The San Francisco Opera will work together with the City of San Francisco, French Consulate, and Grace Cathedral to put on a concert in support of the Notre-Dame de Paris on April 29, 2019. The event will feature international superstar Frederica Von Stade, who will perform music by Poulenc, accompanied by pianist Kseniia Polstiankina Barrad. The remainder of the program {…}
Four singers have recently joined the voice faculty at San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). Baritone Matthew Worth has been appointed to SFCM’s voice faculty, and is set to lead a full studio. According to the press release, both SFCM President David H. Stull and Voice Department Chair César Ulloa are thrilled to welcome Worth to the team. “His artistic {…}
Even though 2018 is coming to an end, there is a lot of opera to look forward to in 2019. There will be even more stars, world premieres, new productions, and rarely performed works that will be showcased throughout the world. In celebration of the new year, let’s take a look at the operas OperaWire believes are not be missed {…}
Opera Philadelphia’s second annual season-opening festival is set to launch on Sept. 20, 2018 with the world premiere of “Sky on Swings.” The work, which world premieres on the eve of World Alzheimer’s Day, explores Alzheimer’s disease from the creative team behind O17’s “I Have No Stories to Tell You.” The new chamber opera finds fleeting beauty in memory loss, {…}
Everyone knows her as “Flicka.” It’s a fun nickname that embodies exactly what makes Frederica Von Stade such a well-liked figure in the opera world. A consummate professional with a smashing personality, Von Stade, who was born on June 1, 1945, grew up in New Jersey and attended the Mannes College of Music. In 1970, she made her Metropolitan Opera {…}
It’s a crowded weekend and thus a major challenge to select from the numerous options. The five here were our favorites, but by all means, head over to the other companies not listed here and check out the opera offerings they have. There were truly more than we could imagine. Here are our picks, in alphabetical order by company. Houston {…}
Opera Philadelphia has announced its 2018-19 season. The season will see the company continue to shape the future of opera. The 2018-2019 season will kick off on September 20-30 with the festival’s second edition, O18, comprising five operatic happenings – two world premieres, two new productions, and a three-part cabaret event – at multiple venues across the city. The season will {…}
Going into its 114th year, the Ravinia Festival brings together artists from all over the world to perform in the longest-running music festival in America. Here are some of the highlights of Ravinia Festival’s 2018 season: Soprano Jeanine De Bique: BGH Classics Series The program will include selections from Mozart, Strauss, and Wolf. De Bique will also perform a number {…}
The San Diego Opera has announced its 2018-19 season, which will feature a number of repertory staples as well as major debuts from international artists. The season opens with Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro,” starting on Oct. 20, 2018. The cast will include John Moore, Nicholas Brownlee, Caitlin Lynch, Sarah Shafer, all in their company debuts. Other cast members will {…}
On Thursday Dec. 14, 2017, Franz Lehár’s “The Merry Widow” makes a return to the Metropolitan Opera. To this date, the company has given just 40 performances of the operetta, its first ever coming as recently as Feb. 17, 2000. This season, Susan Graham will take up the mantle of the title role, making her the foremost interpreter of the {…}
This season classical music in New York experienced several firsts. The Metropolitan Opera presented “L’Amour de Loin,” the first opera composed by a woman to be seen at the Met in over a century. The newly revamped New York City Opera presented the American premiere of “Angels in America,” the first of its annual LGBTQ opera initiative to be presented {…}