Shirley Verrett News

The Met has announced themed lineups for five weeks of its Nightly Met Opera Streams, a free series of encore Live in HD presentations and classic telecasts streamed on the company's website during the coronavirus closure.

Today (June 4) in live streaming: Coriolanus with Tom Hiddleston, Variety Thursday on Stars in the House and so much more!

We have compiled a list of operas available to stream this week, including productions from The Met, Opéra National de Paris and more.

Metropolitan Opera soprano Amanda Woodbury and pianist Aurelia Andrews, both of whom are graduates of the Los Angeles Opera Young Artist Program, will give a Living Room Recital on the LAO website Friday, May 29, at 4:00 PM Pacific Time. It will also be available later for those readers who cannot watch it live.

The Met has announced the Weeks 10 and 11 schedules for its Nightly Met Opera Streams, a free series of encore Live in HD presentations streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure. 

On Thursday March 21 at 1PM noted concert series a?oeMusic in Midtowna?? is pleased to present Graduate Center faculty, Sylvia Kahan and members of Quartet 131 in a program of 20th century works reflecting the politics of inclusion. The concert will take place at the Elebash Recital Hall at the Cuny Graduate Center located at 365 Fifth Avenue in New York City. The concert is free and open to the public.

On Thursday March 21 at 1PM noted concert series a?oeMusic in Midtowna?? is pleased to present Graduate Center faculty, Sylvia Kahan and members of Quartet 131 in a program of 20th century works reflecting the politics of inclusion. The concert will take place at the Elebash Recital Hall at the Cuny Graduate Center located at 365 Fifth Avenue in New York City. The concert is free and open to the public. To learn more visit Music at Midtown

For its first production of Vincenzo Bellini's 1831 masterwork, NORMA, in nearly 40 years, Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) brings back the international star it introduced to the U.S. just over two years ago. Elena Stikhina makes her debut in one of opera's most technically demanding roles a?' a powerful Druid priestess whose affair with the general of a warring Roman faction brings personal grief and despair. The Russian-born soprano made her American debut in BLO's 2017 production of Tosca. Her subsequent national and international acclaim includes a lauded 2018 Metropolitan Opera debut in Puccini's Il Trittico. Best known for its star-making aria a?oeCasta Diva,a?? BLO presents Bellini's dramatic bel canto opera for five performances from March 13-22 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. Tickets are on sale now at BLO.org.

Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, under the leadership of artistic director Brian Zeger, announces its 2019-20 season of opera and vocal arts performances. Highlights of the upcoming season include three mainstage operas: Mozart's Così fan tutte, conducted by alumnus Nimrod David Pfeffer and directed by faculty member David Paul, on November 13, 15, and 17, 2019, in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater; Virgil Thomson's The Mother of Us All, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's MetLiveArts and the New York Philharmonic with Juilliard singers, conducted by Daniela Candillari and directed by Louisa Proske, on February 8, 11, 12, and 14, 2020, in the Charles Engelhard Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Puccini's La bohème, conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson and directed by Stephen Wadsworth, on April 22, 24, and 26, 2020, in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

You'd never know that the Met's production of Francis Poulenc's DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES is over 40 years old, except for a few giveaways. There are no dancing nuns, no nudity, no screeching train whistle as the women go to their deaths (a la SWEENEY TODD). This fictionalized version of the story of Carmelite nuns who were martyred during the French Revolution, sent to the guillotine, is certainly the most simple and eloquent work on the Met's stage these days.

Sean Panikkar is a tenor who appears in leading opera roles around the world. He is also a member of the crossover tenor trio, Forte, as a result of his foray into the world of America's Got Talent. This month he sings the role of Mohandas K. Gandhi in Philip Glass's SATYAGRAHA at Los Angeles Opera.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at SAMON ET DALILA at The Met Opera! Check out photos of the Darko Tresnjak directed production below!

BroadwayWorld has a first look at SAMON ET DALILA at The Met Opera! Check out photos of the Darko Tresnjak directed production below!

I want to stretch my technical and artistic capabilities as far as they will go. It's wonderful for me to play around with different emotional journeys

THE HOLLYWOOD ADRIANA was named One of The Top Five Events of The Week by METROSOURCE MAGAZINE when it opened the DIXON PLACE 2018 QT: RAINBOWS ACROSS THE DIASPORA reading series in January of 2018. The Hollywood Adriana has received the honor of being invited to both the world-renowned HOT! FESTIVAL at DIXON PLACE (July 2018 45-minute version), and to premiere the full script at UNITED SOLO THEATRE FESTIVAL (October 2018 90 minute duration). Hollywood Adriana is the eroticized love child of Reader's Theatre and Medieval Morality play: a poetic novella/solo performance piece designed for the stage, screen, and reader's chair. On the constructed stages of his surreal reality, Rupert's story of obsession, thwarted love, innocence lost, murder, suicide, and catharsis implodes the boundaries of time and place into a continuum of Now, unfolding through his encounters with Sarah Bernhardt, Ramon Novarro, Maya Plisetskaya, Hector Berlioz, hustlers, drag queens, and altar boys.

New York City Opera presents a new production of Italo Montemezzi's masterpiece L'amore dei tre re (The Love of the Three Kings) directed by Michael Capasso with Pacien Mazzagatti leading the New York City Opera Orchestra. The production marks the first time Montemezzi's opera will be heard in New York City in nearly a decade. Four performances of L'amore dei tre re will be presented at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m., April 14 at 2:00 p.m., and April 15 a 4:00 p.m.

New York City Opera continues its 2017-18 Chamber Opera Series with a unique double bill of Donizetti's Il Pigmalione and Rameau's Pigmalion, the first time these one-act gems will be presented on the same program. The production also marks the New York premiere of Donizetti's first opera. This double bill will be directed and choreographed by Richard Stafford, with Gil Rose conducting the New York City Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Two performances of Il Pigmalione/Pigmalion will be presented at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater on Saturday, March 24 at 3:00 p.m. and Sunday, March 25 at 4:00 p.m.

Juilliard announces the appointment of tenorWilliam Burden to Juilliard's voice faculty in Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts. Mr. Burden's appointment will begin in fall of 2018. Mr. Burden has performed at the world's greatest opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Glyndebourne, Santa Fe Opera, and the Bayerische Staatsoper, among many others.

Following the success of its fall productions of Puccini's beloved La Fanciulla del West and the New York premiere of Tobias Picker's Dolores Claiborne, New York City Opera continues the 2017/2018 season in January 2018 with the New York premiere of Jos 'Pepe' Mart nez and Leonard Foglia's Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, the world's first mariachi opera.

New York City Opera will present the celebrated Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci in her highly anticipated return to New York on Tuesday, February 20 at 7:30 p.m. Due to popular demand, City Opera has added a second performance the following night, Wednesday, February 21 at 7:30 p.m. Both concerts will be at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Antonacci will perform a program tailored for City Opera featuring works by Debussy, Nadia Boulanger, Respighi, Britten, and Poulenc with her longtime collaborator pianist Donald Sulzen. The concerts will be Ms. Antonacci's first appearance in the U.S. in nearly three seasons.