San Francisco Opera is in the midst of its month-long festival dedicated to Wagner’s “Ring Cycle.” In the coming weeks, Lois Silverstein will explore her experience not only revisiting the 2018 opera production but several of the events and panels presented by the company. Senior Communications Manager of San Francisco Opera Jeffery McMillan and San Francisco Opera Archivist Barbara Rominiski gave {…}
San Francisco Opera is in the midst of its month-long festival dedicated to Wagner’s “Ring Cycle.” In the coming weeks, Lois Silverstein will explore her experience not only revisiting the 2018 opera production, but several of the events and panels presented by the company. San Francisco Opera Director Matthew Shilvock moderated an excellent panel on the World of the “Ring” orchestra. {…}
(Credit: Cory Weaver) From underwater to the wild and terrible world – Rhine Maidens to brother/sister love, father/daughter separation, gain to loss: in other words, “Die Walküre.” And what a “Walküre” it was! Spectacular projections – swirling winds, walloping storm waters, trees bending and swaying every which way, and Siegmund waking to love for Sieglinde, in a house in the {…}
San Francisco Opera is in the midst of its month-long festival dedicated to Wagner’s “Ring Cycle.” In the coming weeks, Lois Silverstein will explore her experience not only revisiting the 2018 opera production, but several of the events and panels presented by the company. One of the highlights so far has to be the delightful conversation between Karita Mattila and {…}
“Opera Meets Film” is a feature dedicated to exploring the way that opera has been employed in cinema. We will select a film section or a film in its entirety and highlight 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 Luis {…}
(Credits: Ilia Korotkov / Bayerische Staatsoper official website) The Mariinsky Theatre will live stream a performance of Prokofiev’s opera “The Fiery Angel” on MEZZO TV on Jan. 31 at 5:30 p.m. CET. The opera will star Elena Stikhina, Evgeny Nikitin, Anna Kiknadze, Evgeny Akimov, and Mikhail Petrenko. Valery Gergiev will conduct the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in the production by David {…}
(Credit: Linda Rabisch) When COVID-19 struck in March 2020, one of the final “live” performances to take the stage was a production of Dvořák’s “Rusalka” in Krefeld, Germany with dramatic soprano Dorothea Herbert in the title role. For her, the experience was surreal. “We performed on that night in a totally empty theater. There was no audience, just the darkness {…}
(Credit: Fernando Sancho) Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado will conduct the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo for the performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 on Dec. 23, 25 & 26, 2020. The famed “Choral” symphony will showcase soprano Eri Takahashi, mezzo-soprano Etsuko Kanoh, tenor Naoki Miyasato, and baritone Shin Taniguchi. The presentation will also feature New National Theatre Chorus. Heras-Casado recently {…}
(Credit: picture alliance/Nicolas Armer/dpa) The Director of the Bayreuth Festival, Katharina Wagner, has revealed initial plans for the 2021 edition of the festival. First off, Wagner announced that the event will feature fewer performances than usual. In addition to the new production of “Der Fliegende Holländer” with Oksana Lyniv, the first female conductor in festival history, the program for 2021 includes {…}
Pittsburgh Festival Opera in Pennsylvania has announced “Wicked Wagner Weekend,” a digital mini-festival featuring solo and duet performances from nine of Wagner’s operas across three nights. The festival, which will take place between Oct. 30 through Nov. 1, will be curated by Wagnerian expert Jane Eaglen, and Artistic Director Marianne Cornetti. The singers who have recorded from around the world {…}
(Credit: © Gregor Hohenberg / Sony Classical) Famed tenor Jonas Kaufmann will give an exclusive recital at the Teatro alla Scala on Oct. 22, 2020. For this occasion, Kaufmann will partner with his longtime collaborator, pianist Helmut Deutsch. The program reflects the tenor’s personal choice of repertoire, much of it has been featured on Kaufmann’s latest album Selige Stunde. The {…}
