Leontyne Price News

Symphony Space's Gertrude Stein's Paris, a month-long, multi-disciplinary festival devoted to the vibrant cultural milieu of Gertrude Stein's Paris, continues on Friday, April 27 with two fully staged productions devoted to the inspiration Stein's work had on vocal and operatic repertoire. Encompass New Opera Theatre will present two one-act operas based on texts by Stein, Virgil Thomson's Capital Capitals and Ned Rorem's Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters. Directed by Nancy Rhodes, this salute to Stein's work through American opera is a fresh examination of the influence Stein has had throughout the arts.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today named mezzo-soprano J'nai Bridges the recipient of the 2012 Marian Anderson Award, a biennial award of $15,000 given to an American singer in mid-career.

Opera Exposures will present its first 2012 spiritual music recital on Sunday, April 22, at 3 PM at Saint Mark's Church, Second Avenue and 10th Street in Manhattan. Sopranos Natalie Bergeron, Krysty Swann and Cheryl Warfield will join tenor George Cornelius and Baritone Anthony Turner. Jonathan Kelly will be at the piano. The recital will be followed by a Reception and Dance with the cast. Tickets are $50 and $40 and include Reception and Dance Party with a live DJ immediately following the recital. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling 917/402-8144 or visiting the Opera Exposures official website at www.operaexposures.org. They may also be purchased at the door.

Two-time Tony Award nominated costume designer Carrie Robbins, and scenic, lighting, costume designer and educator Lloyd Burlingame are among the 2012 TDF/Irene Sharaff Awards recipients. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on Friday, May 4, at 6:30pm, at the Hudson Theatre (145 West 44th Street). Ms. Robbins was selected to receive the 2012 TDF/Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award for costume design, and Mr. Burlingame will receive the Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design.

Dory Previn Shannon died on Tuesday morning, February 14, at her home in Massachusetts, according to her husband, artist Joby Baker. She was 86 years old.

In a recent chat with BWW, Boykin shared his thoughts on what it was like to finally appear on the Broadway stage in a play that has literally been a part of his life since the time he was a little boy growing up in West Greenville, South Carolina.

The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School jointly announced plans today for a semi-staged concert performance of Gluck's Armide, the second collaboration between the two institutions, following last season's acclaimed new production of The Bartered Bride, conducted by James Levine and staged by Stephen Wadsworth.

Musical America, now in its third century as the indispensable resource for the performing arts, today announced the winners of the annual Musical America Awards, recognizing artistic excellence and achievement in the arts.

This November, in Juilliard School's Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Anne Manson will conduct the U.S. premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' Kommilitonen! (Young Blood!) - an opera co-commissioned by Juilliard and the Royal Academy of Music - which received its world premiere in London this past March to remarkable critical acclaim. The production opens Juilliard's 2011-12 Vocal Arts season on Wednesday, November 16 at 8 PM, with additional performances on Friday, November 18 at 8 PM and Sunday, November 20 at 2 PM. David Pountney, librettist of the opera, provides stage direction, sets and costumes are by Robert Innes Hopkins, and choreography is by Carolum Choa.

This November, in Juilliard School's Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Anne Manson will conduct the U.S. premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' Kommilitonen! (Young Blood!) - an opera co-commissioned by Juilliard and the Royal Academy of Music - which received its world premiere in London this past March to remarkable critical acclaim. The production opens Juilliard's 2011-12 Vocal Arts season on Wednesday, November 16 at 8 PM, with additional performances on Friday, November 18 at 8 PM and Sunday, November 20 at 2 PM. David Pountney, librettist of the opera, provides stage direction, sets and costumes are by Robert Innes Hopkins, and choreography is by Carolum Choa.

Musical America, now in its third century as the indispensable resource for the performing arts, today announced the winners of the annual Musical America Awards, recognizing artistic excellence and achievement in the arts.

This November, in Juilliard School's Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Anne Manson will conduct the U.S. premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies' Kommilitonen! (Young Blood!) - an opera co-commissioned by Juilliard and the Royal Academy of Music - which received its world premiere in London this past March to remarkable critical acclaim. The production opens Juilliard's 2011-12 Vocal Arts season on Wednesday, November 16 at 8 PM, with additional performances on Friday, November 18 at 8 PM and Sunday, November 20 at 2 PM. David Pountney, librettist of the opera, provides stage direction, sets and costumes are by Robert Innes Hopkins, and choreography is by Carolum Choa.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2011-12 season will feature the world's leading singers, conductors, and stage directors in seven new productions, including a world premiere, a Met premiere, and the first complete performances of a new Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle conducted by Music Director James Levine and directed by Robert Lepage.

The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School jointly announced plans today for a semi-staged concert performance of Gluck's Armide, the second collaboration between the two institutions, following last season's acclaimed new production of The Bartered Bride, conducted by James Levine and staged by Stephen Wadsworth.

The seventh annual Opera News Awards will be presented on Sunday, April 29 at The Plaza in New York City, paying tribute to five extraordinary artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: sopranos Karita Mattila and Anja Silja, baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Peter Mattei, and director Peter Sellars.

NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman announced the recipients of the 2011 NEA Opera Honors at a meeting of the National Council on the Arts, the NEA's advisory body on Friday, June 24, 2011. Now in its fourth year, the NEA Opera Honors is the highest award our nation bestows in opera. This year's honorees are:

Tickets are now on sale for the World Premiere production of DARK SISTERS, composed by Nico Muhly with libretto by Stephen Karam, conducted by Neal Goren, directed by Rebecca Taichman, and co-commissioned and co-produced by Gotham Chamber Opera, Music-Theatre Group and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. DARK SISTERS will premiere from November 9-19,2011 at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 899 Tenth Avenue, NYC. Tickets are $30-125 and are available at www.ticketcentral.com or by phone at 212-279-4200.