Martina Arroyo News

The editors of Opera News have announced the honorees for the 2012 Opera News Awards, paying tribute to five superb artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: sopranos Mirella Freni and Dawn Upshaw, countertenor David Daniels, baritone Simon Keenlyside, and bass-baritone Eric Owens. The eighth annual Opera News Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, April 21 at The Plaza in New York City. All the winners - and a host of the city's cultural, civic, and social luminaries - will be present at the gala awards dinner, which will feature celebrity presenters speaking about the awardees and introducing video performance clips.

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.

In February 2012 The New York Philharmonic This Week - the weekly radio series of concerts by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by Alec Baldwin - begins with an encore performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah from November 2010 led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, with soprano Carolyn Sampson, mezzo-soprano Alice Coote, tenor Allan Clayton, bass-baritone Gerald Finley, and the New York Choral Artists, Joseph Flummerfelt, director. The second program - from the Orchestra's EUROPE / WINTER 2010 tour - is also led by Mr. Gilbert and includes EXPO by The Marie-Josee Kravis Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg; Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, with Yefim Bronfman as soloist; and Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 and Valse triste as performed in Cologne, Germany.

Opera Index presents its 2012 Distinguished Achievement Award to opera pioneer and Opera Orchestra of New York founder Eve Queler at its 28th annual black-tie winter gala on Sunday, January 15.

The Metropolitan Opera Guild pays tribute to the legendary American mezzo-soprano, Marilyn Horne, on Monday, October 31

On Monday, October 31, the Metropolitan Opera Guild pays tribute to the legendary American mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, one of the greatest singers of our time, at the Guild's 77th annual luncheon, a perennial highlight of the opera season.

The Metropolitan Opera Guild pays tribute to the legendary American mezzo-soprano, Marilyn Horne, on Monday, October 31

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:

In the final public program of its 75th anniversary season, the Metropolitan Opera Guild pays tribute to one of the most celebrated singers of the 20th century: Dame Joan Sutherland, who died last October at the age of 83.

The complete list of presenters at the sixth annual Opera News Awards, which will take place on April 17 at The Plaza in New York City, has been announced: beloved singer Barbara Cook will present the award to tenor Jonas Kaufmann; iconic film director Francis Ford Coppola will present to conductor Riccardo Muti; legendary soprano Renata Scotto will present to soprano Patricia Racette; conductor Andrew Davis will present to soprano Kiri Te Kanawa; and award-winning playwright John Guare will present to bass-baritone Bryn Terfel.

Broadway icon Patti LuPone and acclaimed mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe will co-host the sixth annual Opera News Awards, which will take place on April 17 at The Plaza in New York City.

In the final public program of its 75th anniversary season, the Metropolitan Opera Guild pays tribute to one of the most celebrated singers of the 20th century: Dame Joan Sutherland, who died last October at the age of 83.

The complete list of presenters at the sixth annual Opera News Awards, which will take place on April 17 at The Plaza in New York City, has been announced: beloved singer Barbara Cook will present the award to tenor Jonas Kaufmann; iconic film director Francis Ford Coppola will present to conductor Riccardo Muti; legendary soprano Renata Scotto will present to soprano Patricia Racette; conductor Andrew Davis will present to soprano Kiri Te Kanawa; and award-winning playwright John Guare will present to bass-baritone Bryn Terfel.

James Levine: 40 Years at The Metropolitan Opera, an extraordinary insider's view of the legendary conductor's Met career, illustrated with vivid historic photographs, will be published by Amadeus Press, an imprint of Hal Leonard, on May 3, and available for $32 at the Met Opera Shop and national retailers.

Broadway icon Patti LuPone and acclaimed mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe will co-host the sixth annual Opera News Awards, which will take place on April 17 at The Plaza in New York City.

In honor of Black History Month, Opera Exposures, a Staten Island-based not-for-profit organization devoted to furthering the careers of both seasoned and young professional singers at venues which are accessible and intimate, will offer its first musical program in St. Bartholomew's Chapel on Sunday, February 6, at 3:00 PM.

Opera Index presents its 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award to two pioneering Metropolitan Opera artists-tenor George Shirley and posthumously to the late mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett-at its 27th annual black-tie winter gala on Sunday, January 16. The gala begins at 6 p.m. and will be held in the Grand Salon of the Jumeirah Essex House, the luxury hotel on Central Park South, following a reception in the Petit Salon. The awards will be presented by bass-baritone Spiro Malas. Last year's Distinguished Achievement Award recipient was soprano Patrice Munsel.

Opera Index presents its 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award to two pioneering Metropolitan Opera artists-tenor George Shirley and posthumously to the late mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett-at its 27th annual black-tie winter gala on Sunday, January 16. The gala begins at 6 p.m. and will be held in the Grand Salon of the Jumeirah Essex House, the luxury hotel on Central Park South, following a reception in the Petit Salon. The awards will be presented by bass-baritone Spiro Malas. Last year's Distinguished Achievement Award recipient was soprano Patrice Munsel.

Passionate dreams toward peace in Jerusalem and beyond…Naomi Wallace offers a unique combination of lyrical theatricality and political passion in her new triptych for the stage, The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East, playing at Central Square Theater Thursday, November 18th through Sunday, December 19th.