Matthew Ozawa News

Gounod’s overture introduces ROMEO AND JULIET with a prophetic mix of lyrical romance and tragedy. Yves Abel, the Principal Conductor of the San Diego Opera, is an expert in French opera and made sure that resonant brass and lush strings produced the mood a Parisian composer of the time would have favored. The quick pace was especially important in a five-act opera some productions turn into a turgid ordeal. No chance of that with Abel leading the San Diego Symphony.

Conductor Yves Abel arrived in San Diego from Europe a few days ago to begin rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet by French composer Charles Gounod. The Maestro does get around a lot, even for an internationally in-demand musician. His wife and boys five and eight sometimes travel with him when he conducts but remain at home in Italy this time. Perhaps Abel’s wanderlust began in childhood. His family immigrated from France to French-speaking Quebec when he was young. His father couldn’t find work there, so it was off to English-speaking Toronto where he spent most of his formative years. Next stop New York City for study at the Mannes School of Music, and after New York frequent work in Italy, then Germany. Abel’s travel has resulted in fluency in French, English, Italian and German.

Gounod's masterpiece of grand French opera, Roméo et Juliette, continues San Diego Opera's 2021-2022 season when it opens on Saturday, March, 26, 2022 for four performances at the San Diego Civic Theatre. Additional performances are March 29, April 1, and 3 (matinee), 2022.

The leadership team at Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced that Matthew Ozawa will join the company in a newly created senior position: Chief Artistic Administration Officer. Ozawa returns to Lyric, having served as Interim Head of Lyric Unlimited, the company’s learning and creative engagement division.

Gounod's masterpiece of grand French opera, Roméo et Juliette, continues San Diego Opera's 2021-2022 season when it opens on Saturday, March, 26, 2022 for four performances at the San Diego Civic Theatre.

San Francisco Opera has announced plans for the Company's 100th season. As only the third American opera company in history to reach this centennial milestone, the Company's 2022–23 Season will honor San Francisco Opera's glorious past while inviting the public into an exciting new era of musical excellence under Kim's music directorship and a renewed commitment to innovation.

As only the third American opera company in history to reach this centennial milestone, the Company’s 2022–23 Season will honor San Francisco Opera’s glorious past while inviting the public into an exciting new era of musical excellence under Kim’s music directorship and a renewed commitment to innovation.

Gounod's masterpiece of grand French opera, Roméo et Juliette, continues San Diego Opera's 2021-2022 season when it opens on Saturday, March, 26, 2022 for four performances at the San Diego Civic Theatre. Additional performances are March 29, April 1, and 3 (matinee), 2022.

The Entertainment and Performing Arts Industry Conference (EPIC) is thrilled to announce some of Broadway’s best to join a multi-national and highly regarded group of entertainment industry leaders to participate in the first-ever, 24-hour global online event for everyone working in, aspiring to work in, or wishing to explore the arts and entertainment sector.  

On October 14, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, in a well-thought-out production with an outstanding cast. Matthew Ozawa directed the action in a prison of the current era. There, Leonore, a prisoner’s wife disguises herself as a male worker and rescues her husband from unjust incarceration.

Tour members meet on the Flying Opera Magic Carpet for a week of American and international performances. Our first stop is at San Francisco Opera, for Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven online October 14, 17, and 30, 2021. Cost- $25.

Virtual tickets for San Francisco Opera's livestreams of its new production of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio—a brand-new online offering by the Company—go on sale today, October 5 at 1pm PT.

Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and cast in this monumental work in which love and courage overcome tyranny. Director Matthew Ozawa’s interpretation of the work updates its original eighteenth-century prison setting to a modern government detention center.

The live, 75-minute Zoom discussions offer music lovers around the world a front-row seat to scholarly talks and conversations and an opportunity to dialogue with fellow opera enthusiasts and special guests.

San Diego Opera has announced its 2021-2022 season, which returns to theatres indoors, after a reduced 2020-2021 season that saw the Company perform innovative drive-in productions during the global coronavirus pandemic.

San Francisco Opera announced today repertory, casting and reopening plans for its 99th season. Commencing with a performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca on Saturday, August 21, the 2021–22 Season marks the inauguration of Eun Sun Kim’s tenure as Caroline H. Hume Music Director and a reemergence of opera at the War Memorial Opera House.

On April. 23, 2021, San Francisco Opera presented its first drive-in opera, Rossini’s rollicking comedy, The Barber of Seville. As the boisterous Spanish hair stylist, baritone Lucas Meachem opened the show with a vigorous, rousing version of his famous “Largo al Factotum”. California COVID restrictions limited the show to ninety minutes. Using the Zedda edition of the Ricordi piano/vocal score, Conductor Roderick Cox and Director Matthew Ozawa treated the audience to all the opera’s major arias, duets, and ensembles,

Opening on April 23, the eleven performances running through May 15 are the Company’s first live performances in 16 months since the onset of the global pandemic, which caused the cancellation of the Company’s Summer and Fall 2020 seasons.

On Wednesday, April 21, We begin this week’s tour with one of the Los Angeles Opera website’s most popular “Living Room Recitals.” Soprano, Latonia Moore sings with pianist Roberto Berrocal. After the recital, we leave for NYC. On arrival, we go to Shut Up and Eat, a most generous Toms River restaurant that offers a discount to patrons in pajamas. 

San Francisco Opera stages its first live opera performances with a new, specially adapted production of Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville offered in a drive-in setting on the bucolic grounds of San Rafael's Marin Center.