Sarah Shafer News

The San Diego Opera's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro featured expressive singing, clever attractive sets, beautiful costumes, and strong comedic and dramatic acting. The work is generally called a comic opera, but as director Stephen Lawless pointed out during my interview with him, 'There are tears behind the laughter.' The difficult political and social issues hiding behind laughter came from the Beaumarchais play on which the opera was based, and Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte had to make light of them or risk censorship. The play's depiction of royal abuses probably contributed to the start of the French Revolution. Napoleon went so far as to say the it was, 'the Revolution already put into action.'

Stephen Lawless will be directing the San Diego Opera's production of The Marriage of Figaro this week. I met with him in the opera company's rehearsal room recently to discuss that, how he came to be a director, and his views of a director's responsibilities.

The Chamber Music Society of Detroit's 75th anniversary season will celebrate its history with special concerts in venues that were home to its series over the years, including Orchestra Hall and the DIA, while expanding its reach with a new Regional Partnership series offering four weekends of performances in Grosse Pointe, Canton and Rochester Hills. The stellar line-up of world renowned artists and ensembles across four series includes pianists Leon Fleisher, Olga Kern and Richard Goode, London's Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and the Juilliard, Pacifica, Dover and Miro Quartets, among others.

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) announces programming for its 2018-2019 season, continuing its mission of bringing affordable, world-class performances of traditional and contemporary chamber music to all five boroughs of New York City. The upcoming slate of concerts marks the organization's most collaborative season to date, including partnerships with GEMAS (Gotham Early Music / Americas Society), ClassicalCafe, Brooklyn Art Song Society, New York Festival of Song, and the LGBT Center ("The Center").

Featured Performers Include Sopranos Sarah Shafer and Abigail Fischer, Tenor James Reese, and Baritone Lee Poulis

Utah Symphony | Utah Opera today announced its lineup for the 2018 Deer Valley Music Festival in addition to its plans to celebrate its 15th year of calling Park City, Utah its summer home. Highlights of the six-week, 17-concert music festival, which begins on June 30, 2018 and runs through August 11, 2018, include Utah Symphony performances with Emmy and Tony Award-winning Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth, folk-rock singer-songwriter Amos Lee, 14-time Grammy Award-winner Ricky Skaggs, and Grammy Award-winner Rick Springfield; music of John Williams with scores from some of Hollywood's biggest blockbuster movies; Broadway vocalists and show tunes honoring Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim musicals; tributes to Swedish pop sensation ABBA, Pink Floyd and the music of the 1970s and '80s; Disney in Concert "A Silly Symphony Celebration" with scenes from some of Disney's earliest colorful cartoons playing on giant screens; and the perennial favorite, "1812 Overture" with live cannon fire on the hillside provided by Cannoneers of the Wasatch.

The San Diego Opera's 2018-19 season will feature three grand operas at the city's Civic Center and three smaller-scale productions at other venues. Seasoned opera buffs are likely to fill the 3000-seat Civic Center for The Marriage of Figaro, Rigoletto, and Carmen. But elaborate three-hour productions are a hard-sell for inexperienced listeners, many of whom believe that 45-seconds is about right for 'in-depth' news reporting. That's where the opera company's highly successful 'Detour Series' of shorter and more contemporary-feeling performances comes in. The two operas in that series next season are an English adaption of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, and Three Decembers, a chamber work by Jake Heggie, one of today's most successful operatic composers. The Detour series and the season conclude with 'One Amazing Night,' a recital devoted largely to Puccini and Verdi.

A lot of risk, fast rotations in perfect unison, a precarious balance point. No, I'm not talking about doing a twizzle in Olympic ice-dancing--but starring in SEMIRAMIDE by Gioacchino Rossini, a man who believed there was no such thing as too many runs, roulades and high notes. Neither did soprano Angela Meade, who fearlessly stars in the Met's current run of this dazzlingly difficult piece.

San Francisco Opera's partnership with the Bay Area's Classical KDFC continues this fall with monthly opera broadcasts beginning September 3with Giuseppe Verdi's Otello in a historic 1978 performance featuring Placido Domingo in the title role and Katia Ricciarelli as Desdemona. From October through December, the broadcasts will feature presentations from San Francisco Opera's 2017 Summer Season: Mozart's Don Giovanni,Verdi's Rigoletto and Puccini's La Boheme. Each broadcast was recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House and features the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and San Francisco Opera Chorus.

21C Media Group has announced highlights from its 2017-18 selection of opera, vocal and choral music, featuring concerts, special events, broadcasts and recordings. Scroll down for details!

San Francisco Opera announces the winner of the 2017 Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Emerging Stars Competition. Tenor Arturo Chacon-Cruz, who appeared as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boheme this summer, was named "2017 Emerging Star of the Year" based on a popular vote conducted online at sfopera.com from July 5-August 15, 2017. Now in its second year, the competition featured rising stars appearing in San Francisco Opera's 2016-17 Season at the War Memorial Opera House.

21C Media Group has announced highlights from its 2017-18 selection of opera, vocal and choral music, featuring concerts, special events, broadcasts and recordings. Scroll down for details!

On Friday, June 30, more than 23,000 people of all ages kicked off the 4th of July weekend with an evening of opera at AT&T Park with Opera at the Ballpark, a free live simulcast from the stage of the War Memorial Opera House to the 103-foot wide scoreboard at the home of the San Francisco Giants.

San Francisco Opera partners with the San Francisco Giants and presenting sponsor Taube Philanthropies for Opera at the Ballpark, a free live simulcast of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni on Friday, June 30, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. at AT&T Park. Opera lovers, baseball fans and tens of thousands from around the Bay Area will have the opportunity to experience Mozart's masterpiece at the home of the San Francisco Giants while seated on the baseball field or in the stands. Register now for early entry to ensure best seating at sfopera.com/simulcast.

San Francisco Opera's 2017 Summer Season includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni at the War Memorial Opera House playing now through Friday, June 30 for eight performances.

San Francisco Opera's 2017 Summer Season will include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni at the War Memorial Opera House beginning Sunday, June 4 through Friday, June 30 for eight performances. In a cast change announced today, Uruguayan bass-baritone Erwin Schrott and American bass Erik Anstine will sing the role of Leporello. Both artists are making their first appearances with San Francisco Opera and stepping in for previously scheduled bass Marco Vinco, who has withdrawn from the production for health reasons. Schrott is scheduled to sing the first six performances and Anstine the last two.

Music Director Thierry Fischer and President & CEO Paul Meecham today announced the Utah Symphony's 2017-18 season, which includes a Saint-Saens symphony cycle recorded live for the Hyperion label, marking the first recording of the composer's complete symphonies by an American orchestra.

San Francisco Opera presents a trio of operatic favorites- Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni and Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme-at the War Memorial Opera House from May 31 through July 2.

The Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series presents two different lineups of innovative theater makers, choreographers and musicians for the second installment of its WINTRY MIX/PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL, a curated sampler of new works of performing arts. Emerging and established regional artists and performers known for their artistic daring will show their latest creations at the Hepburn Teaching Theater stage in Goodhart Hall, Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28 at 8:00 p.m.

Tulsa Opera announces a thrilling lineup of four productions for the 2016-2017 Season.