(Photo credit: H. Paul Moon) Opera Essentia and Zen Violence Films have released a new opera film of Händel’s “Admeto.” The film stars Hans Tashjian, Jeffrey Mandelbaum, Kristin Renee Young, Nicole Besa, and Melisa Bonetti. The cast also includes a Baroque orchestra playing on period instruments. “Admeto” was filmed at the Campos Community Garden in New York City during a {…}
(Photo credit: Lyndon England) The fifth annual Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival has announced its 2024 season. For the purposes of this article only vocal works are included. Opening the festival is “DEFENSE – DEFIANCE – DEDICATION,” staring soprano Vira Slywotzky and Marichka Marczyk. Performance Date: March 28, 2024 Ukrainian-American composer Virko Baley celebrates his 85th birthday with the Ukrainian Contemporary {…}
Santiago Ballerini as Poliuto. Credit: Steve Pisano Donizetti’s opera “Poliuto” is an odd duck with an intriguing history. Although completed in 1838, it did not premiere until ten years later, on November 30, 1848, at Teatro San Carlo. The delay resulted from disapproval from royal Neapolitan censors, who gave a big thumbs down to portraying a saint as a jealous {…}
Teatro Nuovo has announced its 2022 season featuring two operas. The company will also resume its renowned training program, giving an immersive course in Bel Canto style and technique to 22 elite young singers who will serve as the understudies and chorus of the two operas. The season will open with Rossini’s “Maometto Secondo” with bass Hans Tashjian in the {…}
Photos: Steven Pisano This review is of the July 27, 2021 performance. Opera is back in New York City, and it returned not as a big-budget production with gargantuan sets, light shows, animals, and all the trappings of grand opera but as a humble outdoor, semi-staged presentation of Rossini’s beloved comedy, “The Barber of Seville,” put on by Teatro Nuovo, {…}
With opera companies returning in full force digitally, this week’s selections will highlight a mix of repertory staples with some unique and experimental new works. Before we kick off our list, don’t forget to check out important discussions taking place regarding issues of race and equality in opera with such programs as Karen Slack’s “KikiKonversations,” Kenneth Overton’s “Black Opera Live,” and Mark {…}
Teatro Nuovo has announced the release of Bel Canto in Thirty Minutes, premiering Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. on YouTube Live. The new video production is set to feature the first-ever complete recording of Nicola Vaccai’s “Practical Method of Italian Singing,” a delicious collection of miniature arias that has been a cornerstone of Bel Canto training for nearly two centuries. {…}
(Credit: Teatro Nuovo) On the evening of Thursday, July 18, 2019, opera lovers excitedly took to their seats for a semi-staged production of Rossini’s rarely performed “La Gazza Ladra” (“The Thieving Magpie”) at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater. The opera was presented by Teatro Nuovo, a fairly new organization which aims to produce “exciting revivals of neglected Bel Canto {…}