This week climaxes in World Opera Day on Oct. 25. So in leading up to that momentous celebration (which will feature half of the entries on this list), our recommendations will spotlight diversity in the opera world, offering up audiences a chance to check out works by and featuring BIPOC composers and performers as well as unique performance experiences that {…}
(Credits: Michael Cooper / Boston Symphony Orchestra official website / Jiyang Chen / Fay Fox OperaVision has announced, in collaboration with Opera Europa, Opera America, Ópera Latinoamérica, and Opera For Peace, the final program for the big World Opera Day Celebration concert on Oct. 25, 2020. The concert is structured in four acts, in four different time zones. The first {…}
The Metropolitan Opera has announced the HD schedule for its 2021-22 season, which will feature 10 performances. Here is a full breakdown. Oct. 9, 2021 – Boris Godunov René Pape headlines a cast that includes Alexey Markov, Stanislav Trofimov, David Butt Philip, Ain Anger, and Maxim Paster. Sebastian Weigle conducts. The opera will be presented in its original 1869 version. {…}
(Credit: Yan Bleney) Mongolian baritone Amartuvshin Enkhbat has pulled out of the performances at the Verdi Gala concert at the Deutsche Oper Berlin on Sep. 12 & 13, 2020, per an official statement on the company’s website. Enkhbat is currently in Mongolia and unable to perform due to the quarantine, that was enforced by Mongolian authorities due to the ongoing {…}
(Credit: Askonas Holt /Gregor Röhrig / Julien Fauguere / Chris Singer) The Bayerische Staatsoper has announced a major change to its 2020-21 season, adding several productions to the slate. New Productions The company will world premiere “7 Deaths of Maria Callas” on Sept. 1, 2020. The opera had previously been slated to have its first performances at the tail-end of {…}
Opera for Peace has announced that several of opera’s greatest stars are joining the organization as ambassadors and advisors. Tenor René Barbera and sopranos Elsa Dreisig and Joyce El-Khoury have become the organization’s newest ambassadors. Meanwhile, conductor Fabio Luisi, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, and baritone Ludovic Tézier have signed on as Advisors; they join baritone Thomas Hampson and soprano Sumi Jo, who {…}
The Metropolitan Opera’s At-Home Gala was one of the most hotly anticipated performances of the first half of 2020; one might argue that given its sheer star power, the showcase, which was announced just two weeks ago, was more anticipated than any performance the Met had lined up as part of its regular season. While the Met initially reneged on {…}
Opera Arias is organizing a takeover festival showcasing a number of opera stars in their living rooms. The festival will be held every Saturday and will begin with Brian Jagde on April 4. He will be followed by Spanish tenor and rising star Pablo Garcia-Lopez on April 11. On the third week of April Jennifer Rowley will take over on {…}
(Credit: Lena Kern/Sonya Garza/Yan Bleney) With the opera world as we know it going silent, opera houses have begun streaming performances from their archives. Companies have released dress rehearsals, archival audio, and in many cases launched streaming services that show off today’s greatest performers. It’s been, in many ways, a group effort to keep opera fans continuously entertained in this {…}
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, {…}
(Credit: Yan Bleney) Soprano Nicole Car and Étienne Dupuis do not like to be apart. The two stars, who are currently at the Metropolitan Opera individually taking on two thirds of the Da Ponte and Mozart trilogy, not only share a home, a two-year-old boy, and as many productions as they can, but this very interview. When it was proposed {…}
