Susanna Phillips News

The Metropolitan Opera's annual Summer HD Festival, which presents free outdoor screenings of operas on Lincoln Center Plaza each summer, will return with 10 screenings of performances featuring the company's leading artists in a varied selection of operas by Bartók, Bizet, Gounod, Mozart, Offenbach, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi, running on consecutive nights from August 29 through September 7.

On Sunday, June 14, 2015 at 7:30pm acclaimed pianist Simone Dinnerstein will give the New York premiere of Philip Lasser's piano concerto The Circle and the Child from her latest Sony album Broadway-Lafayette with the talented teen new music ensemble Face the Music under the direction of founder and director Jenny Undercofler at Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Music Center (129 W. 67th St.). The program also includes Face the Music members Paris Lavidis's Violin Concerto in D, Michelle David's First Love Experience, and Benjamin Wenzelburg's Air for harp and strings.

Over the past three seasons, The Metropolitan Museum of Art has seen some of the most intriguing and unexpected performance offerings around— often inviting audiences to engage with their surroundings as well as the performances. Leading with curiosity and innovation, the 2015-2016 season of Met Museum Presents continues this line of inquiry featuring a roster of powerful performances, new commissions, and fearless artists, all taking the Metropolitan Museum as a starting point.

After a months-long series of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, five young singers have been named the winners of the nation's most prestigious vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago celebrates its 40th season with its annual Rising Stars in Concert program tonight, March 21, at 7:30pm at the Civic Opera House. The talented singers and pianist of the 2014-15 ensemble will perform with members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra in works of Bellini, Berg, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Donizetti, Floyd, Gounod, Handel, Korngold, Mozart, Puccini, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Rossini. Rising Stars in Concert is offered in celebration of an exceptionally successful year of study and performance for these up-and-coming artists.

Broadway Gives Back has announced that the Third Annual 'Broadway Charity Songs' concert will be recorded by Broadway Records as part of their 'Live from 54 Below' series. The concert will feature new songs written by Sting, Brian Yorkey, Andrew Lippa, Henry Krieger, Pasek & Paul, and others.

The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago celebrates its 40th season with its annual Rising Stars in Concert program Saturday, March 21, at 7:30pm at the Civic Opera House. The talented singers and pianist of the 2014-15 ensemble will perform with members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra in works of Bellini, Berg, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Donizetti, Floyd, Gounod, Handel, Korngold, Mozart, Puccini, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Rossini. Rising Stars in Concert is offered in celebration of an exceptionally successful year of study and performance for these up-and-coming artists.

Coming up this week, 54 BELOW, Broadway's Supper Club, presents some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz and beyond. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.

Baritone Quinn Kelsey has been named the recipient of the tenth annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera. The $50,000 award, the largest of its kind in the United States, is designated for extraordinarily gifted singers between the ages of 25 and 40 who have already appeared in featured solo roles at the Met.

Lyric Opera of Chicago will begin a new chapter in its history with its 61st season - the first to be fully planned by general director Anthony Freud and music director Sir Andrew Davis. Lyric's two artistic leaders announced the repertoire and casting for the 2015-16 season today.

A beautiful mechanical doll. An irresistible courtesan. A visit from beyond the grave-or is it just an illusion? All these, plus an imaginative hero who never gets the girl, show up in The Met's new production of Jacques Offenbach's masterwork. Les Contes d'Hoffman has been inspired by a variety of influences that reflect the opera's multiple dramatic layers-including Kafka, classic Hollywood cinema, and even Woody Allen. Town Hall Theater will broadcast this new production today, January 31st at 1pm.

A beautiful mechanical doll. An irresistible courtesan. A visit from beyond the grave-or is it just an illusion? All these, plus an imaginative hero who never gets the girl, show up in The Met's new production of Jacques Offenbach's masterwork. Les Contes d'Hoffman has been inspired by a variety of influences that reflect the opera's multiple dramatic layers-including Kafka, classic Hollywood cinema, and even Woody Allen. Town Hall Theater will broadcast this new production on Saturday, January 31st at 1pm.

Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann will return to the Met stage January 12, with Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo in his first company performances of the title role, a poet whose attempts at romance are repeatedly thwarted.

Sing for Hope's 2014 Gala united New York's philanthropic and cultural elite for a magical evening in support of arts outreach to communities in need. Nearly 400 guests gathered at the downtown hotspot TriBeCa Rooftop to support the organization's programs that democratize the arts and ignite the spark of creative innovation in all people. Scroll down for photos from the event!

Puccini's LA BOHEME has that magical ability to change its shape depending on the cast. When Pavarotti sang, it became his opera, with a Mimi hard pressed to take the spotlight, even in her death scene. When Stratas, Carreras and Scotto (as Musetta) led the cast, it became a glittery ensemble of shooting stars. At this week's performance with rising star Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva as Mimi, there was no doubt that she was the evening's “it” girl, even though the other principal singers added mightily to the performance's success.

Francesco Demuro and Michael Fabiano will sing the role of Rodolfo in the remaining 2014 performances of La Bohème, replacing Ramón Vargas, who has withdrawn from the remainder of the performances due to illness.

NEW YORK –– The Juilliard Opera season opens with a production of Gioachino Rossini's Il Turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy), a drama buffo in two acts with a libretto by Felice Romani. Juilliard alumnaSperanza Scappucci conducts the Juilliard singers and the Juilliard Orchestra in her conducting debut at Juilliard in the production directed by John Giampietro. Performances take place tonight, November 19, 2014 and Friday, November 21, 2014 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, November 23, 2014 at 2 p.m., in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Tickets for Juilliard Opera's production of Il Turco in Italia are $30 and available at events.juilliard.edu or at the Juilliard Box Office. Juilliard students may attend for free; non-Juilliard students with valid ID may purchase tickets at $15 at the Juilliard Box Office.

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), an ardent champion of new music, presents the highly anticipated Los Angeles premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis' gripping and virtuosic Viola Concerto written for and featuring Paul Neubauer, considered one of the greatest violists of his generation, in two performances led by Music Director Jeffrey Kahane tonight, November 15, 2014, 8 pm, at Glendale's Alex Theatre, and Sunday, November 16, 2014, 7pm, at UCLA's Royce Hall.

NEW YORK –– The Juilliard Opera season opens with a production of Gioachino Rossini's Il Turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy), a drama buffo in two acts with a libretto by Felice Romani. Juilliard alumnaSperanza Scappucci conducts the Juilliard singers and the Juilliard Orchestra in her conducting debut at Juilliard in the production directed by John Giampietro. Performances take place on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 and Friday, November 21, 2014 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, November 23, 2014 at 2 p.m., in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Tickets for Juilliard Opera's production of Il Turco in Italia are $30 and available at events.juilliard.edu or at the Juilliard Box Office. Juilliard students may attend for free; non-Juilliard students with valid ID may purchase tickets at $15 at the Juilliard Box Office.

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO), an ardent champion of new music, presents the highly anticipated Los Angeles premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis' gripping and virtuosic Viola Concerto written for and featuring Paul Neubauer, considered one of the greatest violists of his generation, in two performances led by Music Director Jeffrey Kahane on Saturday, November 15, 2014, 8 pm, at Glendale's Alex Theatre, and Sunday, November 16, 2014, 7pm, at UCLA's Royce Hall. Kernis' three-movement work, filled with 'passages of intense lyricism (that) approach a kind of ecstasy' (Star Tribune), is a co-commission by LACO, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, which premiered it in April, the Chautauqua Symphony and the Idyllwild Arts Academy. Kahane, showcasing LACO's remarkable artistic versatility, also leads Beethoven's luminous Piano Concerto No. 3 from the piano and opens the program with Rameau's Overture to Zais and dances from Les Boreades and Dardanus.