Vita Tzykun News

Every so often, a production comes around that leaves you pondering about the show when it is done. For me, it's usually a jarring show that asks the audience to think about how we see things in the world, and if the way we see things can be adjusted or not. Des Moines Metro Opera's (DMMO) production of 'WOZZECK' was a production that will leave you thinking about a topic that is very prevalent in our world today, mental illness. This production deals with a character that is dealing with insanity. What this production does well is having the idea of insanity prevalent in multiple aspects of the show.

Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth has announced the programming, initial casting, and creative teams for the company's 2019-20 season, which comprises four opera productions at the newly renovated Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre. Featuring improved seating and sightlines on the orchestra level, the theatre reopens after a six-month closure for the company's season-opening production of Verdi's La traviata in October 2019. The season continues with composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell's Silent Night in January 2020, Rossini's The Barber of Seville in March 2020, and Massenet's Tha s in May 2020. Silent Night is presented as part of Utah Opera's American Opera Initiative, through which the company champions and commissions American contributions to the art form. Both Silent Night and Tha s are Utah Opera premieres.

Artistic Director Christopher McBeth today announced the programming, initial casting, and creative teams for Utah Opera's 2019-20 season, sponsored by the George S. and Dolores Dor Eccles Foundation. In its upcoming season, Utah Opera produces four operas at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre: Verdi's La traviata in October 2019, Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell's Silent Night in January 2020, Rossini's The Barber of Seville in March 2020, and Massenet's Tha s in May 2020. Both Silent Night and Tha s are company premieres. Season subscriptions are on sale now by calling (801) 533-6683 or visiting utahopera.org. Single-opera tickets go on sale to the general public on June 14, 2019 through Utah Opera and ArtTix outlets.

The Mason Bates-Mark Campbell opera, THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS--which debuted at the Santa Fe Opera in summer 2017--walked off with this year's Best Opera Recording at the Grammys on Sunday night. Michael Christie conducted the Santa Fe Opera orchestra, and the cast. Directed by Kevin Newbury, included Sasha Cooke, Jessica E. Jones, Edward Parks, Garrett Sorenson & Wei Wu. It was produced by Elizabeth Ostrow.

Music by Bay Area composer Mason Bates, libretto by Mark Campbell, originally premiered at Santa Fe Opera in July 2017

Do you remember what life was like before the iPhone? Steve Jobs, the man who created that game-changing device in your pocket, will soon have his story play out at McCaw Hall. This February, Seattle Opera presents the West Coast premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, a smash hit with music nominated for multiple Grammy Awards.

One hundred years after the armistice of The Great War, it is still crucial to honor the memory of all who fought to create a better world for the future. Washington National Opera's production of Silent Night, which opened on Saturday night at the Kennedy Center, is a glorious celebration of the brave soldiers who have risked their lives for their countries. The production is weakened by some questionable staging choices but serves as a suitable showcase for opera's rising stars.

None of the three pieces that I saw at the Glimmerglass Festival near Cooperstown, NY, last weekend was exactly what it seemed to be: Is CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN a fairy story or a cautionary tale? Is WEST SIDE STORY simply in a class of its own? Does SILENT NIGHT find that war is hell—or that hell is simply other people? Let's begin with SILENT NIGHT.

Ravinia Festival has announced casting for its July 28 production of Leonard Bernstein'sMass. Conductor Marin Alsop has resurrected this overlooked work with performances around the world. This production reunites her with director Kevin Newbury (who recently won raves for directing the opera Fellow Travelers and the spectaculars as New York's Park Avenue Armory) after earning a Grammy nomination for their recording of Mass, which the New York Times praised as 'one of the best events of the year.'

This Saturday, 14th April, booking opens for the 67th Wexford Festival Opera, taking place in October. Today details of the cast for the main stage operas were announced. Wexford Festival Opera is renowned for discovering and presenting hidden gems, not only in the operas on stage but in the outstanding cast of singers it presents. Many of this year's principal singers, who hail from 11 countries, are making their Wexford debut this year.

Lyric Opera of Chicago is excited to present the Chicago premiere of Fellow Travelers, the critically acclaimedopera based on the 2007 landmark novel of the same title by Thomas Mallon. With music by Gregory Spears and libretto by Greg Pierce, the opera reflects the tension between two men's professional and public lives, and their private, forbidden longings during the height of the McCarthy era in 1950s Washington, D.C. Daniela Candillari (Lyric debut) will conduct the 17-piece orchestra and Kevin Newbury will direct.

Hot Feat USA Ltd presents the U.S. Premiere of COUNTING SHEEP, a breathtaking immersive theatrical experience that brings audiences inside the heart of the 2013-2014 Ukrainian revolution on Maidan Square, and offers a deeply personal retelling of the popular uprising that succeeded in toppling the Ukrainian government.

Hot Feat USA Ltd has announced dates for the U.S. Premiere of COUNTING SHEEP, a breathtaking immersive theatrical experience that brings audiences inside the heart of the 2013-2014 Ukrainian revolution on Maidan Square, and offers a deeply personal retelling of the popular uprising that succeeded in toppling the Ukrainian government.

Lyric Unlimited has announced casting for the Chicago premiere of Fellow Travelers. Tenor Jonas Hacker and baritone Joseph Lattanzi will sing the lead roles of Timothy Laughlin and Hawkins Fuller, two men who fall in love during the height of the McCarthy era in 1950s Washington D.C. Devon Guthrie will sing the role of Mary Johnson, Hawkins's assistant and Timothy's confidante.

On July 22, 2017, Santa Fe Opera presented the world premiere of Mason Bates and Mark Campbell's opera THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS. The new piece was co-commissioned by Santa Fe, Seattle, and San Francisco Operas. Director Kevin Newbury used a great deal of new technology in telling Jobs' story. In eighteen short scenes, a prologue and an epilogue, he covered important events in Steve's life by touching on specific dates in the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties and early twenty-first century. Since there is no intermission in this ninety-minute piece, the drama constantly builds to its eventual climax with the death of the hero, and the denouement leaves the audience to contemplate his values and the effect his life had on all of us.

The Glimmerglass Festival has released the details of its 2018 schedule. For a second year, the Festival's programming will explore themes of home and country.

A new artistic collaboration between Seattle Opera and three partner organizations will result in a world-premiere inspired by the late Steve Jobs, visionary co-founder of Apple and Pixar. The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs will first play at Santa Fe Opera in July 2017 before coming to Seattle Opera for its west coast premiere during the 2018/19 season.

San Francisco Opera today announced its participation as a co-commissioner of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs—the first full-length opera written by Bay Area composer Mason Bates and set to a libretto by Mark Campbell—joining Santa Fe Opera and Seattle Opera, with support from Cal Performances. The new work is a co-production with Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music and will have its world premiere beginning July 22, 2017 at Santa Fe Opera. San Francisco Opera will present the Bay Area premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs during the Company's 2019–20 repertory season at the War Memorial Opera House. Bates' electro-acoustic opera is composed in one act and is comprised of a prologue and 19 scenes.

If "satire is what closes on Saturday night" (according to the great playwright and wit George S. Kaufman), then contemporary opera is usually not far behind. That is, unless it's Kevin Puts' and Mark Campbell's prize-winning SILENT NIGHT, which actually opened on Saturday night (this past weekend) at Atlanta's Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, in a moving new production by the company's General and Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun that doesn't go for the heart strings but gets there anyway.

The International Opera Awards are pleased to announce the shortlist for this year's Awards. These were selected by the jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and classical music critic with The Daily Telegraph.