Female composers are about to get a major boost, as Opera America has announced projects to advance the work of female composers and administrators. Among the many projects included in this new initiative are $100,000 grants to female composers and a song cycle commissioned for four female composers and a female librettist writing about the first woman elected to Congress, “Fierce {…}
The 2017-18 season has officially been announced by the Boston Lyric Opera, and it will include four opera productions. The first production will be “Tosca,” starting on Oct. 13, 2017, and running for five performances. The production will feature Elena Stikhina as Tosca and Jonathan Burton as Cavaradossi. Following “Tosca” will be “Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare” starting Nov. 8, 2017, at {…}
The Teatro alla Scala has announced its 2017-18 season. The season opens with Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier” starring Anna Netrebko, Yusif Eyvazov, and Luca Salsi. Riccardo Chailly and Mario Martone direct the production, which opens on Dec. 7, 2017. On Jan. 11, 2018, Cornelius Obonya and Carolin Pienkos direct a new production of Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus” starring Eva Mei, Markus Werba, {…}
New York Opera Fest keeps rolling this week, this time with a completely new work. Starting on June 2 at 7:30 p.m. EDT, Opera Upper West is presenting Tom Cipullo’s “Glory Denied,” an opera about Colonel Floyd James Thompson, America’s longest-surviving prisoner of war. It’s based on the oral history of Tom Philpott and explores what this Vietnam veteran experienced {…}
Imagine getting kicked out of La Scala Academy because people found you unsuitable for a career in opera. Well, Lilly Jørstad experienced that very situation, one which she has transformed into a fully formed career that will reach an early apex this summer as she competes in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Short Bio The Norwegian-Russian mezzo-soprano {…}
The Royal Opera House was evacuated on Tuesday, May 30, 2017. According to the BBC, cast members and audiences were evacuated from the Royal Opera House in London after a fire alarm went off mid-performance of Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore.” According to the theater, the interruption was a false alarm and the show had to be restarted. Many took to Twitter, where they {…}
Once again, San Francisco offers us an original, Opera Parallèle’s “Les Enfants Terribles” by celebrated American composer Philip Glass. In 1996, Glass adapted the story from the novel (1929) and film (1950) of the same name by the famous French artist and toast of the town Jean Cocteau, who himself took the myth of eternal youth as his starting point. Glass’s opera-ballet {…}
Christopher Charles Roselli, a well-established professor of music who worked with hundreds of students to achieve their goals on Broadway, passed away at the age of 55 years old on May 18, 2017. Roselli was born in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, to David and Frances Roselli. Unsure of what he wanted to do originally, after much deliberation he decided to {…}
Sony Classical will be releasing the Royal Opera House’s “Les Contes D’Hoffmann.” The production stars Vittorio Grigolo in the title role as well as Sonya Yoncheva as Antonia. Kate Lindsey, Thomas Hampson, Christine Rice, and Sofia Fomina also star in the production, which was conducted by Evelino Pido. When the production opened last fall, critics were ecstatic and said, “Vittorio Grigolo {…}
What do you do when your lead soprano cancels your production? You cancel the show and put on a concert of excerpts. That is exactly what the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, did when soprano Kristin Lewis, singing the role of Elisabetta, was taken to the hospital a few hours before the performance. Since the company did not have another {…}
On June 4, 2017, Arte will broadcast Sonya Yoncheva and Piotr Beczala’s New Year’s Eve concert. The gala, recorded back on December 31, 2016, was conducted by Yoncheva’s husband, Domingo Hindoyan, with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie. The program included duets from Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” and Massenet’s “Manon.” It also included arias from Bizet’s “Carmen” and Franz Lehar’s operettas. There was also {…}