Renée Fleming, Sondra Radvanovsky, Daniela Mack, Alfredo Daza, SeokJong Baek, & Ana María Martínez Lead Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2025-26 Season

The Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced its 2025-26 season. The company will open with the Lyric Opening Concert & Gala. Performance Date: Oct. 10, 2025 The first production of the season will be Cherubini’s “Medea“ starring Sondra Radvanovsky in Sir. David McVicar’s production. She will be joined by Matthew Polenzani, Elena Villalón, Zoie Reams, and Alfred Walker. Enrique Mazzola {…}

Feb 6, 2025

Federica Lombardi, Emily D’Angelo, Rosa Feola & Adam Plachetka Lead Metropolitan Opera’s ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’

The Metropolitan Opera is set to revive “Le Nozze di Figaro” for 13 performances. The opera will be conducted by Joana Mallwitz, who makes her company debut and will showcase Richard Eyre’s production. There will be two casts for the work, the first of which showcases Federica Lombardi, Olga Kulchynska, Sun-Ly Pierce, Joshua Hopkins, and Michael Sumel. The second cast {…}

Jan 25, 2025

Dutch National Opera to Present ‘We Are The Lucky Ones’

The Dutch National Opera is set to present the world premiere of Philip Venables’s latest opera “We Are The Lucky Ones.” The opera will be shown at the Opera Forward Festival 2025 and will mark the fourth collaboration between Philip Venables and Ted Huffman based on real-life interviews. “We Are The Lucky Ones” tells the story of a generation and {…}

Jan 17, 2025

In Less Than Five Minutes, Get to Know American Soprano Jacquelyn Stucker

(Photo: Dario Acosta) In March, American soprano Jacquelyn Stucker will be performing in Philip Venables’ “We are the Lucky Ones” at Amsterdam’s Opera Forward Festival. OperaWire will be interviewing her about the production during the festival, but as a taster, she kindly agreed to answer a few questions about herself. OperaWire: How old were you when you saw your first {…}

Aug 28, 2024

Royal Opera House Announces Cast Changes for ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ & ‘Tosca’

(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 {…}

Jul 11, 2024

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2024 Review: Samson

(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 {…}

Jun 28, 2024

Arte to Stream Three of Festival Aix-En-Provence’s 2024 Productions

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, {…}

Apr 1, 2024

René Barbera, Austrine Stundyte, Tomasz Konieczny & Issachah Savage Lead Dutch National Opera’s 2024-25 Season

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 {…}

Mar 22, 2024

Opéra National de Paris Review 2024: The Exterminating Angel

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 {…}

Oct 12, 2022

Ying Fang & Jacquelyn Stucker Lead Handel & Haydn Society’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro’

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 {…}

Aug 10, 2022

Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2022 Review: L’Incoronazione di Poppea

(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 {…}