Being a general and artistic director for any opera company is quite a massive challenge. Especially a growing one like the Atlanta Opera. Now imagine giving yourself another massive job on top of such, say director of three productions for your upcoming season. Most people would balk at the proposition, but not Tomer Zvulun who is not only running the {…}
Seven years. The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Berlin State Opera, Royal Swedish Opera and Metropolitan Opera. Those are just some of the companies that have featured spinto tenor Riccardo Massi. Seven years. Now in his 30s, the tenor is slowly stealing the spotlight as one of the most exciting tenors on the rise, his vocal artistry matched by his {…}
There are a ton of Verdi tenors out there capable of dominating his major roles. But few are like Francesco Meli. The Italian tenor has made the works of the great Busetto genius his bread and better, performing such major works as “La Traviata,” “Il Trovatore,” “Rigoletto,” “Nabucco,” “Macbeth,” “Ernani,” “Don Carlo,” “Luisa Miller,” “Un Ballo in Maschera” and even some {…}
For Luca Salsi, there is no composer better than Verdi. No one. Salsi, the Italian baritone, who is slated to sing the role of Amonasro at the Salzburg Festival starting in early August, has repeatedly professed that no composer in the history of Italian opera was able to fuse music and text with the same level of conviction and depth. {…}
Tenor Alek Shrader and mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack have enormous operatic careers and have sung all over the world both individually and together. The couple has joined forces in such operas as “La Cenerentola” and Handel’s “Partenope” and this summer they will be reunited in Handel’s “Alcina” at Santa Fe Opera. I had the chance to speak with them on my {…}
This weekend, Dvorak’s “Dimitrij” premieres at the Bard Summerscape. The opera is being staged in the U.S. for the first time by director Anne Bogart, a Bard graduate. She has directed numerous opera productions including Bizet’s “Carmen” and Verdi’s “Macbeth” at the Glimmerglass Festival and has also helmed Bellini’s “Norma” with the Washington National Opera. Her theater work has been {…}
Ever heard of Georges Auric? Unfortunately, few have. And Colin Roust, Assistant Professor in Musicology at the University of Kansas, believes that that needs to change. And he’s doing something about it, writing a full-length biography about Auric, “George Auric: A Life in Music and Politics” which will be published by Oxford University Press in 2018. Roust recently won a {…}
Opera has been a “western” art for centuries. But when the “eastern” world produces it, the experience can be truly riveting. Such is the case with “Datong: The Chinese Utopia,” composer Chan Hing-yan’s three-Act work that took Hong Kong by storm and is set to do the same in just a few days. Following the story of philosopher Kang Youwei {…}
When “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” makes it world premiere on July 22, 2017, at the Santa Fe Opera, there will be two musicians in the pit of varying operatic experience. On one hand will be composer Mason Bates, known for a wide-range of symphonic works. He will be showcasing his electronic orchestral colors in his very first opera. On {…}