The Metropolitan Opera collaboration with the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s “Breaking the Waves” has been canceled. The opera, which was scheduled to be performed on June 23- 30, 2020, featured a cast comprised of Sydney Mancasola as Bess McNeill, Wallis Giunta as Dodo, and Duncan Rock as Jan. “Breaking the Waves” would have featured {…}
Beginning on April 11, 2020, the Greek National Opera will start providing free broadcasts of its past operas. The first of these streams, which will be hosted on the company’s official website, will be Bizet’s “Carmen.” The famed opera will be headlined by Anita Rachvelishvili. On April 25, 2020, the company will stream Verdi’s third opera “Nabucco” with Dmitri Platanias {…}
Opera Meets Film” is a feature dedicated to exploring the way that opera has been employed in cinema. We will select a section or a film in its entirety, highlighting the impact that utilizing the operatic form or sections from an opera can alter our perception of a film that we are viewing. This week’s installment features “The Opera House. {…}
The Theater Dortmund in Germany has announced its 2020-21 season featuring a number of premieres from modern masterpieces to classics repertory staples. Premieres Bizet’s “Carmen“ gets a new production by Nikolaus Habjan with Montonori Kobayashi conducting. The production is set to star Marie Karall and Maria Boiko in the title role, James Lee and Young Woo Kim as Don Jose, {…}
The Opéra de Paris is set to launch “aria,” a new mobile site, aimed at those who want to learn more about opera and the performing arts. The app, which is set to launch on April 9, 2020, was made with support from Huawei and its partner Keyrus. Per a press release, “aria” employs artificial intelligence to dialogue with users {…}
(Credit: Anja Koehler) The Bregenz Summer Opera Festival was founded in 1946, just one year after the end of the second World War. It offers a great variety of musical events in four different venues, but it is in the “Seebühne” or floating stage, set in a platform over the Costanze lake where the big opera performances take place in {…}
The Vienna State has announced the remainder of its online programming through the rest of April. To watch, head over to the company’s official website. April 14, 2020: Schwanensee (performance of 16. März 2014) conductor: Alexander Ingram | choreography: Rudolf Nurejew with Vladimir Shishov (Prinz Siegfried), Olga Esina (Odette/Odile), Dagmar Kronberger (Königin), Eno Peci (Zauberer Rotbart) April 15, 2020: Parsifal {…}
The Hungarian Government and the Budapest Municipality have come to an agreement to save the Budapest Festival Orchestra. For months the orchestra has been dealing with insolvency and music director Ivan Fischer has been speaking out against the populist ideas of Hungary’s leader Vitor Orbán. Adam Fischer, Ivan’s brother, also has criticized the policies of the current leader’s administration. In {…}
(Credit: The Verdi Chorus) The Verdi Chorus is set to present its first online concert on April 18, 2020 when it streams its 2018 showcase “The Force of Destiny.” The performance, which featured sequences from such operas as “La Forza del Destino,” “La Traviata,” “Nabucco,” and “Die Fledermaus,” will be streamed on the company’s Facebook page. That concert featured four {…}
Spain’s minister of culture and sport José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes has stated that the best way to help artists through the current crisis is to rescheduled performances that were recently canceled. The official stated publicly that he has no desire to cancel events that were unable to take place as a result of the spread of COVID-19. Rodríguez Uribes has, {…}
The Handel and Haydn Society has pledged to pay musicians for canceled concerts scheduled throughout the remainder of the 2019-20 season. Per a press release, the company will pay artists 100 percent of the salary contractually agreed upon. The payments will total over $350,000 for 88 orchestra and chorus musicians. Artists will receive their payments on the same day they {…}