The San Francisco Opera will inaugurate its 2023-24 season with a gala on Sept. 8, 2023. The gala will also include an Opera Ball that will include a reception, dinner, and an after-party in San Francisco’s City Hall. Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus will lead soloists Roberto Alagna and {…}
The Arena di Verona and Rai Cultura are set to broadcast four operas. The first opera to be broadcast will be Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” in a production by Hugo de Ana. The opera will be shown on Rai3 on August 10 and on Rai 5 on Sept. 7. The production stars Dalibor Jenis, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Antonino Siragusa, Carlo {…}
Roberto Alagna is a renowned French-Sicilian tenor whose career could grace a fairy tale novel. Considered to be the least talented in a large family of musicians, he nonetheless spent his youth busking around Paris cabarets, singing pop music accompanied with his guitar. But his passion, fired by Mario Lanza films, was opera and, largely self-taught, he pursued that dream. {…}
The Grand Théâtre Genève has announced its 2023-24 season. First up is “Don Carlo” in a production by Lydia Steier starring Charles Castronovo, Leonardo Capalbo, Dmitry Ulyanov, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Stéphane Degout, and Êve-Maud Hubeaux. Marc Minkowski conducts. Performance Dates: Sept. 15 – 28, 2023 Lea Desandre, Ana María Labin, Ana Vieira Leite, Hugh Cutting, Kresimir Spicer, Moritz Kallenberg, and Renato {…}
The Teatro Real de Madrid has announced its 2023-24 season featuring a wide array of repertoire. Opera Maria Agresta, Saioa Hernández, and Maria Pia Piscitelli star in Cherubini’s “Medea“ alongside Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Silvia Tro Santafé, Jongmin Park, Alexander Vinogradov, Sara Blanch, Marina Monzó, Enea Scala, and Francesco Demuro. Ivor Bolton conducts the production by Paco Azorín. Performance Dates: Sept. {…}
On April 13, 2023, the Metropolitan Opera opened its April run of Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore.” Bartlett Sher’s 2012 production was met with new life thanks to a number of stunning debuts from the cast. The staging itself presents a view of Italy during unification which neither rebukes nor flatters the historical context of the work, leaving an authentic, if understated, {…}
San Francisco Opera has announced its 2023-24 season, the 101st in the company’s history. The season will open with an Opera Ball featuring Roberto Alagna and Aleksandra Kurzak. Eun Sun Kim conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in a program of arias and duets. Performance Date: Sept. 8, 2023 Next up is “Il Trovatore” starring Arturo Chacón-Cruz, Angel Blue, Anita {…}
(Credit: Victor Santiago) The Teatro Filarmonico has announced a cast change for its New Year’s Eve gala. The company said that Irina Lungu will replace Aleksandra Kurzak as Mimi in “La Boheme.” This marks the second cancelation for Kurzak this week, who was set to perform on Dec. 23 at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Lungu is coming off performances {…}
After a bumpy 2021, which still had numerous COVID cancelations, 2022 saw opera companies almost return to normalcy. There were setbacks like cyberattacks, a war that has destroyed a country, and companies losing funds from government agencies. But in all, it also showed how opera companies could unite through benefit concerts and through sheer artistry. And after releasing our favorite {…}
Aleksandra Kurzak’s early singing career saw her perform as a specialist in lyric and coloratura soprano roles before moving into heavier roles in 19th-century Romantic and verismo operas. The 2004-05 season saw her have two hugely successful debuts, at the Metropolitan Opera House and the Royal Opera House. She has since sung many leading roles in opera houses throughout the {…}
Verona’s Teatro Filarmonico is set to celebrate the New Year with a gala performance of “La Bohème.” The performance will star Aleksandra Kurzak and Roberto Alagna in a production by Stefano Trespidi. Andrea Battistoni will conduct the evening. While the company is currently performing the Puccini opera, Kurzak and Alagna will appear at the Verona company for one night only. {…}
