Vita Tzykun News

It seems ironic--to me at least--that New York's venerable City Opera would be returning to life at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, just as the “Prototype: Opera/Theatre/Now” festival was finishing up its run at alternative venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Prototype “unleashed a powerful wave of opera-theatre and music-theatre from a new generation of classical and post-classical composers and librettists”--their words, not mine, but I won't dispute it--while City is doing a warhorse.

Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and HERE present the fourth annual PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival, running today, January 6, through January 17, 2016, in New York City.

New York City Premiere, Dog Days is a work of contemporary opera-theatre that investigates the psychology of a working class American family pitted against a not-so-distant-future wartime scenario. Exploring the ultimate struggle of humanity—stuck between nature's indifference and society's barely restrained brutality—Dog Days asks: is it madness, delusion, or sheer animal instinct that guides us through severely trying times? Where is the line between animal and human? At what point must we give into our animal instincts merely to survive?

Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) and HERE are pleased to announce full casting for the fourth annual PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival, running January 6-17, 2016, in New York City. Deemed "suddenly indispensable" (New Yorker), this 'bracingly innovative' Festival, founded, directed, and curated by Kristin Marting (of HERE), Beth Morrison (of BMP), and Kim Whitener (of HERE), has quickly become 'a point of reference" in the field (The New York Times) over three astoundingly successful seasons.

Composer Paola Prestini, the Creative and Executive Director of National Sawdust (NS), today announced programming for the non-profit's inaugural fall season in its new home-a $16 million, 13,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art chamber hall in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The performance and recording venue, designed by Brooklyn-based architecture firm Bureau V in the shell of century-old former sawdust factory, will provide composers and musicians a setting in which they can flourish, and a place where they are given commissioning support, mentoring and other critical resources essential to create, and then share, their work. For audiences-serious fans and casual listeners alike-the venue will be a place to discover genre-spanning music at accessible ticket prices.

The Atlanta Opera, in partnership with the Rialto Center for the Arts, brings Soldier Songs, a contemporary opera by American composer David T. Little, to Atlanta. The evening of theater will be a highly charged experience with arresting projections, eye-catching visuals and a thunderous score.  Not for the faint of heart, Soldier Songs follows the true journey of an army soldier – beyond what we might see on TV or at the movies.

Award-winning Polish-German choreographer Patricia Noworol leads her dance theater troupe in a three-day run at New York Live Arts' Theater with the world premiere of Replacement Place. Known for her layered storytelling and provocative productions, Noworol continues to create visually striking, emotionally charged displays of dance-theater and multimedia performances that demand rigor and passion.

The Atlanta Opera will take audiences on a journey of adventure, romance and an exploration of the human condition in its 2015-16 season. This season features five productions including one of the most popular operas of all time and a contemporary American opera never before seen in the Southeast.

Handel's sensuous and sparkling opera Semele is coming to McCaw Hall for the first time this February. Composed to an English-language libretto, this Greek myth tells the story of a mortal woman, Semele, who aspires to live among the “beautiful people”—that is, to become a goddess. Abducted by Jupiter, king of the gods, Semele believes she has found endless love (not to mention endless pleasure!) in the divine realm. But dancing with the deities proves dangerous; Juno, Jupiter's jealous wife, will make this mere mortal pay dearly for her ambition and vanity in an opera that is both comic and tragic.

The Atlanta Opera celebrates its 35th year of live productions with Giuseppe Verdi's tragic masterpiece, Rigoletto. This new, visually stimulating production is a co-production of Boston Lyric Opera, The Atlanta Opera, and Opera Omaha and was originally directed by The Atlanta Opera's General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun.

Wexford Festival Opera has announced the casting for the internationally renowned Festival, which this year will run for 12 days, from today, 22 October to 2 November.

Reviving important but neglected operas is one of the ways the Bard SummerScape festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson has established itself, and this year's immersion in 'Schubert and His World' - culminating in the 25th-anniversary season of the Bard Music Festival - is no exception. To enrich its exploration of the roots of Austro-German Romanticism, Bard presents Euryanthe (1823) by Schubert's contemporary Carl Maria von Weber, marking the opera's first American revival in 100 years. Headlined by Ellie Dehn, Bard's original staging is by Kevin Newbury, creator of SummerScape's production of Richard Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae. Euryanthe's five performances (July 25, 27 & 30; August 1 & 3) feature the festival's resident American Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of music director Leon Botstein, who also leads semi-staged performances of Schubert's own seldom-heard opera Fierrabras starring Joseph Kaiser, best known for his leading role in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of The Magic Flute, on August 17, and of a double-bill of rarities - Schubert's one-act Singspiel Die Verschworenen and Franz von Suppe's operetta Franz Schubert - on August 10.

Wexford Festival Opera has announced the casting for the internationally renowned Festival, which this year will run for 12 days, from 22 October to 2 November.

The Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia will join together in a first-time co-production-a theatrically-inspired production of Richard Strauss's compelling and provocative masterpiece, Salome. Two sold-out performances are set to take place tonight, May 8, and Saturday, May 10, 2014, in the Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall, and will be led by Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin. Audiences will enjoy a groundbreaking blend of the distinctive sound of The Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, and Opera Philadelphia's dynamic theatrical presentation. These landmark performances are made possible in part by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, and the Presser Foundation.

Reviving important but neglected operas is one of the ways the Bard SummerScape festival in New York's Annandale-on-Hudson has established itself, and this year's immersion in "Schubert and His World" - culminating in the 25th-anniversary season of the Bard Music Festival - is no exception. To enrich its exploration of the roots of Austro-German Romanticism, Bard presents Euryanthe (1823) by Schubert's contemporary Carl Maria von Weber, marking the opera's first American revival in 100 years. Headlined by Ellie Dehn, Bard's original staging is by Kevin Newbury, creator of SummerScape's production of Richard Strauss's Die Liebe der Danae. Euryanthe's five performances (July 25, 27 & 30; August 1 & 3) feature the festival's resident American Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of music director Leon Botstein, who also leads semi-staged performances of Schubert's own seldom-heard opera Fierrabras starring Joseph Kaiser, best known for his leading role in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of The Magic Flute, on August 17, and of a double-bill of rarities - Schubert's one-act Singspiel Die Verschworenen and Franz von Suppe's operetta Franz Schubert - on August 10.

The Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia will join together in a first-time co-production-a theatrically-inspired production of Richard Strauss's compelling and provocative masterpiece, Salome. Two sold-out performances are set to take place on Thursday, May 8, and Saturday, May 10, 2014, in the Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall, and will be led by Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin. Audiences will enjoy a groundbreaking blend of the distinctive sound of The Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, and Opera Philadelphia's dynamic theatrical presentation. These landmark performances are made possible in part by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, and the Presser Foundation.

The Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia will join together in a first-time co-production—a theatrically-inspired production of Richard Strauss's compelling and provocative masterpiece, Salome. Two sold-out performances are set to take place on Thursday, May 8, and Saturday, May 10, 2014, in the Kimmel Center's Verizon Hall, and will be led by Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Audiences will enjoy a groundbreaking blend of the distinctive sound of The Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the preeminent orchestras in the world, and Opera Philadelphia's dynamic theatrical presentation. These landmark performances are made possible in part by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, and the Presser Foundation.

Music Director Gustavo Dudamel and President and CEO Deborah Borda today announced the 2014/15 season of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This new season, the orchestra's 96th, is devoted to moving music forward by presenting an ever-evolving vision through a series of programs that demonstrate the artistry of the Los Angeles Philharmonic as a leading orchestra of the 21st century, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.

From the depths of hell to the heights of paradise, the four great operas of Seattle Opera's 2014/15 season will take operagoers on a fantastic journey. During this important season, leadership will pass from Speight Jenkins, who has been General Director of Seattle Opera for a remarkable 31 years, to Aidan Lang, who was announced as Jenkins' successor in June, 2013.

Gotham Chamber Opera presents Marc-Antoine Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers, a co-production with Trinity Church, from tonight, January 1- January 5, 2014 at St. Paul's Chapel, Broadway and Fulton, NYC.