Richard Strauss News

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra opens the 2014.15 Classics series with Don Giovanni on September 13-14 & 16, 2014, led by Music Director Edo de Waart. This concert production features an international cast alongside the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for an unforgettable operatic event.

The Dallas Opera is proud to announce the appointment of Brian Zeger as Chair of the Judges Panel for the 2015 Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. This season's competition will take place on Saturday, April 18, 2015 and Sunday, April 19, 2015 in the elegant setting of the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public.

The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra kicks off Season 70, its 70th Anniversary season, with a celebratory performance at 8:00pm on Saturday September 20 at The Vets, 1 Avenue of the Arts in Providence. Music Director LARRY RACHLEFF – now in his 19thseason with the Orchestra – welcomes back violinist AUGUSTIN HADELICH for Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, in a thrilling and diverse program including R. Strauss's Wiener Philharmoniker Fanfare, Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony and Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Resident Conductor FRANCISCO NOYA presents an informal talk about the program in the auditorium before the concert from 7:00?7:25 p.m. Tickets (starting at $15) are available at tickets.riphil.org, and the RIPO box office at 401.248.7000. An Open Rehearsal takes place Friday September 19 at 5:30, with seats at $15, facilities fee included (Internet fee may apply).

Led for the first time by a guest conductor Christoph Eschenbach, the world-renowned Vienna Philharmonic returns for their 11th open-air concert in the magnificent gardens of Austria's Imperial Schnbrunn Palace

Now anyone and everyone can join in the thrill of opening night at the opera! The Dallas Opera and the Sheila and Jody Grant Opera Discovery Program, with support from the AT&T Performing Arts Center, present an evening of FREE entertainment at Dallas's popular Klyde Warren Park, the second annual “Dallas Opera Opening Night Simulcast in the Park” featuring Mozart's class-conscious romantic comedy, The Marriage of Figaro.

Tickets go on sale today, August 13, for Opera Philadelphia's 40th Anniversary Season, featuring a stellar cast of international opera stars in five new productions at the Academy of Music and the Perelman Theater.

New York Festival of Song announces 2014-15 season. Four Great Series Return Classic: NYFOS MAINSTAGE at Merkin Concert Hall (4 concerts) Future: NYFOS NEXT at Opera America's National Opera Center (3 concerts) Cabaret: NYFOS AFTER HOURS at Henry's Restaurant (3 concerts) Mentoring: NYFOS EMERGING ARTISTS at North Fork, Juilliard, Caramoor (3 concerts)

The September broadcasts of The New York Philharmonic This Week - the weekly radio series of concerts and recordings by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by Alec Baldwin - begins with Music Director Alan Gilbert launching the Philharmonic's 2014 Bravo! Vail residency with Nielsen's Maskarade Overture; Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, with the 2013-14 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman as soloist; selections from Grieg's Peer Gynt; and Liszt's Les Preludes. The second week, Alan Gilbert conducts the Orchestra in a performance of R. Strauss's Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks; The Marie-Josee Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Oboe Concerto, with Principal Oboe Liang Wang as soloist; and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy. The following week, Bramwell Tovey conducts the New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail in Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man; Gershwin's "Strike Up the Band" from Strike Up the Band; Copland's Clarinet Concerto, with Associate Principal Clarinet Mark Nuccio as soloist; and Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite. In the final week of September, Music Director Alan Gilbert conducts the New York Philharmonic in a program of Mozart's final three symphonies - Nos. 39, 40, and 41, Jupiter -recorded in November 2013.

Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain (The Help, Zero Dark Thirty) will join Academy Award winner Al Pacino for the special live Q&A event at BFI Southbank, London celebrating the UK release of his films Salome and Wilde Salome.

At a time when things seem challenging for opera, the Santa Fe Opera holds strong. Santa Fe is among the oldest opera festivals in America and is the largest and most important. It has made its reputation as a distinctive company with a flair for the unusual. This summer they presented operas such as “Dr. Sun Yat-Sen” by Huang Ruo, and Beethoven's “Fidelio.”

It's the place to see and be seen this fall – FIRST SIGHT FASHION SHOW AND LUNCHEON! The Dallas Opera 2014-15 “Heights of Passion” Season opens with a stunning fashion show featuring styles by world-class Italian designer Roberto Cavalli, as well as, six custom-made gowns created by internationally renowned designers inspired by each of the operas presented this season. The lavish event, co-chaired by Lynn McBee and Nicholas Even, also includes a delectable gourmet luncheon. Elizabeth Kimple is the Chair of the luncheon.

New York City Ballet's annual Fall Gala will once again celebrate ballet and fashion with a program that will include three world premiere ballets by Justin Peck, Liam Scarlett, and Troy Schumacher, as well as existing works by Peter Martins and Christopher Wheeldon, all featuring costumes designed by an international roster of some of the fashion world's most renowned talents: Thom Browne, Sarah Burton, Valentino Garavani, Carolina Herrera, and Mary Katrantzou. The one- time-only gala evening will take place on Tuesday, September 23, 2014, opening New York City Ballet's four-week Fall Season at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.

New York City Ballet's annual Fall Gala will once again celebrate ballet and fashion with a program that will include three world premiere ballets by Justin Peck, Liam Scarlett, and Troy Schumacher, as well as existing works by Peter Martins and Christopher Wheeldon, all featuring costumes designed by an international roster of some of the fashion world's most renowned talents: Thom Browne, Sarah Burton, Valentino Garavani, Carolina Herrera, and Mary Katrantzou. The one- time-only gala evening will take place on Tuesday, September 23, 2014, opening New York City Ballet's four-week Fall Season at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.

BUFFALO, NY -- Saturday, August 9 marks the first opportunity to obtain individual tickets to all concerts in the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra's 2014-15 season. Highlights include superstar Renee Fleming; Broadway sensations Matthew Morrison, Ben Vereen and Megan Hilty; Bartok's dark and thrilling opera'Bluebeard's Castle' with a set by glass artist Dale Chihuly; Celtic Thunder; Rachmaninoff and Beethoven festivals; and BPO Rocks shows, including the Music of Led Zeppelin. Tickets range from $29-$83 and are available by visitingbpo.org, calling (716) 885-5000, or visiting the BPO Box Office at Kleinhans Music Hall, 3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo.

Tickets go on sale on Wednesday, August 13, for Opera Philadelphia's 40th Anniversary Season, featuring a stellar cast of international opera stars in five new productions at the Academy of Music and the Perelman Theater. Single tickets will be available at operaphila.org or 215-893-1018.

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) presents the Chicago premiere of Ernest Bloch's provocative and rarely-performed "Macbeth" at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance (205 E. Randolph Drive) September 13-21, 2014. Conducted by Francesco Milioto and directed and designed by COT General Director Andreas Mitisek, "Macbeth" features the collective talents of COT, the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Apollo Chorus under the direction of Stephen Alltop. Together they provide an expressive soundscape for this bone-chilling thriller based on themes of ambition, treachery and deception. The opera will be performed in English, maintaining much of Shakespeare's original text. For tickets and more information please visit: chicagooperatheater.org.

The August broadcasts of The New York Philharmonic This Week - the weekly radio series of concerts and recordings by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by Alec Baldwin -- begin with Music Director Alan Gilbert conducting the New York Philharmonic in the opening program of The Beethoven Piano Concertos: A Philharmonic Festival, featuring the 2014-14 season Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman as soloist. Over the course of the three-week festival Mr. Bronfman performs the complete Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle as well as the Triple Concerto with Principal Cello Carter Brey and Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow in the final Philharmonic appearance of his 34-year tenure. The festival also features the World Premieres of Lyra by Anthony Cheung and Songs by Sean Shepherd, both commissioned by the New York Philharmonic as part of The Marie-Jose?e Kravis Prize for New Music, pairing the master composer's concertos with new commissions now entering the repertoire.

Reviving important but neglected operas is one of the ways the Bard SummerScape festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson has established itself, and this year's immersion in 'Schubert and His World' - culminating in the 25th-anniversary season of the Bard Music Festival - is no exception. To enrich its exploration of the roots of Austro-German Romanticism, Bard presents Euryanthe (1823) by Schubert's contemporary Carl Maria von Weber, marking the opera's first American revival in 100 years. Headlined by Ellie Dehn, Bard's original staging is by Kevin Newbury, creator of SummerScape's production of Richard Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae. Euryanthe's five performances (July 25, 27 & 30; August 1 & 3) feature the festival's resident American Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of music director Leon Botstein, who also leads semi-staged performances of Schubert's own seldom-heard opera Fierrabras starring Joseph Kaiser, best known for his leading role in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of The Magic Flute, on August 17, and of a double-bill of rarities - Schubert's one-act Singspiel Die Verschworenen and Franz von Suppe's operetta Franz Schubert - on August 10.

Few vocal performers of our day are as closely identified with American classical music as this renowned artist.