The Metropolitan Opera has announced Week 7 of its weekly streams. This week’s slate will feature Donizetti’s Tudor Trilogy in addition to showcasing a rare modern opera and a Russian classic. But the big surprise this week will be the showcase of a legendary performance starring Leontyne Price, suggesting that the company will start to showcase some of its historic {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard) The Metropolitan Opera has unveiled week 6 of its streaming service which features an all-star gala and six operas with such stars as Sonya Yoncheva, Anna Netrebko, Nina Stemme, Renée Fleming, Natalie Dessay, Joyce DiDonato, and Juan Diego Flórez, among others. Here is a breakdown. Monday, April 20 – Strauss’s Elektra Starring Nina Stemme, Adrianne Pieczonka, Waltraud Meier, {…}
The Staatsoper Unter Den Linden has announced its 2020-21 season, which features eight new productions and numerous revivals. Premieres Barbara Wysocka directs Francesconi’s “Quartett” with Daniel Barenboim conducting Mojca Erdmann and Thomas Oliemanns. Performance Dates: Oct. 3-18, 2020 Mozart’s “Mitridate, Re di Ponto” is set to be conducted by Marc Minkowski and directed by Satoshi Miyagi. Pene Pati, Julie Fuchs, {…}
The Philadelphia Orchestra has announced its 2020-21 season featuring a number of important soloists. For this article we will focus on vocal performances. Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is set to be conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin with a cast that includes Jennifer Rowley, Karen Cargill, Rodrick Dixon, and Eric Owens. Joe Miller directs Refik Anadol’s Visually striking designs. Performance Dates: Oct. 9-14, {…}
The Opéra National de Paris has announced its 2020-21 season featuring a number of new productions revivals. Here is a look. Domingo Hindoyan and Keri-Lynn Wilson lead performances of Bizet’s “Carmen” with Clémentine Margaine, Elīna Garanča, and Varduhi Abrahamyan sharing the title role and Vittorio Grigolo and Charles Castronovo as Don José. Adam Plachetka and Lucas Meachem alternate as Escamillo, {…}
(Photo: Rocco Casaluci) Of all the operas ever written possibly none explores the unconscious drive of love with such a stark and uncompromising vision as Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.” It is not a love tainted by the individual psychologies of its participants, their behavior is not an outcome of a deeper pathology, or molded by the past events which have {…}
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 {…}
(Credit: Moritz Schell Fotografie/Catherine Ashmore/Yasuko Kageyama / TOR) Three rarely performed works highlight the international weekend with three other repertory staples. There are also two new productions opening with one company premiere. Here is a look at what we recommend. Halka – Theater an der Wien, Austria Łukasz Borowicz conducts a new production of Moniuszko’s masterpiece. Mariusz Treliński directs the {…}
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 {…}
The Bayreuth Festival has announced a cast change for the opening night performance of Wagner’s “Tannhauser.” The festival announced that due to injury during the stage rehearsal Ekaterina Gubanova would not be able to perform on opening night scheduled for July 25, 2019. As a result, Elena Zhidkova will take on the role of Venus in the new production, which {…}
The Vienna State Opera’s final live stream of the season will be a production of Verdi’s “Aida” on June 29, 2019. The epic opera will star Ekaterina Gubanova, Elena Guseva, Gregory Kunde, and Simone Piazzola. Marco Armiliato will conduct the production by Nicolas Joel. The stream kicks off at 7 p.m. local time and is slated to run until around {…}