(Photo credit: Martha Benedict) “La bohème aka The Hipsters,” Pacific Opera Project’s version of Puccini’s most famous opera, has become a regular holiday-season feature of Los Angeles’s opera calendar. This year’s production is the company’s fifth. Staged at the 1912-vintage Highland Park Ebell Club, POP updates “La bohème” to present-day Highland Park, which these days has a large population of {…}
The Tulsa Opera has announced its 2020-21 season with three main stage productions. Here is a look at what the company will showcase. Verdi’s “Rigoletto” opens the season with a cast that includes Sarah Coburn in the role of Gilda and Allegra De Vita as Maddalena. Tomer Zvulun’s production, which was originally commissioned for Boston Lyric Opera, Atlanta Opera, and {…}
(Courtesy of Hui He) Hui He is set to return to China for a six-concert tour. The tour opens on Dec. 21 at the Qintai Concert Hall in Wuhan with pianist Roberto Corlianò, followed by a concert on Dec. 24 at the Concert Hall in Chengdu. There will also be concerts Jan. 4 and 8 in Beijing at the Forbidden {…}
(Source: fauna.una.edu.ar) The Universidad Nacional de las Artes in Buenos Aires is set to present Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Medium” at the Sala Muiño on Dec. 14, 2019 as part of its Fauna Festival 2019. The performance will be conducted by Nicolás Ravelli Barreiro with Johanna Chiefo directing. Mezzo-soprano Laura Benitez Silenzi is set to star as Baba with soprano {…}
(Credit: The Atlanta Opera) Baritone Michael Mayes is set to make his debut at The Israeli Opera in his signature role of Joseph de Rocher in Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking.” The baritone has performed the Jake Heggie opera to great acclaim at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Washington National Opera, The Atlanta Opera, Tulsa Opera, Central City Opera, Madison {…}
(Credit: Cory Weaver/Metropolitan Opera) American Soprano Latonia Moore has joined the Promethean Artists roster for general management. Moore recently received rave reviews for her show-stopping performance as Serena in “Porgy and Bess” at the Metropolitan Opera. This season she performs “Tosca” with the Théâtre de Caen and Opéra de Rouen Normandie Théâtre des Arts and also creates the role of {…}
(© Gregor Hohenberg / Sony Classical) The Festival Castell de Peralada has confirmed that Jonas Kaufmann and Maria Agresta will perform during the 2020 edition. The two stars are set to perform a Puccini gala on August 9, 2020 alongside conductor John Rieder and the Orquestra Sinfònica del Vallès. Kaufmann and Agresta have performed together in multiple productions including “Pagliacci” {…}
(Source: PrototypeFestival.org) MasterVoices is set to perform Jeremy Schonfeld’s rock-opera “Iron & Coal” on Jan. 10 and 11 at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay University in New York. The performances will represent the New York premiere for the work. The rock-opera, which relates the Holocaust experience endured by Schonfeld’s family, features tenor Daniel Rowan alongside, Rinde Eckert, {…}
Opera Saratoga has announced that its ended its 2019 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, 2019, with a surplus. Per a press release, the company saw a total revenue of $1.271 million with expenses of $1.193 million. This surplus of over $77,000 will be utilized to future programming activity as well as to pay off the company’s previously accumulated {…}
(Credit: Kim Fox) Pretty Yende has received the Italian knighthood. The South African soprano received the Ordine Stella d’Italia (OSI), by the Italian Consul in Cape Town Emanuele Pollio on Dec. 10, 2019. In his speech Pollio called Yende both a daughter of South Africa and of Italy and said she “was an extraordinary ambassador of the Italian culture in {…}
(Credit: Grant Leighton) Conductor Marin Alsop is set to launch a year-long cycle of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony around the world as part of her celebration of the 250th anniversary of the famed composer’s birth. She opens her international tour with a performance of the Ninth Symphony at Sao Paolo on Dec. 12-15, 2019, with a new Brazilian-Portugese adaptation. This series {…}