(Credit: Morgan Miller) On Feb. 15, Opera San José will open a new production of Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle.” The opera is known for its intimate but eerie qualities and features a cast of two singers on stage. For the new production, Shawna Lucey is directing the work which features many hidden things that bride Judith will discover in her new husband’s {…}
On Feb. 3, 2024, Anna Netrebko will make her return to the United States in a recital at the Palm Beach Opera. The highly anticipated concert will showcase the soprano in a variety of repertoire that she has performed to great acclaim. At her side will be Angel Rodriguez, an acclaimed Cuban-Mexican pianist and composer based in Mexico. He has performed {…}
(Photo Courtesy of Mary Elizabeth Williams.) Opera Lafayette and OperaCréole present “RE|STORE: Edmond Dédé’s ‘Morgiane’” in four cities across the U.S. including New Orleans, Washington, DC, New York City, and College Park, MD. The preview of this never-performed, long-lost masterpiece took place at the historical St. Louis Cathedral, where Dédé was baptized, featuring The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra playing modern instruments {…}
(Photo credit: Tony Hitchcock) Despite winning a Pulitzer Prize and receiving great acclaim following its Metropolitan Opera premiere in 1958, Barber and Menotti’s “Vanessa” is not regularly programmed as a full work. Arias such as “Must the winter come so soon?” and “Do not utter a word” are frequently heard in recitals, but this does not do justice to this {…}
(Photo: Rasmus Jurkatam) From the beginning, Arvo Volmer’s career has been closely tied with the Estonian National Opera, where he was appointed to his first professional post as its assistant conductor in 1985 and where he conducted his first opera, Händel’s “Alcina.” Since then, he has gone on to establish a successful international career, with a string of appointments, including {…}
Romanian-Hungarian mezzo-soprano Judit Kutasi is described as possessing a “deeper dark voice” and has been predicted to be the “the Verdi mezzo of the next years.” Born in Timisoara, Romania, she studied voice, piano and cello at the Colegiul Național de Artă “Ion Vidu” and continued her studies at the University of Oradea and the Music Academy Gheorghe Dima {…}
(Photo: Alciro Theodoro Da Silva) At the end of February, start of March this year, the Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe is presenting a Händel festival, which includes productions of “Rinaldo,” and “Siroe, Re di Persia,” among many other events. During a recent performance of “Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria” in Ravenna, OperaWire met up with Spanish tenor Jorge Navarro Colorado, {…}
(Photo: Dario Acosta) In March, American soprano Jacquelyn Stucker will be performing in Philip Venables’ “We are the Lucky Ones” at Amsterdam’s Opera Forward Festival. OperaWire will be interviewing her about the production during the festival, but as a taster, she kindly agreed to answer a few questions about herself. OperaWire: How old were you when you saw your first {…}
(Photo: Maru Teppei) Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) is an organization actively changing the roadmap of opera production and composition one project at a time. Since 2006 the company has commissioned, developed, produced, and toured over 60 works in 14 countries around the world, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning chamber operas “Angel’s Bone” and “p r i s m.” This year’s PROTOTYPE {…}