Simon McBurney News

Today, the Metropolitan Opera announced its 2020-21 season, the first in which Yannick Nézet-Séguin assumes his full breadth of musical duties as the company's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, conducting six productions. His schedule includes the Met premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, the first contemporary opera conducted by the maestro on the Met stage, as part of his ongoing commitment to opera of our time at the Met, which will expand in the seasons to come.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic's Weimar Republic: Germany 1918-1933, through two wide-ranging and dramatic programs led by Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen, explores the musical culture of Germany's politically charged Weimar era. These concerts are given context by Weimar Variations, a collection of ancillary events curated by Stephanie Barron and Nana Bahlmann.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's classic THE MAGIC FLUTE opens this week at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Saturday November 16, 2019; under the baton of James Conlon (with Grant Gershon conducting on December 1, 12 and 15). This will be the third LA Opera mounting of 1927 and Barrie Kosky's avant-garde THE MAGIC FLUTE merging animation with live performance. I had the chance to present a few questions to Bodgan Volkov, who's making his Los Angeles Opera debut as Tamino, the prince and current bearer of the magic flute.

Rumors have been circulating about a Broadway transfer of The Kid Stays in the Picture since its West End run two years ago. Deadline is reporting that this very much may still be a possibility.

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents celebrated American tenor Paul Appleby in Schumann's Dichterliebe for Voice and Piano, Op. 48 (1840) with pianist Ken Noda on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 7:30pm at Alice Tully Hall. Part of a concert titled 1891: Brahms's Clarinet Quintet, the program also includes Schubert's Fantasie in F minor for Piano, Four Hands, D. 940, Op. 103 (1828) and Brahms's Quintet in B minor for Clarinet, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello, Op. 115 (1891) performed by pianist and Artistic Director Wu Han, violinists Aaron Boyd and Francisco Fullana, violinist and violist Yura Lee, cellist Keith Robinson, and clarinetist David Shifrin.

The September selection for the ongoing Off The Page series of staged readings at Sierra Madre Playhouse is Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang.

Marking Complicite's return to the Fringe after more than twenty years, and the first time they have made theatre for primary school aged children, this co-production with Polka Theatre is a fun and frenetic adaptation of a beloved children's book. Long-term Complicite collaborator, Catherine Alexander, directs I'll Take You to Mrs Cole!, fusing original Ska music and animation to tell the story of Ashley, the child of a hard-working single mother from Barbados. Exhausted by her child's endless imagination, she threatens them with a visit to their terrifying neighbour whenever they misbehave. But one day Ashley is magnetically drawn to Mrs Cole's door and taken into her noisy, messy, chaotic world… A story of cultural differences, fear of the unknown and the power of a child's imagination. I'll Take You to Mrs Cole! is one of two shows Complicite brings to the Fringe this year along with The Last of the Pelican Daughters, a co-production with The Wardrobe Ensemble.

Multi-talented Englishman Simon McBurney will be directing the classic The Cherry Orchard at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam this season in co-production with the Holland Festival. For his first collaboration with the ITA ensemble, McBurney has chosen one of Anton Chekhov's most famous and beloved pieces. The performance with among others Chris Nietvelt, Gijs Scholten van Aschat and Robert de Hoog - will have its premiere on Sunday 16 June at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam.

The Improvisers' Choir is a group of agile and creative singers from across vocal styles and is lead by composer/conductor Jenni Roditi. The improvisations are led through a system of hand and face signals given by the conductor. The singers come up with their own musical elements, shaped in the moment through the conducting.

SHOWTIME has released the official poster and trailer for its highly anticipated seven-part limited series THE LOUDEST VOICE, starring Academy Award® and Golden Globe® winner Russell Crowe as Fox News founder Roger Ailes. THE LOUDEST VOICE will premiere onSunday, June 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

While many scoff at Broadway's habit of bringing back so many American classics from decades ago, a well-timed revival of an early work by one of our great masters might reveal a bit about how the young, emerging voices of another era were dealing with the same kinds of issues that we still debate (or avoid) at family dinners today.

SHOWTIME has announced that it will premiere its highly-anticipated seven-part limited series THE LOUDEST VOICE, starring Academy Award® and Golden Globe® winner Russell Crowe as Fox News founder Roger Ailes, on Sunday, June 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Production is currently underway in New York City.

SHOWTIME has announced that Emmy and Golden Globe® nominated actor Josh Charles (The Good Wife) will play a recurring role in the network's upcoming limited series THE LOUDEST VOICE about Fox News founder Roger Ailes. The series, led by Academy Award® and Golden Globe winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind), is based on extensive reporting by Gabriel Sherman in his bestselling book, The Loudest Voice in the Room. Production is currently underway in New York City. 

Composer Vik Sharma spoke with us about his score for the new film Fighting With My Family and what it was like working with Blur's guitarist Graham Coxon.

The Donmar Warehouse today announces full casting for Berberian Sound Studio conceived for the stage by Joel Horwood and Tom Scutt. Joining the previously announced Tom Brooke, Enzo Cilenti and Tom Espiner are Eugenia Caruso, Sidney Kean, Lore Lixenberg, Luke Pasqualino, Lara Rossi, Beatrice Scirocchi and Hemi Yeroham.

SHOWTIME has announced that Golden Globe® nominee Sienna Miller (Layer Cake), Oscar® nominee and Emmy® winner Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy), Screen Actors Guild Award® nominee Simon McBurney (The Theory of Everything) and Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders, The Mummy) have joined the cast of the network's upcoming eight-episode limited series about Fox News founder Roger Ailes. Based on extensive reporting by Gabriel Sherman for his bestselling book, The Loudest Voice in the Room, the series stars Academy Award® and Golden Globe winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind) in the title role and Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts as Gretchen Carlson. Crowe also serves as an executive producer on the series. Emmy nominee Kari Skogland (The Handmaid's Tale) will direct the first two episodes. Production is set to begin next month in New York.  

SHOWTIME has announced that Golden Globe® nominee Sienna Miller (Layer Cake), Oscar® nominee and Emmy® winner Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy), Screen Actors Guild Award® nominee Simon McBurney (The Theory of Everything) and Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders, The Mummy) have joined the cast of the network's upcoming eight-episode limited series about Fox News founder Roger Ailes. Based on extensive reporting by Gabriel Sherman for his bestselling book, The Loudest Voice in the Room, the series stars Academy Award® and Golden Globe winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind) in the title role and Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts as Gretchen Carlson. Crowe also serves as an executive producer on the series. Emmy nominee Kari Skogland (The Handmaid's Tale) will direct the first two episodes. Production is set to begin next month in New York.  

The Barbican today announces its full January to June 2019 Theatre and Dance programme. Tickets for the season go on sale to Barbican Members Plus on Wednesday 17 October, to Barbican Members on Friday 19 October and on general sale on Friday 26 October 2018.

The Orchestra of St. Luke's (OSL) has announced the launch of the DeGaetano Composition Institute, with the first edition taking place in July 2019 at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music. Four exceptional emerging composers will be selected through a national call-for-scores to workshop new works for chamber orchestra under the leadership of 2019 mentor and composer Anna Clyne. This new initiative was established through a generous gift from the estate of pianist, composer and teacher Robert DeGaetano, and will occur annually each July.  

To kick off the Dutch National Opera's season, the Mozart classic DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE is running from Sept. 7 to Sept. 29.