Matthew Polenzani News

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis in a new-to-Chicago production by famed director Sir David McVicar. It opens on Wednesday, March 5 with seven performances through Sunday, March 23. Performance dates are tonight, March 5 and March 8, 11, 14, 17, and 20, all at 7:30 pm, with a matinee at 2 pm on Sunday, March 23.

The winners of the 43rd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers were announced at the conclusion of the competition's final round this evening, which took place in a front of a capacity audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

Tenor Michael Fabiano has been named the recipient of the ninth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera. The $50,000 award, the largest of its kind in the United States, is designated for extraordinarily gifted singers between the ages of 25 and 40 who have already appeared in featured solo roles at the Met. The award, given in honor of Beverly Sills, was established in 2006 by an endowment gift from former Met board member Agnes Varis, who died in 2011. Ms. Varis was also the founding donor of the Met's Rush Ticket program. Fabiano was presented with the award at the Met today by Met General Manager Peter Gelb.

Today, February 21, 24 finalists will perform for the judges and audience, hoping to win a George London Award, an honor that has been conferred upon hundreds of the best young singers since 1971.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2014-15 season will feature 26 operas, three of them company premieres, in six new productions and 18 revivals showcasing the talents of the world's leading singers, conductors, and theater artists. The three operas that will have their first-ever Met performances, each staged by a director making his Met debut, are John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, conducted by David Robertson and directed by Tom Morris, opening October 20; Rossini's La Donna del Lago, conducted by Michele Mariotti and directed by Paul Curran, opening February 16, 2015; and Tchaikovsky's one-act opera Iolanta, conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Treli?ski. Iolanta will be presented in a double bill with a new staging of Bartok's one-act Duke Bluebeard's Castle, also conducted by Gergiev and directed by Treli?ski.

To experience the grand spectacle of opera, which embraces the best of the performing arts, there is no need to go to the big city when you can see Puccini's La Boheme on Sunday, April 6, at 5 p.m. and Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte on Saturday, April 26, at 12:55 p.m., in the comfortable, intimate Ridgefield Playhouse. Close-ups and interesting camera angles afforded uniquely thru the power of an HD broadcast and exclusive behind-the-scenes tours and interviews make going to the opera a pleasure. For dinner-and-an-opera, Bernard's (22 West Lane, Ridgefield) is offering a special $45 prix-fixe menu, or a free glass of wine with dinner before or after these events, when tickets are presented; reservations suggested beginning at 5 p.m. Visit ridgefieldplayhouse.org for video previews of the Met Live in HD Series. This series is underwritten by Jeanne Cook, Anita and Nicholas Donofrio, Liz and Steven Goldstone, Marilyn and Joe Kreitz, Joanne and John Patrick, Starbucks Coffee, Sabina and Walter Slavin, Taylor Zemo Foundation, The Ridgefield Press and Whistle Stop Bakery.

The 49th season of Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, which will run from November 2, 2014 through May 10, 2015, was announced today by Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director. Highlighting the season are the return of the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, led by Riccardo Chailly and of Michael Tilson Thomasconducting the London Symphony Orchestra. The "Art of the Song" series returns in 2015 with recitals by four outstanding vocal artists. The 2014-2015 season also features a period-instrument chamber orchestra series, a recital series, and a film series, and includes pre- and post-concert discussions and lectures. A new series, "Complimentary Classical" will bring four compelling string quartets to the David Rubenstein Atrium in free concerts in 2015.

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis in a new-to-Chicago production by famed director Sir David McVicar. It opens on Wednesday, March 5 with seven performances through Sunday, March 23. Performance dates are March 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 20, all at 7:30 pm, with a matinee at 2 pm on Sunday, March 23.

Over three days of preliminary auditions on February 17-19, 2014, 90 of the best young American and Canadian opera singers will compete to reach the final round of the 43rd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition.

Richard Tucker Award-winner Ailyn Pérez – the “lyric soprano who truly seems to have it all” (Opera News) – takes on a trio of starring roles at London's Royal Opera House over the coming months. After launching the new year in the title role of Manon (Jan 31–Feb 4), she makes her role debut as Liù in Turandot (Feb 17–March 10), before giving her first scheduled Covent Garden performances in the title role of La traviata opposite her husband and fellow Tucker Award-winner, tenor Stephen Costello (May 6–20). Dubbed “America's fastest-rising husband-and-wife opera stars” (Associated Press), the couple brought down the house in London two years ago, when the soprano stepped in as a last-minute replacement to partner her husband in Verdi's masterpiece.

Live From Lincoln Center will broadcast the Richard Tucker Music Foundation's 2013 gala concert, one of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season, from Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. The concert event will celebrate the legendary tenor's centenary with an illustrious all-American group of singers, and honoring this year'sRichard Tucker Award winner Isabel Leonard. The 'Richard Tucker at 100: An Opera Celebration' broadcast-hosted byAudra McDonald and featuring interstitial interviews with the artists, segments from backstage, and a short documentary on Richard Tucker's life-is taped from a concert on November 17, and will air on PBS stations tonight, January 10, 2014 at 9:00 p.m. (ET) (check local listings).

A "dream team of opera singers" (New York Times) will light up TV screens across the country on Friday, January 10 at 9 p.m. EST (check local listings) in the national broadcast of "Richard Tucker at 100: An Opera Celebration." Hosted by Audra McDonald for PBS's Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center, the telecast captures the Richard Tucker Music Foundation's recent gala concert at Avery Fisher Hall, which honored the legendary tenor's centennial. Isabel Leonard, the 2013 Richard Tucker Award-winner and a rising star in the U.S. and abroad, joined many of today's biggest names in opera-Stephanie Blythe, Stephen Costello, Joyce DiDonato, Renee Fleming, Susan Graham, Greer Grimsley, Angela Meade, Eric Owens, Ailyn Perez and Matthew Polenzani-for arias and ensembles by Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Puccini, Offenbach and more with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Choral Society led by Maestro Riccardo Frizza.

Centenary celebrations marking the 100th birthday of the late Brooklyn-born tenor Richard Tucker continue on December 14, when New York City's Park East Synagogue, in association with the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, presents a tribute to the cantor-turned-opera star as its ninth-annual benefit concert for the Park East Day School. The program for the special event showcases the American cantorial tradition and commemorates Tucker's devotional art as a cantor. The 8 p.m. concert at the synagogue (163 E. 67th St.) will feature Park East Chief Cantor Yitzchak Meir Helfgot, one of the world's most renowned exponents of the cantorial art, as well as operatic tenor Neil Shicoff, a New York native and veteran of the Metropolitan Opera; also on the program is the Park East Synagogue Choir under music director Russel Ger. Tickets start at $50 with proceeds supporting education activities at the Day School. For more information, contact Park East Synagogue at 212-737-6900 or info@parkeastsynagogue.org.

Tonight, November 17, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation celebrates the 100th anniversary of the legendary tenor's birth with a star-studded gala at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Isabel Leonard, the 2013 Richard Tucker Award-winner and a rising star in the U.S. and abroad, joins an outstanding group of singers including Stephanie Blythe, Stephen Costello, Joyce DiDonato, Renee Fleming, Christine Goerke, Susan Graham, Greer Grimsley, Angela Meade, Eric Owens, Ailyn Perez, Matthew Polenzani, and Patricia Racette. With the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Choral Society led by Riccardo Frizza they will present a program of arias and ensembles by Verdi, Bellini, Rossini, Dvorak, Puccini and Offenbach. Following the concert, which is being taped for broadcast on PBS's Live From Lincoln Center on January 10, 2014 at 9:00 p.m. EST (check local listings), the foundation will host a gala dinner on the Grand Promenade of Avery Fisher Hall.

On November 17, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation celebrates the 100th anniversary of the legendary tenor's birth with a star-studded gala at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. Isabel Leonard, the 2013 Richard Tucker Award-winner and a rising star in the U.S. and abroad, joins an outstanding group of singers including Stephanie Blythe, Stephen Costello, Joyce DiDonato, Renee Fleming, Christine Goerke, Susan Graham, Greer Grimsley, Angela Meade, Eric Owens, Ailyn Perez, Matthew Polenzani, and Patricia Racette. With the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Choral Society led by Riccardo Frizza they will present a program of arias and ensembles by Verdi, Bellini, Rossini, Dvorak, Puccini and Offenbach. Following the concert, which is being taped for broadcast on PBS's Live From Lincoln Center on January 10, 2014 at 9:00 p.m. EST (check local listings), the foundation will host a gala dinner on the Grand Promenade of Avery Fisher Hall.

Live From Lincoln Center will broadcast the Richard Tucker Music Foundation's 2013 gala concert, one of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season, from Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. The concert event will celebrate the legendary tenor's centenary with an illustrious all-American group of singers, and honoring this year'sRichard Tucker Award winner Isabel Leonard. The "Richard Tucker at 100: An Opera Celebration" broadcast-hosted byAudra McDonald and featuring interstitial interviews with the artists, segments from backstage, and a short documentary on Richard Tucker's life-is taped from a concert on November 17, and will air on PBS stations on Friday, January 10, 2014 at 9:00 p.m. (ET) (check local listings).

Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings his first Met performances of the title role in Verdi's Rigoletto beginning today, November 11, in the first revival of Michael Mayer's hit production, set in the decadent world of 1960s Las Vegas.

On Monday, October 28, 2013, Sing for Hope celebrated its 7th annual gala in New York City in a multi-level Chelsea loft space punctuated by brilliantly colored Sing for Hope Pianos and vivid art photographs. Nearly 400 guests gathered to support Sing for Hope's arts outreach programs that democratize the arts and ignite the spark of creative innovation in all people. Scroll down for photos from the event!