The Richard Tucker Music Foundation announced today that Lisette Oropesa has been named as the winner of the 2019 Richard Tucker Award. The soprano already headlines major productions worldwide, and after her recent house debuts in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Real Madrid and Royal Opera House, The Guardian declared: "The Cuban American soprano is sensationally good. She makes the stratospheric vocal fireworks … sound easy; indeed, her every note is part of a convincing portrayal of a complex character." Widely referred to as the "Heisman Trophy of Opera," the Tucker Award carries the foundation's most substantial cash prize of $50,000, and is conferred each year by a panel of opera industry professionals on an American singer at the threshold of a significant international career.
After a months-long series of auditions involving more than 1,000 singers at the district, regional, and national levels, a panel of expert judges named five singers as the winners of the 65th annual Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Each winner receives a $15,000 cash prize.
North Carolina Opera has announced the company's 2019-20 season, which includes fully-staged productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute (Apr. 3 & 5, 2020) and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (Jan. 24 & 26, 2020), a concert performance of Act III from Wagner's Siegfried (Nov. 10, 2019), and a vocal recital by superstar tenor Lawrence Brownlee (Feb. 18, 2020). The announcement was made by the company's General Director Eric Mitchko at the 2019-20 Season Reveal, which was held on Tuesday, March 26 at CAM Raleigh and graciously sponsored by the Meredith College Department of Music, CITRIX, Mitchell's, Queen of Wines, Savills, Glenwood Agency Real Estate, and Hibernian Pub.
Edinburgh International Festival returns for its 73rd year on 2 - 26 August 2019, bringing the best of theatre, music and dance from across the world to Scotland's capital.
The Schwabacher Recital Series, presented by San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program, continues in April with the final two recitals of its 36th season. Showcasing the exemplary young artists who have participated in the prestigious training programs of San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program, the series offers music lovers an opportunity to hear opera's next generation of stars in the intimate and state-of-the-art Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco.
Following yesterday's highly competitive semifinal competition, nine singers will advance to the final phase of the 65th annual Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, America's largest vocal competition. The winners will receive individual cash prizes of $15,000, while the remaining finalists will receive prizes of $7,500.
Twenty-one young opera singers who have won regional auditions around the United States will compete in the semifinal round of the country's leading vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, on Sunday, March 24. The closed semifinal competition, held on the Met stage before a panel of judges, will determine the select group of finalists who will advance to the final round of the competition-the Grand Finals, which is open to the public and will be held on the Met stage on Sunday, March 31.
On April 5th at 7 pm, at Lisner Auditorium, Washington Concert Opera and Maestro Antony Walker will wrap up their 2018/2019 season with a performance of Gioachino Rossini's Zelmira.
The University Musical Society of the University of Michigan presents the world premiere of a new theater piece on the work of controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Friday-Saturday, March 15-16 at the Power Center for the Performing Arts in Ann Arbor, MI. Composed by Bryce Dessner, with a libretto by Korde Arrington Tuttle that includes poetry by Essex Hemphill and Patti Smith, Mapplethorpe's longtime creative muse, Triptych (Eyes of One on Another) premieres 30 years after Mapplethorpe's untimely death from AIDS at the age of 42.
The 2018-2019 Renee Fleming VOICES series continues withJamie Barton on Saturday, March 23, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. in the Terrace Theater. Accompanied by pianist Kathleen Kelly, Barton's one-night-only recital will feature classics from Haydn, Strauss, and Ravel while showcasing the voices of women, including works by composers Nadia and Lili Boulanger and Americans Elinor Remick Warren and Amy Beach. Barton's performance also features Love After 1950, a contemporary song cycle by Libby Larsen that uses offbeat vocal styles like blues, tango, and honky-tonk to evoke different moods. Tickets for this program are $49-$69.
The 2018-2019 Renee Fleming VOICES series continues with singer-songwriter Nellie McKay today, February 8, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. in the Terrace Theater. McKay's one-night-only solo set will include songs from her recent Sister Orchid, as well as others in her catalog. Tickets for this performance are $25-$35.
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) announced today the winners of the 31st 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 third year the Concert of Arias was streamed live on Facebook, and the second for livestreaming on YouTube. The livestream was hosted by HGO Studio alumna Andrea Carroll. She is currently performing in The Pearl Fishers as Le la and placed first in the 2012 Concert of Arias. The winners were announced during the second portion of the program.
The International Opera Awards today announces the finalists for its 2019 Awards [Tuesday 29 January 2019]. The annual red-carpet event - which celebrates achievement in opera around the globe over the 2018 calendar year - recognises excellence in a wide range of categories that cover performance, design and direction as well as education and outreach.
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has selected the finalists for the 31st annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, to be presented in the Wortham Theater Center on February 1, 2019, at 7 p.m. A limited number of general admission tickets for the performance are available for purchase here. The program will also be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube for all to enjoy, inviting viewers to cast their votes for the Online Viewers' Choice Award.
A season filled with unforgettable music, riveting stories, thrilling singers from around the world, and stirring productions goes on sale by subscription Friday, January 25, at 10am. Six new and new-to-Chicago productions including three Lyric premieres and three performances of the Ring cycle will engage and entertain audiences from late September 2019 through June 2020.
San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program present the 36th season of the Schwabacher Recital Series, opening on February 13 and continuing through April 24. The four-recital series offers music lovers an opportunity to hear opera's next generation of stars in the intimate and state-of-the-art Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco.
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its 2019-20 season with a broad repertoire of operas in productions that have never been seen by Houston audiences. The 65th season will open October 18, 2019, with Verdi's classic Rigoletto. Tomer Zvulun returns to direct the season opener after successfully opening the 2018-19 season with his production of The Flying Dutchman. American baritone Brian Mulligan sings his first Rigoletto leading an outstanding cast filled with renowned HGO Studio alumni, including Mexican tenor Arturo Chacon-Cruz as the Duke of Mantua and Armenian soprano Mane Galoyan as Gilda. Paired with Rigoletto is the North American premiere of the dramatic oratorio Saul in a much-lauded and imaginative production by Barrie Kosky. Christopher Purves returns to the title role after his celebrated performance at the Glyndebourne Festival and is joined by countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen and Korean soprano Pureum Jo, both HGO Studio alumni.
Acclaimed multi-genre recording artist Damien Sneed released a new full-length recording titled 'Damien Sneed: We Shall Overcome' on LeChateau Earl Records on January 18th. The inspiring new project is currently available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and all other digital retail outlets everywhere. A celebration of R&B classics, civil rights anthems, beloved spirituals, jazz compositions and more, the album arrives on the heels of the 35th Anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which was made a federal holiday in 1983.
The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, along with Resident Company support, celebrates Black History Month this February with an array of programming honoring African American artistic expression and culture.
