(Photo credit: © Camilla Greenwell/Royal Ballet & Opera) Pinching pitches at an apex, Janáček’s “Jenůfa” scales extremes. The opera tells of sextoness Kostelnička Buryjovka, who takes a lethal misstep to protect her stepdaughter. Persuaded Laca will agree to wed Jenůfa if she’s childless, Kostelnička drowns newborn baby Števa. Rue accrues until Kostelnička confesses. Any other art form would attribute her {…}
Jakub Hrůša has extended his contract as Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony until 2029. The contract was extended at the Bavarian State Ministry alongside Markus Blume, Bavarian Minister of State for Science and the Arts and Artistic Director Marcus Rudolf Axt. The contract extension reflects the wish of both sides to continue a flourishing artistic partnership. Hrůša began his {…}
The Royal Academy of Music has announced distinguished musicians and educators to whom honors will be conferred at its 2023 Graduation Ceremony. The school said that it will celebrate a range of artists who move music forward, including Academy alumni and associates who continue to shape the musical landscape. Among artists in the operatic world include Royal Opera Music Director {…}
(Photo: Marek Olbrzymek) Would any opera house be bold enough to present a work about the horrors of life in a gulag in which the guilty and innocent are thrown together to be abused, debased and left to die? Undoubtedly, the answer is yes! What if it were to be presented in a Christian context, in which Christ walks among {…}
Italy’s XXI Festival di Musica e Arte Sacra has announced its 2022 event. The festival opens with the Santa Messa celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Comastri in the Basilica di San Pietro in the Vatican. The Coro del Vicariato della Città del Vaticano conducted by Temistocle Capone will perform the Missa Secunda Pontificalis and il Magnificat e Tu es Petrus. Performance {…}
The Royal Opera House has named Jakub Hrůša as its new Music Director. The company said that Hrůša will assume the position of Music Director Designate with immediate effect and will begin his tenure as Music Director in September 2025. In a statement, the conductor said, “I have been privileged to work on two wonderful Royal Opera House productions as {…}
(Photo: Clive Barda) David Alden’s 2018 production of “Lohengrin,” Wagner’s hokey fable of love, fidelity, and politics, is receiving its first revival from Peter Relton at the Royal Opera House. Alden’s setting is generic postwar Europe, all bombed out windows and bare brick, with buildings at precariously jaunty angles (sets by Paul Steinberg). In the ruins of this world Konig {…}
(©Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia/Musacchio Ianniello Pasqualini) The Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia has named Jakub Hrůša its new Music Director. Hrůša’s contract will last three years and will see the conductor perform at least three productions, special projects, and lead international and national tours. The conductor will begin his tenure in the 2021-22 season conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 {…}
Credit: Gregor Hohenberg/Sony Gramophone has announced the recordings that have advanced to the final round of the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2020. For the purpose of this article, we will focus on vocal, choral, and opera categories. The first contestant in the opera category is the Barber’s “Vanessa,” performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Chorus, under the musical {…}
Bamberger Symphoniker has announced its 2019-20 season. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on vocal and opera-related performances. Jakub Hrůša will conduct the Bamberger Symphoniker during a performance of Wagner’s Prelude to “Lohengrin.” The program will also include Bohuslav Martinů’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 in G Minor, Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, {…}
Jakub Hrůša, Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, has signed a contract for five additional seasons in Munich. The news was announced by Bavarian State Minister for the Arts Prof. Dr. med. Marion Kiechle noting, “I am delighted that Jakub Hrůša has now extended his contract, and so will remain as Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony through the 2021 {…}