Barbara Hannigan doesn’t like being called a genius. “I work hard,” she always retorts. And that’s true. To catch Barbara Hannigan for an interview is very tricky. At the time of this interview, the soprano has just finished her work in Copenhagen, where she performed as a conductor alongside the young artists from her Equilibrium project, and also sang Abrahamsen’s {…}
Laura Kaminsky, Kimberly Reed, and Mark Campbell’s “As One” is set for a major run in New York this weekend. Among the performers in the two casts will be baritone Michael Kelly, who will perform the role of Hannah Before. Kelly is an avid performer of contemporary works, having performed in world premieres by Matthew Aucoin, David Del Tredici, Mohammed {…}
Hui He is one of today’s leading lirico spinto sopranos in the world performing every major Verdi and Puccini role. Since her debut in “Aida” in Shanghai in 1998, she has become one of the leading interpreters of such operas as “Tosca,” “Madam Butterfly,” ‘Turandot,” “Il Trovatore,” and “La Forza del Destino.” She has also performed in every major theater, including {…}
Every singer’s path is laden with expectations. Often, these are not established by the artist themselves, but by the world around them. Karen Slack knows all about having to manage those expectations. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2005 and was singing the major Verdi roles at the start of her career. But the soprano in a recent interview {…}
Opera, Song and Music Theater is quivering, twisting, and turning. Could it be that we are in an renaissance? There is a new blood pulsing through its veins. Opera and theater makers are pulling at its heart, resuscitating our interest and taking us to diverse locations with as yet unclassifiable languages and forms. The Xen of Opera looks at the {…}
New York’s City Lyric Opera recently staged a gritty production of Peter Brook’s adaptation of Bizet’s “Carmen,” “La Tragédie de Carmen.” The opera, an 80-minute chamber piece, retains the musical highlights of Bizet’s original, and brings into sharp focus the tragic stories of the four principal characters: Micaëla, Don José, Carmen, and Escamillo as they collide with one another and {…}
For the last decade, Michael Fabiano has emerged as one of the greatest tenors on the planet, performing at the major opera houses around the globe in a myriad of repertoire. Along the way, he’s won many prestigious awards and continually showcased an ability to push the boundaries of his artistic abilities. But in that same period that Fabiano has {…}
“Carmen” is one of the most iconic operas ever written. It is performed everywhere around the world and in recent years, directors have tried to find new ways to reinterpret the story, sometimes even changing major components. This isn’t new for an opera like “Carmen,” which actually exists in another well-known version “La Tragédie de Carmen.” While not performed as often {…}
Pacific Opera Project’s “Madama Butterfly,” presented recently in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo, was acclaimed for presenting Puccini’s opera in Japanese and English, the languages the characters would actually have spoken. But one of the other talking points around town was the “last-minute” assumption of the title role by Melbourne-born soprano, Janet Szepei Todd. OperaWire caught up with Janet at Cafe {…}
Riccardo Frizza is one of today’s foremost Italian conductors specializing in the Italian repertoire. He has appeared at all the great opera houses in the world and has interpreted many of the great works by Verdi, Donizetti, Rossini, and Bellini. Recently, he was appointed the music director of the Donizetti Opera Festival and for his first assignment, he took on {…}
On May 3, 2019, Australian soprano Yvette Keong will perform her graduation recital at the Manhattan School of Music’s Greenfield Hall. While still a member of the school’s Senior Opera Theater, Keong has quickly begun to make a name for herself with recent appearances in the role of Pamina in the Berlin Opera Academy’s 2018 production of “Die Zauberflöte,” which {…}