(© Sim Canetty-Clarke) At the pinnacle of the song cycle is Schubert’s “Winterreise.” It is a work that has been mythologized and has influenced generations of composers thereafter including Mahler, Britten, and Maury Yeston to name just a few. While written for tenor, it has nonetheless been recorded and performed by lower male voices as well as a plethora {…}
(Credit: CraigGibson) Originally having trained as a baritone, Freddie De Tommaso is an Anglo-Italian tenor from Tunbridge Wells who went from working in his Father’s High Street Italian restaurant to some of the great opera houses of the world. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and his star was launched when he won the Plácido Domingo Tenor Prize {…}
Praised for her unwavering vocal stamina, character portrayal, technique, and sublime timbral quality, Joyce El-Khoury has become one of the leading bel canto sopranos of our time. Not only an expressive dramaturge and highly sought after classical singer, but additionally a champion for classical singing advocacy in her home country of Lebanon with her “Lessons for Lebanon” work, El-Khoury epitomizes {…}
The nature of opera is changing. No longer bound by the stage, the whole idea that a libretto set to music and then staged is the true definition of an opera is dead. To be an “opera” is now a state-of-mind, a creative worldview that seeks to posit that all things are connected, with the actors involved as “characters” in {…}
Photos: Frances Marshall “At Home With… ” is a collaboration between OperaWire and photographer Frances Marshall of Marshall Light Studio, combining original photography with insightful interviews that reveal the human side of artists. Call him the “Voice Whisperer.” It seems vocal coach par excellence Paul Farrington can teach most anyone to sing, including the cast of Dustin Hoffman’s 2013 film, {…}
(Photos Courtesy of Pam Chaddon, Chamber Orchestra of the Springs / Taken during rehearsal) Back in February, Eapen Leubner’s Art Song Colorado presented “Voices of the African Diaspora,” a concert dedicated to Black composers throughout the centuries. Audiences had the chance to listen to works by Joseph Bologne, H. Leslie Adams, George Walker, Jessie Montgomery, Andre Myers, and Undine Smith {…}
On June 16 and 18, 2022, audiences in New York City will get the opportunity to witness the world premiere of “Southern Crossings.” The work, set to a libretto by Yvette Christiansë and Rosalind Morris, centers on the story of the meeting between famed astronomer John Hershel and Charles Darwin and how different characters experienced and hoped that that meeting {…}
On June 18, 2022, the National Sawdust and Chelsea Factory will present Bare Opera’s production of Thomas Cabaniss’ “Firesongs.” Cabaniss, a South Carolina Native, was an initiator of The Lullaby Project and The Somewhere Project, both at Carnegie Hall, and was the host and composer-in-residence for Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program between 2010-2020. In addition to the dozens of works {…}
Perhaps no other figure in the history of the baroque period was so transformative, productive, and instrumental in the development of England’s musical heritage than Henry Purcell. He was a composer whose legacy is, somewhat remarkably, both famous and forgotten the world round. Having been born into a musical family—beginning his musical career as a boy chorister at the Chapel {…}