The Mostly Mozart Festival has announced its 2020 festival. For the purposes of this article, our focus will be on vocal performances. The season kicks off with “Divine Connection,” a world premiere staging of Mozart’s Requiem and works by Arvo Pärt. The performance will feature Sunhae Im, Daniela Mack, Matthew Swensen, Ryan Speedo Green, and the Choir of Trinity Wall {…}
Opera Omaha has formally announced its ONE Festival, which is set to kick off on March 20, 2020. The festival will kick off with Stradella and Ansaldi’s “St. John the Baptist,” in its company premiere. The new production will be directed by Christopher Alden with Stephen Stubbs conducting. The cast will feature Liv Redpath as Salome, Andrew Harris as Herod, {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard / Met Opera) The LA Philharmonic has announced its 2020-21 season featuring a number of important stars and conductors. For the purposes of this article, we will only highlight vocal performances. The season opens with Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Peer Gynt selections with Gustavo Dudamel conducting Lang Lang. The program also includes John Adams’ Short Ride in {…}
(Credit: Courtesy of San Francisco Opera) The San Francisco Opera has announced its 2020-21 season featuring a number of new productions and stars. Here is a look. Productions The first production of the season will be Beethoven’s “Fidelio” celebrating the composer’s 250th anniversary. The new production will be directed by Matthew Ozawa with Music Director Designate Eun Sun Kim conducting {…}
Opera Philadelphia is set to present Verdi’s Requiem, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the company debut of Jack Mulroney Music Director Corrado Rovaris. The performances will star an accomplished group of soloists including Leah Crocetto, Daniela Mack, Evan LeRoy Johnson, and In-Sung Sim, along with more than 80 instrumentalists and 100 choristers. Covaris made his debut in 1999, and became {…}
Opera Omaha’s 2019-20 season will feature four operas from the standard repertory. The first of these is Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” in a production directed by Leslie Swackhamer and conducted by Joseph Rescigno. Karah Son will take on the title role with Alok Kumar as Pinkerton, Luis Ledesma as Sharpless, and Kristen Choi as Suzuki. Performance Dates: Nov. 1 and 3, {…}
When Dido, the Queen protagonist in Henry Purcell’s baroque opera sings her final aria “When I am laid in Earth,” not only do we hear some of the most beautiful music that was ever composed, Purcell also invites us on a journey of deep introspection, forcing us come to terms with the frailty of human existence. But in recent performances {…}
Once a singer stops performing, he or she may often move into teaching or directing. Some singers add either to their schedules as a contrast to their stage performances, though this often represents a decline in being the star attraction onstage. But Alek Shrader is doing it all at the same time while still very much in his vocal prime. {…}
Being an artist often requires that you make certain sacrifices. Being an opera singer and actor not only asks those same sacrifices, but then some. One of the first things to go is the security of family. With so much travel, singers often find themselves away from their families, making it difficult to balance the two. For some, the idea {…}
The New York Opera Fest 2019 kicked off on Monday, April 29 and for the next several weeks, New Yorkers will get ample opportunity to enjoy opera in a variety of unique ways. As has been OperaWire’s tradition over the years, we have reached out to a number of the companies participating in the festival and have asked them a {…}
Death of Classical and The Green-Wood Historic Fund are set to present a fully-staged production of Henry Purcell’s “Dido & Aeneas” in the Catacombs of the Green-Wood Cemetery launching the second season of “The Angel Share.” The new production will be directed by Alek Shrader, and will incorporate spoken dialogue from Christopher Marlowe’s play “Dido, Queen of Carthage.” The added speeches will re-introduce the characters {…}