Is there another staple of major opera houses that's as big a mess as LES CONTES D'HOFFMAN by Jacques Offenbach? If there is, I can't think of it--but it doesn't keep it from being wildly enjoyable in the right hands. The Met's current production is entertaining, in spite of itself.
Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann will return to the Met stage January 12, with Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo in his first company performances of the title role, a poet whose attempts at romance are repeatedly thwarted.
On Monday, November 17, 2014 at 10:00 p.m., New York Festival of Song presents a special NYFOS After Hours celebrating the record release of CANCIÓN AMOROSA: SONGS OF SPAIN with Corinne Winters and Steven Blier. The album is released the same day on GPR Records, distributed by Naxos.
The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to more than 2,000 movie theaters in 65 countries around the world, will feature ten operas in the 2014-15 season, including all six new productions in the Met season. All ten performances, transmitted live from the Met stage, will feature the world's finest singers, conductors, and theatrical artists.
On Monday, November 17, 2014 at 10:00 p.m., New York Festival of Songpresents a special NYFOS After Hours celebrating the record release ofCANCIÓN AMOROSA: SONGS OF SPAIN with Corinne Winters and Steven Blier. The album is released the same day on GPR Records, distributed by Naxos.
I Capuleti e i Montecchi, the two act Italian opera by Vincenzo Bellini, is a delightful and tragic retelling fn those famous Shakespearean star-crossed lovers. Although the libretto (by Felice Romani) is based not on the original Shakespeare, but a combination of Italian adaptations, most notably the 1530 novella Giulietta e Romeo by Luigi Di Porto and the subsequent play by Luigi Scevola, and to a lesser degree the forgotten Nicola Vaccai opera.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Joseph Kaiser will no longer be participating in the Sunday, September 21st performance of Voce: Rising Opera Stars in Recital. Paul Appleby (tenor) and Andrew Garland (baritone) will be joining Julia Bullock (soprano) and pianist, Steven Blier for the afternoon featuring French and American repertories.
With some of the greatest voices in opera gathering together for one night only in a red-carpet affair, Seattle Opera's Speight Celebration Concert and Dinner thrilled more than 2,500 fans at McCaw Hall and raised more than $1 million on Saturday, August 9.
After three decades, 92 productions, and more than 1,200 individual performances, Speight Jenkins is retiring from Seattle Opera in style! The company will celebrate the end of the Jenkins era, as well as its 50th anniversary, with three special events: the International Wagner Competition on Thursday, August 7, followed by Seattle Opera Day at MOHAI and the Speight Celebration Concert & Dinner featuring 15 of Seattle Opera's best loved singers on Saturday, August 9.
Seattle Opera concludes its 50th Anniversary season, as well as the 31-year tenure of General Director Speight Jenkins with The Tales of Hoffmann (Les contes d'Hoffmann). An all-star cast sings Jacques Offenbach's tuneful score, chronicling famous writer E.T.A. Hoffmann's misadventures in love. The wild stories of Hoffmann's failed romances come alive with fantastical elements: a beautiful robot, an evil optician, a stolen shadow, death by music, and a mysterious boy/girl muse. The Tales of Hoffmann was first produced jointly by Dallas, Cincinnati, Minnesota, and Arizona operas in 2005. This timeless, stylish, and imaginative production returns to Seattle Opera today, May 3, and runs through Today, May 17.
Seattle Opera concludes its 50th Anniversary season, as well as the 31-year tenure of General Director Speight Jenkins with The Tales of Hoffmann (Les contes d'Hoffmann). An all-star cast sings Jacques Offenbach's tuneful score, chronicling famous writer E.T.A. Hoffmann's misadventures in love. The wild stories of Hoffmann's failed romances come alive with fantastical elements: a beautiful robot, an evil optician, a stolen shadow, death by music, and a mysterious boy/girl muse. The Tales of Hoffmann was first produced jointly by Dallas, Cincinnati, Minnesota, and Arizona operas in 2005. This timeless, stylish, and imaginative production returns to Seattle Opera on Saturday, May 3, and runs through Saturday, May 17.
The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to more than 2,000 movie theaters in 65 countries around the world, will feature ten operas in the 2014-15 season, including all six new productions in the Met season. All ten performances, transmitted live from the Met stage, will feature the world's finest singers, conductors, and theatrical artists.
The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season will feature 26 operas, three of them company premieres, in six new productions and 18 revivals showcasing the talents of the world's leading singers, conductors, and theater artists. The three operas that will have their first-ever Met performances, each staged by a director making his Met debut, are John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris, opening October 20; Rossini's La Donna del Lago, conducted by Michele Mariotti and directed by Paul Curran, opening February 16, 2015; and Tchaikovsky's one-act opera Iolanta, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Treli?ski. Iolanta will be presented in a double bill with a new staging of Bartok's one-act Duke Bluebeard's Castle, also conducted by Gergiev and directed by Treli?ski.
From the depths of hell to the heights of paradise, the four great operas of Seattle Opera's 2014/15 season will take operagoers on a fantastic journey. During this important season, leadership will pass from Speight Jenkins, who has been General Director of Seattle Opera for a remarkable 31 years, to Aidan Lang, who was announced as Jenkins' successor in June, 2013.
The premiere recording of composer Mohammed Fairouz's latest symphonic work, In The Shadow of No Towers (Symphony No. 4 for Wind Ensemble), was released on Naxos on Tuesday, November 19.
October 15, 2013 – Richmond, Virginia This November, The Richmond Symphony invites you to An Evening with Kate Lindsey, an Altria Masterworks concert. Kate Lindsey, a homegrown rising star mezzo-soprano, returns to the Richmond area for a not-to-be-missed evening of French arias and orchestral showpieces with The Richmond Symphony and Conductor Steven Smith.
NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG, Steven Blier, Artistic Director • Michael Barrett, Associate Artistic Director, opens its 2013-14 Mainstage series at Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Music Center with 'NED IS NINETY', a musical 90th birthday for American icon (and guest of honor) Ned Rorem.
The Metropolitan Opera and Le Poisson Rouge announced details for 'An Evening of Britten and Muhly,' two concerts at Le Poisson Rouge tonight, October 17 at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Metropolitan Opera stars Patricia Racette, Kathleen Kim, and Iestyn Davies will perform at the event. Composer Nico Muhly will host and perform on piano.
October 15, 2013 – Richmond, Virginia This November, The Richmond Symphony invites you to An Evening with Kate Lindsey, an Altria Masterworks concert. Kate Lindsey, a homegrown rising star mezzo-soprano, returns to the Richmond area for a not-to-be-missed evening of French arias and orchestral showpieces with The Richmond Symphony and Conductor Steven Smith.