Video games saw a major increase in interactivity and overall cultural importance throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. One of the games to see a boost in its popularity was “Animal Crossing: New Horizons,” which captured the imaginations of gamers around the world as they created their own utopias amidst a challenging and unstable world. Now “Animal Crossing’s” popularity is crossing over {…}
Teatro Grattacielo has announced three cast changes for its upcoming production of Giordano’s “Fedora.” The original cast was set to include two singers from Europe, Csilla Boross and Francesco Anile, for the roles of Fedora and Lloris respectively, with a third, Taehwan Ku, coming over from Japan to interpret Rouvel. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, those three cast members {…}
The Berkshire Opera Festival has canceled its summer 2020 production of “Don Giovanni.” The company announced that the decision was a necessary one due to the continued concerns over COVID-19 around the country. “Throughout the past few months, we have worked tirelessly to develop a number of alternative possibilities for safely producing ‘Don Giovanni,’ given that we did not know {…}
Pocket Opera has released several mini-concerts online. Since the pandemic shut down opera companies across the globe, the company has endeavored to continue bringing opera via digital means. The company, which continued to pay partial fees to every singer, director, costumer, and prop artist involved in the 2019-20 season, launched a 3-song Mini Concert Series, culminating in the concert by {…}
The American Opera Project has received a $35,000 award from the Howard Gilman Foundation. The funding is intended to help the company with its general operations throughout the 2020-21 season. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the American Opera Project has delivered online content in the form of the original series “Lean on Me” as well as streams of world premiere productions {…}
(Credit: Fay Fox / Kristen Hoeberman) Classical Movements has announced a Garden Concert Series entitled “Sounds of Hope & Harmony.” The series will feature 18 concerts at the Secret Garden of the Rectory on Princess Street in Alexandria, Virginia. For the purposes of this piece, we will focus on opera and choral performances. The first major program for opera lovers {…}
The Charlottesville Opera has announced that Christina Deaton DeMarea will become the new General Director. DeMare has worked as the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of the Chicago Children’s Choir, during which she worked to set new standards of excellence, expanded programs, increased revenue generation, and helped the organization’s financial sustainability. She also worked with the University of Chicago’s {…}
The Tri-Cities Opera has launched its first national vocal competition. TCO NEXT: A Virtual Vocal Competition will encourage emerging professional singers by promoting new voices and new music. Singers will compete for cash prizes with a grand prize of $3,000 and a contract for a future role with the Tri-Cities Opera. The audition process will feature an audio-only first round {…}
Exploring the virtual possibilities of performance, the Umculo Opera Incubator has released two music videos which blend operatic arias with computer-generated environments and effects, titled “Arcadia,” and “Inferno.” Directed by Kobie van Rensburg, these videos come as part of South Africa’s National Arts Festival, with this year’s iteration being entirely virtual due to the ongoing closure of theaters. Both videos {…}
Following 100 sold-out shows, On Site Opera has decided to further extend its run of “To My Distant Love.” The show will now run until August 23, 2020. This 20-minute song cycle is unique in that it is performed live and over the phone for a single person at a time. The cycle draws six songs from Beethoven centered on {…}
The little OPERA theatre of ny (LOTNY) is set to present “Mozart & Friends,” a livestream pop-up concert on July 9, 2020, at 7:30 pm from St. John’s in the Village. The concert will spotlight several arias from little OPERA’s postponed production of Mozart’s “The Shepherd King” in a newly commissioned singing translation from Mark Herman and Ronnie Apter, based upon the libretto by Pietro Metastasio. {…}