The Cincinnati Opera has announced its 100th anniversary season which will feature five operas. Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” will open the season with Aaron Blake, Rodion Pogossov, and Isabel Leonard headlining the cast. Renato Balsadonna conducts. Performance Dates: June 18 & 20, 2020 The season continues with the world premiere of “Fierce,” an opera by librettist Sheila Williams and composer {…}
The Dutch National Opera has announced its 2019-20 season featuring a number of new productions, one world premiere, two company premieres, and a many role debuts by some of the top artists in the world. The season opens with “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci” in a new production by Robert Carsen. Brandon Jovanovich stars as Canio in Leoncavallo’s masterpiece alongside Ailyn Pérez {…}
On February 10, 2019, celebrated tenor Andrea Bocelli returned to the Metropolitan Opera for the first performance of his concert, titled “Three Centuries of Love.” This encompassing program featured selections from composers such as Massenet, Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Delibes, Gounod, and Puccini; joining Bocelli were sopranos Nadine Sierra and Aida Garifullina, along with mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard. This sold-out concert had {…}
On Sunday, Andrea Bocelli will appear at the Metropolitan Opera and he will be flanked by a number of superstars currently singing on the Met stage. Among the artists to join the famed singer are Aida Garifullina, Isabel Leonard, Nadine Sierra, and Luca Pisaroni. Garifullina recently made her Met Opera debut in the role of Zerlina in “Don Giovanni.” She {…}
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2019-20 season. Stéphane Denève will begin his journey as the 13th Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra by celebrating “an arch of Franco-American musical friendship and [exploring] their symmetric influences” throughout the company’s 140th season. “I am overjoyed to begin my tenure as Music Director – to collaborate with this exceptional orchestra, to serve {…}
Nico Muhly and Nicholas Wright’s “Marnie” will get a broadcast as part of PBS’s Great Performance series this Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. The broadcast, the second to showcase a performance from the 2018-19 season, will kick off at 9 p.m. EDT and Isabel Leonard as the complex heroine who constantly shifts her identity in order to run from a painful {…}
Debussy’s masterwork “Pelléas et Mélisande” is one of the most glorious operas ever written. Its melodies are elusive, but when performed at its maximum expression, it can wrap you up and transport you to a different state in a way only few other operas can. It is truly a masterwork. The Metropolitan Opera produced the work for the first time {…}
This week, Debussy’s masterwork “Pelléas et Mélisande” returns to the Metropolitan Opera stage for the first time since 2011. The opera will feature Paul Appleby and Isabel Leonard in the title roles respectively. Appleby will be the 15th Pelléas in Met history while Leonard will be the 17th singer to inhabit the role of his doomed lover Mélisande. Here is {…}
The Met Opera will kick off its Live in HD series this Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018, with a performance of Nico Muhly and Nichola Wright “Marnie.” The broadcast, which kicks off 12:55 p.m. Eastern time, is set to star Isabel Leonard in the title role, in what will be her sixth appearance as part of the Met’s Live in HD {…}
Tanglewood has announced that its star-studded gala concert, celebrating Leonard Bernstein’s centennial on August 25, 2018, will be recorded by Great Performances and broadcast on PBS, bringing this event to audiences in their homes throughout America, Europe, and Asia on December 28, 2018. The concert will be hosted by Audra McDonald and directed by James Darrah; among the names appearing {…}
The Metropolitan Opera’s annual Summer HD Festival is set to return for its tenth time this summer. The series, which will begin on August 25, 2018, through Sept. 3, 2018, will present 10 recent performances from the company’s acclaimed Live in HD series of movie theater transmissions. The series will also present the Marx Brothers’ classic film, “A Night at the Opera,” which will {…}