(Credit:Miodrag Guberinic) The Heartbeat Opera has announced its sixth annual Halloween Drag Extravaganza at Roulette in Brooklyn, New York. There are three performances slated for both Oct. 30 and 31. This year’s event, titled “HOT MAMA: Sinigng Gays Saving Gaia” will center on climate collapse. It will feature music of Bernstein, Delibes, Handel, Vaughan Williams, Vivaldi, Wagner, and Cole Porter. {…}
Innsbruck’s Early Music Festival is presenting Handel’s “Ottone” as its Barockoper: Jung production in which promising young talented singers who have just embarked upon their careers are given the opportunity to perform in a fully staged work. The director for this production, Anna-Magdalena Fitzi seems the ideal choice to take charge of the staging as she works extensively with young {…}
(Photo Credit: Kevin Yatarola) On August 4, 2019, the Budapest Festival Orchestra brought their talents to David Geffen Hall for an exciting program of works by Handel, Haydn, and Mozart. Joining conductor Ivan Fischer and the orchestra was Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique, making her debut performance with the Mostly Mozart Festival in spectacular fashion. First, Haydn Starting the evening’s {…}
Third Coast Baroque, an early music ensemble from Chicago, has unveiled its 2019-20 season. For the purposes of this article, we will only focus on concerts related to opera and vocal performances. It all kicks off with “Wonder Women: Female Strength in Handel’s Cantatas.” The concert will star Nathalie Colas, Kaitlin Foley, Erica Schuller, and the TCB Chamber Ensemble. The {…}
(credit: Marco Borggreve) Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique hadn’t seen a fully staged opera until the age of 21, but had been raised to appreciate the classical arts by her mother. Now, the award-winning singer is highly sought after for concert and staged works, with The “Washington Post” noting her “dramatic presence and versatility.” And as such, she will make {…}
Audiences in Mexico will get a chance to experience the local premiere of Handel’s serenata “Aci, Galatea e Poliferno” on August 9 and 11 at the Teatro Ignacio de la Llave in Orizaba, Veracruz. The performance will be conducted by José Antonio Espinal, who will lead the Orquesta Filarmónica de las Altas Montañas. In the role of Acis, audiences will {…}
(Credit: Henning Ross, Sony Classical) Countertenor Valer Sabadus will be performing in Australia for the first time in collaboration with Pinchgut Opera on August 25, 2019. The recital will take place at the City Recital Hall in Sydney and will feature the Orchestra of Antipodes under the musical direction of Erin Heylard. It will feature music by Handel, Caldara, Hasse, {…}
OperaVision will present a live stream of Handel’s “Agrippina” from The Grange Festival on June 6, 2019. The stream kicks off at 7 p.m. local time. That’s around 1 p.m. EDT and 10 a.m. PST for the start time. It will be available for repeat viewings on Opera Vision until Dec. 12, 2019. The opera features Ashley Riches, Anna Bonitatibus, {…}
Cantata Profana will present “Lucretia,” a “dramatically and politically charged show spiraling from the intensity and drama of Handel’s ‘La Lucrezia’ performed on baroque and modern instruments,” according to the press release. Rarely heard masterpieces spanning from the medieval era to the 21st century will be performed. The program will include Bunita Marcus’ “Julia” (1989), Ottorino Respighi’s “Lucretia” (opera exerpt) {…}
Serse’s short aria, “Ombra mai fu,” in which he passionately addresses a plane tree, may be the most famous aria from Handel’s opera “Serse,” but is it the most significant moment in the work? Certainly, an argument could be made for it being the case, as it establishes from the outset Seres’s strong, but superficial emotional response to the world {…}
On March 31, 2019, the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions were brought to a thrilling conclusion with their grand finals concert. Hosted by countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, nine young finalists took to the Metropolitan’s stage for the first time to share their artistic gifts with the audience. Opening the afternoon’s concert was soprano Meghan Kasanders, singing “Dich, teure Halle’ from {…}