Central City Opera has announced its 2018 Summer Festival. The festival, which will run between July 7 and August 5, 2018, will feature productions of “The Magic Flute” and “Il Trovatore.” There will also be showcases of one-act productions of “Acis and Galatea” and the 40th Anniversary of Henry Mollicone’s “Face on the Barroom floor,” a Central City Opera commissioned work. “The Magic {…}
Ettore Bastianini, Pablo Elvira, and Cornell MacNeil share a birthday – September 24. Two of these men, MacNeil and Bastianini were born on the same exact day. All three were baritones, overlapping a ton of repertoire. Of the three, Elvira’s career is perhaps not quite up to the legendary status of the other two men, with Bastianini often crowned as {…}
Anna Netrebko has canceled opening night at the Vienna State Opera. The soprano was set to perform Leonora in “Il Trovatore” on Sept. 4. She is still scheduled for two more performances. Netrebko is the second cancellation in the highly anticipated revival. Last week Marcelo Alvarez withdrew from the production with Yusif Eyvazov filling in. In Netrebko’s place, Maria José Siri {…}
Regina Resnik is often cited as one of the great American mezzos of the 20th century. Born on August 30, she managed an international career that spanned a whopping five decades and became a house favorite with such companies as La Scala, the Paris Opera, the Royal Opera, the Vienna State Opera, and of course, the Metropolitan Opera, where she {…}
Marcelo Alvarez has canceled Opening Night at the Vienna State Opera. The Vienna State Opera announced that Alvarez had to cancel the Sept. 4 performance of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore,” which is slated to open the 2017-18 season. As a result, Yusif Eyvazov will sing the title role. He will join his wife Anna Netrebko, Luciana D’Intino and George Petean in Daniele Abbado’s production which {…}
Sharon Sweet and Krassimira Stoyanova. Two sopranos born on August 16 with rather different careers. The former was a well-known American dramatic soprano who took on a wide range of Italian and German repertoire, most prominently singing operas by Wagner and Verdi. The latter, a Bulgarian with a far lighter voice, has slowly dug into that very same dramatic repertoire, {…}
Many of the great opera singers have the luxury of leaving behind essential recordings. But some of them, unfortunately, don’t get that same opportunity, their voices often getting lost in history. This is not necessarily the case for the great Gabriela Tucci, born on August 4, 1929. The versatile singing-actress made a big name for herself singing across some of {…}
This week we see two DVDs from last year’s European festivals. One comes from Macerata, while the other comes from Glyndebourne. One of the works on display is a repertory staple while the other is not as famous. Both DVDs star established and up and coming singers. A New Trovatore Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” is arguably one of the most popular {…}
Giuseppe Di Stefano is one of the great Italian tenors in history. For many, he possessed the most beautiful timbre of any lyric tenor and some fans lament the tenor’s insistence on singing operas that were often darker and heavier than his lyric could seemingly handle. And yet, one of the reasons why Pippo, born on July 24, 1921, was {…}
We can look at Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger,” which premiered on June 21, 1868, and marvel at its glorious music. Or its fascinating Schopenhauerian philosophy. Instead, let’s just look at the opera’s face value and marvel at the fact that this is an opera about singers. There are many operas laden with characters that sing within the context of the opera, {…}
Maria Agresta has quickly risen to fame in the opera world. She has made debuts in all the great theaters including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, and Royal Opera House. She has also become the go-to soprano for the Verdi repertoire singing roles in “I Due Foscari,” “Il Trovatore,” “I Masnadieri,” “La Traviata” and “Simon Boccanegra.” This month she {…}