Los Angeles Opera News

Theatre production company Parity Productions, a producer of new work that ensures they fill at least 50% of the creative positions (playwrights, directors, and designers) on their productions with women and/or trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) artists, has launched an auction on Paddle8 and their annual Silent Auction Buy Now Prices on The Parity Store.

On Saturday Evening, October 12, 2019, Los Angeles Opera presented Adam Guettel's THE Light In the Piazza. A musical theater work rather than an opera, Piazza provided the audience with a nostalgic excursion to Florence and Rome in the 1950s. For opera star Renée Fleming it was a tour de force as she not only showed onlookers various stages of her character's complete change of heart, but also gave us the glorious high notes and legato singing of opera along with the snappy repartee of musical theater. 

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage's 2019/20 Celebrity Opera Series commences with Diana Damrau (soprano) and Nicolas Testé (bass) on Saturday, May 16, 2020. James Conlon, Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera (since 2006) and Principal Conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy (since 2016), conducts the orchestra.

This Fall marks the culmination of the 36th season of the Verdi Chorus, who will present their Fall Concert, Sound and Fury, for two performances only at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica on November 16 and 17. Led by Founding Artistic Director Anne Marie Ketchum, the Verdi Chorus is the only choral group in Southern California that focuses primarily on the dramatic and diverse music for opera chorus. This program, which Ketchum says includes a?oesome of the most powerful moments from some of the greatest operatic works,a?? will feature selections from two Verdi operas a?" Otello and Il trovatore; two Puccini operas a?" Turandot and Tosca; as well as sequences from Lehár's The Merry Widow.

Verdi's beloved opera Aida opens San Diego Opera's 2019-2020 season in an entirely new theatrical performance utilizing set elements, costumes, lighting, and featuring the San Diego Symphony and San Diego Opera chorus onstage, alongside some of the greatest interpreters of Verdi's music performing today. Aida opens on October 19, 2019 for four performances. Additional performances are October 22, 25, and 27 (matinee), 2019.

San Diego Opera's 2019-2020 season continues with a special one-night-only event on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 at 7:30 PM when soprano Ailyn Pérez and tenor Joshua Guerrero perform in concert at the Balboa Theatre.

Los Angeles Opera opened its 2019-2020 season with Barrie Kosky's production of that most popular of operas, Giacomo Puccini's LA BOHEME. With minimal scenery from Rufus Didwiszus, Kosky's cast made the audience believe they were in the garret and at the toll gate. Only the scenery for the Café Momus was completely fleshed out.

Late last week Vienna State Opera issued a statement regarding Plácido Domingo, recently accused of sexual assault, and how he will still perform. 

Continuing its tradition of presenting largely forgotten and exotic operas of the 18th- and 19th-centuries, Opera Southwest will open its 47th Season with the chance to hear and see Giovanni Bottesini's Alì Babà, Sunday afternoon, October 20, 2019 at 2 pm, Friday evening, October 25, 2019 at 7:30 pm, and Sunday afternoon, October 27, 2019 at 2 pm, all at Albuquerque's Journal Theatre (National Hispanic Cultural Center 1701 4th Street SW Albuquerque NM 87102).

San Francisco Opera announces Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman as the winner of the 2019 Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Emerging Stars Competition. Chuchman made her Company debut as Mary Hatch in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's It's a Wonderful Life last fall and was named a?oe2019 Emerging Star of the Yeara?? based on a popular vote conducted online at sfopera.com from July 9a?"July 31, 2019. As winner of the competition, now in its fourth year, Chuchman receives a $10,000 cash prize.

THE GREEN ROOM 42 a?" Broadway's newest intimate concert venue a?" will present Annie Sherman performing a?oePiaf Livesa?? on Wednesday, August 7 at 7:00 PM. Sherman, known for The King & I and Sound of Music national tours, Ragtime on Ellis Island, and Macbeth at Los Angeles Opera, brings you her original and innovative translations of Edith Piaf songs as never before heard in English. This evening celebrating the scandalous and tragic life of Edith Piaf includes hits like a?oePadam,a?? a?oeMilord,a?? and a?oeLa Vie en Rose.a?? 

Earlier this year, on April 22, The Phantom of the Opera, reached a milestone that no other Broadway show has even come near. Phantom, the longest-running show in Broadway history, became the first Broadway show EVER to reach #13,000 performances. This is just one of many incredible achievements made by the show since it opened on Broadway over three decades ago.

Pittance Chamber Music, known for featuring the extraordinary resident artists of the Los Angeles Opera pit and stage, announces its 2019-20 Season with three exciting programs taking place in Barrett Hall at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. The season consists of Nate's World on September 15, at 3:00 p.m.; Liv a Little on February 9, 2020 at 3:00 p.m.; and Modern Beauty on April 5, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.

This Month, FEINSTEIN'S/54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club & Private Event Destination, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond.

THE GREEN ROOM 42 a?" Broadway's newest intimate concert venue a?" will present Annie Sherman performing a?oePiaf Livesa?? onWednesday, August 7 at 7:00 PM. Sherman, known for The King & I and Sound of Music national tours, Ragtime on Ellis Island, and Macbeth at Los Angeles Opera, brings you her original and innovative translations of Edith Piaf songs as never before heard in English.

THE GREEN ROOM 42 a?" Broadway's newest intimate concert venue a?" will present Annie Sherman performing a?oePiaf Livesa?? on Wednesday, August 7 at 7:00 PM. Sherman, known for The King & I and Sound of Music national tours, Ragtime on Ellis Island, and Macbeth at Los Angeles Opera, brings you her original and innovative translations of Edith Piaf songs as never before heard in English.

Jacob's Pillow presents the highly-anticipated world premiere of THE DAY, featuring world renowned cellist Maya Beiser and legendary dancer Wendy Whelan with choreography by the groundbreaking postmodern dance artist Lucinda Childs and music by Pulitzer Prize-winning David Lang in the Doris Duke Theatre, July 31-Aug 4. Co-commissioned by Jacob's Pillow, the multidisciplinary work explores memory, life's journey, resilience, and survival of the soul through the shared language of music and dance. 

Branden & James reinvent pop music in classical form with "soaring tenor vocals and dazzling cello" (Robert Windeler, Bistro Awards & NPR music) in All You Need Is Love, on August 5 at 9:30pm. Presenting an evening of heartwarming stories and songs that will make you laugh and cry, the cello and vocal duo play a program with a wide variation of music from Andrea Bocelli, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Carole King, Nat King Cole and RENT. Featuring internationally acclaimed guest pianist, Danny Zelibor.

Composerlibrettist Melissa Shiflett's My Undying Love: An Amusement, a one-hour opera fantasy for audiences of all ages, will receive its world premiere, June 21-23 at University Settlement, 184 Eldridge.  Shiflett has assembled a cast of singers whose credits include New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Los Angeles Opera  for this comic entertainment  - amusing, unsentimental, joyous and jazzy.  The production has costumes by Matthew Pedersen, whose credits include the Metropolitan Opera and Steppenwolf Theatre, and set design by Justin Tolbert, who has designed for the Arthur Miller Society.