We’re starting to see the world open up slowly in some countries and rapidly in others. But the performing arts world isn’t quite opening at the same pace with few organizations back in the full swing of things. As a result, streaming options are ever-prevalent. So as we move into the summer months, here is a look at what operas {…}
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 {…}
(Credit: Sylvia Elzafon) The Dallas Symphony has announced its 2020-21, which launches the tenure of famed conductor Fabio Luisi as Music Director. For the purposes of this article, the focus will be on opera and vocal performances. The season will open with a gala concert led by Luisi that will feature music of Massenet, Mozart, Puccini, Rossini, Saint-Saëns, Verdi, and {…}
(Credit: Opernhaus Zürich) Opernhaus Zürich will honor the memory of the late conductor Nello Santi by performing Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, according to the official statement on the company’s website. General Music Director of the Opernhaus Zürich Maestro Fabio Luisi will conduct the Zürich Philharmonic in the performance of Verdi’s masterwork that will star soloists soprano Hibla Gerzmava, tenor Benjamin {…}
The Festival Valle d’Itra in Martina Franca has announced a cast change for its premiere of Antonio Manfroce’s “Ecuba.” The festival announced that due to illness Fabio Luisi will not be able to conduct the performance. As a result, Sesto Quatrini will conduct the two performances scheduled for July 30 and August 4, 2019. Quatrini is a well-established conductor who has {…}
(Photo: Koichi Miura/Metropolitan Opera) With the spectacular images coming out of the Bregenz Festival’s mainstage production on Lake Constance, it can be easy to forget that there is other programming going on. But on the nights when the Bodensee is dark, the Vienna Symphony plays concert repertoire in the Festspielhaus under a guest conductor. Monday night featured Verdi’s Messa di {…}
The Verbier Festival has announced the programming for its 26th edition. While there are undeniably a plethora of incredible performances of all kinds to be found throughout the many weeks of this famed festival, the aim of this article will be to focus mainly on vocal and operatic performances. Baritone Thomas Quasthoff will appear alongside guitarist Wolfgang Meyer and Trombonist {…}
The Opernhaus Zürich has announced that Italian conductor Fabio Luisi, its General Music Director, has opted out of his role as musical director for the February/March performances of György Ligeti’s “La Grand Macabre.” As a result, Maestro Tito Ceccherini, “an acclaimed interpreter of the modern repertoire” according to Opera Musica, will stand in as musical director for the upcoming performances {…}
In 2012, a version of Handel’s “Rinaldo,” written for Naples in 1718, was discovered in a castle in England. It is a reconstructed version, by a lesser-known baroque composer, Leonardo Leo, who had also included parts by Vivaldi and numerous other composers. This pastiche is the version that is being performed at the Festival della Valle d’Itria, 300 years after {…}
Fabio Luisi has been named the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s music director. The orchestra announced that the 59-year-old Italian conductor would succeed Jaap van Zweden, who will become the New York Philharmonic’s music director. In a press release, Luisi announced that over the next years he will reduce his contracts in Europe, where he is the principal conductor of three companies, {…}
Donizetti’s opera “La Favorite,” originally written in French for the L’Opera, Paris, was quickly translated into Italian, and soon became the preferred version. However, in the last quarter of the 20th century this trend was reversed and today it is the French version that is more widely performed, and for the first time, Florence’s Teatro Maggio Musicale Fiorentino has decided {…}