The BBC Proms has announced its 2023 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances. Paul Lewis, BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Dalia Stasevska perform the first night of Proms. Performance Date: July 14, 2023 Early music vocal ensemble Stile Antico explores the many facets of William Byrd. Performance Date: July 15, 2023 Soprano Rainelle {…}
The Göttingen International Händel Festival has announced its 2023 season with the theme of “Hellas!” The season kicks off with Händel’s “Hercules.” The work will star Andreas Wolf in the title role and feature Vivica Genaux, Anna Dennis, Nick Pritchard, and Lena Sutor-Wernich. George Petrou conducts. Performance Dates: May 5 – 22, 2023 “Semele” will star Marie Lys, Jeremy Ovenden, {…}
The Salzburg Festival has announced its 2023 season featuring operas, concerts, recitals, and Mozart programs. Opera Raphaël Pichon will conduct Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” in a new production by Martin Kušej. Andrè Schuen, Adriana González, Sabine Devieilhe, Krzysztof Bączyk, and Lea Desandre star. Performance Dates: July 27-August 28, 2023 Verdi’s “Macbeth” will be conducted by Franz Welser-Möst and directed {…}
(Credit: Charles Duprat / Opéra national de Paris) (This review is for performances on November 25 and 27) Netia Jones’ staging proves how much an ill-conceived mis-en-scene can affect the music, even when it is Mozart. In Portuguese, we say that Mozart’s music must be as a perfect and smooth as a rare pearl. There is even an adjective “perolado” {…}
Carnegie Hall and WQXR have announced the 2022-23 season of “Carnegie Hall Live.” For the purposes of this article, the focus will be on vocal performances only. The first such broadcast will be a performance of Schubert’s Mass No. 6 in E-flat Major, D. 950. Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Cleveland Orchestra in a performance that stars Joélle Harvey, Daryl Freedman, {…}
The winners of the 2022 Opus Klassik awards have been announced. This year the Female Singer of the Year went to Lea Desandre for her album “Amazone” while the Male Singer of the Year went to Jonas Kaufmann for his “Liszt – FREUDVOLL UND LEIDVOLL” album. The Conductor of the Year went to Vladimir Jurowski for “Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie,” while {…}
Pittsburgh-based Chatham Baroque has announced its 2022-23 season. For the purposes of this article, our focus will be solely on vocal and operatic works. The first vocal performance of the year will feature soprano Sherezade Panthaki as she takes on the cantata “The Isle of Delos” alongside such instrumentalists as Kathryn Montoya, Kathie Stewart, Charlotte Mattax Moersch, Andrew Fouts, Patricia {…}
Photos by: Sachyn Mital, © Lincoln Center Jeanine De Bique is one of the most exciting sopranos to catch onstage these days. Animated, joyful, and technically flawless, the Trinidadian vocalist with the light, starry voice that soars before landing on audiences’ ears like a musical meteor shower. While De Bique does staged productions, she throughly enjoys singing in concert format. {…}
(Photo: Monika Ritttershaus) The initial impressions of the Aix-en-Provence festival’s production of Rossini’s “Moïse et Pharaon” did not bode well. Hearsay reports spoke of a modern day reinterpretation in which the focus was on refugees, and their life in the camps and the perils they face when crossing the Mediterranean. Productions which seek to politicize an opera, beyond that which {…}
Jeanine De Bique is set to appear alongside the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra as part of Lincoln Center’s “Summer in the City” program at the end of the month. The soprano will perform Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” as well as arias from Mozart’s “Zaide” and “Don Giovanni.” The performance, slated for July 29 and 30, 2022, will include Beethoven’s {…}
The Göttingen International Handel Festival has announced its 2022 slate, entitled “New Horizons.” The festival opens with “Aminta e Fillide” starring Bruno de Sá and Myrsini Margariti. George Petrou conducts the FestspielOrchester Göttingen. Performance Dates: May 12, 2022 Next up is the opening of “Giulio Cesare” starring Yuriy Mynenko, Sophie Junker, Nicholas Tamagna, Francesca Ascioti, Katie Coventry, Riccardo Novaro, Artur {…}