The Ring Cycle is one of the biggest operatic undertakings in the operatic repertoire. It’s always a special event especially when it is being shown in a new production. It’s a chance for a conductor and director to reinterpret the gigantic tetralogy and an opportunity for audiences to see something new from the work. Such a mammoth undertaking also allows {…}
(Credit: Ian McIntosh Photography) Joel Allison made his debut at the age of 12 as the treble soloist in Howard Shore’s “Lord of the Rings” Symphony. Today this Canadian singer of the new generation has been praised for the “beautiful, rich, ringing tone” of his bass-baritone voice. Allison is working as a recitalist, soloing with all of the prominent Canadian {…}
The Puccini Opera Festival has announced its 66th season. The 2020 festival, which takes place at the Torre del Lago, Italy, will feature five operas including “La Bohème,” “Manon Lescaut,” “Turandot,” “Tosca” and “Madama Butterfly.” The season will also include a ballet performance. “Tosca” will open the festival with four performances. “Turandot” will also be performed four times, while “La {…}
(Photo: Martha Benedict) The 1912 Ebell Club in Los Angeles’ Highland Park has been the venue for a number of Pacific Opera Project performances. It’s a favorite venue for their popular show “La boheme: AKA: The Hipsters”. And its informal setting worked well for this intimate version of “The Mikado,” in which the audience was able to sit close at {…}
On Sept. 20, 2019, Cerise Jacobs and Jorge Sosa’s’ latest opera “I Am a Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams” will make its world premiere. The new work will make its world premiere at the Robert J. Orchard Stage of Boston’s Emerson Paramount Theater with a cast of various ethnicity. The cast is set to include Carla López-Speziale, Helen Zhibing Huang, Kirsten {…}
“La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’ isola d’ Alcina” (“The liberation of Ruggiero from the Isle of Alcina”) is an opera of firsts. It was the first opera composed by a woman. It was the first opera performed outside of Italy. And, perhaps, it was the first opera in which the male-female roles are reversed with a strong female coming to {…}
Since his breakthrough as Rodolfo in Bellini’s “La Sonnambula,” 42-year-old Ildar Abdrazakov has cemented his reputation as one of the world’s leading bass singers at both European and American opera houses. With his repertoire spanning the early and mid-19th century, he has gradually moved from the Belcanto tradition to Verdi and the development of modern music drama per se; it {…}
“Opera Meets Film” has grown into one of OperaWire’s most popular sections. And to celebrate two years of the start of this weekly series, we are going to put opera and film fans to the test to see how much you really know about how opera is employed in movies. It should be a fun rediscovery of many topics we {…}
(Credit: Claudia d’Alessandro) The Board of Directors of Berkshire Opera Festival has announced the appointment of Abigail Rollins as Executive Director. Rollins will take the helm of the organization on Sept. 3, 2019 after the close of the Berkshire Opera Festival’s fourth season production of “Don Pasquale.” She will replace Interim Executive Director Claudia d’Alessandro, whose term has ended. In the new position Rollins {…}
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis has announced that Nicole Ambos Freber will be its New Managing Director of Advancement and that Anh Le will be its permanent Director of Marketing and Press Relations after holding the interim tag for five months. Freber had worked with the company for over 20 years as the Director of Development, raising over $104 million {…}
The Orchestra Now has unveiled its 2019-20 season, which will include a plethora of unique works. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on opera and vocal performances. Over at the Sosnoff Theater at Bard College’s Fisher Center, audiences will get a chance to hear Strauss’ “Four Songs, Op. 27” in addition to a performance of Galina Ustvolskaya’s {…}
