https://operawire.com/metropolitan-opera-2024-25-review-aida/
(Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera) The curtain rose on Egyptian tombs. In the center, a rope came down and with it an archeologist. As he reached the bottom to get off the rope, he fell to the ground, the sound of his body crashing over the delicate violins that opened the prelude to Verdi’s Aida.” That was not supposed {…}
https://operawire.com/obituary-metropolitan-opera-soprano-loretta-di-franco-dies-at-83/
On Dec. 30, 2024, American soprano Loretta Di Franco has died at the age of 82. Born in New York, Di Franco began her career as a Met’s opera chorus member and eventually got promoted to singing small comprimario roles. In 1961, she sang her first comprimario role as one of the pages in Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” and the peasant girl {…}
https://operawire.com/duncan-ward-extends-contract-with-philzuid/
Philzuid has announced that it is extending its collaboration with Chief Conductor Duncan Ward through the 2027-28 season. Ward took the position in the autumn of 2021, with his initial contract set to run until the orchestra’s 10th anniversary season in 2023-24. It was extended last April until the summer of 2026 with an option for further renewal. In a {…}
https://operawire.com/nahuel-di-pierro-mikheil-sheshaberidze-stanislas-de-barbeyrac-lead-new-cd-dvd-releases/
Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world. As the holiday arrives, audiences will be able to experience a Puccini extravaganza as well as world premiere recording and debut albums. There are also two DVDs that should be seen. Giacomo Puccini – The Warner Classics Edition Celebrated for his masterful compositions {…}
https://operawire.com/metropolitan-opera-2024-25-review-il-trovatore/
(Credit: Ken Howard / Met Opera) You’ve heard the cliché that Caruso famously said about doing a production of “Il Trovatore…” You know it. I won’t repeat it. The spirit of the idea stands, but the reality is that it takes far more than just sticking four superstars on stage and letting magic happen. It doesn’t always work that way. {…}
https://operawire.com/salzburg-festival-2024-review-lea-desandre-thomas-dunford-ensemble-jupiter/
(Photo credit: SF/Marco Borrelli) Thomas Dunford and Lea Desandre are pop. Young, synergetic, and talented, they exude a pop quality even when they are not singing the Beatles. It is a fresh thing that makes them desirable and somehow accessible. But how many people can play the lute like Thomas and sing like Lea? In their Salzburg recital, their pop-ness {…}
https://operawire.com/opera-australia-2024-review-watershed-the-death-of-doctor-duncan/
(Photo credit: Keith Saunders) It felt like a significant event – Friday, June 14’s remounting by Opera Australia of the 2022 Adelaide Festival hit, “Watershed,” about the 1972 murder of Adelaide University law lecturer, Dr. Ian Duncan. This revival in the Sydney Opera House spoke to the success of the work at its first airing. Surely it had resonated in {…}
https://operawire.com/opera-profile-tang-xianzus-the-peony-pavilion/
Photo Credit: He Maofeng/Asianewsphoto Outside Western opera, there are operas which are just as long, if not longer, than Wagner’s “Ring Cycle.” One such example is the masterwork, “The Peony Pavilion,” a tragic comedy in the form of 55 scenes which take more than 22 hours to perform. With the play written by Tang Xianzu, one of the most important {…}
https://operawire.com/celebrity-series-of-boston-2024-in-review-anthony-roth-costanzo-bryan-wagorn/
Anthony Roth Costanzo is currently one of the most popular countertenors. There are more than a few good reasons why, including his powerful voice which resonates well in the Metropolitan Opera and the London Coliseum, his good impresario skills, his activism especially for LGBTQ+ causes which is meaningful to countless young musicians and operagoers. Not that the Operatic world {…}