The BBC is currently working on its Culture In Quarantine initiative, but the BBC's iPlayer and Sounds are already incredibly rich sources of drama, music, dance and comedy. Here are some of the highlights currently available.
It's a busy week for Piotr Beczala, at least on the Met on Demand. It started with Monday's free broadcast of 2014's RUSALKA, opposite Renée Fleming (when the interview that follows was conducted) to Saturday night's free ADRIANA LECOUVREUR performance opposite Anna Netrebko, from January 2019. You can also hear him in excerpts from WERTHER, opposite Joyce DiDonato, which was scheduled for last month at the Met, but sidelined by COVID-19. The arias were recorded in JDD's living room, to give audiences a glimpse of what they might have missed in the complete performance.
The Met's first cancellation due to coronavirus concerns was the revival of Rossini's LA CENERENTOLA, the opera retelling of the Cinderella story, set to star mezzo Tara Erraught in the title role and one of its biggest tenor stars, Javier Camarena as Don Ramiro, her prince. The opera holds a particular place in Camarena's history at the Met: It made him an overnight sensation when he was tapped to replace Juan Diego Florez and blew the roof off--a real-life Cinderella story.
The winners of the 2020 International Collegiate Singing Championship have been announced!
This spring, Carnegie Hall's season-long Beethoven celebration continues with a vibrant series of events featuring the complete Beethoven symphony cycle with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra, the complete piano sonatas by nine leading artists, and the complete string quartets by Quatuor Ebène, as well as workshops, lectures, and more. Beyond Carnegie Hall, public programming and events, including music, dance, exhibitions, and lectures at prestigious partner organizations across New York City highlight the many dimensions of the great music master. Together, the Beethoven celebration features more than 70 programs, creating an extraordinary view of this revolutionary composer.
On Sunday, April 5 at 7:00 p.m., New Yorkers of all ages will take the Zankel Hall stage for All Together: Songs for Joy, a special evening of new and original songs inspired by a new adaptation of Friedrich Schiller's poem a?oeOde to Joya?? by former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith who has reimagined the original poem as a contemporary meditation on community, politics, and spirit.
Someone once asked me, long ago, “Don't you ever get Baroque-d out?” The answer then--when instrumental music was more widely available than vocal--was a firm “no.” Today, when there's the music of Handel and his contemporaries everywhere, the answer remains the same, particularly when it's in the right hands, like Joyce DiDonato (JDD) in AGRIPPINA on disk and recently at the Met. There are also some less familiar--but very much worthy--names, like countertenor Jakub Jozef Orlinski on his Erato CD, “Facce d'Amore,” and mezzo Ann Hallenberg, at Carnegie's Zankel Hall last week with the Venice Baroque Orchestra.
The Metropolitan Opera today announced that the Met Orchestra will tour Europe in the summer of 2021, immediately following its annual residency at Carnegie Hall. With all performances conducted by the Met's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the tour includes stops at the Barbican Centre in London on June 29, 2021; the Philharmonie in Paris on June 30 and July 1, 2021; and the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, Germany, on July 3 and 4, 2021. Four of the world's leading opera stars join the Met Orchestra: mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who will sing selections from Berlioz's Les Troyens, and soprano Christine Goerke, tenor Brandon Jovanovich, and bass Günther Groissböck, who will perform the first act of Wagner's Die Walküre.
The Metropolitan Opera today announces that the Met Orchestra will tour Europe in the summer of 2021, immediately following its annual residency at Carnegie Hall. With all performances conducted by the Met's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the tour includes stops at the Barbican Centre in London on June 29, 2021; the Philharmonie in Paris on June 30 and July 1, 2021; and the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, Germany, on July 3 and 4, 2021. Four of the world's leading opera stars join the Met Orchestra: mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who will sing selections from Berlioz's Les Troyens, and soprano Christine Goerke, tenor Brandon Jovanovich, and bass Günther Groissböck, who will perform the first act of Wagner's Die Walküre.
a?oeI have known for three generations how difficult the career of an opera singer remains,a?? said George London Foundation President Nora London at the announcement of the 2020 George London Award winners. a?oeThis all started because George wanted to help a?" and now we have been giving these awards for almost 50 years.a??
On February 21, 2020, some of the best young American and Canadian opera singers will perform with pianist Lydia Brown before a panel of judges and an enthusiastic audience at The Morgan Library & Museum. At the event's conclusion, a few of them will be named this year's winners of the George London Award, an honor that has been conferred upon hundreds of the best young singers since 1971. The award, currently a $10,000 prize, is named for the legendary Canadian-American bass-baritone, one of the greatest opera singers of 20th century.
In the Metropolitan Opera's first-ever performance of Agrippina, Handel's satire of sex and power politics, Sir David McVicar reconceives a production he originally created for the Monnaie in Brussels in 2000, evoking a scandalous world in which the Roman Empire never fell but simply kept going right up to the present. Agrippina comes to the big screen LIVE in HD at The Ridgefield Playhouse Saturday, February 29 at 12:55pm, part of the Classical Series, underwritten by Jeanne Cook, Liz & Steven Goldstone, and Sabina & Walter Slavin with support from Whistle Stop Bakery.
A gorgeous new recoding of Berlioz's DAMNATION DE FAUST, on the Erato label, has come my way and it is well-worth investigating. The work has entered the public consciousness with the recent revival by the Metropolitan Opera in late January and early February.
On February 21, 2020, some of the best young American and Canadian opera singers will perform with pianist Lydia Brown before a panel of judges and an enthusiastic audience at The Morgan Library & Museum. At the event's conclusion, a few of them will be named this year's winners of the George London Award, an honor that has been conferred upon hundreds of the best young singers since 1971. The award, currently a $10,000 prize, is named for the legendary Canadian-American bass-baritone, one of the greatest opera singers of 20th century.
Today, the Metropolitan Opera announced its 2020-21 season, the first in which Yannick Nézet-Séguin assumes his full breadth of musical duties as the company's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, conducting six productions. His schedule includes the Met premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, the first contemporary opera conducted by the maestro on the Met stage, as part of his ongoing commitment to opera of our time at the Met, which will expand in the seasons to come.
Welcome to the Met, AGRIPPINA: It's about time. Handel and his librettist, Vincent Grimani, knew that certain stories are timeless--like corruption in government--and this one has plenty of twists and turns...and even some belly laughs. It was the perfect piece for an ingenious director, Sir David McVicar, and a spectacular singing actress, mezzo Joyce DiDonato, aided and abetted by conductor Harry Bicket and the Met's perfectly Baroque pit band. The result was an unusual combination for early music: great music and great fun. I suppose that's why it became such a big hit for Handel.
In the Met's first-ever performances of Agrippina, Handel's satire of sex and power politics, Sir David McVicar reconceives a production he originally created for the Monnaie in Brussels in 2000, evoking a scandalous world in which the Roman Empire never fell but simply kept going right up to the present.
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) announced today the winners of the 32nd annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, which took place in the Cullen Theater of the Wortham Theater Center. This is the fourth year the Concert of Arias was streamed live on Facebook, and the third for livestreaming on YouTube. The livestream was hosted by HGO Studio alumna Jamie Barton. She is currently performing the title role in La favorite and placed third in the 2007 Concert of Arias. The winners were announced during the second portion of the program.
The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance has announced its Harris Theater Presents season for 2020-21, its most ambitious and diverse lineup to date. With 36 performances - including one international premiere and North American exclusive, Chicago debuts, and artists representing 11 countries and countless cultural influences -the 2020-21 season reaffirms the Harris Theater's commitment to presenting a multitude of voices and genres on its stage in Millennium Park.
The Lark Theater is pleased to present Agrippina by George Frideric Handel, as part of their 2019-20 season of The Met Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts.
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