When soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci walked on stage at Zankel Hall for her recital the other night, I thought I had wandered into an Antonioni movie, with a ravishing diva (usually played by Monica Vitti) about to perform for a rapt audience. Then she opened her mouth and sang the first of a series of songs by Debussy (texts by Verlaine) and I knew I was in the right place: heaven.
The sixth production of Mosaic Theater Company's third season will be Paper Dolls, written by Philip Himberg (Producing Artistic Director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Program) and directed by Broadway veteran Mark Brokaw. This uplifting, entertaining, and thought-provoking play with songs illuminates the world of five gay male Filipino nurses in Tel Aviv who care for elderly Orthodox and Chasidic men six days a week-and headline a drag show on their day off!
Sylvia Kahan is Professor of Music at the Graduate Center and College of Staten Island, CUNY, where she is a member of both the Piano and Musicology faculties. As a pianist, Dr. Kahan has performed as concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician in all of New York's major halls and in concert venues throughout North America and Europe.
Multiple sources have revealed a starry cast for the upcoming West End production of Chess at London's Coliseum. The cast is said to include Michael Ball (The Russian), Alexandra Burke (Svetlana), Murray Head (The Arbiter), Tim Howar (The American) and Cassidy Janson (Florence).
Trailblazer: The Story of Ballerina Raven Wilkinson is a new children's book, that tells the little-known story of the world-renowned Raven Wilkinson- the first African American woman to dance for a major classical ballet company. This biography was written by Leda Schubert with illustrations by Theodore Taylor III and a forward by ABT Principal dancer Misty Copeland.
Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced the date and partial casting for its 2018 WNO Gala, which takes place on Sunday, May 20 in the Kennedy Center Opera House. The annual Gala concert features a world-class cast starring Tony and GRAMMY Award-winning actor Patti LuPone; Emmy-nominated singer and actor Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, 30 Rock); and stars from WNO's current season—mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (Rosina in The Barber of Seville) and soprano Kathryn Lewek (Cunegonde in Candide)—as well as members of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists Program and other special guests to be announced at a later date. Renowned baritone Nathan Gunn will host and perform, alongside his wife, pianist Julie Gunn. Conductor John DeMain leads the WNO Orchestra in this event honoring the centennial of iconic composer, conductor, educator, and humanitarian Leonard Bernstein's birth. The WNO Gala is the culminating event in this season's Center-wide celebration of the musical genius, and Jamie Bernstein, the composer's eldest daughter, will also participate in the festivities. Gala packages for the full evening include a cocktail reception on the Kennedy Center's River Terrace at 4:30 p.m., followed by the 6 p.m. performance. The event concludes with elegant dinners hosted by Ambassadors and foreign dignitaries at embassies and residences throughout Washington.
Philip Torre, a baritone who has appeared on the stages of Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and others, will perform the title role of Stephen Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. The production's Mrs. Lovett will be Jacquelyne Jones, who just completed a run in Firebrand Theatre's acclaimed production of LIZZIE and appeared in Theo Ubique's HONKY TONK ANGELS as well as Kokandy Productions' HEATHERS last season.
Laurie Rubin, a blind singer who challenged the norm and beat the odds is performing at The Berman Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, February 22.
Today, Canadian Opera Company General Director Alexander Neef was named Artistic Director of Santa Fe Opera by incoming SFO General Director Robert K. Meya, effective October 1, 2018. The announcement followed Meya's own appointment this morning by the SFO Board of Directors, along with English conductor Harry Bicket as Music Director. Neef will continue in his position as COC General Director, in addition to this new seasonal role.
Gioachino Rossini's laugh-out-loud romantic comedy returns to Opera Santa Barbara for the first time since 2001. The Barber of Seville has been entertaining audiences for more than 200 years with its outrageous stage antics and vocal acrobatics. Featuring some of opera's most recognizable tunes, audiences are sure to leave the theater singing Figaro, Figaro, Fiiiiiii-garo!
Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth today announced Utah Opera's 2018-19 season. Featuring two new productions by the company's in-house Production Studios, Utah Opera's 41st season runs from October 2018 to May 2019 and comprises three main-stage productions at Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre and a semi-staged production at Abravanel Hall.
Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth today announced Utah Opera's 2018-19 season. Featuring two new productions by the company's in-house Production Studios, Utah Opera's 41st season runs from October 2018 to May 2019 and comprises three main-stage productions at Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre and a semi-staged production at Abravanel Hall.
The little OPERA theatre of ny (LOTNY), in collaboration with New York based period ensemble New Vintage Baroque, presents the New York City Premiere of Piramo e Tisbe at Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue, NYC, from March 22-25, 2018, with performances on Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $35 and are available at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/35006. Based upon the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Ovid's Metamorphoses with a libretto by Marco Coltellini, Piramo e Tisbe is byJohann Adolph Hasse, a pivotal opera composer of the 18th Century celebrated for his sweet and tender melodies. Sung in Italian with English supertitles.
Members of The Flora L. Thornton Opera Program will perform W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's most popular comic operetta "The Pirates of Penzance" at Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre from Wednesday, February 21 through Saturday, February 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts.
eSe Teatro is thrilled to partner with Sound Theatre Company to present the world premiere of an original new multimedia musical for a limited engagement, February 25th - 28th, 2018.
National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, continues its 2017-2018 Season at Lincoln Center with the New York Premiere of Angela Rice's Thy Will Be Done on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC. Tickets are $30-100 and are available at www.nationalchorale.com or by calling (212) 333-5333.
American Composers Orchestra (ACO) announces two performances presented by Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall during the 2018-2019 season. In 2018-2019, under the leadership of Artistic Director Derek Bermel, Music Director George Manahan, and President Edward Yim, ACO continues its commitment to the creation, performance, preservation, and promotion of music by American composers, with programming that reflects the infinite ways American orchestral music illustrates geographic, stylistic, gender, and racial diversity. ACO's concerts at Carnegie Hall include premieres by 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winner Du Yun, by composer and Imani Winds flutist Valerie Coleman, and by Alex Temple, a composer who integrates love for pop culture and the Western classical tradition. Additional 2018-2019 performances and activities will be announced in March 2018.
The Santa Barbara Symphony, under the baton of Maestro Nir Kabaretti, will pay tribute to the musical genius of Leonard Bernstein with performances that highlight the breadth of his legacy on Saturday, February 17, and Sunday, February 18. Featuring award-winning soprano Lisa Vroman and singers from the Santa Barbara Choral Society, the concerts will take place at 8 pm on February 17 and at 3 pm on February 18 at the Granada Theatre. The program will include some of Bernstein's best-known works, including melodies from the ballet Fancy Free and his timeless West Side Story, as well as Aaron Copland's Quiet City and the world premiere of a piano concerto by acclaimed Santa Barbara-based composer Robin Frost. Tickets start at $29 and can be purchased at www.granadasb.org or by calling 805-899-2222.
Houston Grand Opera presents Bernstein's West Side Story (April 20 - May 6), Bellini's Norma (April 27 - May 11), and return of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (May 17, 19, 20) at HGO Resilience Theater World's first mariachi opera returns after New York triumph Houston, January 29, 2018 - Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present the first major American opera house production of Leonard Bernstein ' s landmark musical West Side Story, April 20 - May 6, and Bellini's vocal powerhouse Norma, April 27 - May 11, in the HGO Resil i ence Theater at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Creator and librettist Cerise Jacobs – hailed by Opera magazine as “intrepid and artistically ambitious” – is quickly establishing a body of original operatic work that blends two of her great passions, myth and technology, in compelling and relevant contemporary stories. Her latest venture, premiering at Boston's Cutler Majestic Theater on September 27-29 of this year, is the video game opera PermaDeath, co-written with her son Pirate Epstein, founder of the video game company SqueePlay and a former New England Halo champion. Composed by Dan Visconti, perhaps best known in the opera world as the composer of Opera Philadelphia's recent Andy Warhol-themed ANDY: A Popera, the opera is directed by New York-based opera director Sam Helfrich, who helmed the first performances in New York of Hungarian composer Péter Eötvös's Angels in America at New York City Opera last year. PermaDeath is produced by White Snake Projects, headed by Boston producer and Artistic Director of TEDxCambridge Georgia Lyman, with Jacobs as Executive Producer.
