(Credit: Lynn Lane) The Vienna State Opera will live stream R. Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s “Elektra” on Feb. 15, 2020. The opera will star Christine Goerke in the title role with Waltraud Meier as her mother Klytämnestra, Simone Schneider as Chrysothemis, Norbert Ernst as Aegisth, and Michael Volle as Orest. Semyon Bychkov will conduct with Uew Eric Laufenberg directing. The stream {…}
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2020-21 season featuring modern classics, famed artists, and choral works. Here is a look at the vocal highlights of the season. Stéphane Denève conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Tamara Mumford as the soloist and the Women of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus and the St. Louis Children’s Choirs. Performance Dates: Oct. {…}
The International Opera Awards have announced the nominees for its 2020 Awards. The annual event, which celebrates achievement in opera around the globe over the 2019 calendar year, recognizes excellence in a wide range of categories that cover performance, design and direction, as well as education and outreach. This year, two opera companies topped the 2020 nominees with three a {…}
Carnegie Hall has announced its 2020-21 season featuring some of the greatest soloists and conductors in the world. For this article we will highlight the vocal performances of the season. Orchestras The season opens with the LA Philharmonic performing John Adams’ Tromba Lontana and Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Selections from Peer Gynt. Gustavo Dudamel conducts with soloists Liv Redpath and {…}
The Houston Grand Opera has announced its 2020-21 season featuring a number of established as well as rising stars. Here is a detailed look at the upcoming productions: The season opens with Bizet’s “Carmen” with a cast that includes Isabel Leonard and Carolyn Sproule alternating in the role of Carmen, Andrea Caré and Frederick Ballentine alternating as Don José, Anita {…}
In simplified terms, Wagner’s music, especially in “Tristan und Isolde,” can be visually compared to a continuous stream of waves coming and going, each growing in size and power, exploding, and then receding back to where they came from. In the best performances, a singer rides these orchestral waves of sound, the voice standing above the music, but also impossible {…}
(Credit: Fay Fox/Andrew Eccles/Simon Pauly/ Bree Anne Clowdus) The Richard Tucker Award is considered one of the most prestigious awards for American opera singers. Each year the Tucker foundation awards an American singer who is on the cusp of becoming a national and international star, with the hopes that the award acts as a well-timed catalyst to elevate the artist’s {…}
(Credit: Marty Sohl / Met Opera) Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019, saw the third performance of Puccini’s “Turandot,” at the Metropolitan Opera this season. Set against the opulence of Zeffirelli’s 1987 production, the evening’s cast and ample chorus did much in bringing vocal and dramatic vitality to the forefront, with Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin making of the most of his particular gifts. A {…}
(Credit: Marty Sohl / Met Opera) The Met Opera’s Live in HD series for the 2019-20 season kicks off on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019 with a transmission of Puccini’s “Turandot.” The broadcast, which kicks off 12:55 p.m. Eastern time, stars Christine Goerke in the title role, with Yusif Eyvazov, and Elenora Buratto as Calaf and Liù, respectively. The big story, {…}
(Credit: Marty Sohl / Met Opera) On Thursday, the Metropolitan Opera will open its fourth production of the season – Puccini’s “Turandot.” This run of performances is unique because they represent the first time that the Met Opera’s music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts an opera by Puccini at the famed house. To this point, he has tackled works by Bizet, {…}
(Credit: Hilary Scott) Let’s start stating – to me – the obvious. The cast that Tanglewood put together for its first complete performance of a Wagner opera could not reasonably be improved upon. Every voice was stunning in its own way. Every character from the hoary mythos was carefully and movingly delineated. The staging of this opera was simple yet {…}