Matthew Polenzani News

The grand incomparable spectacle of opera returns to The Ridgefield Playhouse this fall with an impressive lineup broadcast from the Met Live in HD.Tonight, October 28, at 6:30 p.m., William Kentridge storms the Met in Shostakovich's The Nose.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky will sing his first Met performances of the title role in Verdi's Rigolettobeginning November 11, in the first revival of Michael Mayer's hit production, set in the decadent world of 1960s Las Vegas. Matthew Polenzani makes his company role debut as the womanizing Duke, and two rising singers make Met debuts as the innocent Gilda: Russian soprano Irina Lungu and Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva. Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado makes his Met debut leading the revival. The December 7 matinee performance will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network to inaugurate the 83rd season of the popular Saturday broadcast series.

Angela Meade, the soprano whose 57 competition wins include the Metropolitan Opera's 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Award, returns to the company in two prominent productions this fall. She launches the new season with her first Met performances in the title role of Norma (Oct 24 & 28), having demonstrated “her nearly mind-blowing mastery of Bellini's most challenging music” (Washington Times) in the same part earlier this year. Then, under the baton of James Levine, she makes her role debut as Alice Ford in a new-to-the-Met production of Falstaff (Dec 6–Jan 11) that will be beamed to movie theaters worldwide in the Met: Live in HD series (Dec 14). Meade's abundant honors include the 2011 Richard Tucker Award, and she graces a special gala concert to celebrate the legendary tenor's centennial at Avery Fisher Hall (Nov 17). She also looks forward to making two important European debuts this season: in Italy, where she gives her first performances as Mathilde in Rossini's William Tell at the Teatro Regio di Torino (May 7-18), and at the Frankfurt Opera, where she sings her first Fidelia in concert performances of Puccini's Edgar (Feb 16 & 18).

On Monday, October 28, 2013, Sing for Hope will hold its 7th annual gala at Center548 in Manhattan. The gala's theme is 'Art for All,' in reflection of Sing for Hope's arts outreach programs that democratize the arts and ignite the spark of creative innovation in all people. Cocktails begin promptly at 6:30 p.m., with dinner and the program beginning at 7:30 p.m. The event is chaired by ANN ZIFF (Sing for Hope Board Member, Chair of the Metropolitan Opera, and Vice-Chair of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts) and will honor HAMDI ULUKAYA, Founder and CEO of Chobani, Inc., America's #1 selling yogurt brand. Scroll down for a look at this year's performers and guests!

On Sunday, November 17th at 6:30 pm, the New York Choral Society (NYCS),returns for its 20th year as guest artist at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala in Avery Fisher Hall. In an evening led by Maestro Riccardo Frizza, the Gala concert will feature Isabel Leonard, winner of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, which is conferred annually upon a single artist who is on the threshold of a major international career.

Cleveland Orchestra has announced its concerts and events for October 2013. Details below!

The grand incomparable spectacle of opera returns to The Ridgefield Playhouse this fall with an impressive lineup broadcast from the Met Live in HD. First up is Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, starring diva Anna Netrebko with Mariusz Kwiecie, today, October 5, at 12:55 p.m.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theaters, will feature 10 productions in the 2013-14 season, offering a significant portion of the Met season to opera lovers around the world.

Check out the excerpt from Act I of Mozart's 'Così fan tutte,' conducted by James Levine in his first Met performance in two years.

Cleveland Orchestra has announced its concerts and events for October 2013. Details below!

Two rising young sopranos will make their Met debuts earlier than originally scheduled when they share the role of Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto later this fall, replacing Aleksandra Kurzak, who has withdrawn due to pregnancy. Russian soprano Irina Lungu will sing the role on November 11, 15, and 18, and Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva will sing the role on November 21, 27, 30, December 4, and at the December 7 matinee. Kurzak is expecting a baby this winter with her partner, tenor Roberto Alagna.

Music Director James Levine returns to the Met podium after a two-year absence, greeted by a standing ovation to conducts Mozart's 'Così fan tutte' on September 24, 2013. Check out the video below!

Not many opera performances start with a standing ovation before a single note is sung, but the season's first COSI FAN TUTTE on September 24 was one of those rare occasions. It marked the return of conductor James Levine after a two-year absence, leading the performance from a motorized chair at a specially constructed podium. He had the orchestra—and the audience—in the palm of his hand.

After an absence of more than two years, Music Director James Levine returned to the Met podium in triumph last night, leading the season premiere of Mozart's Così fan tutte. Entering the orchestra pit, the maestro was greeted by a minute-long standing ovation and cheers from the packed house before launching into the performance. Levine, who had been sidelined by health issues, made his comeback with the Met Orchestra in concert at Carnegie Hall last May, but this was his first appearance at the opera house since the end of the 2010–11 season. “[He] led his beloved musicians like a man rejuvenated,” the Associated Press says. “This was prime Levine: a lithe, energetic, transparent account of Mozart's miraculous score, brisk but not rushed, polished and profound. His energy seemed never to flag throughout the long evening.”

Tenor Matthew Polenzani, who has been praised as "perhaps the finest tenor voice of his generation" (Boston Phoenix), and fast-rising young star soprano Corinne Winters will launch the 2013-14 season of events of The George London Foundation for Singers with a recital at The Morgan Library and Museum on Sunday, October 20, 2013, at 4:30 PM. The George London Foundation Recital Series presents pairs of outstanding opera singers, many of whom were winners of a George London prize early in their careers or are recent George London Award recipients. Mr. Polenzani is a 1998 George London Award winner, and Ms. Winters won a George London Award in 2012 (watch Corinne Winters's George London Award-winning performance of Meyerbeer's "Robert, toi que j'aime"here).