With festival season in full swing in Europe and experimentation a key to this year’s programs, the Festival Valle di Itria in Martina Franca is scheduled to open a new production of the Italian version of Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos.” The production will be headed by an all-star cast that includes the world-renown coloratura soprano, Jessica Pratt. Pratt will {…}
As Europe gets back to performing opera productions in unique and innovative ways, the United States continues to cancel or stream performances. However, this week the Northern Light Festival in Minnesota is taking its chances and presenting the first operatic production since the COVID-19 crisis in a new socially-distanced production of Puccini’s “Tosca.” The festival has assembled an all-star cast {…}
(Credit: Marco Borrelli) Back in March at the height of the Pandemic, OperaWire stopped writing Artist of the Week profiles as every opera house was shut down. Now with theaters reopening in Europe, OperaWire will resume its Artist of the Week series highlighting one artist a week. This week marks the reopening of the Teatro alla Scala nearly four months {…}
(Credit: Monika Rittershaus) “Rossini’s Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra” is one of Rossini’s rarely performed works due to its level of difficulty. Yet it has been performed over the years as a diva showcase for the likes of Leyla Gencer, Montserrat Caballe, and Jennifer Larmore, among many others. This week, the work is set to make a rare appearance at the Odyssey {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard / Metropolitan Opera) This week, the Metropolitan Opera opens a new production of “Der Fliegende Holländer” bringing a superb cast and a stellar team to one of the great German operas. One of the most anticipated parts of this new production, however, is undoubtedly the long overdue debut of soprano Anja Kampe. The German-Italian dramatic soprano is {…}
Pretty Yende is one of today’s most sought-after sopranos, best known for her charisma and vocal fireworks. She is exciting to watch and has proven herself to be a performer capable of exposing new insights into each character she inhabits. Throughout the past years, the soprano has sung some of the most challenging coloratura roles in the repertory, while putting {…}
(Credit: www.osberphotos.com) Over the past 20 years, Opera in the Heights has provided opportunities for emerging artists, including singers and composers, to showcase their work. Many of their artists have gone on to prominent careers in some of the most established regional theaters in the U.S. This week, the company is set to world three operas with many emerging singers {…}
(Credit: Cory Weaver/Lyric Opera of Chicago) Elisabet Strid is considered one of today’s leading dramatic sopranos. She has performed on some of the world’s greatest stages to great acclaim and has specialized in the works of Wagner and Strauss. But there is without a doubt one role that has defined her career up to this point; Sieglinde in Wagner’s “Die {…}
(Credit: Marty Sohl/Met Opera) The Metropolitan Opera House is a dream for every opera singer. This week acclaimed coloratura soprano and rising star Brenda Rae will get a chance to realize that very dream when she makes her Met debut in the company’s first-ever production of Handel and Grimani’s “Agrippina.” Rae, who is a former ensemble member of Oper Frankfurt {…}
(Credit: Steven Laxton) Throughout the years the story of Orfeo and Euridice has been portrayed on stage in several different works and operas. Gluck’s “Orfeo ed Euridice” has dominated the scene while Monteverdi’s “Orfeo” has slowly seen a resurgence in popularity. But it doesn’t stop there as Haydn, Charpentier, Luigi Rossi and even Offenbach put their mark on the story. {…}
(Credit: Robert Workman) Back in 2018 when Jonathan Tetelman made a surprise debut at the Tanglewood Festival, OperaWire wrote “we’ll all be hearing a lot more about him, and soon.” The tenor showed promise and immediately became a major tenor on the rise. Two years later, Tetelman has fulfilled that promise bringing his career to an international level with major {…}
