(Credit: Valentina Sadiul) What makes a master singing teacher? Is it someone who knows the art of singing from both sides of the curtain? Or is it someone who cultivates a singer’s natural gifts, enabling the budding artist to bring out her/his inner voice? Perhaps it is both of these. César Ulloa is Voice Department Chair at the San Francisco {…}
(photo credit: Damjan Švarc) Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein’s opera “The Mother of Us All” recently made a historical debut at The Met Museum in honor of Susan B. Anthony’s life and women’s suffrage movement. The production celebrates a unique collaboration between the NY Philharmonic, Juilliard, and The Met, which features some of today’s visionary young artists working in opera. {…}
The LA Opera announced its 2020-21 season featuring five main stage production, four new productions and a number of second stage productions through its Connects and LA Opera Grand sections. Among the composers featured in the programming are Missy Mazzoli, Verdi, Mozart, Handel, and Rossini. In light of the new season announcement, CEO and president of the house Christopher Koelsch {…}
(Credit: John Hardy) Back in early April 2019, the Opera San José Board of Directors announced that Khori Dastoor would be taking over as General Manager. The announcement was the culmination of a unique relationship that saw Dastoor rise from performer to manager in just a little over a decade. Irene Dalis’ Call Back in 2007, Dastoor was a soprano {…}
Opera on the James, located in Lynchburg, Virginia named singer, director, and teacher, Marco Nisticò General Director this past June. Nisticò summed up his mission on the company’s website, saying, “[Opera] has the capacity to move, inspire, provoke thought, and entertain. It helps us to understand who we are and how we relate to each other. As director of Opera {…}
(Credit: © Joan Tomás – Fidelio Artist) In 2019 the Donizetti Opera Festival celebrated its fifth anniversary after winning the prestigious Best Festival at the Oper! Magazine Awards. The festival showcased three works by the famed composer that brought an international audience and a number of rising stars and international singers. It was also the second year for famed conductor {…}
(Source: Francescomilioto.com) Earlier this year, Numi Opera took on “Der Zwerg” by Zemlinsky, officially launching a project that aimed to shine a spotlight on Jewish composers banned by Hitler. Now the company is set for its second production, “Der Ring des Polykrates” by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, best known for “Die tote Stadt.” In taking on this Korngold work, the company {…}
Alice Mong, the Executive Director of the Asia Society Hong Kong Center never realized how much operatic talent there was in Hong Kong and Asia. That is, until she saw them work in a masterclass with soprano Renée Fleming in 2013. Watching these artists work alongside the famed diva made Mong realize that Hong Kong and Asia was full of {…}
(Credit: Yasuko Kageyama) Damiano Michieletto is one of the most sought after directors today. Born in Venice, he graduated in modern literature at the Venice University and then went on to study theatre and opera production at the Paolo Grassi School of Dramatic Art in Milan. Success would follow him soon after when he debuted in 2003 at the Wexford {…}
(Credit: Javier del Real) Few opera directors have had as much influence as Emilio Sagi. After nearly 40 years, he is not just any other opera director – he is a brand and an icon, his work easily identifiable. He debuted in his native Oviedo with “La Traviata” in 1980 before triumphing in Madrid with “Don Pasquale” in 1982. Since {…}
(Credit: Philippe Stirnweiss) Since its world premiere in 2017, “Another Brick in the Wall” has garnered popularity throughout North America. The opera, based on the era defining album “The Wall” by Julien Bilodeau and first performed in Montreal before heading to the United Stated. The work, which set out to “give the audience an opportunity to discover a new dimension {…}
