Sarah Heltzel News

Special Offer - The Garden of The Finzi-Continis

Now opening January 27, New York City Opera will produce its latest world premiere of a new American opera, Ricky Ian Gordon's THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS, a co-production with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene.

This January, New York City Opera (under the direction of Michael Capasso, General Director) will produce its latest world premiere of a new American opera, Ricky Ian Gordon's THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS, a co-production with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (Zalmen Mlotek, Artistic Director, Dominick Balletta, Executive Director).

Compagnia de' Colombari, an international collective of performing artists founded and directed by Karin Coonrod, presents More Or Less I Am: a music-theater piece drawn entirely from Walt Whitman's revolutionary free verse long poem, 'Song of Myself,'one of the original twelve pieces that comprise his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass. The next performance in this series, spanning multiple venues throughout the five boroughs, will take place on Sunday, May 26, 2019, 7:30 pm at Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn.  

Compagnia de' Colombari, an international collective of performing artists founded and directed by Karin Coonrod, presents More Or Less I Am, a music-theater piece drawn entirely from Walt Whitman's revolutionary free verse long poem, 'Song of Myself,'one of the original twelve pieces that comprise his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass. The first performance in this series, spanning multiple venues throughout the five boroughs, will take place on Saturday, May 18, 2019, at 2:30pm at Brooklyn Public Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn. The event is free and open to the public.

Compagnia de' Colombari, an international collective of performing artists founded and directed by Karin Coonrod,celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of America's most influential poet, Walt Whitman, with a revival of their acclaimed production More Or Less I Am. Performances begin May 18, 2019 at multiple venues throughout the five boroughs, with most performances being free and open to the public. More information can be found at www.colombari.org.

Music for Life International continues its decade-long tradition of global humanitarian concerts with Beethoven for The Rohingya, a benefit concert featuring Beethoven's monumental Ninth Symphony, presented in the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall on Monday, January 28, 2019. Beethoven for The Rohingya is an urgent call to the global community to raise awareness for the nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees fleeing what the United Nations have defined as genocide in Rakhine State in Myanmar.  Refugees, who are seeking safety in Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other nearby locations, are grossly lacking access to healthcare when it is needed most; net proceeds from this performance will benefit Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which provides medical aid to those who are among the world's most vulnerable.

See stars from New York City Opera's Pride Series productions (Brokeback Mountain and Angels in America) and other City Opera cast members, this concert includes music from West Side Story, La traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rigoletto, La boheme, and a special guest appearance from Stonewall librettist, Pulitzer Prize-winner Mark Campbell, as well as Eric Marcus, chair of the Stonewall at 50 Consortium. Featured singers include Michael Chioldi, Glenn Seven Allen, Brandie Sutton, Sarah Heltzel, Victor Starsky, Ken Overton, Lianne Gennaco, Michael Weyandt, and more!

Schimmel Center with the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra presents the world premiere of The Struggle to Forgive: Confronting Gun Violence in America on Friday, May 4, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. Led by Music Director and Conductor Gary S. Fagin, the new cantata-which has a libretto by Fagin and features soprano Mikaela Bennett, mezzo-soprano Sarah Heltzel, and baritone Jorell Williams-gives voice to those whose lives have been impacted by gun violence in the United States, including victims and their families.

Can an opera's libretto be true to its literary source without being a carbon copy of it? It not only can—it has to be; otherwise, a work like Peter Eotvos's ANGELS IN AMERICA would end up being as long as the four operas of Wagner's Ring Cycle without saying anything new. I knew that Eotvos's work, which had its New York premiere at New York City Opera last weekend, directed by Sam Helfrich, clocked in at around 2 ½ hours, compared to the seven hours of Tony Kushner's two-part epic. How would it compress all those verbal parries, the humor, the politics, the theatricality, and still be ANGELS?

Operas at the House, a showcase of three original operas inspired by the not-for-profit International House and each no longer than the traditional sit-com, will be performed Saturday, May 13 at 5 p.m. at NYU Tisch's Black Box Theater.  Co-sponsored by the Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program (GMTWP), International House, the NYU Tisch Department of Design for Stage & Film and American Opera Projects (AOP), Operas at the House is free with advance registration and open to the public. 

New Amsterdam Opera has announced that its upcoming Gala Concert will be hosted by the incomparable Diana Soviero.

New Amsterdam Opera has announced that its upcoming Gala Concert will be hosted by the incomparable Diana Soviero.

Lawrence Edelson, Producing Artistic Director of American Lyric Theater (ALT), has announced that OPERA IN EDEN, an evening of one act operas written by Resident Artists from ALT's Composer Librettist Development Program, will return to the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space on Monday, June 16th, 2014, at 7:00 PM. Tickets to OPERA IN EDEN are $20 in advance, or $25 on the day of the performance, and are available from www.symphonyspace.org or by calling (212) 864-5400. Student and senior discounts are available at the box office.

Compagnia de' Colombari is pleased to announce their one-night-only benefit event Spring Serata 2014 Monday, April 28th at 6 p.m. at The Woolworth Tower Kitchen (9 Barclay Street, New York, NY 10279). Tickets are $150. For more information visit www.colombari.org.

Last year Beethoven's Ninth Symphony had been scheduled for the week that may well have been the most horrific in Boston's history. The city closed down, and Beethoven's great Ode to Joy was silenced. During what transpired that week, and then in the weeks and months after, the city demonstrated its courage, resilience, and indomitable spirit in the most moving of ways. And now that time has passed, Mr. Zander and the Philharmonic are putting the Ninth on the schedule once again, as a special added concert that will take place twice in Symphony Hall and once in Mechanics Hall in Worcester.

Last year Beethoven's Ninth Symphony had been scheduled for the week that may well have been the most horrific in Boston's history. The city closed down, and Beethoven's great Ode to Joy was silenced. During what transpired that week, and then in the weeks and months after, the city demonstrated its courage, resilience, and indomitable spirit in the most moving of ways. And now that time has passed, Mr. Zander and the Philharmonic are putting the Ninth on the schedule once again, as a special added concert that will take place twice in Symphony Hall and once in Mechanics Hall in Worcester.

Scheduled for the final concert of last season, but cancelled because of the Marathon lock-down, the BEETHOVEN 9th will open the Boston Philharmonic 2013-14 season on October 4th in Symphony Hall. Benjamin Zander will conduct, with the Chorus Pro Musica and soloists Michele Johnson, Sarah Heltzel, Yeghishe Manucharyan and Robert Honeysucker.

Tonight, September 11 at 7pm, The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space presents MORE OR LESS I AM, a powerful music-theater innovation drawn entirely from Walt Whitman's 1855 Song of Myself. Director Karin Coonrodis is resurrecting the acclaimed performance for one night only at WNYC's intimate, downtown broadcast and performance studio.