Samuel Ramey News

The 2008-2009 Reprise Theatre Company season continues with the classic international hit 'Man of La Mancha,' starring Brent Spiner as Cervantes/Quixote. Julia Migenes, the renowned opera and theatre performer, will play Aldonza/Dulcinea; Valerie Perri will play the role of Aldonza/Dulcinea at matinee performances; and Tony nominee Lee Wilkof will play Sancho Panza.

After an absence of 82 years, Puccini's bittersweet romance La Rondine returns to the Met in a new production with a gala premiere performance on New Year's Eve. La Rondine stars Angela Gheorghiu as Magda, the Parisian socialite, and Roberto Alagna as Ruggero, her lover. Lisette Oropesa, Marius Brenciu, in his Met debut, and Samuel Ramey are the other principal singers. Marco Armiliato conducts.

In honor of Black History Month, City Opera co-presents a three-part series, Black History at New York City Opera, with the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The first program, 'I'm on My Way': Black History at City Opera on Wednesday, January 28, 2009, commemorates the rich African-American contributions to City Opera's heritage and the great African-American works and artists who have graced City Opera's stage. Continuing with 'One Fine Day': A Tribute to Camilla Williams on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 and 'Troubled Island': 60th Anniversary Celebration on Tuesday, March 31, 2009, the programs feature discussion, live performance, special guests, historic slides and audio and video clips. All three events take place at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, located at 15 Malcolm X Boulevard in New York City.

New York City Opera is proud to present the company premiere of Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra in concert on January 15 and 16, 2009 at 8 PM in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium. Soprano Lauren Flanigan sings the role of Cleopatra opposite baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes, in his New York City Opera debut, as Antony. The cast includes rising tenor Simon O'Neill as Caesar and City Opera favorites David Pittsinger as Enobarbus, Sandra Piques Eddy as Charmian and Laura Vlasak Nolen as Iras. City Opera Music Director George Manahan will conduct. The company's celebration of Samuel Barber's upcoming centennial will also include a Symposium on Antony and Cleopatra on Saturday, January 10, co-presented by and taking place at Miller Theatre at Columbia University, which will feature City Opera soprano Elizabeth Futral in a unique recital of musical depictions and evocations of Cleopatra.

Young singers from around the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico will compete for $15,000 cash prizes and the chance to perform in the Grand Finals Concert on the nation's most prestigious opera stage when the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions launches its 55th annual auditions program this fall.

New York Festival of Song, whose recent 'A Bernstein/Bolcom Celebration' was performed with 'Comic and dramatic flair,'(The New York Times) presents Fugitives, songs by composers who fled Hitler's Europe, on November 18 and 20 at the newly restored Merkin Concert Hall in New York. The program will feature music from Broadway, the concert stage and Berlin cabaret by Kurt Weill, Erich Korngold, Alexander Zemlinsky and many others.

Following a meeting of New York City Opera's Board of Directors, Gerard Mortier, General Manager Designate today announced that City Opera is commissioning Philip Glass to compose a new opera, The Perfect American which imaginatively explores the life and career of Walt Disney

In anticipation of the beginning of Gerard Mortier's tenure as General Manager and Artistic Director in 2009-10, New York City Opera will present Looking Forward, a celebration of twentieth-century music, as part of a unique series of concerts and events planned for 2008-09.

When Erwin Schrott took on the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni last year at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, The New York Times wrote: 'The surprise was the riveting Giovanni: the seductively handsome young Uruguayan bass Erwin Schrott, who boasts a strong, dusky voice and chiseled physique. Exuding charisma, he galvanized the audience with his unabashedly narcissistic portrayal.' Now Schrott, who sang the role when the Met toured Japan in 2006, is bringing his portrayal to the Met stage for the first time beginning Saturday, September 27.

Metropolitan Opera on SIRIUS Satellite Radio channel 78 launches its regular live broadcasts of the company's 2008-09 season with the Opening Night Gala starring Renée Fleming, which airs on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. The third season of Met Opera Radio on SIRIUS features four live broadcasts weekly as the Met celebrates its 125th anniversary with six new productions, including the company premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic, 18 revivals, and the season grand finale of Wagner's epic Ring cycle, conducted by Music Director James Levine.

New York Festival Of Song (NYFOS, www.nyfos.org), co-founded and directed by pianists Steven Blier and Michael Barrett, who 'reinvented the song recital during the 1990's with daring and dramatic programming' (The New Yorker), announces its 21st season (2008-2009).

Ravinia Festival's Box Office officially opens for walk-up sales on Saturday, May 17 during a day filled with discounts, the chance to purchase pavilion seating to some sold-out concerts and promotions and samples from some of Ravinia's sponsors.

New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) continues its 20th Anniversary season by presenting Bastianello and Lucrezia, two newly commissioned comic operas by composers John Musto and William Bolcom with libretti by Mark Campbell. The concerts will take place on Tuesday, March 11 and Thursday, March 13 at 8PM, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, West 57th Street and 7th Avenue.

At 8 pm on Wednesday, May 9th and Thursday, May 10th, the New York Festival of Song will perform We Open in Paris. Paris is the backdrop for four musical theatre works in vest-pocket NYFOS productions, including Jacques Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne and Cole Porter's Fifty Million Frenchmen.

Two new productions of operas by Rossini and Puccini will be helmed, respectively, by The Light in the Piazza's Bartlett Sher and Dirty Rotten Scoundrel's Jack O'Brien as part of the Metropolitan Opera's 2006-2007 season

The New York Festival of Song, with Artistic Director Steven Blier and Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett, continues its 18th season on Tuesday January 31st with FATS AND FIELDS, a tribute to the song legacies of brilliant lyricist Dorothy Fields and prodigious piano virtuoso/singer/songwriter Fats Waller.

The New York Festival of Song, with Artistic Director Steven Blier and Associate Artistic Director Michael Barrett, closes its 17th season on Wednesday, May 11th with LOST TRIBES OF VAUDEVILLE, at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center, 129 West 67th St., beginning at 8 p.m.

The New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) will continue its season with a program titled At Harlem's Height on Wednesday, February 23 at 8:00pm as part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook in the Rose Theatre at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The featured soloists will be soprano Dana Hanchard, tenor Darius de Haas, and baritone James Martin, with Steven Blier at the piano.