schatten to celebrate milestone anniversaries of Wagner, Verdi and Strauss respectively. Other new Main Stage productions include Don Giovanni from Kasper Holten and Manon Lescaut from Jonathan Kent.
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 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.
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.
This spring, Thomas Hampson's U.S. engagements take him from opera house to concert and recital hall, and from Verdi and Mahler to the latest in contemporary American composition. The baritone makes his company role debut as Iago in Otello at the Metropolitan Opera (March 11) and premieres new chamber works by Michael Hersch (Feb 26) and Mark Adamo (April 24), before touring the latter to the Boston Celebrity Series (April 26) and New York's Lincoln Center (April 28). Besides singing songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Indianapolis Symphony (Feb 22-23), his orchestral collaborations also take him back to Europe to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in a star-studded gala benefit (April 10) and reprise the title role of Simon Boccanegra with the Vienna Symphony, in a concert performance that will be recorded for future album release (April 13 & 17).
