Mary Phillips News

One thing you should know about Richard Strauss's ELEKTRA: When it's done right, the audience works itself into a fever pitch and—after the orchestra has played the final notes—it stands and screams its head off. I've seen this before and it happened again the other night, with sopranos Christine Goerke in the title role and Gun-Brit Barkmin as her sister Chrysothemis, in an exhilarating performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under its music director Andris Nelsons.

The 33rd Annual Jessie Richardson Award Ceremony will be held at the beautiful Commodore Ballroom, 868 Granville Street, on Monday, June 22, 2015, doors open at 5:30pm, ceremony at 6:30pm. 

The nominees for the 33rd Annual Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards were announced at the Jessie Nominations Party held on Tuesday, May 19th at the Vancouver TheatreSports League Improv Centre on Granville Island.

On Thursday, February 26th, at 11am EST, Maestro Victor DeRenzi and principal artists from Sarasota Opera will present a live program of excerpts from this season's production of Verdi's Don Carlos on Classical WSMR 89.1 FM hosted by Russell Gant. Mr. Gant will interview Maestro DeRenzi about the upcoming production, which opens on Saturday, March 7th, as well as Sarasota Opera's ongoing Verdi Cycle.

Maestro Nicholas McGegan and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) will ring in the New Year with a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 today, January 2 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, January 4 at 3 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and Saturday, January 3 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore. McGegan will lead the Orchestra in Beethoven's final symphony with the well-known "Ode to Joy," along with Beethoven's rarely performed Opferlied, his King Stephen Overture and Haydn's The Storm. Please see below for complete details.

Maestro Nicholas McGegan and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) will ring in the New Year with a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 on Friday, January 2 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, January 4 at 3 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and Saturday, January 3 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore. McGegan will lead the Orchestra in Beethoven's final symphony with the well-known "Ode to Joy," along with Beethoven's rarely performed Opferlied, his King Stephen Overture and Haydn's The Storm. Please see below for complete details.

Single tickets go on sale at the Sarasota Opera Box Office (61 N. Pineapple Avenue) Today, September 2nd for Sarasota Opera's 2014-2015 Fall and Winter Season, one of the grandest seasons in the company's history. Box office hours are Mondaythrough Friday, 10am - 4pm, and is located at 61 N. Pineapple Avenue in the Pavilion Building at the Sarasota Opera House. Visitwww.sarasotaopera.org for more information.

Single tickets go on sale at the Sarasota Opera Box Office (61 N. Pineapple Avenue) Today, September 2nd for Sarasota Opera's 2014-2015 Fall and Winter Season, one of the grandest seasons in the company's history. Box office hours are Monday through Friday, 10am to 4pm, and is located at 61 N. Pineapple Avenue in the Pavilion Building at the Sarasota Opera House. Visit www.sarasotaopera.org for more information.

Single tickets go on sale at the Sarasota Opera Box Office (61 N. Pineapple Avenue) Tuesday, September 2nd for Sarasota Opera's 2014-2015 Fall and Winter Season, one of the grandest seasons in the company's history. Box office hours are Mondaythrough Friday, 10am – 4pm, and is located at 61 N. Pineapple Avenue in the Pavilion Building at the Sarasota Opera House. Visitwww.sarasotaopera.org for more information.

Single tickets go on sale at the Sarasota Opera Box Office (61 N. Pineapple Avenue) Tuesday, September 2nd for Sarasota Opera's 2014-2015 Fall and Winter Season, one of the grandest seasons in the company's history. Box office hours are Monday through Friday, 10am to 4pm, and is located at 61 N. Pineapple Avenue in the Pavilion Building at the Sarasota Opera House. Visit www.sarasotaopera.org for more information.

Single tickets will go on sale exclusively ONLINE at www.sarasotaopera.org Friday, August 1st, 2014 for Sarasota Opera's 2014-2015 Fall and Winter Season, one of the grandest seasons in the company's history. Highlights include the return of some of Sarasota Opera's most popular productions, acclaimed artists, and the Sarasota Opera premieres of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel as well as the Verdi masterpiece Don Carlos in the original Paris version.

For the first time in 40 years Vancouver audiences will experience the magnificence of Verdi's spectacular masterpiece, Don Carlo, the emotionally gripping drama of a king's brutal power and a son's brash rebellion. With formidable orchestral forces, a massive chorus and a powerhouse international cast, VO's final – and biggest – production of 2013-2014promises to be this season's most explosive experience yet!

For the first time in 40 years Vancouver audiences will experience the magnificence of Verdi's spectacular masterpiece, Don Carlo, the emotionally gripping drama of a king's brutal power and a son's brash rebellion. With formidable orchestral forces, a massive chorus and a powerhouse international cast, VO's final – and biggest – production of 2013-2014promises to be this season's most explosive experience yet!

Mary Phillips will sing the role of Ježibaba in this evening's performance of Dvorák's Rusalka, replacing Dolora Zajick, who is ill.

When it comes to operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Don Carlo has to be the most challenging one to produce. Which version do you use? The French version? The Italian translation? Given the over four hour running time of the full version, where do you make cuts, and why? And once you answer those questions, there's the content to deal with. How do you pack in the opera's themes of love, war, betrayal, politics, and the Spanish Inquisition? The later question is one that Austin Lyric Opera's current production fails to answer. While Don Carlo is 3 hours and 30 minutes of aural bliss, the story is handled in a clumsy and sometimes unfortunate way.

It's election season, which means TVs are being barraged with political ads and campaign videos, many of which are unintentionally funny and just plain weird. In an effort to decipher these ridiculous political videos, COMEDY CENTRAL's Indecision has launched '30 Seconds Over Washington,' a new digital original series starring comedian Kyle Kinane. The brand's newest digital series is a revamp of the HBO original and interstitial programming starring Bill Maher and Dennis Miller, which premiered prior to the 1996 elections.

The Met: Live in HD presents the cinematic premiere of Wagner's Ring Cycle and the behind-the-scenes documentary Wagner's Dream. The two-week event begins today May 7 across the U.S. and Canada. See photos from each of the operas below!

The Met: Live in HD presents the cinematic premiere of Wagner's Ring Cycle and the behind-the-scenes documentary Wagner's Dream. The two-week event begins May 7 across the U.S. and Canada. See photos from each of the operas below!

COMEDY CENTRAL has announced today the launch of 'COMEDY CENTRAL's Indecision' Election Companion,' a new iOS-optimized election news and political humor app.

The Dallas Opera will present Richard Wagner's intense and passionate drama, TRISTAN & ISOLDE, for the first time in nearly forty years. This new TDO production opens Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 7:00 PM in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Downtown Dallas.