Denyce Graves, Erin Morley, Lawrence Brownlee, & Latonia Moore Among Opera Carolina’s 2025-26 Season Headliners

Opera Carolina has unveiled its 2025-26 lineup, marking the first season under new management. “A Night to Remember” opens the season. The concert is presented in partnership with the Puccini Festival of Torre del Lago. Performance Date: November 1, 2025 The “9/11 Commemorative Concert” features a performance of Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater.” Performance Date: September 11, 2025 A double bill of Puccini’s {…}

Feb 15, 2025

Denyce Graves Foundation’s ‘Shared Voices’ Returns to The Met

The Metropolitan Opera continues its partnership with the Denyce Graves Foundation’s “Shared Voices” program, the student-exchange initiative that brings together elite historically Black colleges and universities and America’s preeminent conservatories and institutions, for a second year. On Feb. 28, a new cohort of 18 students will participate in an immersive day-long program at the Met. This year, activities include a {…}

Dec 26, 2024

The Town Hall to Give New York Premiere of ‘The Tongue & The Lash’

The Town Hall celebrates James Baldwin with the New York premiere of the chamber opera,“The Tongue & The Lash” and “A Return to Civic Discourse” on Feb. 18, 2025. Damien Sneed and Karen Chilton’s “The Tongue & The Lash” picks up at the end of Baldwin and William F. Buckley, Jr.’s infamous televised debate in Feb. 1965. The opera imagines {…}

Dec 18, 2024

Denyce Graves & Lara Downes to Perform at Classical Americana Concert

On Jan. 9, KFDC’s Classical Americana SKY concert will present Denyce Graves and Lara Downes. Graves and Downes will perform music by various American composers and discuss advocacy and mentorship in building the future of classical music. Downes will also play some solo piano work. The evening will be held at the Classical California KDFC at The Bowes Center for the {…}

May 13, 2024

Metropolitan Opera 2023-24 Review: The Hours

(Photos: Evan Zimmerman / Met Opera) The Metropolitan Opera presented the tenth performance of composer Kevin Puts’s “The Hours,” with libretto by Greg Pierce, on Friday, May 10th 2024. In November 2022, OperaWire reviewed “The Hours” debut with great attention towards how the opera came to the Met, including Kevin Puts’s score, Greg Pierce’s libretto, and the undeniable beauty of the {…}

Mar 19, 2024

Metropolitan Opera 2023-24 Review: Eric and Dominique Laffont Grand Finals Concert

(Credit: Karen Almond / Met Opera) On Sunday, March 17, the Met Opera hosted the grand finale of the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. Out of an initial group of 1,500 hopefuls, ten standout singers got their chance to shine before their first Met audience. Denyce Graves hosted the event, featuring a special bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green performance. The afternoon {…}

Mar 14, 2024

Denyce Graves, Sinéad Campbell Wallace, Étienne Dupuis Headline Washington National Opera’s 2024-25 Season

Washington National Opera announced its 2024-25 season. It all starts with Beethoven’s “Fidelio” starring Sinéad Campbell Wallace, Jamez McCorkle, Derek Welton, David Leigh, and Denyce Graves. Robert Spano conducts a production by Francesca Zambello. Performance Dates: Oct. 25 – Nov. 4, 2024 Robert Spano conducts “Gods and Mortals: A Celebration of Wagner.” The concert features Christine Goerke and Brandon Jovanovich. Performance {…}

Mar 13, 2024

Denyce Graves Foundation & Washington Chamber Orchestra to Present ‘Empowering Voices’

On March 23, the Denyce Graves Foundation (DGF) and Washington Chamber Orchestra (WCO) will present “Empowering Voices.” The performance will feature special performances from young artists from DGF’s Shared Voices program, a partnership with HBCUs that nurtures the next generation of talented BIPOC classical singers. It will be presented in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute, where mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves {…}

Feb 29, 2024

Justin Austin Stars in New York Premiere of Damien Geter’s ‘COTTON’

(Photo credit: Gillian Riesen & Rachel Hadiashar) Justin Austin, the 2024 Marian Anderson Vocal Award winner, is set to star in the New York premiere of Damien Geter’s “COTTON.” The multimedia work presents African American stories through song, poetry, and photography. It is inspired by photographer John E. Dowell’s haunting images of South Carolina cotton fields, captured in his 2018 {…}

Sep 23, 2023

Denyce Graves Foundation to Present Symposium 2023

The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is set to welcome visiting classical voice students to its Baltimore campus for a symposium and intensive coaching sessions as part of Shared Voices, a collaboration between HBCUs and leading conservatories designed to foster a more diverse classical vocal arts. The event will be led by Peabody faculty member Denyce Graves and {…}

Aug 17, 2023

Seattle Opera 2023-24 Review: Das Rheingold

(Photo credit: Seattle Opera © Philip Newton) Why build an elaborate faux-underwater set for the Rhine scenes in Wagner’s “Ring” when you have an orchestra pit that can make a perfectly plausible stage river? It’s an idea so obvious, you think surely, it must have been tried already. This is the solution found by Brian Staufenbiel, tasked with staging “Das {…}

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