Stephen Costello News

Soprano Ailyn Perez, winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award, was fresh from a string of European appearances, including her Bolshoi Theater debut and performances at the Hamburg State Opera, when she lit up the stage at New York's Avery Fisher Hall at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation's annual gala on November 11. The gala was filmed for national broadcast in the U.S. as part of the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center series on PBS and will air on Thursday, December 13. Live from Lincoln Center: The Richard Tucker Opera Gala, which is being hosted by singer and actress Audra McDonald, will include a feature on Perez, backstage access to the artists, and selections from the musical performance.

Tonight, November 11th at 6:30 pm, the New York Choral Society (NYCS), returns for its nineteenth year as guest artist at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala in Avery Fisher Hall. In an evening led by Maestro Patrick Summers, the Gala concert will feature Ailyn Pérez, soprano, winner of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, which is conferred annually upon a single artist who is on the threshold of a major international career.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation holds its 37th annual gala, one of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season, tonight, November 11 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York's Lincoln Center. Soprano Ailyn Perez, winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award and the first Latina singer to be so honored, joins a dazzling array of special guests - including baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Gerald Finley; mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina; tenor Marcello Giordani; bass Ildar Abdrazakov; bass-baritone Erwin Schrott; and many more - in a program of favorite arias and ensembles, including selections by Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Massenet, Mascagni, Handel, and Wagner. Maestro Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director of Houston Grand Opera, leads the lineup of luminaries, supported by members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Choral Society.

On Sunday, November 11th at 6:30 pm, the New York Choral Society (NYCS), returns for its nineteenth year as guest artist at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala in Avery Fisher Hall. In an evening led by Maestro Patrick Summers, the Gala concert will feature Ailyn Pérez, soprano, winner of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, which is conferred annually upon a single artist who is on the threshold of a major international career.

Storytelling at its best, San Francisco Opera's co-production of new opera "Moby Dick" overwhelms upon sight and hearing. The magnificent production has some of the most exquisite music ever written for the stage. Jack Heggie's grand cinematic score moves faultlessly from solemn, contemplative moments to lightning and thunder during a storm, making up for minor scenic limitations and becoming the narrator of the piece.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation holds its 37th annual gala, one of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season, on Sunday, November 11 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York's Lincoln Center. Soprano Ailyn Perez, winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award and the first Latina singer to be so honored, joins a dazzling array of special guests - including baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Gerald Finley; mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina; tenor Marcello Giordani; bass Ildar Abdrazakov; bass-baritone Erwin Schrott; and many more - in a program of favorite arias and ensembles, including selections by Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Massenet, Mascagni, Handel, and Wagner. Maestro Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director of Houston Grand Opera, leads the lineup of luminaries, supported by members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Choral Society.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has declared Tuesday, August 28, 2012 "Richard Tucker Day" in New York City, marking what would have been the legendary Brooklyn-born tenor's 99th birthday.

The Met's popular Summer HD Festival returns for its fourth year on August 25, with ten free outdoor screenings of acclaimed performances from the Met's award-winning Live in HD series. The festival, which more than 40,000 people attended last year, kicks off with a screening of the Met's recent world premiere hit The Enchanted Island, a Baroque pastiche which stars David Daniels, Joyce DiDonato, and Placido Domingo.

The Canadian Opera Company has closed another successful opera season with 2011/2012 recording an average attendance of 91%. A total of 125,238 patrons attended the 67 performances of the company's seven mainstage productions in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts: Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris, Verdi's Rigoletto, Puccini's Tosca, Saariaho's Love from Afar, Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, the double bill of Zemlinsky's A Florentine Tragedy and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, and Handel's Semele.

Fresh from a triumphant spring crowned by her 2012 Richard Tucker Award win, Ailyn Perez will spend her summer in the spotlight, headlining major productions with leading companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Her tour begins in Moscow, where she sings the role of Suzel in Mascagni's L'amico Fritz at the Moscow State Philharmonic Society (June 25). A brief stop in New York is highlighted by a special performance at the Greene Space (June 27) celebrating her Tucker Award win. From there, she heads to Ohio to sing Violetta in Verdi's La traviata at Cincinnati Opera (July 25-29), followed by performances as Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflote with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia (Aug 16-18). The summer comes to a peak at the Salzburg Festival (Aug 23), when the lyric soprano reprises her star turn as Mimi in Puccini's La boheme.

Fresh from a triumphant spring crowned by her 2012 Richard Tucker Award win, Ailyn Perez will spend her summer in the spotlight, headlining major productions with leading companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Her tour begins in Moscow, where she sings the role of Suzel in Mascagni's L'amico Fritz at the Moscow State Philharmonic Society (June 25). A brief stop in New York is highlighted by a special performance at the Greene Space (June 27) celebrating her Tucker Award win. From there, she heads to Ohio to sing Violetta in Verdi's La traviata at Cincinnati Opera (July 25-29), followed by performances as Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflote with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia (Aug 16-18). The summer comes to a peak at the Salzburg Festival (Aug 23), when the lyric soprano reprises her star turn as Mimi in Puccini's La boheme.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation today announced that lyric soprano Ailyn Pérez is the winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award.

In the first of three collaborations together this spring, Ailyn Perez and Stephen Costello reprise headline the Los Angeles Opera's signature production of Puccini's masterpiece. Marking Costello's house debut, the revival opens for six performances on May 12.

Patrick Summers continues his first season at the helm of the Houston Grand Opera this spring, leading performances of Verdi's Don Carlos (April 13-28) and Donizetti's Mary Stuart (April 21-May 4). Summers - named HGO's Artistic and Music Director in May 2011, following a 13-year period as Music Director - began his Houston season withVerdi's La traviata. Last fall, the conductor continued his long association with San Francisco Opera as principal guest conductor, leading the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis' Heart of a Soldier and, soon after, the company premiere of Handel's Xerxes. He returns to the West Coast this spring, making his Los Angeles Opera debut by conducting Puccini's La boheme (May 12-June 2).

The George London Foundation for Singers culminates its 2011-12 season of events with a recital by two young George London Award-winning opera stars: soprano Lisette Oropesa, who will sing the role of Gilda in the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Rigoletto next season, and tenor Brian Mulligan, who sings the title role of Nixon in China in the San Francisco Opera's company premiere of the work in June, perform a recital program with pianist Ken Noda at The Morgan Library & Museum on Sunday, April 1, 2012, at 5:00 PM.

The Opera Orchestra of New York continues its 41st season with an opera-in-concert performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra conducted by Music Director Alberto Veronesi at Avery Fisher Hall on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 8:00 pm.

21C Media Group today announced that it now represents American lyric soprano Ailyn Perez, whose burgeoning international career has already seen her in leading roles at many of the world's foremost opera houses and concert halls. As the Associated Press observes, her "lyric soprano is pure and honeyed in tone, and she deploys it with elegance and tenderness"; the Philadelphia Inquirer cites her "inner radiance combined with vocal luster.

The Opera Orchestra of New York continues its 41st season with an opera-in-concert performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra conducted by Music Director Alberto Veronesi at Avery Fisher Hall on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 8:00 pm.

The Metropolitan Opera premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, starring soprano Anna Netrebko in her highly anticipated first North American performances of the tour-de-force title role, will be the 2012 season opener of THIRTEEN's Great Performances at the Met Friday, January 20 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings).

Stephen Costello returns to the fabled London venue for his company role debut as Alfredo in Verdi's La traviata. His five appearances (Jan 2-20) come in a revival of Richard Eyre's celebrated staging, with Maurizio Benini on the podium. For the first three performances, Costello's Violetta is Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho; for the final pair, he is rejoined by Anna Netrebko, with whom he recently made waves in the Metropolitan Opera's premiere production of Anna Bolena.