Susan Bullock News

With a libretto by opera-giant Sir David Pountney and music by Alex Woolf, A Feast in the Time of Plague is the only new opera to have been commissioned during lockdown.

For the first time in decades, a fully staged production of Richard Wagner's Parsifal will be presented in Canada, opening the Canadian Opera Company's monumental 2020/2021 season with a company premiere at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Cast with more than 100 singers, an orchestra of 110 musicians, and a nearly six-hour run-time, this journey of one knight's quest for the Holy Grail offers Canadian audiences a rare opportunity to experience Wagner's thrilling final masterpiece in Toronto, in a celebrated COC co-production directed by François Girard.

Lars von Trier's 1996 film Breaking The Waves has no underscore. So, while the subject matter is perfectly apt for yet another opera where a woman debases herself at the whims of a man, composer Missy Mazzoli has little to musically draw inspiration from.

Conducted by Kirill Karabits, the BSO's Chief Conductor, the Orchestra will be joined by Catherine Foster as Elektra, in her first UK operatic performance in 20 years. Alongside Catherine Foster, the Orchestra will be joined by Allison Oakes in her UK operatic debut as Chrysothemis, a role in which she made her Metropolitan Opera debut last season, and Susan Bullock, who is internationally acclaimed for her Elektra and will be making her UK debut as Klytemnestra.

The world premiere of Iain Bell's Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel, following his critically-acclaimed In Parenthesis is playing at the London Coliseum through April 12, 2019.

The world premiere of Iain Bell's Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel, following his critically-acclaimed In Parenthesis. 

In February this year, historian Hallie Rubenfold brought out a poignant book describing the backstories of the five women killed in 1888 by a murderer nicknamed Jack the Ripper. It has always seemed a poor reflection on society that the victims of such horrific crimes have been almost forgotten in the midst of the ever-increasing celebrity and mystery of Jack himself.

Well, it's that time of the year again--time for a look-back on what was worth making note of during the calendar year that's about to come to an end. It's from a totally personal, subjective point of view, of course, but frankly that's the way opera-lovers always seem to like it, n'est-ce pas? The productions worth noting come from places big, small and in-between, from composers old as the hills to freshly minted or somewhere in between (likewise the performers), from traditional or boldly modern to simply stand up and sing.

I hope somebody from New York City Opera was at BAM last weekend, because Mark-Anthony Turnage's GREEK--a modern retelling of the Oedipus myth from Scottish Opera/Opera Ventures, presented by BAM's Next Wave Festival--is just what the doctor ordered for that company. A great story, a small cast, a score that maybe won't leave you humming but moves like gangbusters, a simple production that doesn't look cheesy (except maybe in a mozzarella-ish way). And, oh yes, a happy audience for a work that deserves greater reach on these shores.

Richard Strauss' twisted psychodrama, Elektra, returns to the COC stage with commanding star soprano Christine Goerke in the title role. Rooted in classic Greek tragedy, the one-act opera is an expressionist take on the ultimate tale of family dysfunction: Elektra's lust to avenge her father's murder at the hands of her mother and her mother's lover. Fury and obsession spiral into horrific consequence as Elektra careens down a path of total destruction, all set to an unrelenting modern score. Elektra runs for seven performances on January 26, 31, February 6, 10, 12, 16, 22, 2019.

Guest presenters will offer exclusive performance insights during the Royal Opera House Cinema Festival, which opens on Monday 3 December in the state-of-the-art Linbury Theatre. Famous faces include former Royal Ballet Principal Darcey Bussell (presenting Sylvia, 7 December, 7pm) and Music Director of The Royal Opera Antonio Pappano (presenting Otello, 21 December, 7pm, and The Flying Dutchman, 29 December, 7pm). The festival, which includes 11 free opera and ballet performances for children, runs until Sunday 6 January.

The city's best all-access cultural programming returns this fall when the Canadian Opera Company's Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre kicks off its 13th season on September 25, 2018. Over 400 emerging and established artists, spanning a broad spectrum of artistic and cultural traditions, will perform in 72 concerts from September to May.

Investec Opera Holland Park (OHP) marked one year since the tragic Grenfell fire with the Hope for Grenfell Memorial Gala on Wednesday, 13 June. The concert was given in memory of Debbie Lamprell, a much-loved member of OHP's staff who was lost in the disaster, and all the fire's victims. All proceeds will be donated to the Rugby Portobello Trust (RPT) and the final total is still being calculated, but it is hoped to exceed £100k.

The Canadian Opera Company's 2018/2019 season presents the world premiere of Hadrian, a new opera from composer Rufus Wainwright and librettist Daniel MacIvor, which features the highly anticipated COC debuts of international opera stars Thomas Hampson and Karita Mattila.

The September 2016-February 2017 Orange Tree Theatre season will feature the first major revivals of Caryl Churchill's Blue Heart and Somerset Maugham's last play Sheppey, as well as a new play from Zoe Cooper, the English language premiere of Roland Schimmelpfennig's Winter Solstice, and an Elinor Cook adaptation of children's story Extra Yarn.

Houston, March 12, 2015—Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its highly anticipated La Fura dels Baus staging of Wagner's Die Walküre with an all-star cast and Stephen Sondheim's thrilling Sweeney Todd in April, after notching critical and sales successes with its winter productions of Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Mozart's The Magic Flute. Butterfly's six performances averaged a total capacity of 102% (including resale of returned seats) while Flute's five performances averaged 104% capacity.

After a resoundingly successful fall season and the launch of its new holiday opera series with the world premiere of Iain Bell and Simon Callow's A Christmas Carol, Houston Grand Opera (HGO) rings in 2015 with two beloved productions: a reprise of Michael Grandage's knockout staging of Puccini's Madame Butterfly, which triumphed at its 2010 Houston debut, and the American premiere of Sir Nicholas Hytner's iconic English National Opera staging of Mozart's The Magic Flute in a revival directed by Ian Rutherford.

During the first week of November, the Mariinsky Theatre returns to the UK for an operatic showcase of Wagner's Ring in Birmingham at the historic Hippodrome and three operas originally written for the Mariinsky including the most recent Levsha (The Left-hander) by Rodion Shchedrin. With a 300-strong troop of musicians, soloists and chorus starting the tour in Cardiff with Prokofiev's Betrothal in a Monastery, Valery Gergiev proceeds to London to present Russia's national epic Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov followed by the UK premiere of The Lefthander, both in concert versions at the Barbican.

This coming November, Birmingham Hippodrome will present Wagner's epic The Ring Cycle in its entirety. Conducted by Maestro Valery Gergiev with his world-famous Mariinsky Opera, it is the only UK date in 2014.

During the first week of November, the Mariinsky Theatre returns to the UK for an operatic showcase of Wagner's Ring in Birmingham at the historic Hippodrome and three operas originally written for the Mariinsky including the most recent Levsha (The Left-hander) by Rodion Shchedrin. With a 300-strong troop of musicians, soloists and chorus starting the tour in Cardiff with Prokofiev's Betrothal in a Monastery, Valery Gergiev proceeds to London to present Russia's national epic Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov followed by the UK premiere of The Lefthander, both in concert versions at the Barbican.