Rihab Chaieb News

More than 400 opera aficionados and performers – including opera stars Alice Coote, Jennifer Rowley and Laurent Naouri – were among those who attended the 13th Annual OPERA NEWS Awards at The Plaza Hotel last night.

LUISA MILLER isn't one of Verdi's greatest hits, written not long before RIGOLETTO but dramatically (and craft-wise) a quite a way off. Despite plenty of “love and intrigue,” Salvatore Cammarano'a libretto (based on the play of that name by Friedrich Schiller) never really takes flight, with too much exposition needed to justify the action. Still, when it's performed by a cast this good—and with the Met orchestra in fine form under Bertrand de Billy--it can be surprisingly potent. And this performance was.

When I first heard soprano Hyesang Park and tenor Kang Wang--two of the bright young singers featured in last weekend's Juilliard and the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Program concert--they were leads in a charming production of Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA at the school. On Friday evening, they were two of the stellar performers in “An Evening of Verdi”--extended excerpts from four operas with the Juilliard Orchestra doing a fluid job under Maestro Evan Rogister, who was also particularly attentive to the needs of the singers.

The winners of the 47th annual George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers were announced at the conclusion of the competition's final round this evening, which took place before an enthusiastic audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its 2018-19 season in its creative home at Houston's Wortham Theater Center after a year of displacement due to damage to the building from Hurricane Harvey. The 64th season will open October 19, 2018, with HGO's first performances in 20 years of Wagner's romantic ghost story The Flying Dutchman, in a new production featuring baritoneAndrzej Dobber as the Dutchman and the role debut of award-winning American soprano and HGO Studio alumna Rachel Willis-S rensen as Senta. To close the season, the new Kasper Holten production of Mozart's Don Giovanni featuring the HGO debut of baritone Philippe Sly in the title role and the role debut of soprano Ailyn P rez as Donna Anna will be presented in repertory with The Phoenix, a world premiere about the colorful life of Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's librettist for the masterful Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and Cos fan tutte. The new work, written by composer Tarik O'Regan and librettist John Caird, will star renowned baritone Thomas Hampson as Lorenzo da Ponte in a belated HGO debut and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni as Da Ponte's son, Lorenzo. HGO will also present a revival of Daniel Cat n's ethereal Florencia en el Amazonas with internationally acclaimed soprano and HGO Studio alumna Ana Mar a Mart nez in the title role; the first HGO presentation of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers with the stellar tenor and baritone pairing of Lawrence Brownlee and Mariusz Kwiecien in the title roles along with soprano Andrea Carroll; and the return of HGO's 2012 production of Puccini's perennial classic La boh me, featuring the role debut of soprano and HGO Studio alumna Nicole Heaston as Mim .

The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School present an 'Evening of Verdi' in their seventh collaboration on Friday, February 23, 2018, at 8pm in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Evan Rogister, an alumnus of Juilliard and guest conductor at the Met this season, conducts scenes from Verdi's operas with singers from the Met Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and the Juilliard Orchestra. Stephen Wadsworth provides concert stage direction for excerpts from I Lombardi alla prima crociata, Stiffelio, Falstaff, and Rigoletto.

Superficially, Wolfgang Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE (or DIE ZAUBERFLOTE for you purists) and David Hertzberg's THE WAKE WORLD couldn't seem less alike and, taken together, they stretch the definition of what makes an opera. Yet, as part of Opera Philadelphia's daring new O17 opera festival, they have a surprising amount in common including spectacular scores that demand to be heard again and again.

Thirty years ago, Steven Blier and Michael Barrett embarked on a mission to redefine the song recital, mixing elements of theater, scholarship, fun, and great voices.

September 14 marks the launch of O17, the first edition of Opera Philadelphia's new annual season-opening festival. Featuring seven operatic happenings, six city venues, three world premieres, many already sold-out performances, and one superstar Festival Artist, this twelve- day immersion will transform the City of Brotherly Love into an urban stage for diverse audiences to gather and connect through the shared experience of opera (Sep 14-25). O17 shines a contemporary light on the genre, tackling daring subject matter, offering cutting-edge takes on the classics, and providing extraordinary artists with the chance to create their most imaginative and inspired work.

Beginning in the 2017-18 season, the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artists Development Program welcomes five new young artists into the acclaimed program established by Met Music Director Emeritus James Levine in 1980. Along with the returning nine participants, the program will train a new generation of artists, including opera singers, coaches, and pianists.

This September, Opera Philadelphia launches O17, the inaugural edition of its game-changing new annual season-opening festival. A twelve-day immersion that promises to "blanket the city with opera" (Washington Post), the festival kicks off new partnerships with two key local cultural institutions. Each will host one of the festival's seven operatic happenings, both of them new operas developed - like 2016's award-winning sensation Breaking the Waves - under the auspices of the company's celebrated Composer in Residence program. 

More than 400 opera aficionados and performers - including opera stars Harolyn Blackwell, Lauren Flanigan, Ailyn Perez, Diana Soviero, Teresa Stratas and surprise presenter Renee Fleming, were among those who attended the 12th Annual OPERA NEWS Awards at The Plaza Hotel last night.

More than 400 opera aficionados and performers - including opera stars Harolyn Blackwell, Lauren Flanigan, Ailyn Perez, Diana Soviero, Teresa Stratas and surprise presenter Renee Fleming, were among those who attended the 12th Annual OPERA NEWS Awards at The Plaza Hotel last night.

The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Mark Shapiro, Music Director, will present A Bach Family Christmas today, December 10 at 8:00 PM in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, 57th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan.

The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Mark Shapiro, Music Director, will present A Bach Family Christmas on Saturday, December 10 at 8:00 PM in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, 57th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan.

When the Met's production of Rossini's L'ITALIANA IN ALGIERI made its debut in 1973, it must have seemed a welcome laugh riot. Think of it as a kind of Hope-Crosby “Road” picture from the '40s. Flip forward 43 years to last week, and the world has changed much--for better and worse--but “The Road to Algiers” keeps rolling along. Thank heavens for that.

The Metropolitan Museum recently announced new performances and talks as part of the spring 2016 season. Leading with live arts by visionary artists, the 2015-16 season has presented unexpected and adventurous offerings in new spaces, and this spring, that line of singular programming will continue with newly added events.

Richard Wagner's Die Walküre is opera at its most epic with incredible vocal demands, a 110-piece orchestra and a story about gods and mortals, all played out to one of opera's most powerful and iconic scores. This immense work returns to the Canadian Opera Company this winter with a critically acclaimed production by renowned Canadian directorAtom Egoyan, with COC Music DirectorJohannes Debus conducting, and one of the most hotly anticipated role debuts of the opera world this season: Grammy Award-winning soprano Christine Goerke as the Valkyrie Brünnhilde. Die Walküre is sung in German with English SURTITLESTM and runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts tonight, January 31, and February 4, 7, 10, 13, 19, 22, 2015.

Richard Wagner's Die Walküre is opera at its most epic with incredible vocal demands, a 110-piece orchestra and a story about gods and mortals, all played out to one of opera's most powerful and iconic scores. This immense work returns to the Canadian Opera Company this winter with a critically acclaimed production by renowned Canadian directorAtom Egoyan, with COC Music DirectorJohannes Debus conducting, and one of the most hotly anticipated role debuts of the opera world this season: Grammy Award-winning soprano Christine Goerke as the Valkyrie Brünnhilde. Die Walküre is sung in German with English SURTITLESTM and runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on January 31,February 4, 7, 10, 13, 19, 22, 2015.