Pretty Yende News

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.

The winners of the 2017 International Opera Awards were announced tonight in a ceremony held for the first time at the London Coliseum and were once again hosted by BBC Radio 3 presenter Petroc Trelawny.

Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen returns to Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage after nearly 20 years to conduct The MET Orchestra in three concerts this May and June. The first concert in the series, on Wednesday, May 31, at 8:00 p.m., features an all-Mahler program with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and tenor Matthew Polenzani singing selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn alongside Symphony No. 1 in D Major. On Saturday, June 3 at 3:00 p.m., Maestro Salonen leads the orchestra in Schumann's Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97, 'Rhenish' alongside Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, featuring mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill and tenor Stuart Skelton. For the final concert in The MET Orchestra series, on Tuesday, June 6 at 8:00 p.m., Mr. Salonen conducts Mahler'sBlumine and Kindertotenlieder, featuring mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. Also on the program is Sibelius's Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 105 and his Violin Concerto in D Minor, featuring guest soloist Christian Tetzlaff. Mr. Salonen last conducted in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage in 1998.

Pretty Yende, currently starring at the Met in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, will perform with the MET Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on June 5, 2018. The concert, directed by Met Music Director Emeritus James Levine, will feature Yende as the soprano soloist in Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate and in Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in G. The latter piece replaces the previously announced Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E Minor.

In addition to the previously announced artists appearing at the Met's 50th Anniversary at Lincoln Center Gala on May 7, singers slated to appear include Stephanie Blythe, Joseph Calleja, Dwayne Croft, David Daniels, Yusif Eyvazov, Vittorio Grigolo, Christopher Job, Latonia Moore, Yunpeng Wang, and Dolora Zajick.

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 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.

Pretty Yende will sing the role of Elvira in tomorrow evening's performance of Bellini's I Puritani, replacing Diana Damrau, who is ill.

On Valentine's Day, at WQXR's downtown Greene Space, everyone will raise a pint glass to classical music's great love affairs and epic breakups.

With more than 20,000 nominations made, the International Opera Awards is pleased to announce the finalists for this year's Awards. These were selected by an international jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and classical music critic with The Daily Telegraph, 'Once again, it was both a challenge and a pleasure for us to produce these shortlists, and I am very grateful to our distinguished jury. The quality of the nominations—received in record numbers this year—was very high, and I hope our lists prove that for all the difficulties faced by the world's opera companies, opera is in fact in a healthy and vibrant state.'

With more than 20,000 nominations made, the International Opera Awards has just announced the finalists for this year's Awards.

With more than 20,000 nominations made, the International Opera Awards is pleased to announce the finalists for this year's Awards. These were selected by an international jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and classical music critic with The Daily Telegraph, 'Once again, it was both a challenge and a pleasure for us to produce these shortlists, and I am very grateful to our distinguished jury. The quality of the nominations-received in record numbers this year-was very high, and I hope our lists prove that for all the difficulties faced by the world's opera companies, opera is in fact in a healthy and vibrant state.'

Sony Music Masterworks and AimHigher Entertainment are pleased to announce a new worldwide distribution deal. Founded by entertainment industry veterans Monica and Kevin Fitzgibbons, AimHigher Entertainment is home to two labels: De Montfort Music and AimHigher Recordings.

It didn't strike me until the lights were going down for the start of CARMEN last Thursday that this was the second night in a row that Met audiences were being transported to the same town in sunny Spain. Truth be told, “sunny” is hardly an adjective I'd hardly use to describe Bizet's tragedy in the shadow of the bullring, while it's just about right for dizzy events of Rossini's charmer, IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, which I'd heard the night before.

Edward Parks and Maurizio Muraro will sing the roles of Figaro and Dr. Bartolo respectively, in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia at this Saturday evening's performance. They will replace the originally scheduled Peter Mattei and Valeriano Lanchas, who are ill.

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."

There's some famous and gorgeous music in Gounod's ROMEO ET JULIETTE—Juliet's waltz, Romeo's “Ah, leve-toi, soleil” and a number of duets —but this is definitely not one of those operas where the title characters can take turns with the showpieces but never look each other in the eye. Luckily, that wasn't the case with Diana Damrau and Vittorio Grigolo in the Met's new Bartlett Sher production, where they lit some fires at Tuesday's performance.

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.

National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company, under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, continues its 2016-2017 Season at Lincoln Center with Beethoven's Symphony #9 and the World Premiere of a musical adaptation of Goodnight Moon tonight, November 18, 2016 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC.

National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company, under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, continues its 2016-2017 Season at Lincoln Center withBeethoven's Symphony #9 and the World Premiere of a musical adaptation of Goodnight Moon.