Richard Tucker News

Lyric Opera of Kansas City today announced a rare opportunity to see a master at work when world-renowned soprano Carol Vaness teaches a Master Class with the Lyric Opera Resident and Apprentice Artists on Sat., Oct. 5 at 4 p.m. in Lyric Opera's Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building (712 E. 18th St., Kansas City, MO 64108). Currently a vocal instructor at Indiana University and Aspen Music Festival, Vaness will lead each singer through a selected aria, stopping and correcting as needed, to help hone the singer's vocal technique and dramatic interpretation. A brief reception will follow the vocal work session.

San Diego Opera's 2019-2020 season continues with a special one-night-only event on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 at 7:30 PM when soprano Ailyn Pérez and tenor Joshua Guerrero perform in concert at the Balboa Theatre.

On October 10, the newly-established Athens Philharmonic performs a special concert under the direction of Yiannis Hadjiloizou The Philharmonic is joined by the NY Choral Society and soloists Larisa Martínez and Daveda Karanas. Additionally, the concert program includes works by Mr. Hadjiloizou himself, as well as one by his father, composer Michael Hadjiloizou.

Billy Budd recently opened at San Francisco Opera and the critics were in attendance! Find out what they had to say.

San Francisco Opera presents Benjamin Britten's masterpiece of law and order on the high seas, Billy Budd, in six performances at the War Memorial Opera House September 7–22. Based on the unfinished novella by Herman Melville and set to a libretto by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier, Billy Budd returns to the Company's repertory after a 15-year absence in the “powerful” (New York Times) staging by Tony Award-winning director Michael Grandage. Lawrence Renes conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and an all-male cast of 75 artists, including 44 men from the San Francisco Opera Chorus prepared by Chorus Director Ian Robertson and 8 boys from the Ragazzi Boys Chorus. The performances coincide with the Melville bicentennial and the 100th anniversary of the posthumous discovery of the American author's unfinished manuscript ofBilly Budd.

San Francisco Opera today announced a cast change for Charles Gounod's Romeo and Juliet (Roméo et Juliette), which opens the Company's 97th season on September 6, 2019 and runs for seven performances through October 1 at the War Memorial Opera House. Samoan-born New Zealand tenor Pene Pati, originally scheduled to sing Romeo on October 1, will perform the role in all performances, replacing Bryan Hymel who has withdrawn for personal reasons.

After a 15-year wait for music lovers, Puccini's Turandot returns to the Canadian Opera Company in a striking new production from visionary director Robert Wilson at the Four Season Centre for the Performing Arts. Princess Turandot has a fierce reputation that precedes her royal name thanks to a high-stakes challenge she has issued: answer her three riddles correctly and win her hand in marriage. Answer incorrectly and pay dearly a?" with your life. As a steady stream of admirers land face-to-face with the executioner, Prince Calaf takes on the deadly game and has a mystery of his own for Turandot to solve. Turandot runs for nine performances on September 28, October 4, 9, 15, 17, 19, 23, 25, 27, 2019.

San Francisco Opera inaugurates its 97th season on Friday, September 6 with Charles Gounod's romantic Romeo and Juliet (Roméo et Juliette) and two season-opening benefit eventsa?"Opera Ball 2019: The Capulets' Masked Ball and BRAVO! CLUB's Opening Night Gala. The Company's opening weekend also includes Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd in director Michael Grandage's acclaimed production opening on September 7; and on September 8 San Francisco Chronicle Presents Opera in the Park, the annual free concert tradition celebrating the opening of the opera season.

San Francisco Opera presents Benjamin Britten's masterpiece of law and order on the high seas, Billy Budd, in six performances at the War Memorial Opera House September 7a?"22. Based on the unfinished novella by Herman Melville and set to a libretto by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier, Billy Budd returns to the Company's repertory after a 15-year absence in the a?oepowerfula?? (New York Times) staging by Tony Award-winning director Michael Grandage. Lawrence Renes conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and an all-male cast of 75 artists, including 44 men from the San Francisco Opera Chorus prepared by Chorus Director Ian Robertson and 8 boys from the Ragazzi Boys Chorus. The performances coincide with the Melville bicentennial and the 100th anniversary of the posthumous discovery of the American author's unfinished manuscript of Billy Budd.

Washington Concert Opera (WCO) announces its 2019-2020 lineup, a season that champions rare works and celebrates award-winning voices. The season will start in November with Ambroise Thomas' Hamlet. Then in April they will present Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, a truly stunning work that has not been heard in D.C. since 1998. In addition to these GWU Lisner Auditorium performances, the season will feature a third annual Opera Outside series at Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park.

Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, under the leadership of artistic director Brian Zeger, announces its 2019-20 season of opera and vocal arts performances. Highlights of the upcoming season include three mainstage operas: Mozart's Così fan tutte, conducted by alumnus Nimrod David Pfeffer and directed by faculty member David Paul, on November 13, 15, and 17, 2019, in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater; Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's MetLiveArts and the New York Philharmonic with Juilliard singers, conducted by Daniela Candillari and directed by Louisa Proske, on February 8, 11, 12, and 14, 2020, in the Charles Engelhard Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Puccini's La bohème, conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson and directed by Stephen Wadsworth, on April 22, 24, and 26, 2020, in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

Colombian-American soprano Vanessa Vasquez, winner of the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, recently completed a residency at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. While there, she sang as Mimi in La boheme, Gilda in Rigoletto, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Violetta in La traviata. She made her professional opera debut in summer 2017 as Liu in Turandot at the Des Moines Metro Opera. This past season, she was Violetta at Arizona Opera and, currently, she is appearing as Mimi in La boheme at Santa Fe Opera.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation presents one of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season, the 2019 Richard Tucker Gala, on Sunday, October 27, 2019 at 6:00pm in Stern Auditorium Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall.

American Symphony Orchestra announced the 58th season of its three-concert Vanguard series at Carnegie Hall, now expanded to include an additional performance at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. The season also marks the return of the Orchestra's popular series to New York City's Symphony Space-which originally took place between 1998 and 2015-with a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in conjunction with the ASO's celebration of the great composer's 250th birthday. This series combines complete concerts of well-known, major orchestral works with interactive educational demonstrations. The full 2019-20 season runs from October 31, 2019 through March 12, 2020.

Summer afternoon concerts are coming back to Lincoln Square! The Lincoln Square Business Improvement District (BID) is excited to announce its continued partnership with the MTA Arts & Design's Music Under New York (MTA MUSIC), which will bring free lunchtime entertainment to the Lincoln Square area- a neighborhood filled with a rich cultural and musical scene. The wildly popular annual Lunchtime Concert Series, now in its 12th year, will take place every Wednesday, rain or shine, beginning July 3 through August 28, from noon until 2:00 p.m. in Richard Tucker Park at Broadway and 66th Street. No matter one's musical preference-Jazz, Rock or Opera-locals and visitors of all ages can hear it free all summer long.

The Dallas Opera is proud to announce the winner of the 2019 "Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year" Award: the incredible, one-of-a-kind American mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, for her saucy, scene-stealing portrayal of Mistress Quickly in our critically-acclaimed spring production of Verdi's Falstaff.

The Metropolitan Opera has named soprano Lisette Oropesa as the winner of the 14th annual Beverly Sills Artist Award. The $50,000 award is given to extraordinarily gifted singers with rising Met careers. Given in honor of the legendary American soprano Beverly Sills, the award was established in 2006 by an endowment gift from the late Agnes Varis, a managing director on the Met's Board of Directors.

San Francisco Opera presents George Frideric Handel's Orlando in a bold production by director Harry Fehr that updates the setting to World War II London during the Blitz. English conductor Christopher Moulds makes his Company debut leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and a cast of five leading Handelian artists, each of whom is singing their roles for the first time. Handel's rarely performed work of love and madness will be presented June 9 27 at the War Memorial Opera House.

The MET Orchestra returns to Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage for a series of three concerts this May and June. For the first concert on Saturday, May 18 at 8:00 p.m., Valery Gergiev leads the orchestra in Schumann's Piano Concerto featuring pianist Daniil Trifonov and Schubert's Symphony No. 9, Great. On Monday, June 3 at 8:00 p.m. new Music Director Yannick N zet-S guin leads The MET Orchestra for the first time at Carnegie Hall in a program of French works with mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard singing Dutilleux's Le temps l'horloge and Ravel's Sh h razade, alongside Debussy's La mer and Ravel's Daphnis et Chlo Suite No. 2. Maestro N zet-S guin returns the following week on Friday, June 14 at 8:00 p.m. with the orchestra and mezzo-soprano El na Garan a singing Mahler's R ckert Lieder on a program that also includes Bruckner's Symphony No. 7.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation announced today that Lisette Oropesa has been named as the winner of the 2019 Richard Tucker Award. The soprano already headlines major productions worldwide, and after her recent house debuts in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Real Madrid and Royal Opera House, The Guardian declared: "The Cuban American soprano is sensationally good. She makes the stratospheric vocal fireworks … sound easy; indeed, her every note is part of a convincing portrayal of a complex character." Widely referred to as the "Heisman Trophy of Opera," the Tucker Award carries the foundation's most substantial cash prize of $50,000, and is conferred each year by a panel of opera industry professionals on an American singer at the threshold of a significant international career.