Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de Loin ('Love From Afar'), one of the most highly praised operas of recent years, airs on Great Performances at the Met Sunday, April 2 at 12 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the opera at 12:30 p.m.)
Susanna Phillips stars as Clémence, the Countess of Tripoli, opposite Eric Owens as Jaufré Rudel, a troubadour on a quest to find his perfect love, and Tamara Mumford as the Pilgrim who carries messages back and forth between them.
As Opera News notes in a "Spotlight" double-page spread in the just-published February issue, Tucker Award-winning tenor Stephen Costello is now "at the top of his game." This spring, marking his house title role debut, he headlines Gounod's Romeo et Juliette (March 3-18) at New York's Metropolitan Opera, starring opposite Pretty Yende in Bartlett Sher's hit staging. By way of a preview, Costello and Yende will each sing romantic arias from the opera in a special Valentine's Day edition of WQXR'S Classical Beer Jam at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in downtown Manhattan, marking their first public appearance together (Feb 14). Opera lovers around the world can catch a live webcast of the performance on Facebook and WQXR.org. Meanwhile, the tenor may already be seen at the Met, channeling Frank Sinatra as the Duke of Mantua in Michael Mayer's Vegas setting of Verdi's Rigoletto (Jan 20-Feb 4), to which, last year, the New York Times found his "bright tenor … perfectly suited."
With the nation's budget deadline looming, the National Endowment for the Arts is still at risk. Lincoln Center has just released the following statement in support of the NEA.
The Metropolitan Opera's 2017-18 season will feature 220 performances of 26 works, including two Met premieres, one co-commissioned by the company and one an older masterpiece having its first Met performances; a variety of repertory favorites, three in new productions; and performances of Verdi's towering concert work for soloists, orchestra, and chorus, the Requiem. Of note, Broadway star Kelli O'Hara is set to return to the Met in Così fan tutte this season.
“RUSALKA is an operatic fairytale with a strong message about the consequences of over-reaching--an appropriate, cautionary tale for our times,” said Peter Gelb, the Metropolitan Opera's General Manager, introducing a panel at the Guggenheim Museum's Works & Process series that included director Mary Zimmerman and conductor Mark Elder. The new production opens at the Met on February 2--“and that's not an 'alternative fact,'” said Gelb--starring soprano Kristine Opolais as Rusalka, tenor Brandon Jovanovich as the Prince, mezzo Jamie Barton as Jezibaba (the witch), and bass-baritone Eric Owens as the Water Gnome (Rusalka's father).
Charismatic baritone Simon Keenlyside stars as the title character in Don Giovanni, bringing his acclaimed interpretation of the role to THIRTEEN's Great Performances at the Met for the first time.
Charismatic baritone Simon Keenlyside stars as the title character in Don Giovanni, bringing his acclaimed interpretation of the role to THIRTEEN's Great Performances at the Met for the first time.
The Met's new production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle in his first Met performances since his 2010 debut, opens the new season of THIRTEEN'S GREAT PERFORMANCES at the Met
As Opera News notes in a "Spotlight" double-page spread in the just-published February issue, Tucker Award-winning tenor Stephen Costello is now "at the top of his game." This spring, marking his house title role debut, he headlines Gounod's Romeo et Juliette (March 3-18) at New York's Metropolitan Opera, starring opposite Pretty Yende in Bartlett Sher's hit staging. By way of a preview, Costello and Yende will each sing romantic arias from the opera in a special Valentine's Day edition of WQXR'S Classical Beer Jam at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in downtown Manhattan, marking their first public appearance together (Feb 14). Opera lovers around the world can catch a live webcast of the performance on Facebook and WQXR.org. Meanwhile, the tenor may already be seen at the Met, channeling Frank Sinatra as the Duke of Mantua in Michael Mayer's Vegas setting of Verdi's Rigoletto (Jan 20-Feb 4), to which, last year, the New York Times found his "bright tenor … perfectly suited."
The manager for Spanish director Calixto Bieito says the Metropolitan Opera's decision to cancel his production of Verdi's “La Forza del Destino” is “cruel and disappointing.”
On Monday, January 23, 2017 at 7:30pm, Works & Process at the Guggenheim will host an interview led by general manager Peter Gelb with Maestro Mark Elder and director Mary Zimmerman.
On paper, it might seem that Kaija Saariaho's L'AMOUR DE LOIN (LOVE FROM AFAR), libretto by Amin Maalouf, couldn't possibly fill a stage the size of the Met's: three characters and a chorus that bobs in and out of the action. Yet, in action, this breathtaking, shimmering piece not only seems at home--particularly in the able hands of soprano Susanna Phillips and the Met orchestra under the Finnish conductor Susanna Malkki in Robert Lepage's production--but it's hard to imagine hearing it any other way.
Bergen Performing Arts Center located at 30 North Van Brunt Street in Englewood, New Jersey presents Mario Frangoulis: Tales of Christmas-Today, December 17, 2016 at 8PM.
Metropolitan Opera for a pair of back-to-back productions. Marking his house title role debut, he headlines Gounod's Romeo et Juliette (March 3-18) opposite Pretty Yende in the same hit Bartlett Sher staging in which he starred opposite Anna Netrebko at the 2010 Salzburg Festival.
Works & Process at the Guggenheim has announced its spring 2017 season.
Composer Kaija Saariaho is a woman of few words but potent music, judging by her comments about her acclaimed opera, L'AMOUR DE LOIN, and the excerpts performed at the Guggenheim's Works & Process series several weeks ago, in preparation for the opera's much-anticipated Met debut on Thursday, December 1.
Bergen Performing Arts Center located at 30 North Van Brunt Street in Englewood, New Jersey presents Mario Frangoulis: Tales of Christmas-Saturday, December 17, 2016 at 8PM.
Quick: What film won the Golden Globe for Best Movie in 1997? It was THE ENGLISH PATIENT. But more important for composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek, the question is “What film didn't win the Golden Globe in 1997?” The answer (for them, at least) is Lars von Trier's BREAKING THE WAVES, which they've transformed into an opera of the same name, premiering at Opera Philadelphia, September 22.
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