North Carolina’s Classical Station WCPE has announced that it will not be broadcasting the six modern operas that the Metropolitan Opera will showcase during the 2023-24 season. According to a letter signed by Deborah S. Proctor, the General Manager and Chief Engineer of WCPE, the radio station, which did not broadcast “Champion” due to vulgar language, opted to not broadcast {…}
The Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico is set to present a new production of “Florencia en el Amazonas” this October. This represents the first time that the opera is staged in a production at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Following the works premiere in Houston in 1996, audiences in Mexico were able to hear a performance of the work {…}
The Nashville Opera has announced the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded the company a grant in support of the 2024 production of Daniel Catán’s “Florencia en el Amazonas.” The company said, “This grant will allow us to build new bridges to historically marginalized communities through outreach programming designed to promote understanding of Latine/Latinx culture. ” Nashville Opera CEO & {…}
(Credit: Dario Acosta) Ailyn Pérez is set to star in the Metropolitan Opera’s premiere of “Florencia en el Amazonas” during the 2023-24 season. In the January Playbill for the Metropolitan Opera, the company confirmed the news with Pérez stating in an exclusive interview that, “being born in Chicago to immigrant parents from Mexico, it may be the most profound and {…}
Daniel Catán is one of the great opera composers in the last half of the 20th century. The Mexican composer created a number of operas throughout his career before his death at age 62 in 2011. He had stated openly his desire to create a strong tradition of Spanish-language opera, which is still lacking to this day. For this week’s {…}
There is a common misconception that melodic opera in the vein of the great romantics of the 19th century is dead in the 21st century. Most composers today would have you believe that. But Daniel Catán never did and his masterpiece “Florencia en el Amazonas” bears this out better than anyone else. The work, which had its world premiere on {…}
The world of late 20th and 21st-century opera is a strange one. On one hand, there are a plethora of new works appearing, only to be one and done. Some manage a few more performances, though they might not manage a way to cross international borders. Then there are the handful of recent works that actually have a continued life {…}
Elaine Alvarez always knew she was destined for the stage. Or if she didn’t, her mother Yasmin Alvarez certainly did. The soprano, who is slated to make her role debut in “Florencia en el Amazonas” at the San Diego Opera (her house debut, incidentally) grew up in a musical atmosphere that nurtured this potential. In a recent interview with OperaWire {…}