(Credits: Michael Cooper / Dario Acosta / Sonya Yoncheva official website / © Gregor Hohenberg / Gregor Hohenberg / Sony Music Entertainment) The Teatro alla Scala in Milan has announced its 2021-22 season, featuring some of the greatest performers in the world. Here is the full slate. Operas Anna Netrebko and Luca Salsi open the season in Verdi‘s “Macbeth” in {…}
FEDORA has announced the launch of the nominee phase for its 2021 prizes. Jury nominees in the opera category belong to Kaija Saariaho and Sofi Oksanen’s “Innocence” in a co-production by Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Dutch National Opera, Finnish National Opera & Ballet, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and San Francisco Opera; Jamie Man and Peter Stamm’s “Zelle, wenn es dunkel wird” {…}
FEDORA, The European Circle of Philanthropists of Ballet and Opera, announced its shortlist of projects selected for the 2021 FEDORA Prizes. The group chose 34 projects for the public voting phase, which began on Feb. 1 and runs through Feb. 26. The voting phase determines which projects move to the next level of the competition and follows the December 2020 {…}
With Christmas approaching, more and more opera companies — big and small, having no alternative in view, have come to accept the online space as their new address. But still, this new home seems alien and risky. There’s so much to be afraid of, to avoid, to make mistakes with. Streams remain uncharted lands for the opera artists and video {…}
Teatro Grattacielo has announced three cast changes for its upcoming production of Giordano’s “Fedora.” The original cast was set to include two singers from Europe, Csilla Boross and Francesco Anile, for the roles of Fedora and Lloris respectively, with a third, Taehwan Ku, coming over from Japan to interpret Rouvel. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, those three cast members {…}
(Credit: Markus Gárder / Royal Swedish Opera) OperaVision will present Giordano’s “Fedora” from the Royal Swedish Opera on Jan. 17, 2020. The Verismo work will star Malin Byström, Daniel Johansson, Ola Eliasson, Marianne Odencrants, Krisitan Flor, Emelie Thoor, Niklas Björling Rygert, Jon Nilsson, John Erik Eleby, Jens Persson, Håkan Ekenäs, Andreas Lundmark, Mikael Fagerholm, and Henrik Hugo, among others. Eugene {…}
Born on August 28 1867 in Foggia, Umberto Giordano would go on to become one of the most renowned Italian composers of the verismo era. He wrote his first opera “Marina” for a competition that would mark the beginning of the Verismo era. For years the composer experimented with differing works, including “Mala Vita” and “Regina Diaz,” though he found {…}
Jonas Kaufmann has revealed that he will perform in “Fedora” in 2020 at La Scala. The tenor unveiled the information in an interview with Corriere della Sera. “In 2020, I will return for a beautiful project, a rarely performed Italian opera, Giordano’s ‘Fedora,’” he noted. In the interview, Kaufmann added that he does not have many projects in Italy, though there {…}
Mirella Freni is one of the great sopranos of the 20th century. Born on Feb. 27, 1935, she conquered opera hearts with her refined soprano and luscious phrasing. There simply aren’t many with as glorious a sound as she produced in her best years. Freni is noted for being a cautious singer, straddling repertoire that often seemed a tad heavy {…}
Umberto Giordano’s “Fedora” will never rank with the likes of “Andrea Chénier” in the operatic canon, but the composer’s second most popular work still gets its looks from time to time. The work premiered on Nov. 17, 1898, with the composer in the pit and a certain Enrico Caruso in the lead tenor role. The work was based on the {…}
You know “Andrea Chénier,” but how many other Umberto Giordano operas can you name? Some might remember “Fedora,” or even “Siberia,” thanks to Sonya Yoncheva’s recent performance, but chances are, you might not know that in sum, Giordano composed a total of 13 operas, more than Puccini. But unfortunately, as was the case with a number of other composers of {…}
