(Photo: Richard Hubert Smith) Whether you like Barrie Kosky’s stagings or not, they always have an enormous presence. Think of the Marlene Dietrich-inspired gorilla suit in his “Carmen” for the Royal Opera House, the inflatable Beckmesser caricature in the Nuremberg trial “Meistersinger”, or the eerie sea of ash and candles in his “Saul” for Glyndebourne. The latter, highly acclaimed, meant {…}
The Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España has announced its 2023-24 season. Here are the vocal performances. David Afkham opens the season with Rachmaninoff and Elgar. Soloists include Frank Peter Zimmermann, Anush Hovhannisyan, Pavel Petrov, and Anatoli Sivko. Performance Dates: Sept. 22-24, 2023 Juanjo Mena conducts Brindley Sherratt in a program of music by Mussorgsky, Inés Badalo, and Tchaikovsky. Performance {…}
The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin has announced its 2023-24 season. Here are the vocal performances for the season. Robin Ticciati conducts Wu Wei, Karen Cargill, and Allan Clayton in Gustav Mahler’s “The Song of the Earth.” The program also includes Unsuk Chin’s ›Šu‹ for sheng and orchestra. Performance Date: August 30, 2023 Cornelius Meister conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with soloists {…}
Belgium’s La Monnaie du Mont has announced its 2023-24 season with world premieres, a new Ring Cycle, and many classic works. The season opens with the world premiere of Bernard Foccroulle and Matthew Jocelyn’s “Cassandra.” Kazushi Ono conducts the work with a cast that includes Katarina Bradic Jessica Niles Susan Bickley, Sarah Defrise, Paul Appleby, Joshua Hopkins, and Gidon Saks. {…}
The Glyndebourne Festival has announced a cast change for its production of “Dialogues des Carmélites.” The company said Danielle de Niese has withdrawn from Glyndebourne Festival’s 2023 production. As a result, Sally Matthews will take over the role of Blanche, returning to Glyndebourne after several successful engagements. Matthews is recognized as one of the foremost lyric sopranos of her generation and {…}
This week La Monnaie du Mont opened a new production of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece “Eugene Onegin” with a star cast including a major soprano making her role debut as Tatyana. Sally Matthews will sing her first Tatyana, which will mark her first Tchaikovsky role. In a statement, regarding her role debut the soprano said, “at the moment I’m learning and exploring {…}
La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra is set to kick off 250th anniversary celebration with a performance on Sept. 25, 2022. While, the highlight of the showcase will undoubtedly be a new concert for orchestra by Belgian composer Harold Noben, the concert will also include a performance of Richard Strauss’ “Vier letzte Lieder” with soprano Sally Matthews. Matthews recently performed with such companies {…}
Sally Matthews has signed with OWL Artist Management for General Management. The British soprano is recognized as one of the foremost lyric sopranos of her generation with her international career encompassing the opera, concert and recital stages. Next season Matthews is set to perform at La Monnaie, Brussels as the Marschallin in “Der Rosenkavalier,” and as Tatyana in “Eugene Onegin.” She {…}
La Monnaie de Munt in Brussels has announced its 2022-23 season featuring eight productions and a number of concerts. Here is a look at the operatic and vocal performances. Opera Nathalie Stutzmann conducts David Marton’s production of Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades” with Dmitry Golovnin, Laurent Naouri, Jacques Imbrailo, Anne Sofie Von Otter, Anna Nechaeva, and Charlotte Hellekant. Performance Date: {…}
Photo: © CLIVE BARDA/ArenaPAL Opening night was delayed due to a storm – very on brand for Leoš Janáček, though perhaps more apt for “Kat’a Kabanova” – so nature very much had the upper hand when this new production of “The Cunning Little Vixen” opened at the London Coliseum on Sunday. Director Jamie Manton has previously made an impact with {…}
(Credit: Karl Forster) Belgian opera house La Monnaie has announced that it will stream a production of Bellini’s “Norma” on its website starting Jan. 11, 2022. The stream will be available until Feb. 22, 2022. The opera stars Enea Scala in the role of Pollione, Michele Pertusi as Oroveso, Raffaella Lupinacci as Adalgisa, and Sally Matthews in the title role. {…}