Scott Conner News

The season, which is AVA's 89th, kicks off with a stunning production of Gaetano Donizetti's masterwork Anna Bolena, followed by Benjamin Britten's hauntingly beautiful The Rape of Lucretia and ending with Gioachino Rossini's beloved comic masterpiece, Il barbiere di Siviglia ('The Barber of Seville'). Also returning this season is the annual Giargiari Bel Canto Competition, New Artists Recital, Winter Recital, and Farewell Recital.

The Cleveland Orchestra announced updates to its inaugural Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream, which takes place this spring at Severance Music Center and with Cleveland partner organizations.

Get a first look at Canadian Opera Company's SALOME! A dance—perhaps the most famous one in history—precedes a macabre kiss and an execution in this opera by Richard Strauss. An explosive, modernist score propels the action, redefining musical storytelling.

Pink, voguing, drag, stiletto heels, opera, seeing that list, you may feel that opera seems out of place, but you couldn't be more wrong. On July 10, Des Moines Metro Opera (DMMO) took all those and melded them together as they opened the company's premiere production of 'Platée.' While many companies may have taken a more classical approach to this opera, DMMO took the risk of taking a modern approach to this opera. After seeing this production on the 10th, I can tell you with certainty the risk certainly reaped the rewards that go with it.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City today announced an ALL NEW PRODUCTION, Amahl and the Night Visitors, as part of New Visions, Lyric Opera's revised innovative fall programming. Just in time for the holidays, these family-friendly performances will be held Dec. 3 through 6 at the Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building

The presentations, filmed live in high-definition at the War Memorial Opera House, will be viewable on demand for free with registration at sfopera.com on the first streaming date starting at 10 am (PDT) and expiring at 11:59 pm the following day.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced the launch of a new digital series, Opera in Eight Parts, as part of New Visions, Lyric Opera's revised innovative fall programming.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City today announced updates for the company's 2020-2021 season. The two remaining mainstage season productions of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs and Carmen, originally announced as part of the 2020-2021 season in March 2020, are now postponed until the productions can be performed safely.

San Francisco Opera continues streaming performances with Giacomo Puccini's Tosca on October 10a?"11, Giuseppe Verdi's Attila on October 17a?"18 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) on October 24a?"25.

American Symphony Orchestra has launched ASO Online, a new digital initiative in collaboration with Bard's Fisher Center. To stay in touch with its audiences and to help the community escape from stress through music during the COVID-19 pandemic, ASO will release a recording of a past performance for streaming on its website each Wednesday. Streaming content will alternate each week between a??live video recordings of operas from Bard's SummerScape festival featuring ASO as the orchestra-in-residence, and iconic symphonic audio recordings from the Orchestra's past seasons.

If you can imagine Rossini's IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA with all its comedy but without any of its great arias, you can begin to imagine why Sergei Prokofiev's LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES isn't only anyone's top-ten list of favorite operas. Yet Alessandro Talevi's wild-eyed production at Opera Philadelphia's O19 Festival somehow manages to make the audience laugh itself silly and tap its foot with glee at the famous march that was such a big hit in the composer's time, that he grew sick of it.

Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada, an all-star cast of vocalists, the Houston Symphony, and the Houston Symphony Chorus unite on stage for two thrilling choral masterpieces in Mendelssohn and Mahler at 8 p.m., Oct. 4 and 5, and 2:30 p.m., Oct. 6 in Jones Hall.

The Santa Fe Opera's General Director Robert K. Meya today announced repertory and casting for the company's exciting 64th Season in 2020. On the panel joining Meya for the announcement were the President of the Board of Directors Susan G. Marineau, Andrea Fellows Walters, Director of Community Engagement, and Cori Ellison, the company's first, recently appointed Dramaturg.

Committed since its inception to reviving important but neglected operas, Bard SummerScape has long proven itself 'an indispensable part of the summer operatic landscape' (Musical America).

San Diego Opera is the 13th company since 2011 to cast mezzo-soprano Ginger Costa-Jackson in the title role of Bizet's Carmen. Her voice, sultry looks, and sensuous flamenco dancing are perfect for the role. She even manages castanets in perfect rhythm without missing a step. The considerable powers of persuasion she brings to Carmen make it easy to accept that the malleable young Corporal Don Jose would desert his childhood sweetheart, not to mention his loving mother and the army, to be with her and a band of smugglers in a cold and dangerous mountain lair. A less naive man might have realized he couldn't compete for ever with a bold, dashingly handsome matador.

Since 2011 Mezzo-soprano Ginger Costa-Jackson has sung the title role in 12 different productions of Bizet's Carmen. She will star in yet another this month for San Diego Opera. From here it's on to rehearsals for nine performances of Bizet's masterwork at Seattle Opera. Is the singer tiring of Carmen? Not even close. She loves the character's sense of freedom and empowerment, and works with each new director to make her performance even more convincing.

On Sunday, March 4 at 8 p.m., the Bay Area's Classical KDFC will broadcast a San Francisco Opera performance from November 2014 of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca starring soprano Lianna Haroutounian in the title role, tenor Brian Jagde as Cavaradossi and bass-baritone Mark Delavan as Scarpia, with maestro Riccardo Frizza leading the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. KDFC radio announcer Dianne Nicolini hosts the archival broadcast presentation, which will be available for on demand streaming at kdfc.com up to four weeks after the March 4 airing.

Palm Beach Opera will present Giacomo Puccini's Tosca for one weekend only, Jan. 26-28, at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach.

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.

San Francisco Opera continues its 2017 Summer Season on June 10 at the War Memorial Opera House with Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme. Coinciding with city-wide celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the "Summer of Love," this revival of one of the greatest love stories in the operatic repertory will feature a brilliant cast including sopranos Erika Grimaldi, Julie Adams and Ellie Dehn; tenor Arturo Chacon-Cruz as Rodolfo; and baritone Audun Iversen. Carlo Montanaro conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestral and Chorus. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the company onstage below!