The Olivier Awards have announced their annual nominations. For the purpose of this article, we will only focus on the opera categories. In the category of Best New Opera Production the Royal Opera House received two nominations for its productions of “Kat’ya Kabanova” and “Lessons of Love and Violence.” Also nominated in the category was “The Turn of the Screw” {…}
Opera Naples is set to present Bizet’s “Carmen” next month. The premier company in Naples will feature an international cast that will include rising star French mezzo-soprano Gaëlle Arquez in the title role and Rafael Davila as Don José. Soprano Heather Phillips will sing Micaëla while Baritone Anatoli Sivko will portray the bullfighter Escamillo. The Naples Philharmonic will perform alongside Maestro Ramón {…}
Opera is quivering, twisting, and turning. Could it be that we are in an opera renaissance? There is a new blood pulsing through its veins. Opera and theater makers are pulling at its heart, resuscitating our interest and taking us to diverse locations with as yet unclassifiable languages and forms. The Xen of Opera looks at the protagonists and projects {…}
The Chelsea Opera Group is preparing to mount a rare performance of Boito’s “Mefistofele” at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre on Sunday, March 24. The concert performance will be lead by Matthew Scott Rogers and will feature Vazgen Gazaryan as the devil himself. Pablo Bemsch will take on the role of Faust while Elizabeth Llewellyn will interpret the {…}
The Longborough Festival Opera has announced its 2019 slate. Everything kicks off with “Das Rheingold,” which will kick off the company’s four-year plan to mount the Ring. The production will feature Mark Stone, Darren Jeffery, Mark Le Brocq, Madeleine Shaw, and Simon Wilding among others. Amy Lane directors and Anthony Negus conducts. Performance Dates: June 5-11, 2019 Wagner’s epic will {…}
Tenor Marc Deaton will lead a major season fundraiser for the Madison Lyric Stage on April 6, 2019 at the Deacon John Grave House. The concert, entitled “Spring Will Come Again – Songs of Hopes and Dreams,” will feature a wide range of music by American composers, Broadway hits, opera arias, and other popular classics by such composers as Barber, {…}
The American Symphony Orchestra will present The Key of Dreams, the New York premiere of Bohuslav Martinů’s opera “Julietta” at Carnegie Hall on Friday, March 22, 2019. This performance will mark the U.S. premiere of the opera’s Czech version, the original libretto written in French. The three-act opera is based on George Neveaux’s French play “Juliette, ou La clé des {…}
When I interviewed Josh Shaw, Founding Artistic Director of Pacific Opera Project, back in December, I observed that Los Angeles’s Pacific Opera Theater or POP for short, is kind of “guerilla theater.” By that I didn’t mean that POP is experimental in its choice of repertoire but that it takes opera anywhere and – theoretically – everywhere by any means. {…}
This week’s CD releases feature a new album from a famed Hungarian artist alongside a number of releases from Naxos for your viewing pleasure. Giants, tragedians, comedians, heroes Levente Molnar releases his first solo album on Universal. The CD entitled “Giants, tragedians, comedians, heroes” includes 13 arias from “Bank Ban,” “Pagliacci,” “Le Nozze di Figaro,” “Rigoletto,” “Falstaff,” “Andrea Chénier,” and {…}
The Deutsche Oper Berlin has announced the passing of bass Ivan Sardi. The singer died on Feb. 23, 2019, and became a staple of the opera house throughout 36 years. Born in 1930, in Budapest, Hungary, Sardi made his Deutsche Oper debut in 1961 in the role of Masetto in “Don Giovanni” and would follow that in the premiere of {…}
Virginia Opera has announced its 45th-anniversary season, which will include four main stage productions spanning three centuries of operatic works. Artistic Director Adam Turner will preside over the musical direction for all four productions of the 2019-20 season. The season will start off with Lillian Groag’s production of Puccini’s “Tosca,” part of VO’s ongoing series, “The Puccini Cycle.” The production {…}