The Opera de Bordeaux has announced its 2018-19 season featuring six productions, recitals and a number of concert performances of diverse repertoire for opera lovers. The season will also include a number of international opera singers making role debuts and anticipated debuts. Here is a look. Operas Bordeaux opens a new production of Offenbach’s “La Perichole” with Aude Extremo in the {…}
Classical KDFC has announced that it will launch “The Opera Hour,” a new radio showcase that will be co-hosted by San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock, alongside KDFC President Bill Lueth. The series will air on the first Sunday of every month and represents a major step in the continuing partnership between Classical KDFC and the San Francisco. The {…}
The Florida Grand Opera has announced its 2018-19 season, featuring four productions. The season opens with Puccini’s timeless tale “La Bohème.” Performances will be held in Miami and then in Fort Lauderdale with a cast to be announced at a later moment. Performance Dates: Nov. 3-17, 2018 Mozart’s masterpiece “Le Nozze di Figaro” follows with such famous arias as “Voi {…}
“Wozzeck” is, for many, the crowning achievement of Alban Berg’s career. While the opera premiered on December 14 1925, Berg actually saw the premiere of the play upon which he based the opera on May 5, 1914. We chose to celebrate that day because it was from that initial experience that the opera germinated in the composer’s mind. So here {…}
Anna Netrebko has canceled today’s performance of Puccini’s « Tosca . » The Metropolitan Opera announced via Twitter that due to illness Netrebko would not be performing. As a result Jennifer Rowley will sing the title role in tonight’s performance. Rowley recently performed the title role at the Met in January and is scheduled to sing the role with the Philadelphia {…}
Giordano’s “Andrea Chénier” is in many ways a sibling of Puccini’s “Tosca.” Both were sired by librettist Luigi Illica and both share the staple verismo ingredients of sex, politics, romantic obsession, frustrated baritones, and a grim end for the protagonists. There is also the common factor of youth in all its sanguine exuberance. Cavaradossi and Chénier are idealists with fatal {…}
This week Italian soprano, Francesca Aspromonte, a rising star in the early music scene, will see the release of her first solo CD, “Prologue.” At the age of only 27, she is standing on the threshold of a glittering career, with critics running out of adjectives to describe her performances. Aspromonte made her professional debut as La Musica in Monteverdi’s {…}
Surrounded by the puzzle-like figurations on the walls of the National Sawdust performance space for a Classical Sunday series, audience members discovered Nora Plain as she stood on stage. The Ragazze Quartet circled Nora as she began to sing in a speech-like style. She shared with listeners a private confessional as she performed “I Did Some Things,” and invited all to {…}
The Juilliard School announced that opera singer Grace Bumbry will be honored with an honorary doctorate in music on May 18, 2018. The school announced that alongside Bumbry, alumnus Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter, director of Juilliard Jazz Studies, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, will address the graduates at the school’s 113th commencement ceremony. The ceremony will also see Juilliard {…}
Throughout his career, Petr Kotik has explored musical boundaries as a performer and composer. He studied flute at the Conservatory and Music Academy in Prague, and composition at the Music Academy in Vienna. In the 1970’s, Kotik performed experimental music and established himself as a musician full of new ideas. And now, in 2018, Kotik has redefined his path to {…}
On June 1, Operamission will hold a “Handel Warehouse.” The event, which will be open to the public, will be held at OPERA America’s National Opera Center. “Handel Warehouse” will offer a host of workshops, open rehearsals, refreshments, and festivities with conductor/harpsichordist Jennifer Peterson and stage director Jeff Caldwell lead the proceedings, to be held in the Charles MacKay Studio. Workshops {…}