The Artist of the Week has showcased a number of artists making role debuts, house debuts and sometimes both. It’s also showcased numerous superstars and rising stars. This week, in celebration of the New York Opera Fest’s opening, we look to a dynamic duo which has made a name for itself in modern opera. For the past few years, Felix Jarrar {…}
The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions were held on April 29, 2018, with nine young artists competing to win the biggest competition in the United States and a chance to launch their international career. After a concert where each finalist performed two arias of different languages, the judges went on to deliberate and make their final decisions. The winners were {…}
Christopher Job has seen it all. The bass-baritone has worked with many of the world’s greatest artists, all while building up a unique career singing smaller roles at the Metropolitan Opera while performing bigger ones with other companies. The California native recently had an opportunity to perform with the LA Philharmonic on its 100th-anniversary concert. It was a major homecoming {…}
“Cendrillon” is a fairy tale that features a young girl whose dreams come true thanks to a faithful Fairy Godmother. At the Met, Alice Coote and Joyce DiDonato are headlining the opera about hope that has captivated children for years. On Thursday, April 26, 2018, the two mezzo-sopranos were playing the role of the Fairy Godmother for the children of {…}
Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” is arguably the composer’s best work – an extended love duet with beautiful melodies that capture the essence of Shakespeare’s classic tale, if not its complexity. For years, the Met showcased a production that did draw closer to the greatness of Shakespeare, before replacing it with Bartlett Sher’s current interpretation. Sher’s version gets the job done {…}
The Berlin Philharmonic has announced its 2018-19 season, which is set to feature a number of musical events with some of the greatest performers in the world. For this season announcement, we will only focus on the vocal performances scheduled. Here is a look: Tamara Mumford and Gustavo Dudamel join forces for an evening of Bernstein and Shostakovich. Performance Dates: Oct. {…}
Meyerbeer’s “L’Africaine,” or “Vasco da Gama” has never quite established its foothold in the operatic canon. Despite being one of the composer’s most mature operas, the work, which premiered on April 28, 1865 is so massive that it has often been cut down in modern performances to accommodate its running time. The work has seen champions in the likes of {…}
Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” had its world premiere on May 1, 1786, and is widely considered one of the greatest operas of all time. Aside from Mozart’s iconic music, the characters of the story are what make it so unforgettable. Whether it be the power-hungry Count or the brilliant Susanna, or the impetuous Cherubino, these characters are brimming with {…}
The 2017-18 season comes to an end. Now what do you do? Or more like where do you go? Opera lovers know that there are a plethora of festivals to check out, but many are distant from their own traditional opera companies and it can turn into a challenge trying to figure out where to fly out to in the {…}
Opera Omaha was handed a dilemma in its inaugural ONE Festival when it was forced to replace the title role in Fiona Shaw’s version of “Medea,” a co-production with the Wexford Festival Opera, due to illness less than three weeks before the show. The solution was inelegant but probably the best that could be mustered under the circumstances with an {…}
Oper Graz has announced its 2018-19 season with a number of rarely-performed operas and musicals. It will also include a number of operatic warhorses. Here is a look. Productions The double bill “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci” opens the season with a distinguished cast that includes Aldo di Toro singing both lead roles, while Audun Iversen and Yngve Soberg share the roles {…}