Teresa Stratas News

Beginning this month, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) will celebrate the iconic work and enduring legacy of composer Kurt Weill with an unprecedented series of events. Opening on Friday, Oct. 19, and running through Tuesday, March 12, CCM's Kurt Weill Festival will incorporate the renowned theatre composer into a broad range of both public performances and classroom exercises.

The Metropolitan Opera Guild honors Thomas Hampson, one of today's foremost singers, with a new installment in its "Mastersingers" series.

The Metropolitan Opera Guild and Opera News, the award-winning magazine published by the Guild since 1936, will present two notable events this spring. On Tuesday, March 22, the Guild honors Thomas Hampson, one of today's foremost singers, in its "Met Mastersingers" series at New York City's Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. The great American baritone - who is making his company role debut as Verdi's Macbeth at the Met this month - will engage in an informal conversation with Paul Gruber, the Guild's Executive Director of Program Development. The evening program will also showcase video excerpts of Hampson's most celebrated performances; a new video biography created for the occasion; and the honoree performing songs by Liszt, Barber, and Porter (program subject to change). On Sunday, April 29, the seventh annual Opera News Awards will be presented in a gala celebration in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza in New York City, paying tribute to five extraordinary artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: sopranos Karita Mattila and Anja Silja, baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Peter Mattei, and director Peter Sellars.

The Metropolitan Opera Guild and Opera News, the award-winning magazine published by the Guild since 1936, will present two notable events this spring. On Tuesday, March 22, the Guild honors Thomas Hampson, one of today's foremost singers, in its "Met Mastersingers" series at New York City's Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. The great American baritone - who is making his company role debut as Verdi's Macbeth at the Met this month - will engage in an informal conversation with Paul Gruber, the Guild's Executive Director of Program Development. The evening program will also showcase video excerpts of Hampson's most celebrated performances; a new video biography created for the occasion; and the honoree performing songs by Liszt, Barber, and Porter (program subject to change). On Sunday, April 29, the seventh annual Opera News Awards will be presented in a gala celebration in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza in New York City, paying tribute to five extraordinary artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: sopranos Karita Mattila and Anja Silja, baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Peter Mattei, and director Peter Sellars.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company, the Mid-South's professional classical theatre, features legendary Broadway composer Charles Strouse in performance for its Third Annual Valentine's Gala on Friday, February 10 at 6:00 pm at Germantown Performing Arts Centre.

Composer Marc Blitzstein's nephew Stephen Davis has donated his 50% share of Blitzstein's musical and literary estate to the Kurt Weill Foundation.

Tennessee Shakespeare Company, the Mid-South's professional classical theatre, features legendary Broadway composer Charles Strouse in performance for its Third Annual Valentine's Gala on Friday, February 10 at 6:00 pm at Germantown Performing Arts Centre.

The Metropolitan Opera Guild honors Thomas Hampson, one of today's foremost singers, with a new installment in its "Mastersingers" series.

As a special event in its 2011-2012 season, The George London Foundation for Singers will present the U.S. premiere screening of George London: Between Gods and Demons, a 2011 documentary film about the career of the legendary singer - the pre-eminent American bass-baritone of the postwar era who was a leader in the cultivation of young talent - on the exact 60th anniversary of his Metropolitan Opera debut: Sunday, November 13, 2011, at 3:00 PM.

The Lotte Lenya Competition, celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2012, seeks exceptionally talented young singer/actors who are dramatically and musically convincing in a wide range of musical theater styles for the 2012 competition. Contestants will compete for top prizes of $15,000, $10,000 and $7,500; additional special prizes will be awarded.

Metropolitan Opera Radio on Sirius XM (Channel 74) will celebrate the 40th anniversary of James Levine's Metropolitan Opera debut with a full week of Levine performances. Fifteen historic performances, three of which join the archival rotation on Sirius XM for the first time, will air in rotation for an entire week, beginning May 30 and ending June 5. The broadcasts will be introduced by Levine and other artists, some of whom will also pay tribute to the Met Music Director's extraordinary career in special segments between operas.

Staging one of the theatre's most unique and unclassifiable pieces, Brecht & Weill's THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS for the New York City Ballet, starting May 11 and running through May 16, is just the latest act in a career made up of anomalies, seemingly built upon always attempting to do the impossible - from her Broadway debut, trying to bring balletic bravado to Trevor Nunn's terminally troubled 1988 musical CHESS (a project begun under the guidance of Michael Bennett before his death), up through the trying-but-Tony-winning TITANIC in 1997 and, this century, SWING! starring Ann Hampton Callaway and Laura Benanti and a succession of successful regional ballets and theatre pieces - the gifted and dynamic director/choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett continues to challenge herself, her peers and audiences with each of her audacious new endeavors. THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS, starring two-time Tony-winning Broadway legend Patti LuPone as Anna I, is a particularly problematic play - or is it a musical? Or, is it a ballet? A song-spiel? - and in this revealing and engaging discussion, Ms. Taylor-Corbett and I attempt to deduce the themes, analyze the structure and look back at the authors' lives to gain insight into the perplexing America painted by Brecht and Weill in the forty-minute-long theatrical experiment. Also, in this complete conversation, Lynne and I take a look back at her long and varied career and she generously shares her thoughts on where the place of dance is in the twenty-first century, the exhilaration of working with a theatre artist like Patti LuPone, her own inspirations and formative experiences in the theatre, the legacy of Michael Powell and THE RED SHOES, the theatre versus the dance world, her son Shaun's career, and much, much more! Further information on THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS - including tickets - is available here.

James Levine: 40 Years at The Metropolitan Opera, an extraordinary insider's view of the legendary conductor's Met career, illustrated with vivid historic photographs, will be published by Amadeus Press, an imprint of Hal Leonard, on May 3, and available for $32 at the Met Opera Shop and national retailers.

The Metropolitan Opera Guild will celebrate revered soprano Renata Scotto at Hunter College's Kaye Playhouse on Sunday, February 27, sharing video clips of her remarkable performances and engaging in an illuminating, far-ranging conversation about her life and venerable career.

The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School jointly announced plans today to stage Bed?ich Smetana's The Bartered Bride, the first co-production between the two arts institutions.

The Metropolitan Opera Guild will celebrate revered soprano Renata Scotto at Hunter College's Kaye Playhouse on Sunday, February 27, sharing video clips of her remarkable performances and engaging in an illuminating, far-ranging conversation about her life and venerable career.

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 80th season of Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts-the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history-with a 22-week season featuring many of the world's greatest operatic artists, beginning December 18.

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 80th season of Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts-the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history-with a 22-week season featuring many of the world's greatest operatic artists, beginning December 18.

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates the 40th anniversary of James Levine's company debut with James Levine: Celebrating 40 Years at the Met, two special boxed sets of 21 DVDs and 32 CDs featuring highlights from the longtime Music Director's record-breaking career with the company.