We all know that the future of art in any country resides with the younger generations. Achieving that passing of the torch is far easier said than done and few embark fully on said commitment. Lydia Kontos, Executive Director of the Kaufman Music Center, is one such person who has made it her life to champion music education and develop {…}
How do you get new audiences into the opera house? That question has puzzled companies for years as they try every trick in the book to bring millennials into the opera house. The art form, seemingly, depends on it. But the Scottish Opera tried a new tactic a year ago, and it’s bearing some fruit. Why not start the exposure {…}
“Tabula Rasa.” Many know the term to mean “blank slate,” but a more proper definition might be “erased slate.” That’s the idea behind composer Felix Jarrar and librettist / director Brittany Goodwin’s “Tabula Rasa,” which has its world premiere on May 4, 2018, as part of the New York Opera Fest, started. The concept of reformulating ideas to create new and {…}
Who were the Vikings? The word itself certainly produces an impact on everyone, and yet, how well do we really know them? How much of our understanding of their existence is the result of legends that have been perpetuated through a wide range of media and literature? These questions were at the core of composer and librettist Jeffrey Leiser when {…}
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 {…}