The Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli has announced its 2019-20 season featuring an array of international stars and a number of concerts. Operas The season opens with a production of Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades” in a production by Willy Decker. Juraj Valčuha conducts the production, which is set to star Misha Didyk and Oleg Dolgov as Herman, Tómas Tómasson {…}
The holiday weekend is here and that means many companies are on hiatus. However, there are a number of festivals going on and a number of productions ending runs. Here is a look at some new productions and festival performances we are excited about. Mavra / Iolanta – Bayerische Staatsoper, Germany The Munich opera house presents a new production of a {…}
The Donizetti Festival has announced its 2019 lineup featuring three operas with star-studded casts. Roberto De Candia headlines a new project of Donizetti’s “Pietro il Grande” with Loriana Castellano, Paola Gardina, Francisco Brito, and Marco Filippo Romano. Rinaldo Alessandrini conducts Ondadurto Teatro – Marco Paciotti e Lorenzo Pasquali’s new production. Performance Dates: Nov. 15-Dec. 1, 2019 Jean-Luc Tingaud conducts the first-ever production of {…}
The Staatsoper Berlin has announced its 2019-20 season, which will feature 10 new productions in addition to numerous revivals. Production premieres It all starts with Otto Nicolai’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” with Daniel Barenboim conducting and David Bösch. René Pape will interpret the role of Falstaff with the remaining cast members including Michael Full, Wilhelm Schwinghammer, Pavol Breslik, Linard {…}
The Théâtre Champs-Élysée has announced its 2019-20 season featuring five opera productions, numerous concert performances, operas in concerts, a Beethoven celebration and a number of recitals. For this season announcement we have narrowed it down to only vocal or operatic performances. Here is a look at the massive season. Deborah Cohen directs a new production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” with {…}
The Opéra National de Paris has announced its 2019-20 seasons which will feature a total of 19 operas and the entire Ring Cycle in an all-new production. Bellini’s “I Puritani” opens the season in a production by Laurent Pelly. Elsa Dreisig takes the leading role with Javier Camarena and Francesco Demuro sharing the role of Arturo. Riccardo Frizza conducts the {…}
This review is for the performance on Feb. 22, 2019. The month of February might be the Met’s best in 2018-19. Just a few weeks ago, the company revived Donizetti’s “La Fille du Régiment” and it proved to be one of its great successes of the season. Propped up by star performances and a brilliant production, it has kept audiences {…}
Bryan Hymel has withdrawn from upcoming performances as the Duke in Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” The Metropolitan Opera has announced that Hymel has canceled due to personal reasons. As a result, Francesco Demuro will sing the Duke in the March 6, 9, 15, and 20 performances, while Matthew Polenzani will perform on April 26, May 1, and 4; tenor Stephen Costello will sing {…}
During its 350th anniversary season, the Opéra National de Paris presented a new production of one of the most difficult and controversial Verdi’s operas, “Simon Boccanegra.” With a solid cast and no boundaries of interpretation, Calixto Bieito decided to tell a recklessly modernized story, with characters seemed prohibited from interacting with one another and simply had to ignore each other {…}
The weekend is here and many productions have just opened. This week, we see a number of standard pieces being performed in new productions as well as some rarely performed contemporary works. We also leave the opera genre to showcase a major Zarzuela being performed in Spain. Here is a look. Satyagraha – Vlaanderen Opera, Belgium Rihab Chaieb and Peter Tantsits {…}
For years Dmitri Hvorostovsky was one of the leading interpreters of “Rigoletto” around the world. And while there are many baritones in the modern era that have successfully realized one of the most complex characters of the Verdi canon, few navigated the emotional turmoil quite the way the great Russian baritone did. He brought crudeness and ugliness to his vocal {…}