It’s the beginning of the year and there is one major release that will be intriguing for all Verdi fans who aren’t familiar with this work. Here’s a look! Stiffelio Naxos is releasing Verdi’s rarely performed work from the Verdi Festival in Parma with a distinguished cast that includes Luciano Ganci in the title role and Maria Katzarava in the {…}
The Department of Music from the University of North Carolina has announced that baritone Lucas Meachem will be its forthcoming Artist in Residence. The University announced that from Feb. 24 through March 1, 2019 Meachem will spend a week coaching students privately and in public masterclasses. MeachEm is one of today’s most exciting baritones. He recently made three highly anticipated {…}
The Gran Teatre del Liceu is set to host the 56th edition of the Concurs Internacional de Cant Tenor Viñas. The competition, which will take place from Jan. 16 through 27, 2019 will showcase 529 singers from 61 singers. The Liceu will stream the finals on Jan. 25, 2019 and the winner’s concerts on Jan. 27, 2019. The competition is one {…}
Wagner’s “Der Ring der Nibelungen” will be streamed via Vienna State Opera’s online live stream. Audiences will get a chance to see the first two operas of the famed cycle first this week. First, up will be “Das Rheingold” on Jan. 8, 2019. The performance, which stars Tomasz Konieczny, Norbert Ernest, Sophie Koch, Monica Bohinec, and Jochen Schmeckenbecher, will start {…}
Since her Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition win in 1993, Ainhoa Arteta has been a dominant figure in the opera world, performing leading roles in every major theater. Her repertoire has traversed numerous composers from Puccini and Verdi to Gounod, Leoncavallo, and Cilea. This week she adds to her expanding repertory, taking on another iconic role by Puccini. The Spanish soprano sings {…}
The Met Opera will continue its Live in HD series this Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019 with a performance of Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur.” The broadcast, which kicks off 12:55 p.m. Eastern time, will showcase star soprano Anna Netrebko in the title role; this is the second HD transmission for the diva. This will be the Russian diva’s 15th Live in HD broadcast; {…}
The concert version of Puccini’s “La Rondine” from the Latvian National Opera and Ballet will be streamed live via Operavision on Jan. 11, 2019. The Puccini work will feature Dinara Alieva in the role of Magda with John Irvin as her lover Ruggero. Other cast members include Inga Šļubovska-Kancēviča, Pavel Petrov, Krišjānis Norvelis, and Marlēna Keine, among others. Janis Liepins {…}
In a few weeks, the New York City Opera will continue its championing of bold, dramatic operas — both musically and thematically — with the jazz opera, “Dear Erich.” Premiering at the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, at the Museum of Hewish Heritage in Battery Park, New York, the opera uses the idiom of jazz to deal with one of history’s {…}
This review is for the performance on Jan. 4, 2019. They say three times is a charm but in the case of the Metropolitan Opera, it took four tries to finally put on a production worthy of its legendary stature in the opera world. After three lackluster new productions, the company has finally hit a high note with Sir David McVicar’s 2010 {…}
Happy New Year! This is a time of excitement, introspection, and probably a dose of anxiety as we all figure out how we might want to live this next chapter in our lives. There are so many directions our lives can take at a given moment with our priorities constantly shifting. So here’s an opera quiz where you can see {…}
“The last of the old great masters of song” has been a term used to describe the German baritone Benjamin Appl. Hailed for his “sensitive legato,” Appl has performed in both opera and recitals around the world in such stages as Ravinia, Rheingau, Schleswig Holstein, Edinburgh International, Life Victoria Barcelona, Leeds Lieder, Oxford Lieder festivals, and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, among others. {…}