There’s a big conversation going on in the world of opera (and at large) about the need for women to come to the forefront of the creative process. Not only managing opera houses or in a leading role, but also in creating new and refreshing works that tell new and inciting stories. More people like Marisa Michelson, who aside from {…}
“It might be good to have opera in ‘country music’ country.” Former Knoxville Opera Board Member Brenda Maupin recalls the thinking of Edward Zambara, the late bass-baritone and University of Tennessee Voice Department Chair. In 1976, with help from the city of Knoxville and opera lovers on the Greater Knoxville Arts Council, he founded Knoxville Civic Opera and became its {…}
Anywhere you look these days, you might find some major opera company programming “As One,” an opera by composer Laura Kaminsky and written by noted librettist Mark Campbell and filmmaker Kimberly Reed. The work, which depicts the journey of transformation for a transgender woman has mystified and engaged numerous audiences around the United States since it world premiere on Sept. {…}
The opera stage is replete with people both visible and invisible. You have the singers, the orchestra, and the conductor; arguably the most visible participants in any performance. You have your technician and other stagehands working to keep the lighting and other aspects of the production moving along swimmingly. You’ve got someone coordinating all of that. And then hidden onstage {…}
Jake Heggie is considered one of the greatest modern composers of our time. His work has been widely performed throughout with “Dead Man Walking” becoming one of the most popular modern operas around. His “Moby Dick” has also garnered quite a following and has also been performing throughout the United States. In 2015 after the success of “Moby Dick” at {…}
It was 1980, and Hildegard Behrens was at the Metropolitan Opera singing “Fidelio” with Jon Vickers. Gastón Ormazábal was but a student at Columbia University, where he is today a Senior Research Scientist. The two were about to meet for the first time. Neither knew that they would develop a friendship that would transcend Behrens’ lifetime. As Ormazábal, now the {…}
The year 2018 is shaping up to be a major one for composer Daniel Thomas Davis. On Feb. 15 and 16, he will witness the staged premiere of his 2015 opera “Family Secrets: Kith and Kin” and then, this weekend, his opera “Six. Twenty. Outrageous,” will also get its world premiere. The composer hails from North Carolina and has had {…}
Murder, mystery, and mayhem are on offer in “Elizabeth Cree” when it opens this Saturday, Feb. 10 at the Chicago Opera Theater. Set in 1880s Victorian London, the opera begins with the hanging of Elizabeth Cree for the murder of her husband, John. The story then circles back to the trial for that murder and Elizabeth’s own narrative of her {…}
The New York City Opera, an institution that had been at the heart of New York City’s opera culture was dead. Its fate was unknown. That’s when Michael Capasso stepped in. He had already worked extensively as a stage director and had even founded his own company, the Dicapo Opera Theatre in 1981. So he was not new to taking {…}
Growing opera has become one of the essential missions of major opera companies. Fostering new talent, whether it be singers or composers, is now an active part of most opera companies’ structures. That is no different for the Washington National Opera and its American Opera Initiative. The program was initiated in 2012 with the goal to “stimulate, enrich, and ensure {…}
What do you do once you have retired from singing? Some opera singers dedicate themselves to teaching while others begin directing. Others, still, begin young artist programs. For legendary soprano Lucine Amara, now 92, it’s about all of these as she has devoted her energy to building an opera company that gives an opportunity to young singers. For the past {…}