What is it like to crossover from opera to rock music? Better yet,what it is like to fuse both genres into one score? That was the challenge mezzo-soprano Yajie Zhang had to face for the new opera “Orfeo” by Fay Kueen Wang and Zou Shuang. A classically trained performer, Zhang has steadily risen the ranks of the opera world performing {…}
When conductor Jorge Parodi was a young man growing up in Argentina, he often heard a melody played as an introduction to a television series. “I never imagined it was from an opera,” he told OperaWire in a recent interview. Everyone knew that the tango melody was by Piazzolla, but it never occurred to him that the tango melody might {…}
Elīna Garanča is, for many, THE mezzo-soprano of this generation. With her movie star looks and acting chops to match. she has performed at all the major theaters, showcased an extensive array of repertoire and recorded award-winning albums. She has made a specialty of lyric mezzo roles such as Octavian in “Der Rosenkavalier” or the title role in “Carmen,” but {…}
When Meili Li completed his studies at the Royal Academy of Music, he became the first Chinese counter‐tenor to have received a conservatoire education. Since completing his studies, Li has gone on to perform a wide range of repertoire that includes Renaissance lute songs and vocal ensemble music to 20th and 21st-century contemporary operas and songs. He has also become one {…}
Composer and performer Fay Kueen Wang’s is a multi-faceted performer who has drawn inspiration from avant-garde concert music, theater, film, electronic music, Chinese folk music, and indie pop, garnering rave reviews along the way. She has performed across China, Europe, and the United States in such prestigious venues as the Berliner Philharmonie, Lincoln Center, Arnold Schoenberg Center, Musikverein, Oper Graz, Merkin Hall, Joseph {…}
It all began with five ladies who belonged to Pittsburgh’s Tuesday Musical Club: pianist Virginia C. Byerly; contralto Carolyn Hunt Mahaffey; Priscilla W. Collins; Ruby N. Wickersham; and Marie M. Pease. In 1939, 80 years ago this season, these Founding Five established The Pittsburgh Opera Society, which would become the seventh-oldest opera company in the United States. The first production, {…}
The Lady Gaga of opera. A fashion Icon. An intense singing-actress. A glamorous personality. These are just some of the great descriptions that have also been placed upon star soprano Carmen Giannattasio. These are also some of the reasons for her rise in the opera world since her Operalia win in 2002. Sixteen years after that breakthrough, the soprano begins a {…}
It’s not every day that New York audiences will get a chance to experience the Hungarian State Opera without heading across the pond. But in just a few weeks, starting on Oct. 30, 2018, they will get that very opportunity at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center as the company comes on tour with a number of operatic {…}
Christian Van Horn is one of today’s rising stars in the opera world, the bass making major role debuts and opening new productions at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Canadian Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera. This year, he became the third bass-baritone to win the Richard Tucker Award and the first of his voice type since 2003. Van Horn’s {…}