Robert Carsen News

Tafelmusik is delighted to announce that Music Director Elisa Citterio has been named the winner of the 2019 Leonardo Award for Arts, Science & Culture by the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario (ICCO). Coinciding with the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, the award honours an individual who has made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual life of Canada through their ground-breaking and innovative work in the field of arts, science, and/or culture. One of several 2019 ICCO Air Canada Business Excellence Awards granted to outstanding leaders from the business, scientific, academic, and cultural communities, the Leonardo Award will be presented to Elisa Citterio at a gala event on May 23, 2019 at the Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex in Toronto.

Will anyone else but Ambrogio Maestri bring the same dynamism to Robert Carsen's 1950's take on Verdi's masterpiece, FALSTAFF? Time will tell. But the return of the wonderful production, with the great Met orchestra under conductor Richard Farnes and an all-around terrific cast, brought a little sunshine into the gray winter in New York.

Baritone Ambrogio Maestri brings his larger-than-life portrayal of the title role back for the first time since his Met role debut in the 2013-14 season. Robert Carsen's insightful production-which moves the action to postwar England in the 1950s-features an exceptional cast that includes soprano Ailyn Perez as Alice Ford and soprano Golda Schultz as Nannetta.

Baritone Ambrogio Maestri brings his larger-than-life portrayal of the title role back for the first time since his Met role debut in the 2013-14 season. Robert Carsen's insightful production-which moves the action to postwar England in the 1950s-features an exceptional cast that includes soprano Ailyn Pérez as Alice Ford and soprano Golda Schultz as Nannetta.

Falstaff, Verdi's exuberant final opera, returns to the Met for performances February 22-March 16, 2019. Robert Carsen's acclaimed production moves the action from Shakespeare's era to 1950s England. Fresh off his much-lauded performance as Michonnet in the Met's Adriana Lecouvreur, Ambrogio Maestri stars as the notorious glutton Falstaff, reprising his celebrated betrayal in this production's premiere run in the 2013-14 season. The ensemble cast of merry wives and noblemen also includes Ailyn Perez as Alice Ford, Golda Schultz as Nannetta, Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Mistress Quickly, Jennifer Johnson Cano as Meg Page, Francesco Demuro as Fenton, and Juan Jesus Rodriguez as Ford. Conductor Richard Farnes, the former longtime music director of Opera North, makes his Met debut on the podium.

With dances, duels, and orchestration delights, Washington National Opera brings the emotional and melodic Eugene Onegin back to the Kennedy Center Opera House after a more than 30-year absence from its repertoire. Eugene Onegin is a multi-faceted masterpiece combining the artistic prowess of two Russian luminaries: Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky's music and libretto based on Alexander Pushkin's celebrated poem. A tale of rejection and regret, Eugene Onegin explores a society divided between rural austerity and aristocratic extravagance as maturity shifts desires-once devastated by his refusal of her youthful affections, Tatiana rebuffs Onegin's newfound proposal upon his return years later. Complete with lush period costumes and majestic ballroom scenes,Eugene Onegin is performed in Russian with projected English titles. Performances run March 9-29 with tickets starting at $45.

Today's subject Matthew Bourne has done what some might say is impossible, making his theatre life quite the big deal. Bourne has managed to meld the worlds of classical dance and theatre together in his internationally acclaimed company New Adventures with some pretty terrific results. His latest creation, Cinderella, hits the stage of the Opera House at Kennedy Center on January 15 playing through the 20th.

Early next year, Opera Philadelphia follows the success of O18, the second edition of its season-launching festival, with four performances of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream led by Music Director Corrado Rovaris at the historic Academy of Music (Feb 8-17). Starring the dream team of Tim Mead, Anna Christy, and Game of Thrones alum Miltos Yerolemou, all making company debuts, the production marks the long-awaited first American presentation of Robert Carsen's classic staging of the opera, which has been touring the world for more than a quarter of a century.

The Met is offering Robert Carsen's 1999 production of Arrigo Boito's MEFISTOFELE to show us what bass-baritone Christian Van Horn--winner of this year's Richard Tucker Award--could do in his first starring role at the house and the answer was: plenty.

A deal with the devil is struck with powerful results in the Metropolitan Opera's production of Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele, with performances November 8 to December 1, 2018. Starring in the diabolical title role is 2018 Richard Tucker Award winner Christian Van Horn, who joins recent Tucker Award winners Angela Meade as the love interest Margherita and Michael Fabiano as the bargain-making Faust. Rounding out the cast is Jennifer Check as Helen of Troy. Not seen on the Met stage in nearly 20 years, Robert Carsen's production is conducted by Carlo Rizzi and Joseph Colaneri.

One is seldom confronted with a performance like last nights DIE TODE STADT at Berlin's Komische Oper, and I don't mean that in a good way --a miscast, misjudged, major disappointment

After Kat'a Kabanova (2010), Jen?fa (2014) and recently Foxie! The Cunning Little Vixen, there is still more Leoš Jana?ek to come at La Monnaie. In November 2018 the opera house is presenting Z mrtveho domu (From the House of the Dead), the Czech composer's last and perhaps most powerful opera. It is based on Dostoyevsky's semi-autobiographical novel Memoirs from the House of the Dead (1862), an account of the Russian writer's own experiences as a political prisoner in a Siberian gulag. It is a mosaic of loosely-knit episodes about the inhumane conditions in a labour camp, punctuated with the stories and life histories of his fellow prisoners.

Choreographer Stephen Mills and Ballet Austin are pleased to present the world premiere of Grimm Tales, a full-length work inspired by the visual art of Natalie Frank

The Canadian Opera Company opens its 20182019 season with a stunning new production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's timeless cautionary tale, Eugene Onegin. The opera is based on the classic Russian novel-in-verse by Alexander Pushkin and tells the story of one of literature's most iconic anti-heroes. Onegin is the cynical product of an aimless dilettante life who quickly dismisses a heartfelt love letter from romantic Tatyana. However his casual cruelty comes back to haunt him years later, when karma rears its head and a fateful reunion turns the tables on proud Onegin. Eugene Onegin runs for eight performances on September 30, October 4, 10, 18, 20, 26, 30, November 3, 2018.

Luxembourg has welcomed a variety of interesting shows over the last months, but it has been a while since the public had a chance to see something as great as this version of The Beggar's Opera. This famous masterpiece devised by John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepuschm, who some claim to have defined our modern understanding of musical theatre, is often subject to small adaptations, in order to better fit a certain decade or national context. In this version, Robert Carsen and Ian Burton made the choice to set the play in modern Britain, using 21st century costumes and writing references to today's social and political environment.

Metropolitan Maestro Carlo Rizzi's 2018-19 season includes Tosca and Mefistofele at the Met, Falstaff in Tokyo, a new production of Un ballo in maschera at Welsh National Opera and symphonic concerts in Japan, Italy and Spain

The Canadian Opera Company opens its 2018/2019 season with a stunning new production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's timeless cautionary tale, Eugene Onegin. The opera is based on the classic Russian novel-in-verse by Alexander Pushkin and tells the story of one of literature's most iconic anti-heroes. Onegin is the cynical product of an aimless dilettante life who quickly dismisses a heartfelt love letter from romantic Tatyana. However his casual cruelty comes back to haunt him years later, when karma rears its head and a fateful reunion turns the tables on proud Onegin. Eugene Onegin runs for eight performances on September 30, October 4, 10, 18, 20, 26, 30, November 3, 2018.

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.

Drury Lane Theatre announces casting for its sultry summer drama, Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Tony nominee Marcia Milgrom Dodge (2009 Broadway revival of Ragtime, Drury Lane's Smokey Joe's Cafe). Cat on a Hot Tin Roof runs July 5 - August 26, 2018, at Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace. The press opening is scheduled for Thursday, July 12 at 8:00 p.m.

Drury Lane Theatre announces casting for its sultry summer drama, Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Tony nominee Marcia Milgrom Dodge (2009 Broadway revival of Ragtime, Drury Lane's Smokey Joe's Cafe). Cat on a Hot Tin Roof runs July 5 - August 26, 2018, at Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace. The press opening is scheduled for Today, July 12 at 8:00 p.m.