After debuting its first-ever commissioned work in the program's history last season, San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, returns with a new group of rising opera stars for its 63rd season.
After a months-long series of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, a panel of expert judges named five singers as the winners of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Each winner receives a $20,000 cash prizea?"up from $15,000, the first increase since 1998a?"and the prestige and exposure that come with winning the competition that launched the careers of many of opera's biggest stars.
R. Strauss's powerful psychodrama Salome returns to Houston Grand Opera for the first time in 20 years in a production directed by Francisco Negrin. The revolutionary score reinvents Oscar Wilde's biblical drama of a deeply disturbed princess who has fallen in love with Jokanaan (John the Baptist). After he denies her, she performs the infamous and seductive a?oeDance of the Seven Veilsa?? for King Herod in exchange for John's head.
Following yesterday's semi-final competition, nine young singers have advanced to the final round of the Metropolitan Opera's 2020 National Council Auditions. In the public concert, finalists perform on the Met stage Sunday, March 1 at 3 p.m., for an audience of judges, agents, industry leaders, and the general public (in the auditorium and live on the radio). The finalists, chosen by a panel of opera administrators from the Met and other companies, each perform two arias with the Met Orchestra conducted by Bertrand de Billy. Prize money will increase for the first time in 20 years, with the winners receiving individual cash prizes of $20,000 (previously $15,000), and the prestigious and potentially career-launching title of National Council Auditions Winner. The remaining finalists receive $10,000 (previously $7,500).
The 23 young opera singers who have won regional auditions around the United States will compete in the semifinal round of the country's leading vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, on Monday, February 24. The closed semifinal competition, held on the Met stage before a panel of judges, will determine the select group of finalists who will advance to the final round of the competition-the Grand Finals, which is open to the public and will be held on the Met stage on Sunday, March 1.
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.
Washington National Opera's (WNO) 2020-2021 season offers an ambitious mix of sweeping political epics and intimate stories of interpersonal relationships, centered on human pursuits of justice, power, and love. Led by General Director Timothy O'Leary and Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, WNO announces the six mainstage titles in the 2020-2021 season: Fidelio, Nixon in China, Boris Godunov, Rigoletto, Così fan tutte, and La bohème.
This February, Lincoln Center will present a plethora of music, dance, theater, and panel events across the campus and beyond. David Rubenstein Atrium continues to offer free programming, consisting of diverse live performances, and panel conversations. The 2019-20 season of LC Kids (October 5a?"June 7, 2020) is in full swing with free and ticketed events developed for toddlers, children, and teenagers stepping into young adulthood. The ongoing Great Performers series (October 29a?"May 16, 2020) brings an array of beloved musicians and up-and-coming artists to the Lincoln Center stage. American Songbook (January 22a?" February 29) concludes its latest season with artists performing Broadway, folk, classical, and more.
I admit this is an absolutely personal, totally one-sided view of what gave one man opera thrills last year and what I will look back on with delight. Some are old works, some are new, some are individual performers, some are ensembles, some are complete productions, some are merely the highlight of an evening, most are domestic, a few are foreign. In any case, as the new decade begins, I recall that these are the vocal highlights that made my heart beat a little faster and made me look forward to the year ahead.
Jason Graae is soon to star once again as the title character in a?oeScrooge in Love!a?? at 42nd Street Moon, where has found a sort of Bay Area artistic home in recent years. This eternally youthful performer is now a veritable showbiz veteran, having starred on Broadway several times, toured the country with legendary composer Jerry Herman, recorded almost 50 CD's and most recently played The Wizard of Oz in the national tour of a?oeWicked.a?? Known for his spirited comic performances and sterling vocals, you might expect Mr. Graae to be a lot of fun to talk to, and you would be right about that. While quick to express heartfelt gratitude to colleagues, he is also the irrepressible imp who can't resist entertaining you with his mischievous sense of humor.
The 2020 Tanglewood season, June 19 through August 30, will present major musical events, including an Andris Nelsons-led Act III of Tannhäuser, Paul Lewis performing all five Beethoven piano concertos, a weekend-long celebration of Isaac Stern on the 100th anniversary of his birth, a Boston Pops presentation of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back under the direction of Keith Lockhart, Film Night hosted by John Williams, Thomas Adès directing the 2020 Festival of Contemporary Music, and a Popular Artist series with Ringo Starr, Trey Anastasio, and Judy Collins and Arlo Guthrie. Alongside these programs taking place in the Koussevitzky Music Shed will be intimate chamber music and recital concerts in Ozawa Hall and engaging and thought-provoking activities in the Linde Center, which opened to great popular and critical acclaim in 2019 (see separate press release for 2020 Tanglewood Learning Institute programs here).
There's nothing subtle about Lyric Opera's staging of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's contemporary opera DEAD MAN WALKING. Based upon the novel of the same name by Sister Helen Prejean, DEAD MAN WALKING focuses on Sister Helen's relationship with 29-year-old Joseph De Rocher, a prisoner on death row in Angola, Louisiana convicted of the murder of a young couple (and the sexual assault of a young woman). While DEAD MAN WALKING clearly aims to be morally complex in its exploration of capital punishment and the notion of whether or not we should also treat criminals as human beings, the piece feels overwrought. The debate at the opera's center is painted with broad strokes; at one point, we literally see protestors outside the prison holding picket signs depicting both sides of the argument.
Dead Man Walking, the powerful opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist-playwright Terrence McNally, will have its long-awaited Lyric premiere this month. There will be six performances Nov. 2-22 at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago. Tickets start at $39 and are available at lyricopera.org/dmw or by calling 312-827-5600.
Now in its third season, California School of the Arts a?" San Gabriel Valley (CSArts-SGV) continues to provide meaningful and often life-changing experiences for its 1,200 aspiring young artists through programs such as the 2019-2020 Master Artist Series. In addition to the school's 10 arts conservatories, this unique program provide students the opportunity to learn from real-world experts in a variety of industries. Acclaimed artists, esteemed educators and top industry leaders visit CSArts-SGV to impart their knowledge and provide students with exclusive advice through demonstrations, residencies, panel discussions, master classes and more.
Broadway vet John Treacy Egan and Metropolitan Opera regular Jason Simon have announced their collaboration of a new children's book, a?oeIngredients for a Witcha??. The book was released on September 5th, and can be purchased at ingredientsforawitch.com
Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) delivers on its mission to provide an unparalleled arts and academic education to a diverse student body passionate about the arts through its 2019-2020 Master Artist Series and Creators & Innovators Series. In addition to the school's 16 arts conservatories, these unique programs provide students the opportunity to learn from real-world experts in a variety of industries. Acclaimed artists, educators and industry leaders visit OCSA's campus in Santa Ana to share their expertise and provide students with exclusive advice through demonstrations, residencies, panel discussions, master classes and more. This season's Master Artist Series kicked off with a culinary arts master class with internationally celebrated chef, Jet Tila, who is a best-selling author and host on a?oeIron Chef America.a??
San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program wraps up its Summer Festival with the Merola Grand Finale, a concert at the War Memorial Opera House featuring the 29 young international artists selected from over 800 applicants in the 2019 Merola Opera Program, who will showcase a dazzling array of opera's most exciting arias and ensembles. Conducted by Maestro George Manahan, Music Director of the American Composers Orchestra and Portland Opera, and directed by 2019 Merola Apprentice Stage Director Greg Eldridge, this evening showcases the hard work and extraordinary talent of the Merola artists. The Merola Grand Finale will be performed at 7:30pm, Saturday, August 17 at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. For tickets or more information, visit www.merola.org or call (415) 864-3330.
San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the world, commences its 62nd season with a showcase of the program's rising stars in the Schwabacher Summer Concert. A jaded courtesan longing for true love, star-crossed lovers, a comic marriage, a deal with the devil, and brothers separated at birth all take the stage as Merola's talented young artists bring some of opera's most exciting moments to life by performing scenes from La rondine, Lucia di Lammermoor, Die schweigsame Frau, Faust, and Il trovatore.
Compagnia de' Colombari, an international collective of performing artists founded and directed by Karin Coonrod, presents More Or Less I Am: a music-theater piece drawn entirely from Walt Whitman's revolutionary free verse long poem, 'Song of Myself,'one of the original twelve pieces that comprise his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass. The next performance in this series, spanning multiple venues throughout the five boroughs, will take place on Sunday, May 26, 2019, 7:30 pm at Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn.
Videos
