https://operawire.com/the-14-greatest-love-duets-in-opera/
It’s Valentine’s Day, the day to cherish a significant other. Last year we took a cynical look at the holiday, but not this year. Opera is rife with love, almost every single plot in every single work has some communion of two persons in that blissful word. In fact, love in opera has incited just as many battles and tension {…}
https://operawire.com/chicago-opera-theater-2017-18-review-elizabeth-cree-a-masterpiece-hits-the-stage-in-potent-fashion/
The Chicago Opera Theater presented a stellar performance of “Elizabeth Cree” on Feb. 10, 2018, at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago’s Fine Arts Building. A co-production with Opera Philadelphia, this murder mystery opera based on Peter Ackroyd’s historical crime novel, “The Trial of Elizabeth Cree,” treads a knife-edge, successfully balancing horrific dramatic narrative, tongue-in-cheek vaudeville, and bittersweet pathos. Mark Campbell’s text {…}
https://operawire.com/all-the-times-renee-fleming-was-featured-on-a-films-soundtrack/
Renée Fleming, born on Valentine’s Day, is widely known in pop culture. Perhaps more than any other singer in the world, her voice has become a signature of the mainstream when people refer to opera. One might point to her iconic Super Bowl appearance a few years back when she became the first opera singer to sing at the widely {…}
https://operawire.com/metropolitan-opera-2017-18-preview-how-many-times-have-the-stars-of-la-boheme-taken-on-their-roles-at-the-met/
On Friday, Feb. 16, 2018, the Met Opera revives Puccini’s “La Bohème” with a star-studded cast. Every single one of the major artists to take on the opera is a veteran in the part at the Met. So here is a look at their Met trajectory in their respective roles to date. Sonya Yoncheva – Mimì The Bulgarian soprano’s second-ever {…}
https://operawire.com/making-a-big-return-elizabeth-deshong-on-semiramide-riccardo-muti-future-repertoire/
At the start of Rossini’s “Semiramide,” Arsace returns to Babylon after a long time away. For years, Elizabeth DeShong has been a fixture at the Metropolitan Opera singing in such operas as “La Rondine,” “Aida,” “The Enchanted Island,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Madama Butterfly,” and “Lulu.” Then after the 2015-16 season, she did not return until now to take on {…}
https://operawire.com/the-hungarian-state-opera-to-present-offenbachs-first-opera/
The Hungarian State Opera will perform Offenbach’s “Die Rheinnixen” for the first time. The work will make its Hungarian premiere on Feb. 24, 2018. “Die Rheinnixen is considered Offenbach’s first opera and has been forgotten for years. It was commissioned by Vienna’s Hofoper and the piece depicts a country shattered by internal warfare through an unusual love story in which poetry and politics {…}
https://operawire.com/frankfurt-opera-replaces-new-norma-production/
Frankfurt Opera has ended co-production of “Norma” with director Sigrid Strøm Reibo and the Norske Opera Oslo. The company announced that due to artistic reasons the company would not present Reibo’s production. It would have been the Norwegian director’s international debut. As a result, the company announced that Christof Loy, whose productions have won numerous awards, would take over and direct {…}
https://operawire.com/bard-summerscape-2018-to-showcase-the-demon-the-tsars-bride/
The Bard Summerscape 2018 season has been announced with a program that celebrates the life and times of seminal Russian romantic Rimsky-Korsakov. The festival will include a number of programs celebrating Russian music and an opera production. For this article, we only concentrate on the operas that will be presented throughout the festival. The Demon This year the festival will {…}
https://operawire.com/pittsburgh-opera-receives-nea-grant-for-moby-dick/
The Pittsburgh Opera has announced that it will receive a $25,000 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to help support the new production of “Moby-Dick” by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer. The grant is part of the more than $25 million in grants which NEA Chairman Jane Chu has approved as part of {…}
