The Metropolitan Opera presents Donizetti's comedy La Fille du Régiment, with performances February 7 to March 2, 2019. Pretty Yende stars as Marie, the young canteen girl of the local regiment. Javier Camarena is the boy with whom she falls in love, Tonio, whose show-stopping aria “Ah! mes amis” is famous for its remarkable nine high Cs. Stephanie Blythe is the outlandish Marquise of Berkenfield, and Alessandro Corbelli and Maurizio Muraro share the role of the comical sergeant Sulpice.
Tenor Javier Camarena--who completes his run as Nadir, the love-struck tenor lead in Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES (THE PEARL FISHERS) this Saturday--isn't finished wow-ing Met audiences for the season. Not by a long shot. He's back in February to throw off those nine High Cs in “Ah, mes amis!” the show-stopping aria--that toast to love and camaraderie--in Donizetti's LA FILLE DU REGIMENT (DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT) that Luciano Pavarotti made famous for modern opera audiences.
Alexander Birch Elliott will sing Zurga in all remaining performances of Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de Perles, replacing Mariusz Kwiecien, who has withdrawn due to illness.
We thought things were exciting last week, when Christian Van Horn brought his Mefistofele to the Met last week, getting all his exercise for the month in the athletic staging and nailing his first big role in the house. However, that was “business as usual” compared to the mid-performance debut, just a few days later, of baritone Alexander Birch Elliott, as Zurga, in Bizet's LES PECHEURS DE PERLES (THE PEARL FISHERS) in the opera's first performance of the season.
This season, approximately 700 families in New York City, across the country, and around the world will take part in Carnegie Hall's Lullaby Project, a program which pairs pregnant women and new parents with professional artists to write personal lullabies for their babies, supporting maternal health, aiding child development, and strengthening the bond between parent and child. In New York City, the project will reach parents at 15 different sites, including healthcare settings, homeless shelters, high schools, foster care, and correctional facilities.
Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers) returns to the Metropolitan Opera for seven performances November 14–December 8, 2018. Bizet's opera tells the story of a beautiful Hindu temple priestess pursued by rival pearl divers competing for her love. The cast is led by soprano Pretty Yende as Leïla, tenor Javier Camarena as Nadir, and baritone Mariusz Kwiecien as Zurga, led by conductor Emmanuel Villaume.
On the heels of the release of his first solo album, Contrabandista, on Decca Classics, Mexican tenor Javier Camarena's “infectious” voice (New Yorker) and “brightly eloquent” performances (LA Times) take him to New York and across Europe this season. Already considered the pre-eminent Mozart and bel canto specialist of his generation, Camarena has just completed a run as Arturo in Bellini's I Puritani in Barcelona, followed yesterday by the Tucker Gala at Carnegie Hall, and is currently starting rehearsals for the role of Nadir in Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles at the Metropolitan Opera. The tenor returns to the Met stage in February as Tonio in Donizetti's La fille du régiment, and again, in the same production, later in the spring at London's Royal Opera House; sings Ernesto in the same composer's Don Pasquale at the Opéra de Paris and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Bayerische Staatsoper; and reprises Les pêcheurs at Spain's Ópera de Bilbao. In December and January, during a rare lull in his production schedule, Camarena keeps busy with concerts and recitals in Spain, Switzerland, the U.S. and Mexico.
Kathleen Turner will join the cast of Donizetti's comedy La Fille du Régiment at the Metropolitan Opera February 7–March 2, in the non-singing role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp. She will perform alongside Pretty Yende in the role of Marie, and Javier Camarena as Tonio. Stephanie Blythe will play the Marquise of Berkenfield, with Alessandro Corbelli and Maurizio Muraro sharing the role of Sergeant Sulpice. Laurent Pelly's staging will be conducted by Enrique Mazzola.
Following the success of his debut #1 album 'Evolution', pianist and composer Alexis Ffrench announces a show at Bush Hall, London. With over 100 million streams to date and now over 1.5 million active listeners a month, Ffrench is proving to be one of the world's fastest-growing classical artists to date. Tickets go on sale on 28 September at 9am at LiveNation.co.uk.
The Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts will begin its 13th season at the WYO on October 13, with the Met's grand production of Verdi's Aida, starring one of the world's most acclaimed sopranos, Anna Netrebko.
The Metropolitan Opera's annual Summer HD Festival, which presents free outdoor screenings of operas on Lincoln Center Plaza, will return for the tenth time this summer, with one screening each night from Saturday, August 25, to Monday September 3, 2018 (Labor Day). The series will present ten recent performances from the company's acclaimed Live in HD series of movie theater transmissions. As a prelude to the festival, the Marx Brothers' classic film, A Night at the Opera, will be presented on the plaza on Friday, August 24, in association with the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Tickets go on sale today for the Met's Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning Live in HD series' 2017-18 season, which begins on October 7 with the company's new production of Bellini's Norma.
Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) conducts Mahler's Symphony No. 4, Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate, and American Maverick Carl Ruggles's Evocations at Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, in his first performance with The MET Orchestra, Tuesday, June 5 at 8:00 p.m. This will be the first time that The MET Orchestra performs a work by Ruggles. The program's featured soloist is soprano Pretty Yende, who sings in Exsultate, jubilate and the finale of the Mahler symphony.
Throughout his career, Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) has maintained a deep commitment to fostering musical excellence and innovation among the next generation of classical musicians, and this summer he embarks on three new educational partnerships to further that mission.
Donizetti's LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR--the story of a fragile young woman, Lucia, who's caught in a feud involving her family, the Ashtons, and the Ravenswoods--is one of the mainstays of the repertoire at major opera houses around the world, famed particularly for its mad scene. It's long been a favorite at the Met, with the current performances the third cast of the season, starring soprano Pretty Yende, tenor Michael Fabiano and baritone Quinn Kelsey.
BroadwayWorld has an inside look at Lucia di Lammermoor at The Met! Check out the video below where soprano Pretty Yende and glass harmonica player Friedrich Heinrich Kern rehearse the mad scene from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.
Michael Tilson Thomas Makes MET Orchestra Debut with Soprano Pretty Yende
Singing Mozart and Mahler on June 5 The MET Orchestra returns to Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage for a series of three concerts, led by three dynamic conductors, this May and June.
Arts advocate and San Francisco Opera board member Annette Campbell-White was honored at the sixth annual International Opera Awards (IOA) in London for her lifelong commitment to opera and support of young artists and the performing arts. At the black-tie ceremony held at the London Coliseum on April 9, Campbell-White was presented with the 2018 International Opera Award for Philanthropy. The event, sponsored by British accounting firm Mazars in association with BBC Radio 3 and Opera magazine, also included awards for Female Singer, Male Singer, Readers' Choice, Lifetime Achievement, Recording, among other categories.
The sixth International Opera Awards took place tonight at the London Coliseum. The 2018 winners were announced at the black-tie ceremony, hosted for the third year running by BBC Radio 3 presenter Petroc Trelawny.
