The Manchester Music Festival has released the details of its 50th anniversary season. Artistic Director Philip Setzer, founder and violinist of the Emerson String Quartet directs the festival at the Southern Vermont Arts Center’s (SVAC) Arkell Pavilion. This article only contains information on vocal performances. Contralto Sara Couden performs works by Brahms, Robert and Clara Schumann, and Strauss. She is {…}
The New Word Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2024-25 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances. Stéphane Denève, Yuval Sharon, and Danielle De Niese team up for Viktor Ullmann’s “The Kaiser of Atlantis” and Kurt Weill’s “The Seven Deadly Sins.” Performance Date: Oct. 19 & 20, 2024 Xian Zhang conducts music by Rachmaninoff, Holst, and Wagner. The program {…}
The Schmidt Vocal Arts and William E. Schmidt Foundation has announced three new members to its Board of Directors, Christine Goerke, Janet Hamilton Petersen, and Chad Schmidt. They will join existing board members Lisa Hamilton, Chester A. Schmidt III, Douglas Schmidt, and Mike Small. In a statement, Chester A. Schmidt III, WESF Board Chair said, “As the William E. Schmidt {…}
The Wiener Staatsoper has announced a cast change for its production of “Elektra.” The company said that Aušrinė Stundytė will take on the title role of Elektra replacing Christine Goerke. She will perform on Dec. 9, 14, 17, and 20, 2023. Stundytė is a Lithuanian soprano who has performed at Oper Leipzig, Cologne Opera, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Salzburg Festival, {…}
The Houston Grand Opera has announced its 2023-24 season, which will feature a world premiere. Jamie Barton, Janai Brugger, J‘Nai Bridges, Caitlin Lynch, Nicholas Newton, Michael Mayes, and Joshua Blue star in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s “Intelligence.” Kwamé Ryan conducts the production by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Performance Dates: Oct. 20-Nov. 3, 2024 Reginald Smith, Jr. sings the title role of Vedi’s “Falstaff” with Nicole Heaston, Blake {…}
The Metropolitan Opera has announced cast changes for its performance of “Lohengrin” on March 21. The company said that for the performance “the role of Ortrud will be sung by Rebecca Nash replacing Christine Goerke. Meanwhile, the part of Telramund will be sung by Thomas Hall replacing Evgeny Nikitin. Nash made her Met debut last season as “Elektra” and already {…}
Photo Credit: Ken Howard The Met Opera presented Wagner’s “Lohengrin” with tenor Piotr Beczała, Wagnerian sopranos Tamara Wilson and Christine Goerke, under the direction of François Girard, and Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, for the 2023 season opening on February 26th. “Lohengrin” was first performed in Weimar, Germany, in 1850 at the Staatskapelle Weimar, under the direction of Franz Liszt. However, the {…}
The Baltimore Symphony announces the 2023-24 season featuring Jonathan Heyward in his first season as Music Director. David Danzmayr conducts Christine Goerke in a program that includes Anna Clyne, Barber, and Sibelius. Performance Dates: Oct. 21 & 22, 2023 A baroque Christmas will include Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” Händel’s “Messiah,” and more with Baroque masters at their most irrepressibly joyful and {…}
The new vocal workshop Dramatic Voices Showcase begins its inaugural year this March in Toronto. Dramatic mezzo-soprano Karina Bray participated in the 2022 Bayreuther Festspiele Masterclass and returned home to Canada inspired to start this program. The purpose of the Dramatic Voices Showcase is to provide necessary training opportunities for dramatic singers that may have aged out of traditional young {…}
On December 30th, Detroit Opera ended its transformative 2021-2022 season with a concert production of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Aida,” his antepenultimate work whose Oriental plot and exotic aesthetics discredit the work’s premiere location, ironically the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo, Egypt. It seemed people of all kinds came to see this production, one of opera’s most infamous players. It should {…}
The Metropolitan Opera has announced a cast change for its upcoming production of “Dialogues des Carmélites.” The company noted that Christine Goerke will replace Eva-Maria Westbroek in the role of Madame Lidoine. Goerke is currently set to perform Ortrud in “Lohengrin” later this season. She is also set to make her role debut as Amneris in “Aida” at the Detriot {…}