(Credit: Icarus Photography) Boston Lyric Opera has announced that Nina Yoshida Nelsen will be its new Artistic Director starting on Feb. 1, 2024. Nelsen is a co-founder of the Asian Opera Alliance and is also in the midst of a career as a singer; the mezzo-soprano recently finished a run as Suzuki in “Madama Butterfly” at Opera Carolina. She has {…}
Boston Lyric Opera is set to present a new production of Matthew Aucoin and Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice.” Opening on March 1 and running for two weeks through the 10 at the Huntington Theatre, the opera will be presented in a new orchestral arrangement by Aucoin; this is the first time this version of the opera gets a showcase. Audiences will {…}
Works & Process at the Guggenheim is to present “Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Philadelphia: The Anonymous Lover” with Music by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. The event will be held on Jan. 25, 2024 at the Guggenheim’s Peter B. Lewis Theater in New York. On the occasion of OPERA America’s National Trustee Weekend and prior to the premiere of {…}
Opera America revealed the 2023 awards for Digital Excellence in Opera. The winners included Boston Lyric Opera’s film “Svadba,” has won the top prize for Artistic Creation in Opera America’s 2023 Digital Excellence in Opera Awards. “Svadba,” which is available for free on BLO’s YouTube page, was adapted from Serbian composer Ana Sokolović’s striking libretto and a cappella score. The {…}
(Photo credit: Ken Yotsukura) Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) has decided the need to move Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” away from racism in order to save Puccini from himself. In doing so, BLO’s main production asset is its vocal cast composed mostly of people of Asian descent—an asset that BLO has been very eager to publicize. However, this narrows interpretations of what {…}
CRB Classical 99.5 is set to broadcast the New England premiere of Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ “Omar.” The work, which had its local premiere back in May, will be broadcast on Sept. 10, 2023 starting at 7 p.m. The opera stars Jamez McCorkle, Cierra Byrd, Daniel Okulitch, Brianna J. Robinson, Emma Sorenson, Catherine Anne Daniel, Nicholas Lagesse, Fred C. {…}
The Boston Lyric Opera has announced its 2023-24 emerging artists roster. The company selected seven rising artists, five who are new to the program and who two are in their second year. The new artists include soprano Sarah Joyce Cooper, soprano Emily Michiko Jensen, tenor Philippe L’Esperance, mezzo-soprano Alexis Peart, and soprano Angela Yam. Returning to the program for a {…}
The Boston Lyric Opera has approved a dual-leadership structure for the governing body. The company announced that Alicia Cooney, a co-founder and Senior Advisor of The Monument Group in Boston was appointed Board Chair. Meanwhile, Wayne Davis, a Managing Director of Wealth Management at UBS Financial Services in Boston, has been appointed Board President. Both live in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood {…}
The Boston Lyric Opera is set to open its 2023-24 season with a new “Madama Butterfly.” The production will open at the Emerson Colonial Theatre from Sept. 14 to 24 after a years-long, groundbreaking cultural journey designed to examine the opera’s complex production history. The opera will also be presented by Asian and Asian-American artists seeking to reclaim a nearly {…}
The Boston Lyric Opera is set to premiere “The Wanderer’s Tethering” this summer. The work, which will be presented in a summer concert, on June 18 at Hibernian Hall, is a collaboration between Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola and composer Mason Bynes that recontextualizes the 1803 Igbo revolution in Georgia through one of its descendants. The program was curated by {…}
The Boston Lyric Opera has announced its 2023-24 season featuring four productions. The Boston Lyric Opera opens with Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” featuring Karen Chia-Ling Ho, Alice Chung, Dominick Chenes, and Troy Cook. David Angus conducts the opera in a production by Phil Chan. Performance Dates: Sept. 14-24, 2023 David Angus conducts Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” in a production by Dawn M. Simmons. {…}