Yannick Nezet-Seguin News

George Benson, Billy Eckstine and Phyllis Hyman, are but a few of the extraordinary singers that had roots in Pittsburgh and enriched the vocal jazz tradition. The vocalists who will sing at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival (PIJF), which runs from September 16-18, will expand and extend on the legacy of their Steel City forebears.

You’d have thought that the Met Orchestra would have had enough by the end of the season in the opera house, but, no. Their New York season really ended at Carnegie Hall this week with a pair of concerts combining some opera excerpts with orchestral pieces by composers also known for their opera work.

Can you imagine the Met--or any other major opera house--cutting the length of a new opera so commuters could make the last train? That’s what baritone Etienne Dupuis told me about the world premiere in Paris of Verdi’s DON CARLOS (1867). Dupuis is starring as Don Rodrigue, Marquis de Posa, at the Met these days, in the new David McVicar production of the Verdi opera.

One of Broadway’s favorite leading ladies Kelli O’Hara will be appearing with SiriusXM Radio staple Seth Rudetsky for a one-night concert at The Wallis April 2, 2022 as part of The Wallis Broadway @ concert series. Kelli was gracious enough to carve out a little time to answer a few of my theatrical queries.

DON CARLOS--Verdi’s original French language version, for the first time at the Met, of the opera better known in these parts as the Italian DON CARLO--was as grim as its setting in the Spanish inquisition in the new David McVicar production introduced last night. And about as long (though for once it ended earlier than expected)--Verdi's longest opera.

What is there to say about Puccini’s TOSCA that hasn’t been said in the last hundred-plus years since its premiere in Rome (to echo the locations in the opera)? It is a marvel of brevity, with librettists Illica and Giacosa shaving locations, characters and action from the original play, written by the French dramatist Victorien Sardou for the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt, without sacrificing its impact. It has a gorgeous score, but for a grand opera, it is also quite intimate, with the action mainly revolving around three characters who carry their emotions on their sleeves and interact like their lives depend on it.

Talk about ‘spoiler alerts,’ there was a big one for me early in the opera, EURYDICE, by Matthew Aucoin to a libretto that he and Sarah Ruhl fashioned from her play of the same name, which had its Met premiere last night. Eurydice tells Orpheus “Don’t look at me,” which to me mirrored the scene at the end of the piece in the Underworld when Hades tells him that he can take her back to the land of the living if he doesn’t look back at her…which, of course, he does.

The Kimmel Cultural Campus presents the return of its beloved annual holiday celebration, A Soulful Christmas, the joyful evening of gospel music and beloved holiday songs. To ensure the health and safety of participating artists, the event will be more intimate- with a smaller number of singers participating socially distanced on an extended stage inside its Verizon Hall on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, at 7:30 p.m.

Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota opens its 2021-22 Luncheon Series with a return performance by Cheryl Losey Feder, the popular former principal harpist of the Sarasota Orchestra, November 11, at the Bird Key Yacht Club, 301 Bird Key Drive, Sarasota.

It’s been a long 18 months since the last opera on the Met’s stage. The Terence Blanchard-Kasi Lemmons FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES roared into Lincoln Center to let the audience know what it has been missing.

Though the Met’s season doesn’t technically start till the end of the month, the company started off with a pair of what French chefs might call “amuses bouches”—sort of tastebud teasers. The first was Mahler’s Second, which was done in the open air; the second was its first inside the hall:The Verdi Requiem, which was broadcast (and which I saw) live last Saturday on PBS.

Des Moines Metro Opera (DMMO) today announced a $1 million leadership gift commitment from long-time patron, opera lover, and friend Frank R. Brownell III to secure the future of one of the Company’s flagship programs – the Apprentice Artist Program for young singers.

Des Moines Metro Opera today announced a $1 million leadership gift commitment from long-time patron, opera lover, and friend Frank R. Brownell III to secure the future of one of the Company's flagship programs – the Apprentice Artist Program for young singers.

Additional financial help is on the way for Met AGMA Artists to help them bridge the gap between their current uncertain situation and the reopening of the performing arts industry. In December, the Met Chorus Artists, Inc. kicked off their Face the Music fundraising campaign to raise much-needed funds for AGMA Artists still furloughed from the Met.

The University Musical Society announces a new, multi-faceted creative partnership with The Philadelphia Orchestra for the 2021-22 season, reigniting and capitalizing on its long history with the ensemble, which served as the residency orchestra for the May Festival for 49 years, from 1936-1984.

Musical Mentors Collaborative has announced today its partnership with TodayTix. This partnership will support MMC’s upcoming holiday gala by powering ticket sales to the virtual event, an exclusive experience with performances by artists such as Sutton Foster and Deaf rapper Matt Maxey, and more.

On Canada Day, Wednesday, July 1, 2020, The CBC Virtual Orchestra gives its first performance, the world premiere of JUNO Award-winning Canadian composer Vivian Fung's Prayer.

The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Musicians have released a statement regarding the Black Lives Matter movement.

The musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, in New York City, came together virtually this week to perform Mascagni's 'Intermezzo' from the opera 'Cavlleria Rusticana'.

In the midst of this COVID-19 crisis that is gripping the world--and keeping so many people in quarantine--the Metropolitan Opera managed to pull off a brilliantly executed music coup. It connected stars, chorus members and orchestral musicians in an “At-Home Gala”--a combination fund-raiser for the Met with wonderful entertainment. And the technology worked!