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Special Features

Best of 2018: OperaWire Staff Picks Most Memorable Opera Performances Of the Year

https://operawire.com/best-of-2018-operawire-staff-picks-most-memorable-opera-performances-of-the-year/

Yes, it’s that time of the year where we wax poetic about transformative experiences we have had over the course of the last 300 or so days. Sometimes we curate these experiences as rankings to fuel some individual emotions, and at other moments we simply do what we are doing with this piece – let a few different people chip {…}

News

Karita Mattila, Thomas Hampson & Matthias Goerne Headline The 2019 Verbier Festival

https://operawire.com/karita-mattila-thomas-hampson-matthias-goerne-headline-the-2019-verbier-festival/

The Verbier Festival has announced its 2019 festival with two opera performances and a number of recitals and concerts featuring some of the greatest singers in the world. For this season announcement we will only include the vocal performances. Program Thomas Quastoff headlines a concert entitled “Meeting Friends” with Wolfgang Meyer and Shawn Grocott. Performance Date: July 19, 2019 Jakub {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Opéra de Lille 2018-19 Review: Rodelinda

https://operawire.com/opera-de-lille-2018-19-review-rodelinda/

Even by usual standards of patently implausible baroque opera plots, “Rodelinda” reaches new heights of Delphic abstruseness. William Hartston in the London Express described Handel’s 19th opera as “everyone wanting to marry or kill everyone else.” Regardless of Hartston’s hyperbole, confusion certainly abounds. A Penelope-esque wife erroneously thinks her husband is dead not once, but twice. The two principal protagonists {…}

News

Top 5 Operas to See This Weekend – International (10/5-7)

https://operawire.com/top-5-operas-to-see-this-weekend-international-10-5-7/

This week the opera world will get a chance to see a world premiere, a rarely performed work, a season-opening and two new productions with distinguished casts. Among the performers this week are Pretty Yende, Irene Theorin, Sonya Yoncheva, and Javier Camarena. Here is a look at what to see. Lohengrin-Vlaanderen Opera, Belgium Zoran Todorovich sings the title role in Wagner’s {…}

News

The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Expand to Mexico

https://operawire.com/the-metropolitan-opera-national-council-auditions-expand-to-mexico/

The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions are adding a new country to its audition process. Executive director Melissa Wegner announced that Mexico will become part of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions firmament joining the United States and Canada. In a press statement, Wegner stated, “We are proud to include Mexico in the National Council Auditions. Our program now reflects {…}

News

Nina Stemme, Plácido Domingo & Piotr Beczala Headline Teatro Reals’ 2018-19 Season

https://operawire.com/nina-stemme-placido-domingo-piotr-beczala-headline-teatro-reals-2018-19-season/

The Teatro Real has announced its 2018-19 season, featuring a number of repertory staples and rarities. The season will also include a number of superstars and modern classics. Here is a look at all the vocal highlights in the season. Productions  The season opens with Gounod’s “Faust” with two different casts. Piotr Beczala and Ismael Jordi star in the title {…}

Reviews, Stage Reviews

Carnegie Hall 2017-18 Review – Rinaldo: The English Concert Conquers In Hearts & Imagination in Handel Masterpiece

https://operawire.com/carnegie-hall-2017-18-review-rinaldo-the-english-concert-conquers-in-hearts-imagination-in-handel-masterpiece/

Concert performances of operas can be a rather mixed bag. The works themselves were concocted with the vision of being complete art forms and taking them out of this context can be difficult. Many operas can get away with it simply by the symphonic qualities of the music (see Wagner or Strauss). But this can take an even more complex {…}

News

Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Piotr Beczala Star in Grand Teatre del Liceu 2018-19 Season

https://operawire.com/joyce-didonato-diana-damrau-piotr-beczala-star-in-grand-teatre-del-liceu-2018-19-season/

Barcelona’s Grand Teatre del Liceu has announced its 2018-19 season, presenting a number of exciting, fully-staged or concert-style productions, as well as a number of recital performances. A full list of all works in the 2018-19 season can be found on Gran Teatre del Liseu’s website. The Ring Without Words Josep Pons will be conducting Lorin Maazel’s 90-minute arrangement of {…}