Bass Andrea Mastroni has announced his new album, “Melancholia,” which will be released early in 2018. The album will be dedicated to the work of Georg Frederich Handel and will also feature the Orchestra Accademia dell’Annunciata under the musical direction of Riccardo Doni. Audiences will hear arias from such operas as “Ezio,” “Ariodante” “Riccardo I Re d’Inghilterra,” “Riccardo,” “Galatea e Polifemo,” {…}
The Wexford Festival Opera 2017 announced a number of awards after its final performance of the season on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017, a showcase of Alfano’s “Risurrezione.” The awards were announced by Artistic Director David Agler. Per a press release, the three artistic bursaries included “The Aria Friends’ Bursary as nominated by Aria Friends of Wexford Festival Opera, The Gerard Arnhold Award, generously {…}
This week, the Florida Grand Opera opens its new season with “Lucia di Lammermoor” starring rising star Joshua Guerrero in his debut with the company. Florida audiences are in for a treat with Guerrero as he is an international star that has garnered a ton of attention over the years. Additionally, he is no stranger to “Lucia,” having sung the {…}
The Chicago Opera Theater mounted a harrowing production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Consul” November 4, 2017, at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago’s Fine Arts Building. A co-production with Long Beach Opera, “The Consul will continue its Chicago run November 10 and 12. “The Consul” had a Philadelphia premiere in 1950 (when the post-WWII cold war was chilling the international {…}
Holiday shopping hasn’t started but there are a number of DVD selections to choose from. This week Diana Damrau has two DVDs while such stars Philippe Jaroussky and Anja Hateros are featured on new releases. Find out what you can buy this week. Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” The first big release of the week stars Diana Damrau in her {…}
Francesco Cilea isn’t one of opera’s most famed composers. While he created his fair share of works, only one lives on in the standard repertoire. That opera is, of course, “Adriana Lecouvreur,” a tragedy that has become a vehicle for some of the greatest sopranos in the history of opera. The work premiered at the Teatro Lirico of Milan on {…}
One of the more interesting developments in the opera world is the convergence of the theatrical experience with the audiovisual arts. At the Metropolitan Opera, this has been particularly noticeable in such works as “Satyagraha” and “The Enchanted Island,” where video projections are an essential part of the operatic experience, not only creating the environment, but also commenting on it. {…}
The Houston Grand Opera has announced reconstruction at the Wortham Theater Center will take longer than expected. As a result, the company will present its winter season at the HGO Resilience Theater at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The company will present Strauss’s “Elektra” from Jan. 19–Feb. 2, 2018 and Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” from Jan. 26–Feb. 10, 2018 as well as {…}
Staging a new production of a Ring cycle is always daunting because of history; no other opera is held up in comparison to previous productions more than Wagner’s grand gesamtkunstwerk. How David Pountney’s new production, now halfway complete at Lyric Opera of Chicago, holds up to history remains to be seen after his “Die Walküre” opened Wednesday night in front {…}
Riccardo Muti will return to the Vienna State Opera for the first time in 12 years. During a press conference at the historic Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Director of the Vienna State Opera, Dominique Meyer, along with the General Director and the Artistic Director of the Teatro San Carlo Rosanna Purchia and Paolo Pinamonti announced a joint project {…}
From November 4th – 12, Pittsburgh Opera will be performing Mozart’s comedic opera “The Marriage of Figaro.” This production will feature not only many of Pittsburgh Opera’s veteran performers, but a number of singers making their debuts with the company, such as bass-baritone Tyler Simpson in the role of Figaro, and soprano Joelle Harvey in the role of Susanna. OperaWire {…}