Dennis Wilgenhof has died at the age of 44. The Dutch bass was found dead on Tuesday at a hotel in Maastricht, where he taught at the local academy. According to early reports, the singer suffered a heart attack. He was a member of the soloist’s ensemble of Oper Köln and Staatstheater Wiesbaden and he sang numerous leading roles including Osmin {…}
Soprano Eliane Lubin has passed away after fighting cancer at the age of 79. The soprano passed away on May 1st after six months of treatment for a brain tumor. Born in 1938, Lublin made her professional debut in the 1960s where she performed in Monte-Carlo and at the Aix-en-Provence festival. After performing the role of Sister Constance in Poulenc’s {…}
Everyone knows Nina Stemme for her dramatic skills, particularly for her Wagner repertoire. As a matter of fact, she is the leading Brünhilde and Isolde of our time and she is in demand all over the world. But in fact, Stemme did not begin with this repertoire and before her breakout Isolde with Plácido Domingo, this singer did a number {…}
Jonas Kaufmann and Angela Gheorghiu have canceled the final performance of Puccini’s “Tosca” at the Vienna State Opera. The theater announced that due to illness both would no longer be singing on the May 11 performance. Martina Serafin and Aleksandrs Antonenko will now take over the performance. Kaufmann sang the first two performances of the run. The tenor now goes to {…}
Two great choirs and a number of great artists will join forces this June at Carnegie Hall for a concert tour called “Imagine a World – Music for Humanity.” The performance takes place on June 14, 2017, at 8 p.m. EDT. There will be a subsequent performance the next day at Washington National Cathedral. The Dallas Street Choir, which is {…}
The Miller Theatre at Columbia University will be premiering a major opera in 2018. The opera in question is “Proving Up,” which will get its New York Premiere at the Miller Theatre. The work, with a libretto by Royce Vavrek and music by Missy Mazzoli, will appear in September 2018 using Opera Omaha’s production. “Proving Up” will be featured as {…}
Want to know what the collective creative genius of Brooklyn can put together? Then head over to the Whitman Theatre at Brooklyn College on Thursday, May 11, for the Brooklyn College Opera Theater’s production of “Brooklyn Baby!” The opera, which is being billed as a “show within a show” is set up as follows. The characters of John Musto’s “Late {…}
This coming weekend Hunter Opera Theatre will debut two NYC opera premieres, “Fireworks” by Kitty Brazelton and “Lady Bird” by Henry Mollicone at Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. The performances are slated to take place on May 11 and May 12, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. “Fireworks” is a one-act comedic opera about the Fourth of July. It follows the {…}
Last week Operawire took a look at some of the 10 must see summer operas in the United States. It featured a range of repertoire and some very intriguing new stars. This week we look at the European Festivals and see where the big stars will be and what they will be performing. The following is a list of OperaWire’s 10 {…}
Before starting its 2017 season, the Santa Fe Opera has announced its 2018 season with a company premiere. The company will hold its premiere of “Candide” to celebrate Leonard Bernstein’s centennial. The musical opened on Broadway in 1956 and closed after 72 performances. However, the work continues to performed by numerous companies and is Bernstein’s most popular stage work. For {…}
The story of the famed castrato, Farinelli, will be arriving to Broadway this December for a limited engagement in “Farinelli and the King.” This British production, written and composed by Claire van Kampen, is a real-life tale of one of history’s most famous Italian singers of the 18th century. After a premiere at the Shakespeare Globe, the production, directed by {…}