Committed to bringing opera to modern audiences in a meaningful and accessible manner, Opera Memphis is underway with a number of artistic initiatives which bring together matters of race, equity, and music. Currently halfway through its 30 Days of Opera program, the company has taken its passion to local venues and markets throughout the city of Memphis, sharing them with {…}
(Credit:©Jean-Baptiste Millot Photograph) For the past 10 years, Enrique Mazzola has become one of the leading Bel Canto conductors in the world and a leading specialist in French works. He is the Principal Guest Conductor at Deutsche Oper Berlin and has served as Artistic & Music Director of the Orchestre National d’Île de France. But now he is set to {…}
(Credit: Kathy Wittman) Boston’s Odyssey Opera has revealed that it will be “crossing the pond to merry old England” for its seventh season, which will feature a plethora of rarely performed Tudor-themed operas by a variety of composers. The company’s Founder and General-Artistic Director, Gil Rose, recently shared some insight with OperaWire on the upcoming season, particularly its exciting opener: a quasi-premiere {…}
Innsbruck’s Early Music Festival is presenting Handel’s “Ottone” as its Barockoper: Jung production in which promising young talented singers who have just embarked upon their careers are given the opportunity to perform in a fully staged work. The director for this production, Anna-Magdalena Fitzi seems the ideal choice to take charge of the staging as she works extensively with young {…}
Dell’Arte Artistic Director Chris Fecteau was working on putting together the 2019 season for the company when he happened upon Lili Boulanger’s “Princess Maleine.” His hope had been to create a season centering on the works of Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck, who had inspired such works as Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande” and Dukas’ “Ariane et Barb Bleu.” “My mentor Fiora {…}
(Credit: Chris Kayden) The Bard Summerscape has been known for programming unknown works that are either rarely performed or have never been showcased in the United States. This year the festival dedicated its program to Korngold, one of the foremost composers of the 20th century. Continuing its tradition of performing one fully staged opera production, Bard is presenting the American {…}
Every year, the Glow Lyric Theatre does something that few other opera or musical theatres companies are willing to do – embrace the distinct art forms as siblings and celebrate their unique differences and similarities. For several years the company has put on three shows in its summer season: an opera, an operetta, and a piece of musical theatre. But {…}
It was announced on Wednesday that Roxie Perkins and Ellen Reid’s “p r i s m” had won the Music Critics Association of North America third Annual Award for Best New Opera, following in the footsteps of such works as “Breaking the Waves” and “The Wake World.” The opera, which premiered on November 29, 2018, as part of Los Angeles Opera’s {…}
(Credit: Noelia Pirsic) “Do you live from singing opera?” “Is it difficult to sing that way?” “Is it hard to memorize the lyrics?” “How do you resist singing for so long?” The doubts of 10-year-old kids in wonder flew like ping-pong balls during one of the open rehearsals for “Hansel & Gretel” that took place in the hall of the San {…}
(Production photo: Duane Tinkey/Des Moines Metro Opera’s “Billy Goats Gruff”) Father of six, retired bass-baritone John Davies first attempted to write a children’s opera for an unusual reason. “Around 1978,” he remembered in an interview with OperaWire, “it seemed to me that the tobacco industry was advertising to my young children, with the Marlboro Man, Joe Camel, and Virginia Slims {…}
(Photo: Jonas Lampens) The great castrato, Carlo Maria Michelangelo Broschi, better known as Farinelli, had such impact on 18th century opera-seria that his fame has lasted down the centuries, so that even today his name remains well-known amongst opera-goers. His older brother, Riccardo Broschi, however is less well-known, few will recognize his name. Yet, during his lifetime he was a {…}