Antonietta Stella was one of the most underrated singers of her era. Born on March 15, 1929 in Perugia, Italy, the soprano studied at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and made her professional debut in Spoleto in “Il Trovatore” in 1950;. A year later she appeared in Rome in “La Forza del Destino” and immediately kicked off a major {…}
You have an opera about baseball. Two Spanish operas, including one about Mexico’s greatest artist. Then there’s a timely Britten work followed by a singer making her way back onstage after a grueling battle with cancer. These are the top five operas to see this weekend (in alphabetical order by company). The Rape of Lucretia – Boston Lyric Opera Britten’s {…}
InSightALT is set to showcase “Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant” on March 25, 2019 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City. The opera, written by composer Evan Meier and librettist E.M. Lewis, was commissioned by the American Lyric Theater as part of its initiative to develop operas that full length and family {…}
The Metropolitan Opera Guild has announced that it will launch the first-ever online opera learning curriculum. The organization unveiled a series of Online Learning Courses entitled “Libretti and Librettists” as its first such course. It will be followed by “Wagner’s Ring: Music Motifs, and Magic,” which will open for enrollment in May. “Libretti and Librettists” is made up of five {…}
The Savannah VOICE Festival has announced that for the fifth straight year, it will be collaborating with the Savannah Music Festival starting in April. “Savannah VOICE Festival always looks forward to our annual partnership with the Savannah Music Festival, as they share our mission of providing world-class performances to our community,” says Maria Zouves, SVF Executive Director and co-founder in {…}
The Princeton Festival has announced its 2019 season, which will feature a number of major performances, including one opera production. Things will kick off with a production of “Nixon in China” in a production by Steven LaCosse. Sean Anderson will take on the title role while Rainelle Krause will be Pat Nixon. Cameron Schutza will be Chairman Mao and Teresa {…}
The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music has announced the finalists of its 2019 Lotte Lenya Competition. The 13 performers chosen to compete on April 13, 2019, include Carolyn Bacon, Danielle Beckvermit, Daniel Berryman, Timothy Bruno, Jonathan Heller, Jonah Hoskins, Trevor Martin, Florian Peters, Katherine Riddle, Nyla Watson, Amy Weintraub, Jeremy Weiss, and Andrea Wozniak. Of the finalists, Peters, who hails {…}
The New Camerata Opera has revealed that it will be working with “A Modern Reveal: Songs and Stories of Women Composers” to present “Leading Ladies Liberated.” The performance, slated for May 3, 2019, at 7 p.m., will take place at the Flea Theater in New York. The concert is set to feature music by Isabella Colbran, Maria Malibran, and Pauline {…}
Oper Leipzig has announced its 2019-20 season featuring seven new productions and a number of revivals. Find out what the company is presenting throughout its season. New Productions Rolando Villazón directs a new production of “L’Elisir d’Amore” with Bianca Tognocchi in the role of Adina and Piotr Buszewski and Matthias Stier sharing the role of Nemorino. Jonathan Michie and Franz {…}
Superstar soprano Renée Fleming will be taking the stage alongside Golden Globe and BAFTA Award-winning actor Ben Whishaw for “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy” at The Shed. The world premiere of the dramatic work by Anne Carson is slated to run between April 6-May 19, 2019. Director Katie Mitchell, who has directed a number of operas including “Don Giovanni, “Katya {…}
The next time you browse a collection of vocal recordings, consider the fact that many of the albums exist because of record companies. And consider that many singers never get the opportunity to make an album, again because of the record companies’ interests. Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka is doing her part to reverse those scenarios by creating her own, independent {…}