(Credit: Royal Opera House) The Royal Opera House has announced cast changes for its productions of “Le Nozze di Fígaro” and “Tosca.” The company said that Maria Bengtsson will replace Jacquelyn Stucker in the role of the Countess Almaviva. Bengtsson will join a cast that includes Luca Micheletti, Ying Fang, Huw Montague Rendall, Ginger Costa-Jackson. Julia Jones conducts the David {…}
(Photo credit: Monika Rittershaus) “So, who is signing the work?” an operagoer asks Raphaël Pichon and Claus Guth at a lunchtime panel about their opera-project “Samson.” The music is Rameau’s, but it is not that simple. According to Guth (and his Wikipedia search), Rameau did indeed compose a “Samson” with a libretto by Voltaire; however, it is all lost. Pichon {…}
Arte is set to present three of Festival Aix-En-Provence’s productions on its streaming platform. It all starts with “Iphigénie en Aulide-Iphigénie en Tauride” on July 11 and will be available until Dec. 11, 2025. The productions stars Corinne Winters, Russell Braun, Véronique Gens, Alasdair Kent, Nicolas Cavallier, Soula Parassidis, Florian Sempey, Stanislas de Barbeyrac, and Alexandre Duhamel. Emmanuelle Haïm conducts the production by Dmitri Tcherniakov. Then on July 12, {…}
The Dutch National Opera has announced its 2024-25 season. Opera René Barbera, Roman Burdenko, Aigul Khismatullina, Alexander Köpeczi, and Maya Gour Star in a revival of Verdi’s “Rigoletto.” Yi-Chen Lin conducts. Performance Dates: Sept. 2-29, 2024 Britten’s “Peter Grimes” will get a new production by Barbora Horáková. Lorenzo Viotti conducts a cast that includes Issachah Savage, Johanni van Oostrum, and {…}
Photo credit: Agathe Poupeney-OnP Thomas Adès’s “The Exterminating Angel” is one of the most successful contemporary operas of the century. Beyond its many productions—the Parisian one being the best of them all—, the opera quickly entered the symphonic repertoire with a very well-crafted symphonic suite. The opera, based on Luís Buñuel’s homonymous film, follows its source material: more than a {…}
The Handel and Haydn Society is to perform a semi-staged production of “The Marriage of Figaro.” Raphaël Pichon, founder and artistic director of Pygmalion, will lead the performances on Nov. 17 and 18 at Boston’s Symphony Hall. The H+H Orchestra and Chorus will be joined by soprano Ying Fang as Susanna, soprano Jacquelyn Stucker as Countess Almaviva, bass-baritone Cody Quattlebaum {…}
(Photo: Ruth Walz) It never ceases to surprise how Monteverdi’s operas prove themselves time and again to be not just supreme examples of how the art form succeeds as a dramatic medium, able to communicate directly with present day audiences, with characters who resonate so clearly with the modern mind, even over a distance of 400 years, but also the {…}
The Festival D’Aix-En-Provence has announced its 2022 slate featuring a varied repertoire and international stars. The festival will begin on July 4 and is set to run through July 23, 2022. Here is a look at the upcoming season: Mahler’s “Resurrection” will be conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen in a production by Romeo Castellucci. Golda Schultz and Marianne Crebassa star. Performance {…}
((c) ROH 2021) The Royal Opera House’s first new production of Leoš Janáček’s “Jenůfa” in over twenty years was one of the first casualties of the 2020 lockdown, shelved on the cusp of opening in March that year. A starry cast made it an especially hot ticket then, especially given the involvement of imaginative German director Claus Guth, and {…}
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has announced the 2021-22 season. For this article, we will only focus on vocal performances. Sir Donald Runnicles and Jacquelyn Stucker perform an evening of music by R. Strauss, Brahms, and Eötvös. Performance Dates: Dec. 2 – 4, 2021 Sir Donald Runnicles conducts Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel“ with Kelley O’Connor, Jacquelyn Stucker, Tichina Vaughn, Stephen Powell, {…}
The Deutshce Oper Berlin has announced its 2020-21 season featuring six new productions and a new Ring Cycle. Premieres The season kicks off with “The 7 Deaths of Maria Callas,” which will be directed by Marina Abramovic. Marina Abramovic, Nadezhda Karyazina, Whitney Morrison, Leah Hawkins, Adela Zaharia, Selene Zanetti, Gabriella Reyes, and Mané Galoyan will lead the cast. Performance Dates: {…}