Sarah Williams News

Inspired by poems of St. Augustine, Orth reached out to Toronto-based playwright Kanika Ambrose, a former collaborator at Tapestry Opera, about the libretto. They envisioned a resurrecting, energizing force inviting people to come into the world anew, as embodied through mezzo-soprano Kristen Choi and a quartet of dancers.

Director, Gordon Combes, is well served by five fine principals. See what our critic thought of EVITA at ARTS Theatre.

Berkeley Rep announced today that it has named Sunshine Deffner as its new Associate Managing Director. Deffner previously worked as the Senior Director of Operations and Education for The California Symphony in Walnut Creek, where she served as an organizational leader for concert operations, artistic administration, program development, strategic partnerships, education programming, and general operations.

The Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment has announced the addition of a fourth New York Music Month Extended Play event category – Youth Programming. This new category joins Resources for Musicians, NYMM Talks and Performances + Workshops. 

Theatre Communications Group has announced the inaugural Climate Action and Environmental Justice Summit, hosted online in partnership with Groundwater Arts, HowlRound, and Broadway Green Alliance on Earth Day, April 22, 2021.

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw's complex, layered sound world comes to the Opera Philadelphia Channel on Friday, April 16 with We Need to Talk.

Courtney Bryan's Blessed takes its inspiration from the righteous uprisings of 2020, when the Bible verse from Matthew 5, “blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth,” kept running through her head.

Responding to the ongoing pandemic and movement for racial equity, California Shakespeare Theater has announced their 2021 Season of Shared Light that will open its outdoor Bruns Amphitheater to community groups, artists, and arts and culture organizations from across the Bay Area.  

Having commissioned or co-commissioned more than 15 new works since 2011, Opera Philadelphia is recognized as “one of North America's premiere generators of valid new operas” (Opera News). With the forthcoming launch of the Opera Philadelphia Channel, a global streaming platform where artists can perform and explore, the company has commissioned four of today's most dynamic composers to create and premiere new works to be streamed on the channel.

ABC News is exploring the ways in which opera has been able to diversify since making the shift to virtual productions due to the health crisis.

The company is taking its next step into the future of the art form with the launch of the Opera Philadelphia Channel, a global broadcast platform that will bring a revised 2020-2021 season into opera lovers' homes via their television screens and streaming devices.

Opera Philadelphia's adaptation of Lars von Trier's searing, Oscar-nominated 1996 film Breaking the Waves made its world premiere in September 2016. It has since earned the Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA)'s inaugural Best New Opera Award, an International Opera Award nomination for Best World Premiere.

Week 4 of Opera Philadelphia's Digital Festival O features the broadcast premiere of the 2018 chamber opera Sky on Swings, premiering on Friday, May 22, at 8:00 p.m. on YouTube and operaphila.org. Following Friday's digital opening night, the 2018 production will stream on-demand through Monday, August 31.

If you are still unable to get to the barber, Opera Philadelphia can at least bring a Barber to you! Week 3 of the company's Digital Festival O features a broadcast of Rossini's comic masterpiece The Barber of Seville, premiering on Friday, May 15, at 8:00 p.m. on YouTube and operaphila.org. Following Friday's digital opening night, the 2014 production will stream on-demand through Monday, June 29.

Artistic Director Eric Ting, Managing Director Sarah Williams, and the Board of Directors of California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) have chosen to cancel the 2020 performance season.

Artistic Director Eric Ting, Managing Director Sarah Williams, and the Board of Directors of California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) have chosen to cancel the 2020 performance season.

The Dramatists Guild Opera Committee's Librettist Initiative premieres the short film a?oeCredit the Librettist: Conversations with Today's Opera Makersa?? at Opera America's New Works Forum on Thursday, January 16 at 10am at the National Opera Center, 330 7th Avenue, 7th Floor, New York.

It may surprise you to learn that Stephen King didn't write 'The Shining' and Sister Helen Prejean didn't write 'Dead Man Walking.' Even more, you may be startled to learn that Herman Melville didn't write 'Moby Dick' and Louisa May Alcott didn't have a hand in 'Little Women.' Well, of course they did--except when it came to turning the works into operas. Then, respectively, Mark Campbell and Terrence McNally took over, as did Gene Scheer and Mark Adamo.

Opera America will feature a public discussion with The Dramatists Guild's Opera Committee's Librettist Initiative at their New Works Forum on Thursday, January 16 at 10am at the National Opera Center, 330 7th Avenue, 7th Floor, New York.

Opera Philadelphia welcomes Tyshawn Sorey, “a composer of radical and seemingly boundless ideas” (Wall Street Journal), as the company's next Composer in Residence. Sorey, whose residency begins in November 2019, is the first resident in a new phase of the company's renowned program that will give composers more opportunities to explore the opera medium.