(Credit: Philip Vile) The Aldeburgh Festival has announced its 2022 season. The festival opens on June 3, and runs through June 26, 2022. For the purpose of this article we will focus on the vocal works. Here is the full slate. Baritone Kieran Rayner performs music by Schubert, Debussy, and Finzi alongside pianist Bradley Wood. Performance Date: June 4, 2022 {…}
“Page to Opera Stage” looks at stories – real-life or fiction, old and new – that have inspired operas, and the ways these narratives have been edited and dramatized to fit a new medium. This month, we return to Goethe, this time with Jules Massenet’s poignant adaptation of his name-making novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” The following contains discussion {…}
(Credit: Metropolitan Opera official website) The Metropolitan Opera has announced that it will mandate a COVID booster shot for all those eligible to receive it, beginning January 17, 2022. From Jan. 17, entry to the Met will be restricted to those who have received the booster shot, if eligible. Those not yet eligible will be able to continue to enter {…}
On Dec. 16, the new opera “Al Wasl” by Mohammed Fairouz, and co-authored and written by Maha Gargash, will premiere at the Dubai Opera. The work, which is a collaboration between Dubai Opera and Welsh National Opera, will be performed through Dec. 19. “Al Wasl” was commissioned for Expo 2020 Dubai and will be conducted by Justin Brown and directed {…}
(Credit: https://www.buehnen-frankfurt.de/) Oper Frankfurt has announced that, starting Dec. 16, 2021, it will reduce its seating capacity to maximum of 530 spectators. Per the new State Ordinance of the State of Hessen, theaters and opera houses are required to further limit seating capacity in venues due to the concerns over the ongoing spread of COVID-19. Oper Frankfurt uses 2G+ rule {…}
(Credit: Chris Lee) Celebrated American soprano Renée Fleming will mentor 10 aspiring young singers and 10 collaborative pianists from around the world in the fourth year of SongStudio, an innovative program exploring the future of the vocal recital. The annual intensive workshop will be hosted by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, and will take place between Jan. 17 – 22, {…}
(Credit: Javier del Real) The board of the Teatro Real in Madrid has renewed General Director Ignacio García-Belenguer and Artistic Director Joan Matabosch’s contract until 2026. Additionally, the board approved that Ivor Bolton would remain Music Director until July 2025. During the meeting it was also approve that on March 3, there were be an hommage to the great composers {…}
Bloomingdale School of Music has announced that it will be streaming its annual holiday concert, set for Dec. 17, 2022. The showcase, which is sold out, can be viewed via the organization’s official website. The performance will be dedicated to Tim McCullough, the Resident Teaching Artist who passed away in November. It will feature such artists as soprano Christine Browning, {…}
(Credit: ndr.de) The NDR Radiophilharmonie has announced that it was forced to postpone the already scheduled 2022 Brahms Festival. “With the Brahms Festival, we wanted to offer our audience in the dome hall a similarly intense experience as we did with the Beethoven Festival in autumn 2019. Unfortunately, this is not possible under the current pandemic conditions and the associated {…}
(Credit: Arenda Oomen) The government of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has has extended the state of lockdown until Jan. 14, 2022. The lockdown began on Nov. 13, and was initially set to last until Dec. 3. However, initial measures failed to achieve the goal of lowering the number of infections and were further tightened on Nov. 27. The country {…}
Vermont’s Barn Opera has announced the Dec. 17 and 18, 2021 performance of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” at Salisbury Congregational Church in Salisbury, VT. In 2019, Barn Opera proclaimed the production an annual tradition only to have it broken a year later because of COVID. However, the 2019 principal cast is back and ready to delight audiences once again {…}