Natalie Dessay will make her Met role debut as Violetta Valery, the iconic heroine of Verdi's La Traviata, in a revival of Willy Decker's highly praised 2011 production of the opera. Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads his first Met performances of the tragic love story, which also stars Matthew Polenzani as the lovesick Alfredo and Dmitri Hvorostovsky as Alfredo's father, Giorgio Germont. The April 14 matinee will be transmitted live around the world as part of The Met: Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 1,700 movie theaters in 54 countries.
In the Metropolitan Opera's bold new production, broadcast live at Town Hall Theater on April 14, Violetta will be played by French soprano Natalie Dessay. Known as a fierce and committed actor as well as an astonishing singer, Dessay - whose early training was in theater - can be mesmerizing on the stage.
Atlanta Opera Zurich General Director Dennis Hanthorn today announced the Atlanta Opera's 2012-2013 season. The Atlanta Opera's 2012-2013 mainstage productions at the Cobb Energy Centre will feature Bizet's popular classic Carmen, November 10-18, 2012; Verdi's tragic and romantic opera La traviata, March 2-10, 2013; and Rossini's comic opera The Italian Girl in Algiers, April 27-May 5, 2013. Season tickets are now on sale for the three Atlanta Opera mainstage productions at Cobb Energy Centre. Also announced were a donor benefits program called MyOpera, a completely new approach to issuing donor benefits in the world of the performing arts; 2012-2013 community engagement initiatives, including the hugely successful 24-Hour Opera Project and High School Opera Institute; and the details of the 2012 Atlanta Opera Ball: A Night in Seville, a fundraiser supporting and sustaining the exceptional artistic quality of The Atlanta Opera. Production, casting, and season ticket information are below, or can be found at atlantaopera.org.
In the first of three collaborations together this spring, Ailyn Perez and Stephen Costello reprise headline the Los Angeles Opera's signature production of Puccini's masterpiece. Marking Costello's house debut, the revival opens for six performances on May 12.
My Occasion of Sin began preview performances on Friday, March 16, 2012 and will celebrate its opening night on Wednesday, March 21 at Urban Stages (259 West 30 Street), running through Sunday, April 15. Tickets are $40 ($25 during previews) and are available at www.Smarttix.com or by calling 212.868.4444.
Check out the production photos below!
Chicago Opera Theater (COT) presents the opening production of their 2012 Season, and General Director Brian Dickie's last season with the company, with Shostakovich's Moscow, Cheryomushki. Performances are April 14, 20, 22, and 25 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Millennium Park.
With performances beginning for the premiere of Monica Bauer's My Occasion of Sin, directed by Frances Hill on March, Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director; Peter Napolitano, Producing Director) is proud to add an additional two performances to the run, Saturday, March 24th at 3PM and Tuesday, April 10th at 8PM.
Patrick Summers continues his first season at the helm of the Houston Grand Opera this spring, leading performances of Verdi's Don Carlos (April 13-28) and Donizetti's Mary Stuart (April 21-May 4). Summers - named HGO's Artistic and Music Director in May 2011, following a 13-year period as Music Director - began his Houston season withVerdi's La traviata. Last fall, the conductor continued his long association with San Francisco Opera as principal guest conductor, leading the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis' Heart of a Soldier and, soon after, the company premiere of Handel's Xerxes. He returns to the West Coast this spring, making his Los Angeles Opera debut by conducting Puccini's La boheme (May 12-June 2).
The Dallas Opera presents the third main stage production of the 2011-2012 "Tragic Obsessions" Season: Giuseppe Verdi's tender and bittersweet romance, LA TRAVIATA, opening Friday, April 13, 2012 at 7:30 PM in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Downtown Dallas. This will be the first time Verdi's "Fallen Woman" has appeared on the Winspear stage.
Opera Idaho welcomes new-to-Boise artists Constantinos Yiannoudes (Horace Tabor) and Rebecca David (Baby Doe)! Co-Artist-in-Residence Michele Detwiler returns to the stage to play Horace's first wife Augusta Tabor, and Tiffany Calàs returns to play Mama McCourt. Baby Doe will be conducted by Sara Jobin (Our Town, 2010) and directed by David Cox (Our Town, 2010).
The Dallas Opera presents the third main stage production of the 2011-2012 "Tragic Obsessions" Season: Giuseppe Verdi's tender and bittersweet romance, LA TRAVIATA, opening Friday, April 13, 2012 at 7:30 PM in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Downtown Dallas. This will be the first time Verdi's "Fallen Woman" has appeared on the Winspear stage.
Verdi's La Traviata, the famous tragic love story set in 19th century Paris, tells of a young man, Alfredo Germont, who falls deeply in love with Violetta Valery, a French prostitute. La Traviata, featuring a company of 60 including a full orchestra, will be performed in Italian with English supertitles.
Verdi's La Traviata, the famous tragic love story set in 19th century Paris, tells of a young man, Alfredo Germont, who falls deeply in love with Violetta Valery, a French prostitute. La Traviata, featuring a company of 60 including a full orchestra, will be brought to life on stage with all the Passion! Intrigue! Deceit! and Loss! expected in grand opera. It's the tale of an undying love that cannot be broken that will make this production a night to remember!'
Florida Grand Opera (FGO) announces its 72nd continuous season of opera. With a classic selection of works as well as the return of company favorites in leading roles, the 2012-2013 productions include: Puccini's La boheme, Mozart's Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute), Bellini's La sonnambula, and Verdi's La traviata.
Opera San Jose continues its 28th season with the romantic tragedy La traviata. An unequivocal masterpiece based on the short life of the most famous of all Parisian courtesans, this is Verdi's most popular opera.
21C Media Group today announced that it now represents American lyric soprano Ailyn Perez, whose burgeoning international career has already seen her in leading roles at many of the world's foremost opera houses and concert halls. As the Associated Press observes, her "lyric soprano is pure and honeyed in tone, and she deploys it with elegance and tenderness"; the Philadelphia Inquirer cites her "inner radiance combined with vocal luster.
The winners of the 41st annual George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers were announced at the conclusion of the competition's final round this evening, which took place in a front of a capacity audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.
New York City Opera kicks off a new year and a new era of city-wide productions with LA TRAVIATA at the Brooklyn Academy of Music from Feb. 12-18. The Jonathan Miller production of Verdi's masterpiece is the season's first NYC Opera staging at BAM, and is followed by the US premiere performances of Rufus Wainwright's Prima Donna from Feb. 19-25. As a gift to the City of New York, The Reed Foundation and The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation have bought the remaining seats for all NYC Opera performances at BAM and will offer these seats at a special $25 price to celebrate NYC Opera's new beginning.
New York City Opera - in the company's first performances in its Brooklyn Academy of Music residency - will present a production by director Jonathan Miller of Verdi's La traviata, February 12-18 at BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House.
