S. Katy Tucker News

Atlanta may be landlocked, but a thrilling new sailing vessel came to town on Saturday night, in the new production of Wagner's DIE FLIEGENDE HOLLANDER (THE FLYING DUTCHMAN), at the Atlanta Opera in Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. The company's General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun commanded the helm of the production--a particularly fitting description for an opera about the sea, how it taketh from and giveth to the men who call it home as well as to the women who love them.

The Atlanta Opera opens its main stage season with a stunning, all-new production of Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, featuring an internationally recognized cast and extraordinary visuals to present the old folktale in a new way.

The Young People's Chorus of New York City (YPC), led by Artistic Director and Founder Francisco J. N ez, debuts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in the New York premiere of composer Ben Moore and librettist Kelley Rourke's Odyssey: A Youth Opera, an hour-long re-telling of Homer's epic. This new, fully staged and costumed production incorporates video imagery from the Museum's extensive collection including images of ancient Greek art and artifacts to create thematic links to the action on stage. The production is directed and choreographed by Eric Sean Fogel, with video and projection design by S. Katy Tucker. Three performances, presented as part of the Museum's MetLiveArts series, will be held at The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium on Friday, November 3 at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, November 4 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

The Atlanta Opera opens its main stage season with a stunning, all-new production of Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, featuring an internationally recognized cast and extraordinary visuals to present the old folktale in a new way.

Today, St. Louis Symphony President & CEO Marie-Helene Bernard announced key senior management team appointments and promotions.

North Carolina Opera's Artistic & Music Director Timothy Myers is stepping down from his post at the end of September.

On March 1, Amanda Gookin presents her ForwardMusic Project at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, kicking off the venue's Spring Revolution festival. The NYC-basedcellist is co-founder of the innovative PUBLIQuartet

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced the casting and schedule for the Company's summer 2018 presentations of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). The four-opera cycle of Das Rheingold,Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung-widely considered the greatest and most ambitious work ever conceived for the lyric stage-will be presented in three complete cycles from June 12 through July 1, 2018. 

Director Francesca Zambello's Gotterdammerung is truly awesome-in both the original and contemporary senses of the word.  The conclusion of a four-part epic, this six-hour installment depicts the final struggle for ownership of a magical ring whose owner might rule the world-but which also holds a dire curse for all who come into contact with it. Through unforgettable projections, beautifully-executed music and stunning vocal performances, this is a once-in-a-lifetime artistic event. 

In 2006, then Washington National Opera Artistic Director Placido Domingo announced that the Opera would take on their first complete cycle of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). In the subsequent years, the opera produced the first three of the four-some, but not in quick succession. As the opera and the nation suffered an economic downturn, the complete cycle was never realized. Until now.

Washington National Opera (WNO) presents its first complete presentation of Richard Wagner's four-part Ring cycle. Three full cycles will be presented from tonight, April 30, to May 22, 2016 and will be directed by Artistic Director Francesca Zambello and conducted by WNO Music Director Philippe Auguin.

Composer Paola Prestini, the Creative and Executive Director of National Sawdust (NS), today announced programming for the non-profit's inaugural fall season in its new home-a $16 million, 13,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art chamber hall in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The performance and recording venue, designed by Brooklyn-based architecture firm Bureau V in the shell of century-old former sawdust factory, will provide composers and musicians a setting in which they can flourish, and a place where they are given commissioning support, mentoring and other critical resources essential to create, and then share, their work. For audiences-serious fans and casual listeners alike-the venue will be a place to discover genre-spanning music at accessible ticket prices.

17 August 2015: Audiences across the world can watch the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde with Chief Conductor and Artistic Director David Robertson on the SSO YouTube channel in a three-part HD series with behind-the-scenes features and interviews, launched today.

Canadian heldentenor Lance Ryan will sing Tristan with Christine Brewer as Isolde, heading an incredible cast also including Katarina Karne?us, Boaz Daniel, Stephen Milling and the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Visual artist S. Katy Tucker, who brought the sea into the Concert Hall for The Flying Dutchman in 2013, returns to transform the Concert Hall with her inspired and fluid illusions, providing a stunning visual interpretation of this powerful drama, opening June 20.

This moving drama follows a strong-willed widow and her teenage daughter in World War II as they flee from Rome to provincial Ciociaria in a vain attempt to find safety. Starring as Cesira is Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci, who has garnered outstanding reviews throughout Europe and for her rare North American performances. Of a recent recital at Lincoln Center, The New York Times wrote, “The extraordinary Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci has concentrated her career in Europe. Each appearance she makes in America. . . is coveted by opera fans familiar with her intelligent and charismatic artistry.” Antonacci has previously appeared with San Francisco Opera in the title role of Ermione (1992) and as Adalgisa in Norma (1998).  Completing the cast are soprano Sarah Shafer, who created the role of Mary in the Company's 2013 world premiere of The Secret Garden, as Cesira's daughter Rosetta; tenor Dimitri Pittas as Michele, a young intellectual who becomes close to both mother and daughter, making his Company debut in the role; and baritone Mark Delavan as the devious Giovanni.

(WASHINGTON)—Washington National Opera (WNO), led by Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, today announced its 60th anniversary season, one that highlights classic, contemporary, and American works. The 2015-2016 season includes a new-to-Washington staging of Bizet's Carmen, the world premiere of a newly revised version of Appomattox by composer Philip Glass and librettist Christopher Hampton, a revival of WNO's charming holiday production of Hansel and Gretel, the company premiere of Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars in a gripping production from Cape Town Opera, and WNO's first complete staging of Wagner's extraordinary four-part Ring Cycle, with a world-class cast under the direction of Francesca Zambello and featuring the WNO Orchestra conducted by WNO Music Director Philippe Auguin. Highlights from the 2015-2016 season will be performed by the WNO Orchestra and special guests at a free preview concert on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 at 6 p.m. as part of the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.

The Brooklyn-based composer Paola Prestini's work has been deemed "radiant [and] amorously evocative" by The New York Times, which has also hailed "her gift for bringing together disparate artists, technicians and other creative professionals to produce cross-disciplinary works greater than the sum of their parts." Her multimedia opera Oceanic Verses perfectly reveals her sensibility as a composer, a creator of multimedia productions, and a wholeheartedly entrepreneurially artist. She commissioned the work through her non-profit company, VisionIntoArt (VIA), whose new label, VIA Records, will release Prestini's music and collaborator Ali Hossaini's visuals as a beautifully designed CD/DVD package on November 18.

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced complete casting for its first full presentation of Richard Wagner's four-part Ring cycle. Three cycles will be presented from April 30 to May 22, 2016 and will be directed by Artistic Director Francesca Zambello and conducted by WNO Music Director Philippe Auguin. Contribution packages with priority seating for The Ring are on sale now. For more information, go to WNO's Ring website.

The enchanted journey we embark upon with Washington National Opera's season opener Florencia in the Amazon is a production filled with beauty and a timeless truth.

Washington National Opera (WNO) opens its 2014-2015 season with the company premiere of Daniel Cata?n and Marcela Fuentes-Berain's Florencia in the Amazon, today, September 20-28 in the Kennedy Center Opera House.