Joyce DiDonato News

Lynn Wyatt, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Houston Grand Opera (HGO) and a Life Trustee of the organization, together with Anthony Freud, HGO General Director and CEO, today announced that mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will be the Lynn Wyatt Great Artist at Houston Grand Opera for the 2011-12 season.

The Opera Orchestra of New York will present its annual Vidda Award Recital featuring soprano Meagan Miller at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 8:00 p.m.

Hot on the heels of winning Gramophone magazine's 2010 Artist of the Year award, the vibrant mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will release her third Virgin/EMI solo album - Diva, Divo - on January 25.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) continues its 2010-11 season with the company premiere of Dead Man Walking, American composer Jake Heggie's masterful opera about compassion and redemption.

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 80th season of Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts-the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history-with a 22-week season featuring many of the world's greatest operatic artists, beginning December 18.

It's already been a red-letter autumn for the American mezzo-soprano, with DiDonato winning two prestigious 2010 Gramophone Awards - 'Artist of the Year' and 'Recital of the Year', as well as Germany's 2010 Echo Klassic 'Singer of the Year' Award. She continues her illustrious 2010-11 season with a December full of performances in another of her key roles, that of Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, at Madrid's Teatro Real. On her debut as Octavian in 2007 at San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Chronicle extolled her vocal art and dramatic verity: 'The evening's signal triumph belonged to Joyce DiDonato, undertaking Octavian for the first time and turning the role into something tender and strong. Her singing was robust and full of feeling, and she brought the technical precision and alertness of her finest Rossini and Handel performances to this very different stylistic strain. . . The result was a performance that seemed to breathe, displaying all the headstrong charm and mutability of this 17-year-old aristocrat still finding his way through the worlds of love and honor in 18th-century Vienna.'

Tenor Paul Appleby is joined by pianist Brian Zeger for a solo recital as the winner of Juilliard's 14th annual Alice Tully Vocal Arts Recital Award on November 30 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall (Broadway at 65th Street). The program features Schubert's song cycle, 'Die schöne Müllerin', on poems by Wilhelm Müller.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is pleased to announce the commercial DVD release of its 23rd world premiere, Little Women, by the American composer Mark Adamo on the Naxos label.

It's already been a red-letter autumn for the American mezzo-soprano, with DiDonato winning two prestigious 2010 Gramophone Awards - 'Artist of the Year' and 'Recital of the Year', as well as Germany's 2010 Echo Klassic 'Singer of the Year' Award. She continues her illustrious 2010-11 season with a December full of performances in another of her key roles, that of Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, at Madrid's Teatro Real. On her debut as Octavian in 2007 at San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Chronicle extolled her vocal art and dramatic verity: 'The evening's signal triumph belonged to Joyce DiDonato, undertaking Octavian for the first time and turning the role into something tender and strong. Her singing was robust and full of feeling, and she brought the technical precision and alertness of her finest Rossini and Handel performances to this very different stylistic strain. . . The result was a performance that seemed to breathe, displaying all the headstrong charm and mutability of this 17-year-old aristocrat still finding his way through the worlds of love and honor in 18th-century Vienna.'

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 80th season of Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts-the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history-with a 22-week season featuring many of the world's greatest operatic artists, beginning December 18.

Tenor Paul Appleby is joined by pianist Brian Zeger for a solo recital as the winner of Juilliard's 14th annual Alice Tully Vocal Arts Recital Award on November 30 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall (Broadway at 65th Street). The program features Schubert's song cycle, 'Die schöne Müllerin', on poems by Wilhelm Müller.

he Metropolitan Opera's fifth season of free open dress rehearsals begins on October 8 with the company's new production of Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, starring bass Rene Pape in the title role. Valery Gergiev conducts the production, which is directed by Stephen Wadsworth.

he Metropolitan Opera's fifth season of free open dress rehearsals begins on October 8 with the company's new production of Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, starring bass Rene Pape in the title role. Valery Gergiev conducts the production, which is directed by Stephen Wadsworth.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series of live performance transmissions into movie theaters around the world, will expand in its fifth season to 1500 theaters (an increase of 300 theaters), while adding Egypt, Portugal, and Spain to its network of now 46 participating countries.

After a wildly successful season that included a critically acclaimed company debut with the Los Angeles Opera in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, after which the Los Angeles Times exclaimed that she 'stole a show that was hard to steal', and her role debut as Elena in La donna del lago with the Paris Opera, which the Financial Times hailed as 'simply the best singing...heard in years,' mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato ends her 2009-10 season on a high note: nominated for a 2010 Gramophone 'Artist of the Year' Award and winning a 2010 ECHO Klassik Award in the category of female 'Singer of the Year' (tenor Jonas Kaufmann won the male equivalent).

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, is pleased to announce that seven new members were elected to the Board of Directors during the organization's recent annual conference in Los Angeles.

Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato has had a dream of a season, earning plaudits in the world's top culture capitals, including London, where the Times declared her voice to be 'nothing less than 24-carat gold.'

On April 30, The Dallas Opera presents the world premiere of Moby-Dick by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, based on Herman Melville's iconic American novel of 1851. Tenor Ben Heppner stars as Captain Ahab.

On April 30, The Dallas Opera presents the world premiere of Moby-Dick by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, based on Herman Melville's iconic American novel of 1851. Tenor Ben Heppner stars as Captain Ahab.

Soprano Susanna Phillips has been named the recipient of the fifth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera. The $50,000 award, the largest of its kind in the United States, is designated for extraordinarily gifted singers between the ages of 25 and 40 who have already appeared in featured solo roles at the Met.