La Traviata Revival

The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is collaborating with celebrated theatre director and visual artist Robert Wilson to organize a first-of-its-kind exhibition highlighting the drama, rituals, and opulence of the Qing Empire, the last imperial dynasty of China. The exhibition will present objects from Mia's renowned collection of Chinese art, including rare court costumes, jades, lacquers, bronzes, gold ornaments, paintings, and sculpture, displayed in an immersive, experiential environment conceived of by Wilson. 'Power and Beauty in China's Last Dynasty: Concept and Design by Robert Wilson, presented by Sit Investment Associates, is curated by Liu Yang, Mia's Curator of Chinese Art, and will be on view February 4 through May 27, 2018.

Brooklyn Music School presents the 16th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute concert hosted by renowned baritone and BMS advisory board member Lester Lynch. Inspired by Dr. King's legacy and message, the program will feature selections from Mr. Lynch's recent recording On My Journey Now: Spirituals & Hymns as well as performances by BMS faculty and students.

Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres Robert Hastie today announces full casting for the world premiere of Chicken Soup. by Ray Castleton and Kieran Knowles the latter of whom returns to Sheffield Theatres after the success of Operation Crucible; and the regional premi re of Peter Morgan's smash hit play Frost/Nixon.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre today announced the full cast and creative team for Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika.

Brooklyn Music School (BMS) presents Martin Luther King Jr. Tribute: Spirit of Hope on January 13, 2018 at 5pm. BMS is located at 126 Saint Felix Street, Brooklyn.

Washington National Opera (WNO), led by Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, announces its 2018-2019 season, one that continues its focus on bold productions of classic operas, fascinating contemporary perspectives, and the best in American artistry. The season includes a new WNO production of Verdi's classic romantic drama La traviata, the company premiere of Kevin Puts's and Mark Campbell's Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night, Tchaikovsky's epic Eugene Onegin, Gounod's devilishly entertaining Faust, and Puccini's towering masterpiece Tosca. The season also features a weekend of four world premieres during the American Opera Initiative Festival; a revival of WNO's hit world-premiere holiday family opera The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me; a special Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist performance of La traviata; and other exciting vocal events, including the annual Mars, lnc.'s Opera in the Outfield.

The Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, Canada's premier training program for young opera professionals, welcomes four new artists for the 2018/2019 season: bass-baritone Joel Allison, mezzo-soprano Simona Genga, and sopranos Lauren Margison and Anna-Sophie Neher. The four singers join the Ensemble Studio in August 2018 and become part of a program that, since its inception in 1980, has launched the careers of over 230 Canadian singers, opera coaches, mainstage directors and conductors.

WholeTone Opera's mission to feature and uplift female, femme and non-binary artists continues with an encore of their maiden production, La Zombiata: A Zombie Love Story. Composer Jillian Flexner has written additional music for this fresh rendition, and the WTO crew has added UV reactive elements to bring the baroque apocalyptic wasteland into neon phantasma-gore-ical surreality.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage's 2018 Celebrity Opera Series commences on January 15 with Jonas Kaufmann, tenor with Helmut Deutsch, piano. The Telegraph has singled out Jonas Kaufmann as the world's greatest tenor.

San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program present the 35th anniversary season of the Schwabacher Recital Series, opening on February 21 and continuing through April 4. The four-recital series offers music lovers an opportunity to hear opera's next generation of stars in the intimate and state-of-the-art Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco. New this season, the recital series moves to Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m.

Dixon Place (Ellie Covan, Founder and Artistic Director) is pleased to present Toe Pick, an entirely transcribed play by Zackary Grady, for three weeks in February, running concurrently with the 2018 Winter Olympics. Toe Pick, which relives the 1994 icecapades of Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding, opens Friday, February 9, and runs Fridays and Saturdays through February 24 at Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey Streets). Advance tickets are $20 for adults, and $17 for seniors, students, and idNYC holders. Walkup tickets are $25 for adults, and $19 for seniors, students, and idNYC holders. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.dixonplace.org or by calling 866-811-4111.

Canadian-American soprano Erin Wall has withdrawn from Faust at Lyric Opera of Chicago to undergo chemotherapy, Anthony Freud, Lyric's general director, president & CEO, announced today. Freud added that her doctors expect a full recovery within a few months, according to her manager. Everyone at Lyric wishes Erin all the best and looks forward to welcoming her back in future seasons. An alumna of Lyric's Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center program (2001-04) with a major international career, Wall has portrayed Marguerite/Faust, Donna Anna/Don Giovanni, Pamina/The Magic Flute, Fiordiligi/Cos fan tutte, Helena/A Midsummer Night's Dream, Konstanze/Die Entf hrung auf dem Serail, and Antonia/Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Lyric.

Eli and Edythe Broad General Director Pl cido Domingo has announced the repertory and artist roster for the company's 2018/19 season, planned by Mr. Domingo in collaboration with Richard Seaver Music Director James Conlon and Sebastian Paul and Marybelle Musco President and CEO Christopher Koelsch. The season will include six mainstage productions presented at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, with additional performances presented elsewhere through the company's Off Grand initiative.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced plans for the 2018 19 Season. The Company's 96th Season will open Friday, September 7 with a gala double-bill performance of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci in Jos Cura's production with an international cast featuring Lianna Haroutounian, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Roberto Aronica, Marco Berti and Dimitri Platanias, conducted by Daniele Callegari. To usher in the new opera season, San Francisco Opera Guild will produce its signature benefit event, Opera Ball 2018.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced plans for the 2018 19 Season. The Company's 96th Season will open Friday, September 7 with a gala double-bill performance of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci in Jos Cura's production with an international cast featuring Lianna Haroutounian, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Roberto Aronica, Marco Berti and Dimitri Platanias, conducted by Daniele Callegari. To usher in the new opera season, San Francisco Opera Guild will produce its signature benefit event, Opera Ball 2018.

Palm Beach Opera will present Giacomo Puccini's Tosca for one weekend only, Jan. 26-28, at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach.

McCarter Theatre Center is starting 2018 with a strong shot of Irish humor as it presents Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets, January 12 February 11 in the Berlind Theatre.

The Old Globe today announced that its 2018-2019 Season will kick off with the world premiere of the new musical Heart of Rock and Roll, inspired by the songs of Huey Lewis and the News, featuring a book by Jonathan Abrams and story by Tyler Mitchell and Jonathan Abrams. It will be directed by Gordon Greenberg with choreography by Lorin Latarro and music supervision, arrangements, and orchestrations by Brian Usifer. Heart of Rock and Roll will bepresented by special arrangement with Tyler Mitchell, W. Leo Kiely, Bill Kiely, Whitney Kiely Moehle, and Tamar Climan. Mr. Lewis released a brief video to Rolling Stone about the show (with a surprise guest cameo)-click here to see for yourself!

Palm Beach Opera today announced its 2018-2019 mainstage opera season, which will include performances of Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, as well as a new concert, Rising Stars of Opera. All of Palm Beach Opera's thrilling and elaborate productions will be performed in the Dreyfoos Concert Hall at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach. 

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Xian Zhang present Mozart's Requiem, March 15-18 in Newark, Princeton and Morristown. A trio of vocal pieces, including a pair of a cappella works performed by the Montclair State University Singers, open the program.

Silk Road Rising (Chief Programming Officer Jamil Khoury and Executive Director Malik Gillani) is proud to announce the World Premiere of Through the Elevated Line, written by Novid Parsi and directed by Carin Silkaitis. The production will run from March 7th to April 15th, 2018 at Silk Road Rising located at 77 W. Washington St., Lower Level, Chicago, IL, 60602. The Press Opening is March 17 at 4:00pm.

 Mordance, in its mission to create modern, relevant movement that maintains the integrity of classical ballet in collaboration with City College Center For the Arts, present Fats Waller's Rhythm, a one night only world premiere on February 8 at 7:00  p.m. With this evening-length work, Mordance brings eight dancers to Aaron Davis Hall to pay tribute to the Harlem stride pianist and composer Fats Waller. 

Soprano Heidi Melton is the 2009 George London-Kirsten Flagstad Award winner who in February sings the role of Sieglinde in the New York Philharmonic's concert performance of Act I of Wagner's Die Walküre led by Jaap van Zweden, and tenor Kyle van Schoonhoven is the winner of the Nicolai Gedda Memorial Award at the 2017 George London competition as well as a 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions winner. These two young rising stars join pianist Craig Rutenberg to perform a joint recital, the final event of the George London Foundation's 2017-18 season, on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at 4:00 pm, at the Morgan Library and Museum's Gilder Lehrman Hall.

Members of The Flora L. Thornton Opera Program will perform W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's most popular comic operetta "The Pirates of Penzance" at Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre from Wednesday, February 21 through Saturday, February 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts.

A season filled with unforgettable music, thrilling singers from around the world, and stirring new productions goes on sale via subscription Wednesday, February 7 at 10am.  Seven new and new-to-Chicago productions, including four Lyric premieres, will engage and entertain audiences from October 2018 through June 2019. 

The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) has collaborated with celebrated theatre director and visual artist Robert Wilson to organize a first-of-its-kind exhibition highlighting the drama, rituals, and opulence of the Qing Empire, the last imperial dynasty of China. Wilson has created an immersive, experiential environment to display rare court costumes, jades, lacquers, bronzes, gold ornaments, paintings, and sculpture from Mia's renowned collection of Chinese art. Power and Beauty in China's Last Dynasty: Concept and Design by Robert Wilson, presented by Sit Investment Associates, is curated by Liu Yang, Mia's Curator of Chinese Art. The exhibition, which opened on February 3, will run through May 27, 2018.

Los pr0ximos 3 y 4 de junio a las 21.30 tendra lugar en el Teatro Real el concierto DIVA ON RETOUR de la aclamada soprano lirica Patricia Racette.

What do you get when you have mistaken identity and false accusation of infidelity mixed with melodrama, comedy, Italian and Russian accents, seduction, misunderstanding, opera, and Lorenz Martinez shifting from one character to another? Definitely, a hilarious night at the theatre.

National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, continues its 2017-2018 Season at Lincoln Center with the New York Premiere of Angela Rice's Thy Will Be Done on Friday, March 16, 2018 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC. Tickets are $30-100 and are available at www.nationalchorale.com or by calling (212) 333-5333.

The Atlanta Opera presents its most exciting season to date in 2018-19. The mainstage season will be bookended by two of the greatest blockbusters in the repertoire, as well as the most performed American opera of the 21st century, and Tchaikovsky's timeless masterpiece. The Discoveries series features two distinct styles in a jazz-infused 'Be-Bopera' and a tango opera presented at beloved local venue, the red velvet cabaret Le Maison Rouge.

The winners of the 47th 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 before an enthusiastic audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

Pacific Opera Victoria's 2018/19 season includes two well-known masterworks by major composers as well as a delightful work from the classical operetta repertoire.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts, will begin its 13th season on October 6, with the Met's grand production of Verdi's Aida, starring one of the world's most acclaimed sopranos, Anna Netrebko.

Capitol City Opera Company (CCOC) will present Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata on Friday, March 23 at 8 p.m., Saturday, March 24 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 25 at 3 p.m. at Conant Performing Arts Center at Oglethorpe University. Tickets are available online at CCITYOPERA.org.

Accelerating his arrival as Music Director by two seasons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin will take up the post in time for the start of the Metropolitan Opera's 2018–19 season, it was announced today. By freeing up some guest conducting weeks in his busy calendar in both the 2018–19 and 2019–20 seasons, Nézet-Séguin will now be able to conduct three operas and two Met Orchestra concerts at Carnegie Hall in each of those seasons, instead of the two operas per season originally scheduled. With the assumption of the Music Director title in the fall of 2018, Nézet-Séguin will also be taking on the full artistic responsibilities for the orchestra, chorus, and music staff. His full-time collaboration with Met General Manager Peter Gelb on all other artistic matters will also begin at that time. As previously announced, Nézet-Séguin will begin conducting a minimum of five operas per season starting with the 2020–21 season.

Accelerating his arrival as Music Director by two seasons, Yannick Nezet-Seguin will take up the post in time for the start of the Metropolitan Opera's 2018-19 season, it was announced today.

The Cincinnati May Festival announced today that conductor Eun Sun Kim will make her exciting Festival debut on May 18, leading the May Festival Chorus and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra ( CSO ) in a performance of Verdi's Messa da Requiem at the renovated Cincinnati Music Hall. She replaces the previously announced conductor, James Levine.

The Howard County Arts Council is pleased to announce the 21st Annual Celebration of the Arts in Howard County on Saturday, March 24, 2018 at the Peter and Elizabeth Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center, Howard Community College (HCC), Columbia, MD. Buddy and Sue Emerson, active supporters of community and charitable organizations in Howard County and statewide, will act as Honorary Chairs for the evening. Myron 'Mo' Dutterer, recipient of the 2003 Howie Award for Outstanding Arts Educator and a pillar of the Howard County theatre community, will serve as Event Emcee.

Tenri Cultural Institute presents the world premiere of Emily Bront Through Life and Death, A Chainless Soul, a poetic mono-opera in one act based on selected poems of Emily Bront by composer Akemi Naito on Friday, January 5th and Saturday, January 6th at 8pm. Honoring the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Emily Bront in 2018, this mono-opera is a collaborative work with mezzo-soprano Jessica Bowers, pianist Marilyn Nonken, actor Robert Ian Mackenzie, and visual artist Toshihiro Sakuma, whose Healing exhibition will be on view.

In the Middle East, Amine J. Hachem has sung for Kings, Queens and Presidents with a critically acclaimed tenor voice praised as 'a gift from God.' Six years ago Amine J. Hachem arrived in the United States. He has sung at The United Nations, The Henry Ford Museum, the Basilica of St. Patrick's Cathedral, and sold out the MGM Grand Casino. Metropolitan Opera star Rosalind Elias says 'Amine J. Hachem is blessed with a magnificent instrument.'

In a uniquely Columbus artistic collaboration, the Columbus Symphony and Opera Columbus have joined forces to present a concert version of one of the most famous grand operas of all time in Aida in Concert. Conducted by Columbus Symphony Music Director Rossen Milanov, the performances will feature a host of internationally renowned guest vocalists, the 140-member Columbus Symphony Chorus, and the full orchestra of the Columbus Symphony.

It's just about time to wish you all a happy 2018--but I'm not quite ready to put 2017 to rest. Though it won't go into the annals as one of the best years ever, there were quite enough performances and performers that made this year a winner for me, operatically speaking at least, in my corner of the world.

JANICE HALL has made the journey seamlessly and successfully. After a long career on the international opera stage, Hall joined the New York cabaret scene in 2007 and just four years later won a Bistro Award and MAC Award for her critically acclaimed solo show, Grand Illusions: The Music of Marlene Dietrich. Hall has now created a truly unique new show THE OPERA SHOW (WITH NO OPERA)--that merges the two art forms and that will be launched at the Urban Stages WINTER RHYTHMS Series on Saturday, December 16 at 3 pm.

Silk Road Rising (Chief Programming Officer Jamil Khoury and Executive Director Malik Gillani) is proud to announce the World Premiere of Through the Elevated Line, written by Novid Parsi and directed by Carin Silkaitis. The production will run on March 7th to April 15th, 2018 at Silk Road Rising located at 77 W. Washington St., Lower Level, Chicago, IL, 60602. The Press Opening is March 17 at 4:00pm.

The Prologue and role of Peter Quint will be shared by Elgan Ll?r Thomas and William Morgan. Elgan Ll?r Thomas makes his English National Opera debut as a new ENO Harewood Artist having also covered the role of Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville. A 2016/17 Scottish Opera Emerging Artist, credits include The Elixir of Love, and The Trial with other credits including Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Mananan International Festival), Paul Bunyan (Welsh National Youth Opera) and Eugene Onegin (Garsington Opera). He is currently singing in The Barber of Seville with the Theatre des Champs-Elysees.

American tenor Ren Barbera, praised for his singing suffused with old-fashioned warmth by Opera News, will make nine house debuts this season, cementing his status as an operatic star on the rise.

McCarter Theatre Center is starting 2018 with a strong shot of Irish humor as it presents Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets, January 12 February 11 in the Berlind Theatre.

The Met presents the second of its popular family presentations this holiday season, Richard Jones's acclaimed production of Humperdinck's fairy-tale opera based on the Brothers Grimm story Hansel and Gretel. The English-language production opens December 18 for seven performances through to January 6, with special family pricing.

Guest pianist Natasha Paremski joins the Columbus Symphony and Music Director Rossen Milanov as they celebrate the passion and exoticism of the Russian masters in the first installment of the Russian Winter Festival. The full program includes Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 ( Classical ), and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy.

By an Italian composer, sung in Italian and set in Paris! They're a restless lot at Co-Opera; they're on the move again, this time taking a production of Puccini's gorgeous La Boheme to three venues in and around Adelaide, with six performances, and three casts and an orchestra of musicians from the Royal Commonweath Ensemble and many costume changes - this is truly a company on the move!