(Credit: Ken Howard / Met Opera) On May 1, the Metropolitan Opera presented the second performance of its spring “Aida” run. This run is special as it marks the return of Elīna Garanča to the Met for the first time in five years. It is incidentally, also her first Verdi role in the United States. Garanča made her role debut {…}
The Wiener Staatsoper has announced its 2025-26 season. Here is a look at the operas and recitals for the new season. Premieres Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” will get a new production by Dirk Schmeding. The cast will be headed by Franz Xaver Schlecht, Margaret Plummer, Slávka Zámečníková, Ivo Stanchev, Monika Bohinec, Pavol Breslik, Michael Laurenz, Peter Kellner, Matthäus Schmidlechner, Ilia Staple, and Alex Ilvakhin. Tomáš Hanus conducts. A second cast will {…}
(Photo: Brescia e Amisano) It was December 7, 2019, when the curtain of Teatro alla Scala rose before the select audience that annually attends the Sant’Ambroeus performance, better known among opera lovers as “La prima della Scala,” the event that inaugurates the new season of the prestigious Italian theater. To open the 2019-20 season—unaware that it would soon be brutally {…}
On March 29, baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat will give a recital. The baritone, who made history in Bilbao singing an encore in “Rigoletto,” will perform at the Euskalduna Bilbao. The program will include music by Giuseppe Verdi as well as Bellini, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini, and Giordano. At the piano, maestro Stefano Salvatori will make his ABAO Bilbao Opera debut. Throughout the past {…}
The Bayerische Staatsoper has announced its 2025-26 season. Premieres Maurizio Benini conducts Verdi’s “Rigoletto” in a new production by Barbara Wysocka. Bekhzod Davronov, Igor Golovatenko, Ludovic Tézier, Serena Sáenz, Nadine Sierra, Riccardo Fassi, and Elmina Hasan star. Performance Dates: March 7-24, 2026 & July 28 & 31, 2026 Lotte de Beer directs a new production of Gounod’s “Faust” with Jonathan {…}
(Credit: Fabrizio Sansoni) Rai Radio 3 is set to broadcast Puccini’s “Tosca” from the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma on March 1, 2025. The evening will recreate the 1900 production that premiered the Opera. The cast will include Anna Netrebko in her signature interpretation that she has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Arena di Verona, Salzburg Festival, Teatro {…}
The San Francisco Opera has announced its 2025-26 season. The company is set to present its “Opera Ball,” co-presented with the San Francisco Opera Guild. Performance Date: Sept. 5, 2025 The season opens with Verdi’s “Rigoletto” with Eun Sun Kim conducting the work. Amartuvshin Enkhbat leads the cast in the title role alongside Adela Zaharia, Giovanni Sala, J’Nai Bridges, and {…}
(Photo: Marc Brenner/Royal Ballet & Opera) Entombing doom in monochrome, director Robert Carsen’s 2022 production of “Aïda” buries its protagonists before they’re dead. Façades of forced conformity define it – popping through parades of khaki uniforms, authentic footage of exploding bombs and regimented training. A fictitious flag that features stars and stripes across red, white and blue confirm its commentary {…}
The Teatro Carlo Felice is set to present Umberto Giordano’s “Andrea Chenier.” The opera will be performed from Feb. 6 to Feb. 15 with Donato Renzetti conducting a production by Pier Francesco Maestrini. The production will star Fabio Sartori in Andrea Chénier, Amartuvshin Enkhbat, and Stefano Meo as Carlo Gérard, and Maria Josè Siri as Maddalena di Coigny. The cast also {…}
(Credit: Paola Kudacki / Met Opera) The Metropolitan Opera is set to present a new production of Verdi’s “Aida.” The new production will open on Dec. 31, 2024, and will be directed by Michael Mayer, who has already been in charge of the Met’s productions of “Grounded,” “Rigoletto,” “La Traviata,” and “Marnie.” This will be the first new production of {…}
The Gran Teatre del Liceu has announced cast changes for its production of “La Forza del Destino” for the performance on Nov. 18, 2024. The company said that Angelo Villari will sing the role of Don Alvaro replacing Brian Jagde, who must rest due to severe back pain as a result of an injury. The company also noted that Amartuvshin {…}