Music for Life International continues its decade-long tradition of global humanitarian concerts with Beethoven for The Rohingya, a benefit concert featuring Beethoven's monumental Ninth Symphony, presented in the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall on Monday, January 28, 2019. Beethoven for The Rohingya is an urgent call to the global community to raise awareness for the nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees fleeing what the United Nations have defined as genocide in Rakhine State in Myanmar. Refugees, who are seeking safety in Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other nearby locations, are grossly lacking access to healthcare when it is needed most; net proceeds from this performance will benefit Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which provides medical aid to those who are among the world's most vulnerable.
Aida has been called the grandest of grand operas and the production that has graced the Met stage for the last (unbelievably) 30 years still looks absolutely amazing - towering columns, massive sandstone blocks, etc. Oddly, the audience did not applaud the sets (as they have in every other performance of this production I've seen - about 10 times). The big news of the night on Monday was the house debut of American soprano Kristin Lewis, who has made a name for herself across Europe in many Verdi roles. Her Radames was tenor Yonghoon Lee who seems to be the Met's go-to-tenor for the bigger roles these days. Amneris was a spunky young kid named Dolora Zajick - this kid is gonna go places!
American soprano Kristin Lewis, making her Metropolitan Opera debut, will sing the title role in Verdi's Aida on January 7, 11, 14, and 18, 2019, replacing Sondra Radvanovsky, who has withdrawn for personal reasons.
While it makes a worthy effort to introduce people to the arts, 'The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me' simply misses the mark. Despite its wonderful cast, the show has far too many flaws for this to be a worthy introduction to a love for theatre.
Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its annual holiday family opera tradition with The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me, December 14-16, 2018, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Based on Jeanette Winterson's award-winning children's book which tells the Nativity story from the donkey's point of view, The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me features music by Tony-award winning composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home) and a libretto by the late poet J.D. 'Sandy' McClatchy. These performances star current and former members of WNO's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program.
Placido Domingo, LA Opera's Eli and Edythe Broad General Director, has announced final details about the company's season-opening presentation of Giuseppe Verdi's monumental Don Carlo.
San Francisco Opera announces the winner of the 2018 Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Emerging Stars Competition. Brazilian tenor Atalla Ayan, who made his Company debut as Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata last fall, was named “2018 Emerging Star of the Year” based on a popular vote conducted online at sfopera.com from July 9–July 31, 2018. As winner of the competition, now in its third year, Ayan receives a $10,000 cash prize.
Acclaimed bass Soloman Howard will join conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in their performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, presented by Lincoln Center's Great Performers series, on April 29, 2018, at 3:00 pm in David Geffen Hall. He will replace Davone Tines, who withdrew due to illness.
The University Musical Society (UMS), under the leadership of President Matthew VanBesien, today announces its 140th season in 2018-19 with an initial slate of 40 performances and events. One of the country's most acclaimed performing arts presenters, UMS honors its past by showcasing respected ensembles and performers with whom it has enjoyed rich relationships, and fully embraces the future as initiator, incubator, and accelerator for innovative new works and projects. This potent combination infuses the anniversary season with dynamic and diverse voices and perspectives featuring artists at the top of their game - celebrating the canon, taking risks, moving genres in new directions, disrupting stereotypes, and surprising audiences.
The Opéra de Montréal has an exciting 39th season planned for the 2018-2019 production year. The Place des Arts lineup includes classics like Rigoletto, Das Rheingold, Carmen and the anticipated Canadian premiere of the jazz-opera Champion. In addition to these four operas, a chamber opera called Twenty-Seven will be presented at the Centaur Theatre and a concert with soprano Joyce El-Khoury and Pianist Laurent Philippe will be held at the Festival du Monde Arabe.
On Sunday, March 25 at 2:00 p.m., Harry Bicket conducts Handel's Rinaldo at Carnegie Hall with acclaimed baroque orchestra The English Concert. In this concert presentation, countertenor Iestyn Davies performs the title role joined by sopranos Jane Archibald (Armida) and Joélle Harvey (Almirena), bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni (Argante), mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Goffredo), and countertenors Jakub Józef Orli?ski, (Eustazio), and James Hall (A Christian Magician).
With 16 Handel and Haydn Society premieres, the first performance of Schubert's Symphony No. 9 by H+H since 1865, and a host of notable guest performers, the Handel and Haydn Society announces its 2018-19 season, the 204th season in its history.
Following the December 3 matinee performance of Puccini's Turandot, San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock presented British artist David Hockney with the Company's highest honor, the San Francisco Opera Medal. In an onstage ceremony amongst the brilliant red Act III setting of Hockney's production, which premiered at San Francisco Opera in 1993, the 80-year-old artist received the medal before a sold-out audience.
San Francisco Opera will present Giacomo Puccini's Turandot at the War Memorial Opera House in six performances from November 18 through December 9. After opening the Company's 2017 Fall Season in September, the work returns in the colorful production by British-born artist David Hockney and with a cast headed by internationally renowned Swedish soprano Nina Stemme. Tenor Brian Jagde reprises the role of Calaf, soprano Leah Crocetto sings Li and bass Soloman Howard makes his Company and role debuts as Timur. In his first San Francisco Opera appearance, American conductor Christopher Franklin leads the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and dancers.
San Francisco Opera will present Giacomo Puccini's Turandot at the War Memorial Opera House in six performances from November 18 through December 9. After opening the Company's 2017 Fall Season in September, the work returns in the colorful production by British-born artist David Hockney and with a cast headed by internationally renowned Swedish soprano Nina Stemme. Tenor Brian Jagde reprises the role of Calaf, soprano Leah Crocetto sings Li and bass Soloman Howard makes his Company and role debuts as Timur. In his first San Francisco Opera appearance, American conductor Christopher Franklin leads the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and dancers.
The 2017 Fall Season of San Francisco Opera continues in November and December with a new production of Jules Massenet's Manon (November 4 22), Giacomo Puccini's Turandot (November 18 December 9) and the highly anticipated world premiere of John Adams' Girls of the Golden West (November 21 December 10). Special concert presentations include the San Francisco Opera Chorus (November 30), the popular award-winning New Zealand vocal trio Sol3 Mio performing with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra (December 1) and The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Concert (December 8). The Company's 95th season culminates in June 2018 with Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Verdi's sumptuous epic AIDA graces the Kennedy Center for the first time in more than 25 years, and it is a knock-out. The three hour visual and auditory spectacle helmed by director Francesca Zambello and conductor Evan Rogister with original sketches and concept design by famed visual artist RETNA and choreography by one of contemporary dance's leading voices Jessica Lang is not to be missed. In her director's note, Francesca Zambello speaks to AIDA's appeal with opera lovers as part of the very "fabric of our beings", but you surely don't have to be a lover of opera to fall in love with this ensemble and creative team.
San Francisco Opera inaugurates its 95th season on Friday, September 8, with Puccini's Turandot, staged in the iconic production by English artist David Hockney and conducted by Company Music Director Nicola Luisotti, and two opening night galas. Saturday, September 9 features the opening of a new production of Richard Strauss' Elektra. The festivities continue on Sunday, September 10, with San Francisco Chronicle Presents Opera in the Park, an annual Bay Area tradition celebrating the opening of the opera season with a free concert in Golden Gate Park.
Washington National Opera (WNO) opens its 2017-2018 season with a new production of Verdi's grand Egyptian epic Aida, September 9-23, 2017, in the Kennedy Center Opera House.
