Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisboa has announced its 2019-20 season. The season will start off with Welsh National Opera’s production of Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino,” directed by David Pountney. The cast will feature Miklós Sebestyén as the Marquis of Calatrava / Il Padre Guardiano, Cristiana Oliveira / Julianna Di Giacomo as Leonora, Damiano Salerno as Don Carlo di {…}
The Metropolitan Opera revealed its 2019-20 season on Wednesday afternoon. Among the major announcements were the company’s schedule for its ever-popular Live in HD slate. Here is a look at the list of performances that will be broadcast to audiences around the world. Worthy of note is that of the 10 productions set to screen in cinemas, three will be {…}
It’s hard to find the right voice for the Bel Canto repertoire. A great Bel Canto singer needs flexibility, bright high notes, immense breath control, and impeccable phrasing. And of course, a singer needs to have great command of expression, otherwise, the music can easily fall flat. Many singers attempt to put all this together, but few actually have the complete package, {…}
Gaetano Donizetti, born on Nov. 29, 1797, was one of the leading Bel Canto composers of all time. He wrote his first opera, “Il Pigmalione” at the age of 19 and he would go on to create 75 operas throughout his lifetime. His first major successes came with his comic operas, though in 1830, he scored a massive success with {…}
For years, Diana Damrau has been one of the of the reigning Bel Canto singers in the world. She has dominated many of Donizetti’s, Rossini’s and Bellini’s heroines and she has also become one of the most prominent interpreters of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.” This week, she adds another Bel Canto masterwork to her repertoire – the title role of {…}
Joyce DiDonato is a fierce artist and one of the finest of the 21st century. She didn’t land at the number one spot of our top singers of 2017 list for no reason. DiDonato, born on Feb. 13, has been the champion of all people and in the opera world she has shown an ability to slip from one piece {…}
Mary Stuart was executed in 1587 after spending almost twenty years as Queen Elizabeth’s prisoner, bringing to end a turbulent relationship between the two Queens that stretched back over their entire lifetimes. It was a relationship that was to fire the imaginations of future generations and give rise to the productions of many works from plays and operas to numerous {…}
Sir David McVicar has been directing opera for quite some time, working with such prominent companies as the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Monnaie, and the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He has also sustained a healthy relationship with the Metropolitan Opera, particularly in recent years where he has been given carte blanche to put together {…}
“Maria Stuarda” is the second of Donizetti’s unofficial “Tudor Trilogy,” the drama focusing in on the rivalry between Mary Stuart and Anna Bolena’s daughter Elizabeth the first. Based on Schiller’s 1800 play, the libretto is the work of Giuseppe Bardari. The drama pits the two queens against one another, though the truth is that they never actually met in real {…}
Friedrich Schiller is one of the great writers in history, his work focusing on major philosophy and a number of major dramas. Of course, his legacy is preserved in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the text to the final music set to Schiller’s poetry. Born on Nov. 10, 1759, his philosophical essays centered on ethics and aesthetics, two such works centering on {…}
“It’s like having a crime and then trying to justify it and find why it was committed.” That is how soprano Marina Rebeka, currently making her role debut as Donna Elvira at the Metropolitan Opera, approaches every single opera role or artistic endeavor she takes on. The soprano recently spoke with OperaWire regarding her upcoming projects, putting a spotlight on {…}