(Photo: Evan Zimmerman / Met Opera) Metropolitan Opera debuted John Adams’s “El Niño,” with libretto based on original sources by Peter Sellars and John Adams, to a sold out house of past, present, and future opera goers on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024. “El Niño” is unlike anything John Adams has done before and the historical timing of this debut is {…}
The Juilliard School has announced its April lineup. This article features vocal works only. However, Juilliard’s upcoming programs for April include traditional and contemporary classical music, jazz, dance, and drama performances. Closing out the month of performances is the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by John Adams. Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito” is presented by Juilliard for the first time in over {…}
American Modern Opera Company has announced a U.S. tour for “El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered” this December. From Dec. 11-21, 2023, the organization will tour the famed John Adams work in a new chamber-music arrangement. Audiences will hear the work in Omaha, Stanford, New Haven, and then at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. The work {…}
(Photo Credit: Scott Suchman) Throughout this new series, we will be looking at the history of American opera beginning in the 2000s to the present through a revisit of certain iconic works of the decade and OperaWire’s coverage of them throughout the 21st century. In this first part, we will look at the development of American opera during the 2000s, {…}
Photo Credit: Cory Weaver Premiering at San Francisco Opera just last year, John Adams’ newest opera, “Antony and Cleopatra” brought the story of the ill-fated lovers to the 21st century with a score that echoed the profound feelings each lover had for the other. On the back of previous renditions of the infamous story, such as Samuel Barber’s 1966 version, {…}
(Photo by Richard Terborg) John Adams‘ “Doctor Atomic” has returned to the Netherlands for the first time in 16 years courtesy of Stichting LustrumOpera. The production, which opened on July 13, 2023, will run through July 25 at the Werkspoorkathedrall in Uthrect and stars Quirijn de Lang as Dr. Oppenheimer and Jeannette van Schaik as Kitty Oppenheimer. Other cast members {…}
IN Series is set to present John Adams’ “I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky” starting on April 14, 2023. Written by June Jordan, the work presents “events of the 1994 Northridge Earthquake with its searing, compassionate, and prescient exploration of broken justice and migration systems, police violence against young Black men, family border separation and {…}
Photo: Anke Sundermeier In 1972, President Nixon made his historic visit to China. The event, at the time, was seen as a pivotal moment in establishing political relations with a country that, since World War Two, had remained largely closed to the wider international community. The significance of Nixon’s visit was reflected in the fact that it received widespread media {…}
On December 21, 2022, American Modern Opera Company will present John Adam’s “El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered” at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine. This chamber work, with libretto by Peter Sellars and concept by Julia Bullock, first made its premiere in San Martín at Fuentidueña chapel of The Met Cloisters in 2018. The case of this one-night concert features {…}
(Credit: Cory Weaver) “I am fire and air; my other elements I give to baser life.” So sings Cleopatra in John Adams’ “Antony and Cleopatra.” The baser life about which Cleopatra sings is everything that is not she and everything that was not Antony. So Adams tells us in the latest from his roster of remarkable operas. San Francisco Opera {…}
The Gran Teatre del Liceu is set to present John Adams’ “Anthony and Cleopatra” during the 2023-24 season. The new opera is a co-production with San Francisco Opera, Teatro Massimo Palermo, and Metropolitan Opera. “Anthony and Cleopatra” will make its world premiere during the San Francisco Opera’s 100th anniversary in a production by Elkhanah Pulitzer. The Gran Teatre del Liceu’s {…}