(Credit: Palau de la Música Catalana official website) Famed Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen has received an Honorary Knighthood by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for services to music and to relations between the United Kingdom and Finland. “This is a true personal honor, but more than that, it is meaningful to have artists honored at a national – at a {…}
(Credits: © Dario Acosta / Charles Castronovo official website / Deutsche Oper am Rhein official website / Kristian Schuller/Decca) The Salzburg Festival has announced its 2021 edition, featuring 8 operas and numerous concert performances. Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” will feature Mika Kares as Il Commendatore, Nadezhda Pavlova as Donna Anna, Michael Spyres in the role of Don Ottavio, Federica Lombardi as {…}
The Sofia Opera is set to present R.Strauss’ “Elektra” for the very first time in the company’s history. The opera will be directed by Plamen Kartaloff and represents an extremely complex creative task facing the troupe for Bulgaria. For the new production, only Bulgarian singers will perform including Lilia Kehayova and Diana Guglina as Elektra, Gergana Rusekova, Mariana Zvetkova, and {…}
(Credits: Chris Gloag /Emelie Kroon/ Violeta Urmana Facebook page) Teatro Massimo di Palermo has announced that it has canceled the fully staged production of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannstahl’s opera “Elektra,” which was originally scheduled for performance between Nov. 24 – Dec. 2, 2020, due to COVID-19 safety rules. Instead, the opera house will present a semistaged version of {…}
(Credit: Opus 3 Artists official website) The Office of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has announced the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2020. Among those honored was General Music Director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin Donald Cameron Runnicles, who has been bestowed with the title of the Knights Bachelor, for services to Music. Donald Runnicles is concurrently the General Music Director {…}
(Credit: The Metropolitan Opera official website) In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, The Metropolitan Opera’s HD Live in Schools program has launched an online series for the 2020–21 school year. For the upcoming school year, all students and teachers will receive free subscriptions to the Met Opera on Demand streaming service. A total of ten operas have been selected {…}
(Credit: Natalia Sedinta) Moldovan soprano Natalia Tanasii was only 21 when she made her professional stage debut as Countess Almaviva (“Le nozze di Figaro”) at the Moldovan National Opera. Her unforgettable Salzburg Festival debut followed in Krzysztof Warlikowski’s staging of “Elektra” this year. In an interview with OperaWire, Ms. Tanasii discussed her career moves, repertoire choices, and her preparation process {…}
(Credit: Wiener Staatsoper) The Wiener Staatsoper has announced the cast change for Richard Strauss’ opera “Elektra.” Tenor Thomas Ebenstein will take over the role of Aegisth for the presentations on Sep. 19 and Sep. 22, 2020., replacing Jörg Schneider. The opera house did not specify the reason for the cast change. Ebenstein will join a cast that includes Ricarda Merbeth {…}
(Credit: Doris Wild) Scottish mezzo-soprano Katie Coventry was facing what a lot of singers in the opera world have endured throughout 2020. As she sat in her apartment on lockdown waiting for some good news, she saw all of her professional engagements slowly disappear as the threat of COVID-19 continued to loom large. And then she got the call from {…}
(Credit: Boris Streubel) The famed German mezzo-soprano Doris Soffel will appear in the role of Klytämnestra in Richard Strauss’ opera “Elektra” at the Wiener Staatsoper on September 8, 2020. Doris Soffel is one of the leading Wagnerian and Straussian singers, having taken on such roles as Kundry in “Parsifal,” Ortrud in “Lohengrin,” and Fricka and Erda in the composer’s iconic {…}
(Credit: Dusíkovo divadlo official website) Famed Slovakian tenor Štefan Margita and his wife Hanka both tested positive for the novel COVID-19 coronavirus. Margita posted a message on his Facebook profile, stating “Our dear ones, we did not want to burden you with our worries. Yes, we both tested positive for COVID. So you don’t have to learn from the various {…}