Nadine Sierra News

The Metropolitan Opera's 2016-17 season, the 50th anniversary of its home at Lincoln Center, will feature 225 opera performances of 26 operas in a varied repertory that ranges from 18th century masterpieces to one of the most acclaimed operas in recent years. Repertoire for the company's 132nd season will include the Met premiere of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's 2000 opera L'Amour de Loin, as well as new stagings of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Rossini's Guillaume Tell, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Dvo?ak's Rusalka, and Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. A gala concert on May 7, 2017 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the company's Lincoln Center location with performances by opera's leading stars honoring the Met's past and future. Ticket prices will not increase, remaining the same as in the current season, and audience development programs instituted by the company in recent years will continue.  

Egyptian Soprano, Fatma Said was announced winner of the 8th Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition at the National Concert Hall last night. The Egyptian native competed against 47 finalists over the past week in Dublin, and last night she won the judging panel over with her performance. The winner commented just minutes after receiving the much sought-after prize, “I'm overwhelmed to be this year's winner. I've worked so hard over the past few months and the work has paid off. The talent in Dublin this week has been phenomenal; I can't quite believe that I'm the 2016 winner.”  The 24-year-old from Cairo was honoured at the National Concert Hall on Thursday night where a total of six finalists performed for the judges.  Said performed three arias on Thursday night accompanied by the Wexford Festival Opera Orchestra, conducted by Patrik Ringborg.

LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER - the multiple Emmy Award-winning performing arts series that for more than 40 years has showcased the best of the wide-ranging programming from the world's leading performing arts center - will broadcast the opera world's most highly anticipated event of the season tonight, February 5, 2016.

LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER - the multiple Emmy Award-winning performing arts series that for more than 40 years has showcased the best of the wide-ranging programming from the world's leading performing arts center - will broadcast the opera world's most highly anticipated event of the season on February 5, 2016. The annual Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala concert features some of opera's biggest stars, including Andrea Bocelli, Renee Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu, Isabel Leonard, Christine Goerke, Lawrence Brownlee, Stephen Costello, Nadine Sierra, and Piotr Bezcala, along with this year's Richard Tucker Award winner, Jamie Barton. Supporting the singers will be members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and New York Choral society under the baton of Eugene Kohn. Live From Lincoln Center's 'From Bocelli to Barton: The Richard Tucker Opera Gala' will air on Friday, February 5, 2016, at 9:00 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), and will be hosted by Audra McDonald.

The 8th Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition was launched by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys T.D. at the Royal Irish Academy of Music today. Over the past 21 years the competition, which is now run in association with Wexford Festival Opera, is established as an Irish musical event of international standing that offers a global stage for the encouragement and development of Irish and international vocal talent.

“Often when I tell people I'm doing a new production, the first question they ask is: 'What time period are you going to do it in and where?' I think that's a superficial approach, almost a cliche,” says Tomer Zvulun, General and Artistic Director of the Atlanta Opera. “The first thing I ask myself is: Why am I telling this story now? Why would the audience care? And, how would I connect with them in the most effect way while respecting the piece?” But that's not Tvulun's point of view.

Tonight, December 2, Verdi's RIGOLETTO returns to the Met with a new cast of principals stepping into the 1960s Las Vegas setting of Michael Mayer's acclaimed production.

San Francisco Opera today announced casting updates to the 2016 summer season which begins May 27 with the American premiere of Spanish director Calixto Bieito's production of Georges Bizet's CARMEN, followed by Giuseppe Verdi's DON CARLO opening on June 12 and Leoš Janácek's JENUFA starting on June 14.

On Wednesday, December 2, Verdi's RIGOLETTO returns to the Met with a new cast of principals stepping into the 1960s Las Vegas setting of Michael Mayer's acclaimed production.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation's annual galas--celebrating each year's winner of the Tucker Award to young American singers--are known for two things. First, they are notoriously fun evenings of opera warhorses and, second, they are guessing games: Which of the singers scheduled to perform won't show up? This year's gala fulfilled the first object delectably, as it celebrated mezzo Jamie Barton, but, surprise!, almost everyone appeared as scheduled, with one very noticeable exception.

San Francisco Opera brings back to the War Memorial Opera House Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute in Jun Kaneko's colorful multimedia production directed by Harry Silverstein. Featuring an accomplished cast of young operatic talent, these performances are presented using General Director David Gockley's English singing translation, with additional material by Ruth and Thomas Martin, and are led by prominent American conductor Lawrence Foster in his San Francisco Opera debut. 

Verdi's Rigoletto returns to the Met October 20 for fifteen performances. Michael Mayer's 2013 production, set in a 1960s Las Vegas casino, will star George Gagnidze in the title role opposite two singers in company role debuts: Olga Peretyatko as Gilda and Stephen Costello as the Duke. Spanish maestro Pablo Heras-Casado will lead the initial performances of the opera, which also feature Štefan Kocán as Sparafucile and Swedish mezzo-soprano Katarina Leoson, in her Met debut, as Maddalena. Later performances this season will star Željko Lu?i? in the title role and Piotr Beczala as the Duke, roles both sang in the new production premiere of Mayer's staging, opposite 2009 National Council Auditions winner Nadine Sierra in her Met debut as Gilda. Roberto Abbado conducts a cast that also features Russian bass Dimitry Ivashchenko in his Met debut as Sparafucile and Nancy Fabiola Herrera as Maddalena.

SAN FRANCISCO (October 12, 2015) –– San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald announced today the twelve recipients of the 2016 Adler Fellowship, a multi-year performance-oriented residency offering advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching and professional seminars, as well as a wide range of performance opportunities. Adler Fellows are selected from the young artists who have participated in the Merola Opera Program. This prestigious training program has nurtured the development of more than 150 young artists since its inception.

San Francisco Opera today announced cast changes for the Company's new production of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, presented October 8–28, 2015, and for Mozart's The Magic Flute, presented October 20–November 20, at the War Memorial Opera House. German soprano Diana Damrau has withdrawn from the Lucia production, in order to remain on vocal rest for the next six weeks. American soprano Nadine Sierra—who performed Lucia last spring at the Zurich Opera House to critical acclaim and, more recently, as the Countess in San Francisco Opera's The Marriage of Figaro—will now sing the title role for all seven performances.

SAN FRANCISCO (October 1, 2015) –– San Francisco Opera brings back to the War Memorial Opera House Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute in Jun Kaneko's colorful multimedia production directed by Harry Silverstein. Featuring an accomplished cast of young operatic talent, these performances are presented using General Director David Gockley's English singing translation, with additional material by Ruth and Thomas Martin, and are led by prominent American conductor Lawrence Foster in his San Francisco Opera debut. 

IlluminArts presents immersive musical performance in conjunction with LISTEN TO THIS BUILDING: A collaboration by Exile Books, the Miami Center for Architecture and Design, and the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind. Called SONGS OF THE CITY, SONGS IN THE DARK, the concert is set for tonight, October 1, 2015 from 6:30PM to 8:30 PM at the Miami Center for Architecture and Design, 100 NE 1st Avenue, Miami, FL 33132.

IlluminArts presents immersive musical performance in conjunction with LISTEN TO THIS BUILDING: A collaboration by Exile Books, the Miami Center for Architecture and Design, and the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind. Called SONGS OF THE CITY, SONGS IN THE DARK, the concert is set for October 1, 2015 from 6:30PM to 8:30 PM at the Miami Center for Architecture and Design, 100 NE 1st Avenue, Miami, FL 33132.

San Francisco Opera today announced cast changes for the Company's new production of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, presented October 8-28, 2015, and for Mozart's The Magic Flute, presented October 20-November 20, at the War Memorial Opera House.

San Francisco Opera today announced cast changes for the Company's new production of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, presented October 8–28, 2015, and for Mozart's The Magic Flute, presented October 20–November 20, at the War Memorial Opera House.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation holds its annual gala, one of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season, on Sunday, November 1 at the newly renamed David Geffen Hall in New York's Lincoln Center.