On Feb. 20, 2019, the Victorian Opera company will make history staging its first performance of Wagner’s “Parsifal.” This production is set to boast an all-star cast of artists such as Burkhard Fritz, Katarina Dalayman, Peter Rose, Derek Welton, and Teddy Tahu Rhodes. OperaWire had the opportunity to speak with the Victorian Opera’s artistic director Richard Mills, and learn more {…}
“For 30 years my Dad thought he was a girl. This is the story of how he found himself.” So says eight-year-old William Bouk regarding “Mr. Liz: Living in the In-Between,” a showcase featuring mezzo-soprano Liz Bouk and his family. The show had a series of successful previews in late 2018, but will now get a run of shows at {…}
Internationally renowned soprano Aprile Millo returns to New York on January 30, 2019 for a highly anticipated recital with the New York City Opera. This performance marks her first concert in the city in nearly a decade. Accompanied by Inseon Lee on piano, Millo will perform a wide-ranging program consisting of songs by Bellini, Tosti, Liszt, Donaudy, Rachmaninoff, and Wagner, as {…}
“Don Giovanni” is undeniably one of the great operas in the standard repertory. While the title character is the focal point of the story, there is no denying that the opera simply can’t work without a potent contrasting force in the form of Donna Anna. That is the challenge for any soprano taking on the role of the Mozart heroine. {…}
The San Francisco Opera has announced its 2019-20 season featuring a wide array of repertory from Mozart and Verdi to Britten and Mason Bates. It’s a season that also includes company debuts, role debuts, and U.S. debuts. OperaWire had a chance to speak with General Director Matthew Shilvock on the new season and what excites him about many returning {…}
Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta” and Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” will return to the Metropolitan Opera as a double after a successful run a few seasons ago. On first look, it seems like a strange combination with the composers’ styles rather different overall. It takes a truly strong maestro to move from Tchaikovsky’s lush lyrical qualities to Bartók’s challenging harmonic structures. Hungarian maestro Henrik {…}
Wilhelm Schwinghammer is one of today’s leading German basses. Throughout the past few years, he has performed at the Bayreuth Festival, Teatro Real de Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Wiener Staatsoper and the Hamburg Staatsoper as a studio member. He is a great exponent of the operas of Wagner, Strauss, Mozart, and Verdi, as well as the works of Puccini {…}
In a few weeks, the New York City Opera will continue its championing of bold, dramatic operas — both musically and thematically — with the jazz opera, “Dear Erich.” Premiering at the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, at the Museum of Hewish Heritage in Battery Park, New York, the opera uses the idiom of jazz to deal with one of history’s {…}
“The last of the old great masters of song” has been a term used to describe the German baritone Benjamin Appl. Hailed for his “sensitive legato,” Appl has performed in both opera and recitals around the world in such stages as Ravinia, Rheingau, Schleswig Holstein, Edinburgh International, Life Victoria Barcelona, Leeds Lieder, Oxford Lieder festivals, and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, among others. {…}