The West Edge Festival in Berkeley, California has announced that it is planning to move forward with presenting its events between July 25-August 9, 2020. The festival is well-known for presenting a new opera, a repertory staple, and an early opera on period instruments. “In this difficult time, West Edge Opera is focused on a hopeful future, a hope that this {…}
The West Edge Opera has announced its 2020 festival lineup. The season will open with Janacek’s “Katya Kabanova,” which will star Carrie Hennessey in the title role. Hennessey previously performed at West Edge Opera in a production of Jake Heggie’s “The End of the Affair” back in 2014. Afterward, the company will showcase “Elizabeth Cree” by Kevin Putts and Mark {…}
The Chicago Opera Theater presented a stellar performance of “Elizabeth Cree” on Feb. 10, 2018, at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago’s Fine Arts Building. A co-production with Opera Philadelphia, this murder mystery opera based on Peter Ackroyd’s historical crime novel, “The Trial of Elizabeth Cree,” treads a knife-edge, successfully balancing horrific dramatic narrative, tongue-in-cheek vaudeville, and bittersweet pathos. Mark Campbell’s text {…}
Murder, mystery, and mayhem are on offer in “Elizabeth Cree” when it opens this Saturday, Feb. 10 at the Chicago Opera Theater. Set in 1880s Victorian London, the opera begins with the hanging of Elizabeth Cree for the murder of her husband, John. The story then circles back to the trial for that murder and Elizabeth’s own narrative of her {…}
Lidiya Yankovskaya, the new Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater (COT) is a musical unifier and explorer. Her goals for the future at COT include presenting a variety of underrepresented repertoire, supporting and promoting the best of new operatic works being created in our current “golden age of American opera,” and bolstering COT’s current education and community engagement initiatives. Yankovskaya {…}
It’s never an easy task to open a season at an opera house. But it’s even more challenging to open a season with a role debut and a world premiere. That is the feat that Daniela Mack is tasked with this week as she takes on the role of “Elizabeth Cree” in Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s latest collaboration. Mack, {…}
It’s that time of the year when opera seasons return and when some of the biggest stars grace the world’s most prominent stages. In the case of United States, there will be a number of world premieres as well as rising stars and established stars who have some fascinating performances planned for this year. With hundreds of different shows, OperaWire has curated {…}
Verdi’s “La Traviata.” Puccini’s “Tosca.” Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro.” What’s wrong with that picture? For most opera lovers, nothing whatsoever. And yet the underlying truth that everyone overlooks is that those works don’t exist without the other major figures attached to the respective works. It should really be Verdi and Piave’s “La Traviata,” for example as the former would {…}
“The only thing alive in a Crypt is the sound,” said Mark Campbell during a preview presentation of “Elizabeth Cree.” And right he was as Daniela Mack and Joseph Gaines’ voices rang through the crypt first performing selections from Britten and Poulenc and later from the new work at the Crypt Sessions. The evening was filled with good wine, food {…}
The Crypt Sessions Season 2 continues on May 31, 2017, with a preview of “Elizabeth Cree.” The new work was composed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning team of composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell and is slated to have its world premiere Sept. 14, 2017, as part of Opera Philadelphia’s inaugural fall festival. Puts will accompany mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, who will create the title role {…}
With February drawing to a close, Opera Philadelphia announced its 2017-18 season. The company is slated to open the new season with a 12-day festival that will showcase opera across six venues for a total of 25 performances. This festival, called O17, will take place between Sept. 14-25. The festival opens with the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ “Elizabeth Cree” {…}