Young opera stars are set to make their debut at a prestigious international music festival. Singers from Youth Opera North Wales are set to take part at the finale of this year’s North Wales International Music Festival. The singers will be made up of youngsters aged eight to 18 from across North Wales and will sing alongside Welsh National Opera’s Festival {…}
The Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music have announce that their groundbreaking joint program, Opera Fusion: New Works, will host a residency for the new opera “Castor and Patience.” The new work will be written by composer Gregory Spears and librettist by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith. The work was commissioned {…}
The Royal Opera House has announced two major cast changes for the 2019-20 season. The company announced that Mariusz Kwiecień has withdrawn from a new production of Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale“ in October due to personal reasons. This is the latest in a series of cancellations for the baritone, who recently canceled performances of “Eugene Onegin” in Japan as well presentations of {…}
Editor’s Note: This piece has been edited as statements have come out regarding the situation. Following accusations of sexual harassment, numerous opera personalities have come in defense of Plácido Domingo. In the wake of accusations by nine women, opera stars have taken to Twitter, Instagram, and news outlets to defend their colleague. Among them is Bulgarian superstar soprano Sonya Yoncheva {…}
Innsbruck’s Early Music Festival is presenting Handel’s “Ottone” as its Barockoper: Jung production in which promising young talented singers who have just embarked upon their careers are given the opportunity to perform in a fully staged work. The director for this production, Anna-Magdalena Fitzi seems the ideal choice to take charge of the staging as she works extensively with young {…}
Grammy Award-winning choir The Crossing has announced its 2019-20 season, which will include several world premieres. Dan Henriksson and Donald Nally will direct the choral-theatre work “Aniara: fragments of time and space,” presented by Finnish National Opera at Almi Hall in Helsinki. The Crossing will be joined by Klockriketeatern, with featured performers Matti Raita and Carl Alm. Performance Dates: Sept. 16 {…}
“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 Ridley Scott’s “Hannibal.’ {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera has won the American Prize in Opera Performance, professional division, 2018-19 for its world premiere performance of Rosśa Crean’s “The Great God Pan.” The supernatural chamber opera, based on Arthur Machen’s novella which “explores themes of scientific hubris, transcendental medicine, and unexplainable supernatural behavior,” premiered on Mar. 10, 2018. The production starred Christina Pecce as Helen, Aaron Wardell as {…}
Opera Parallèle is set to celebrate its 10th season gala on Oct. 2, 2019 at the War Memorial Green Room in San Francisco. The gala, entitled “Because of You,” will feature performances from such artists as Marnie Breckenridge, Catherine Cook, Bojan Knezevic, Matthew Worth, and pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi. The Opera Parallèle Gala Chorus will also perform with all proceeds heading {…}
Opera Southwest is set to showcase “Ali Babà” to open its 2019-20 season. The opera by Giovanni Bottesini will be showcased on Oct. 20, 2019 with subsequent performances on the 25th and 27th of the same month. All presentation will take place at the Albuquerque’s Journal Theatre. The opera will be conducted by Anthony Barese with Ashraf Sewailam in the {…}
It looks like Plácido Domingo will remain in the Zurich Opera’s production of “Nabucco” this fall. OperaWire reached out to the company’s press department about how it would respond to allegations about the singer’s sexual harassment of nine women, and the company responded that it would see how other investigations develop. “Plácido Domingo’s performance as Nabucco at the Zurich Opera {…}