The moment Latonia Moore stepped onstage during the Opening Night performance of “Porgy and Bess,” launching the Metropolitan Opera’s 2019-20 season, the audience was mesmerized. The soprano stole the show with her potent rendition of “My man’s gone now.” She received arguably the most applause of the evening and critics praised her for her “intensity.” Moore made her Met debut {…}
(Credit: Jonathan Tichler / Met Opera) The Metropolitan Opera has announced that it will open the 2020-21 season on Dec. 31, 2020 with a revised program. The season will open with a special gala performance. Details will be unveiled at later date. Meanwhile, most new productions will be rescheduled for future seasons with such works as “Die Zauberflöte” and “Don {…}
(Credit Javier del Real / Gramercy Pictures) “Opera Meets Film” is a feature dedicated to exploring the way that opera has been employed in cinema. We will select a section or a film in its entirety, highlighting the impact that utilizing the operatic form or sections from an opera can alter our perception of a film that we are viewing. This week’s installment features “Dead Man Walking.” Over the last few years, Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s “Dead Man Walking” has become a major staple of the international opera repertory, one of the few 21st century operas to really own such a valuable distinction. And it isn’t hard to see why. Based on a true story, the {…}
(Credit: The Atlanta Opera) Baritone Michael Mayes is set to make his debut at The Israeli Opera in his signature role of Joseph de Rocher in Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking.” The baritone has performed the Jake Heggie opera to great acclaim at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Washington National Opera, The Atlanta Opera, Tulsa Opera, Central City Opera, Madison {…}
(Photo: Johan Persson) Welsh National Opera’s imaginative and ambitious summer program of operas, exhibition, and talks, under the banner headline of “Freedom,” is dedicated to exploring the theme of human rights. Four operas were scheduled, all of which focused on an individual who sought to protect, release or comfort a prisoner or someone under threat. In Menotti’s “The Consul,” it {…}
Jake Heggie is one of the significant opera composers of the 21st century. Born on March 31, 1961, Heggie grew up in Columbus, Ohio and started studying the piano at age seven. After his father’s suicide in 1972, Heggie began writing music and his family relocated to the San Francisco Bay area. He studied at the UCLA for both his {…}
The Atlanta Opera is set to present the company premiere of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s “Dead Man Walking” in an original production General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun. The new interpretation of the work, which is a co-production with the Israeli Opera, will star Jamie Barton in her role debut as Sister Helen Prejean, and Michael Mayes in his {…}
We spend a lot of time on this site talking about dead composers. And for good reason. Opera wouldn’t exist today if it wasn’t for those great artists of the past. But it’s also important sometimes to shine a spotlight on the artists making headway in today’s conservative opera culture. I call it conservative because despite having more talent in {…}
“Opera Meets Film” is a feature dedicated to exploring the way that opera has been employed in cinema. We will select a section or a film in its entirety, highlighting the impact that utilizing the operatic form or sections from an opera can alter our perception of a film that we are viewing. This week’s installment we will go through {…}
Jake Heggie’s 2000 opera “Dead Man Walking” – based on the memoirs of Sister Helen Prejean and inspired by the film of the same name – hardly conforms to operatic standards. An intersection of “Porgy and Bess”-like motifs, rock opera recitatives, and the echoes of New Orleans jazz, it treats the opera template with a moderate respect: scant arias and {…}
The Miami Music Festival has announced its 2017 season, which will feature five operas, among other programs, starting on June 6, 2017 and ending on July 31, 2017. The program, which will enter its fourth season and offers “an intensive training program for the next generation of classical musicians to work with mentors and gain performing experience,” will feature 250 {…}