What hasn’t been said about Kirsten Flagstad? She was once famously called the greatest voice of the 20th century and her legacy certainly bears this out. There is a museum in her honor in her homeland of Norway and her picture appears on Norwegian Air Shuttle planes. Born on July 12, 1895, in Norway, she received early musical training in {…}
“Opera Meets Film” is a feature dedicated to exploring the way that opera has been employed in cinema. We will select a section or a film in its entirety, highlighting the impact that utilizing the operatic form or sections from an opera can alter our perception of a film that we are viewing. This week’s installment will look at “Marguerite.” {…}
On Site Opera, in partnership with MetLiveArts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and American Lyric Theater, has been awarded a Female Composer Grant from Opera America. The grant will help create and produce “Lady Murasaki and the Tale of Genji,” a one-act, site-specific opera composed by Michi Wiancko with a libretto by Deborah Brevoort. The work will premiere in {…}
Parma Recording is set to release a chamber opera “Two Cells in Sevilla, or: Don Quixote is Hungry.” The album will feature the father-son duo Walter Steffens and Marec Béla Steffens, who have weaved the stories of an unlikely pair of authors locked in an exciting competition. The libretto, written by Marec Béla Steffens, merges the lives of Brother Gabriel {…}
The LA Opera is set to continue its free live simulcast series “Opera in the Park” with “Verdi’s “Don Carlo.” The company will present the work on Sept. 22, 2018, which is set to star Plácido Domingo, Ramón Vargas, Ana María Martinez, Anna Smirnova, Ferruccio Furlanetto, and Alexandre Vinogradov. James Conlon will conduct the production by Ian Judge. The high definition {…}
Much is said these days about Plácido Domingo’s expansive repertoire, but before him, Nicolai Gedda was arguably the man to tackle the most works in recent opera history. So vast was his repertoire that the Swedish tenor, born on July 11, 1925, performed operas in Italian, French, English, Czech, Swedish, Russian, German, and even Latin. He left behind over 200 {…}
Hermann Prey always seems to have a smile on in any photo that you might find of him. The lyric baritone, born on July 11, 1929, grew up in Germany and studied voice at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. In the early 1950s, he started singing recitals and would make his operatic debut at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden before heading {…}
British bass Alastair Miles, born on July 11, 1961, is one of UK’s great artists, with The Guardian calling him the “finest British bass of his generation.” He actually got his career started as a flute player and a music teacher before embarking on a vocal career. In the early 1980s, he sang as a Lay Clerk in the Choir {…}
The Palau de les Arts has announced the six finalists, who could succeed General Director Davide Livermore. According to an article from Las Provincias, the six finalists are Paolo Pinamonti, the former director of the Teatro de la Zarzuela and the director of the Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, and Stefano Pace, director of Teatro Verdi, and the former technical director {…}
The Brooklyn Art Song Society (BASS) has announced its 2018-19 season. Per a press release, the company’s new season will kick off with “American Iconoclasts,” a 5-concert survey of some of America’s most prominent composers. The composers to be honored in composers include Charles Ives (Oct. 5, 2018), Samuel Barber (Nov. 2, 2018), Ned Rorem (Jan. 4, 2019), Aaron Copland {…}
Entering into its third season, the Concerts at Saint Thomas has announced its line-up of performances. The season, which opens on Oct. 5, will see the inauguration of the new Miller-Scott Organ, which will be prominently featured throughout the season in a number of different concerts. Highlights of the 2018-19 season include Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms,” Handel’s “Messiah,” and more, including {…}