Yannick Nezet-Seguin News

For all you lovelorn, “live opera”-lovers, the Met is coming to the rescue from COVID-19 this afternoon, Saturday April 25, at 1pm New York time, with a gala concert featuring over 40 artists performing direct from their homes around the world.

In these crazy days when no theatres are open to the public, the Live in HD series on PBS is a lifeline to the Met; last Friday, on PBS' Great Performances (on WNET in New York, at least) there was this fall's TURANDOT with a first-rate cast.

The Met had a wonderfully conducted performance of Wagner's DER FLIENGENDE HOLLANDER with a marvelous singer in the title role. Unfortunately, that was in 2017, when the Met's Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin was on the podium and Michael Volle was the forceful Hollander. This time around, when Francois Girard's new Expressionist production had its premiere the other night, with Valery Gergiev at the helm and Evgeny Nikitin as the Dutchman, things did not go so smoothly.

A funny thing happened the other night at the Met when the curtain came down on William Kentridge's stunning new production of Alban Berg's cruel and devastating WOZZECK. The audience didn't rush from their seats to escape into the night. They stayed and cheered for an opera with a reputation for being, well, challenging for opera-goers weaned on Figaros and Flutes, Aidas and even Ring Cycles.

Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads a brilliant new staging of Berg's masterpiece by William Kentridge, starring Peter Mattei and Elza van den Heever. On stage through January 22.

Birgit Nilsson, one of the greatest Turandots of our time, was fond of saying that Wagner made her famous but TURANDOT made her rich. Why was this so? Simply because very few sopranos can toss out the high notes, cut through the thick orchestration and sing over the huge chorus, which are the minimum requirements to approach this role. Those who can are amply rewarded.

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin curates a nine-concert Perspectives series during the 2019a?"2020 season, including performances with three orchestras with whom he has built his remarkable careera?"The Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, and The MET Orchestraa?"as well as a rare recital appearance with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato.

The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is pleased to announce that it has received a $30,000 gift commitment from Conductor & Pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera and The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Artistic Director of Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal.

You'd never know that the Met's production of Francis Poulenc's DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES is over 40 years old, except for a few giveaways. There are no dancing nuns, no nudity, no screeching train whistle as the women go to their deaths (a la SWEENEY TODD). This fictionalized version of the story of Carmelite nuns who were martyred during the French Revolution, sent to the guillotine, is certainly the most simple and eloquent work on the Met's stage these days.

The Metropolitan Opera's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, Yannick N zet-S guin, concludes his first season in the position with three performances of Dialogues des Carm lites. Poulenc's opera about an order of nuns whose faith is tested during the height of the French Revolution, returns to the Met on May 3, 2019. Isabel Leonard and Adrianne Pieczonka sing the leading roles of Blanche de la Force and the new Prioress, Madame Lidoine. Karita Mattila, making her role debut, portrays the ailing first prioress, Madame de Croissy. The cast also includes Karen Cargill as Mother Marie, Erin Morley in the role of Sister Constance, David Portillo as Blanche's brother the Chevalier de la Force, and Jean-Fran ois Lapointe in his Met debut as the Marquis de la Force. The opera is presented in John Dexter's acclaimed 1977 Met production.

Internationally renowned organist Chelsea Chen will make history when she premieres a new work for organ by Australian-Canadian composer Julian Darius Revie, featuring the genetic sequence and recorded song of an extinct bird, Saturday, March 23, 2019 at 3:00 PM at Saint Thomas Church in New York City.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica presents concerts with violist Richard Yongjae O'Neill, its artist in residence.  On Sunday, March 3, O'Neill performs a program of British composers -- Britten, Bowen, Bridge, Carter and Clarke with pianist Steven Lin; he closes on Sunday, May 26 with a program called L.A. Masters with works by Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Brahms with Jennifer Frautschi (violin), Jesse Mills (violin), Fred Sherry (cello), and Orion Weiss (piano).

Talk about baptism by fire! That's what Gustavo Dudamel--that wunderkind of the classical conducting world--faced as he reached the podium of the Met for the first time Friday night. Not only was he conducting Verdi's great opera, OTELLO, but he was doing so with a last-minute substitute in the title role. The result: All went well with the Met's production of the masterwork.

I interviewed Diana Damrau when she had just done her first Violetta, her role debut in the Met's old Willy Decker production. It was a part she lusted over from the time she saw the 1982 Zeffirelli film, but was careful about taking on--waiting for the right time in her vocal development. That was nearly six years ago and the good news is that she has developed into a first-rate Violetta, sounding better than she has in some time, and looking every inch the glamorous (yet consumptive) courtesan.

The Metropolitan Opera is preparing to kick off its 2018-2019 season tomorrow, September 24, under the leadership of new Music Director Yannick Nezet-Seguin. According to The New York Times, he company is making its future plans, including its first-ever commissions of operas written by women. Among them are new works by Jeanine Tesori and Missy Mazzoli.

Koerner Hall's 10th Anniversary Opening Festival continues with Kathleen Battle, The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducting the Orchestre Metropolitain and Nicholas Angelich, and the debuts by northern Canadian groups The Jerry Cans and New North Collective Royal Conservatory alumnus Chilly Gonzales returns to Koerner Hall, Lunasa and The Bombadils in a double-bill concert as part of the Roots and Folk series, Jamey Haddad's Under One Sun and Cyro Baptista's Vira Loucos open the World Music series Quiet Please, There's a Lady on Stage series opens with Amanda Martinez and Kellylee Evans. Seong-Jin Cho makes his Koerner Hall debut in a sold out concert.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica presents three concerts with violist Richard Yongjae O'Neill, its artist in residence.  O'Neill will lead three programs - on Saturday September 8, he performs Schubert and Beethoven in a program title Homage with the Ehnes Quartet; on Sunday, March 3 he performs a program of British composers -- Britten, Bowen, Bridge, Carter and Clarke with pianist Steven Lin; and he closes with a program called L.A. Masters with works by Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Brahms with Jennifer Frautschi (violin), Jesse Mills (violin), Fred Sherry (cello), and Orion Weiss (piano).

Koerner Hall opened on September 25, 2009, Glenn Gould's birthday, with a Grand Opening Festival that featured 10 concerts. For the 10th anniversary season Mervon Mehta, Executive Director of Performing Arts at The Conservatory, has planned an opening festival (as well as a closing festival in April and May of 2019) that will consist of seven concerts.

When Christine Goerke took on the title role in the Met's revival of Richard Strauss's masterwork ELEKTRA--the final work of director Patrice Chereau--she wasn't so much competing with Nina Stemme, who sang the premiere of the production last spring, but with herself. Six months before this version first came to Lincoln Center, Goerke performed the role in concert with the Boston Symphony at Carnegie Hall and blew the roof off. She was a transfixing, sensational presence that you just couldn't keep your eyes off.

The 2018 McCammon Voice Competition judges have chosen the semi-finalists for the eighteenth biennial competition, to be held on March 16, 2018 at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The finals will be held March 17, 2018 at Bass Performance Hall. This year's competitors are David Araujo, Amanda Blue, Nicolette Book, Ryan Bradford, Rachael Braustein, Kathleen Buccleugh, Chelsea Coyne, Danielle Davis, Peter Scott Drackley, Helen Huang, Hao Hu, Emily Michiko Jensen, Abigail Kempson, Chonghwa Kim, Abigail Levis, Brandon Morales, Elizabeth Moran, Langelihle Mngxati, Chong Yoon Noh, Brittany Nickell, Yulan Piao, Anthony Reed, Michael St. Peter and Andrew Wannigman.