Steven Osgood News

For the second year running, Opera Philadelphia launches the new season with a world premiere. Inspired by Lars von Trier's searing Oscar-nominated 1996 film, Breaking the Waves is a new three-act chamber opera that draws on the talents of three of today's foremost young creative artists: composer Missy Mazzoli, librettist Royce Vavrek, and director James Darrah. Starring soprano Kiera Duffy and baritone John Moore, the premiere production takes place over five performances in the Kimmel Center's intimate Perelman Theater under the baton of Steven Osgood (Sep 22-Oct 1).

Opera Philadelphia looks forward to launching the 2016-17 season with the world premiere of a new company co-commission, Breaking the Waves (Sep 22-Oct 1).

Quick: What film won the Golden Globe for Best Movie in 1997? It was THE ENGLISH PATIENT. But more important for composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek, the question is “What film didn't win the Golden Globe in 1997?” The answer (for them, at least) is Lars von Trier's BREAKING THE WAVES, which they've transformed into an opera of the same name, premiering at Opera Philadelphia, September 22.

For the second year running, Opera Philadelphia launches the new season with a world premiere. Inspired by Lars von Trier's searing Oscar-nominated 1996 film, Breaking the Waves is a new three-act chamber opera that draws on the talents of three of today's foremost young creative artists: composer Missy Mazzoli, librettist Royce Vavrek, and director James Darrah. Starring soprano Kiera Duffy and baritone John Moore, the premiere production takes place over five performances in the Kimmel Center's intimate Perelman Theater under the baton of Steven Osgood (Sep 22-Oct 1).

On Monday, September 12, 2016, Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents discussion with the creators and excerpts of Opera Philadelphia's upcoming world premiere of Breaking the Waves by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek.

This fall, contemporary opera producer AMERICAN OPERA PROJECTS (AOP) will present COMPOSERS & THE VOICE: SIX SCENES 2016, a concert of opera scenes from ten artists emerging in the world of contemporary opera. Audiences will get a first look at six wildly different new works that range from imagining moments in the lives of famous people such as Sigmund Freud and Mabel Dodge Luhan or events taking place in a spaceship, an asylum, and a uterus. The composers Matthew Barnson, Carlos R. Carrillo, Nell Shaw Cohen, Marc LeMay, Cecilia Livingston, and Sky Macklay and librettists Edward Einhorn, Duncan McFarlane, Emily Roller, and Mark Sonnenblick, were chosen by AOP to spend a year creating new works in its bi-annual fellowship program Composers & the Voice (C&V).

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced full programming details for the fifth season of the American Opera Initiative, its comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. For the first time, all of the program's world premiere operas will be presented during an American Opera Initiative Festival weekend, January 13-15, 2017 in the Kennedy Center Family Theater.

Opera Philadelphia looks forward to launching the 2016-17 season with the world premiere of a new company co-commission, Breaking the Waves (Sep 22-Oct 1).

Fort Worth Opera will inaugurate the tenth anniversary Festival season and celebrate the culmination of the first phase of its Opera of the Americas initiative with the world premiere of JFK - a FWOpera and American Lyric Theater co-commission - by the acclaimed creative duo of David T. Little and Royce Vavrek, beginning tonight, April 23, 2016.

Fort Worth Opera will inaugurate the tenth anniversary Festival season and celebrate the culmination of the first phase of its Opera of the Americas initiative with the world premiere of JFK - a FWOpera and American Lyric Theater co-commission - by the acclaimed creative duo of David T. Little and Royce Vavrek, beginning April 23, 2016.

LA Opera's 30th Anniversary Season will include the west coast premiere of Song from the Uproar, a new multimedia opera by Brooklyn-based composer Missy Mazzoli. This compelling new work is presented under LA Opera's Off Grand banner, which complements the company's mainstage programming through a wide variety of forms of artistic exploration. A unique combination of live music and original film, Song from the Uproar was inspired by the life and writings of early 20th-century explorer Isabelle Eberhardt. The audience witnesses key moments in her life: the death of her family, her journeys in the North African desert, her ecstatic religious conversion and, ultimately, her tragic drowning in a flash flood at the age of 27. 

(Los Angeles) September 17, 2015 — LA Opera's 30th Anniversary Season will include the west coast premiere of Song from the Uproar, a new multimedia opera by Brooklyn-based composer Missy Mazzoli. This compelling new work is presented under LA Opera's Off Grand banner, which complements the company's mainstage programming through a wide variety of forms of artistic exploration. A unique combination of live music and original film, Song from the Uproar was inspired by the life and writings of early 20th-century explorer Isabelle Eberhardt. The audience witnesses key moments in her life: the death of her family, her journeys in the North African desert, her ecstatic religious conversion and, ultimately, her tragic drowning in a flash flood at the age of 27. 

Saratoga Springs, NY -- Opera Saratoga, in partnership with the literary organization Words After War, will present a writing workshop to civilians, veterans and military families today and tomorrow, July 11 and July 12, 2015 at The New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY. The two-day event will be held in conjunction with the world premiere of The Long Walk, by Composer Jeremy Howard Beck and Librettist Stephanie Fleischmann. The opera is based upon the critically acclaimed memoir of war and homecoming by Brian Castner.

Opera Saratoga kicks off its 2015 Summer Festival season, which will run from today, July 2 - July 26, 2015 at multiple venues throughout Saratoga Springs, New York.

Saratoga Springs, NY -- Opera Saratoga, in partnership with the literary organization Words After War, will present a writing workshop to civilians, veterans and military families on July 11 and July 12, 2015 at The New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY. The two-day event will be held in conjunction with the world premiere of The Long Walk, by Composer Jeremy Howard Beck and Librettist Stephanie Fleischmann. The opera is based upon the critically acclaimed memoir of war and homecoming by Brian Castner.

Opera Saratoga announces its 2015 Summer Festival season, which will run from July 2 - July 26, 2015 at multiple venues throughout Saratoga Springs, New York.  

American Opera Projects (AOP) announces the return of its popular Composers & the Voice program for its 2015-17 seasons.

Tonight, March 12 at 8:00PM at Alice Tully Hall, the American Classical Orchestra, conducted byMaestro Thomas Crawford, presents Schubert's Symphony No. 9 'Great', Mozart's Mass in C 'Coronation'

The voice of the people sang and spoke out last night in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, Appel Room and Ertegun Atrium. Many of the world's finest musicians, and many of the finest citizens of NYC assembled to celebrate an effort to return 'The People's Opera' to New York. They did so in a Gala Concert and Dinner to honor the life of the late Maestro Julius Rudel, who was the Opera's General Director and Principal Conductor from 1957 to 1979.

New York City Opera Renaissance will host a Gala Concert and Dinner to celebrate the life of the late Maestro Julius Rudel and his invaluable contribution to the New York City Opera as General Director and Principal Conductor from 1957 to 1979. Maestro Rudel passed away on June 26, 2014 at age 93. The Gala Concert will take place at the Rose Theater in the Time Warner Center, Broadway & 60th Street, New York, NY, this evening, March 9, 2015, at 7 pm.