The Cincinnati Opera has announced the world premiere of “Castor and Patience” by Gregory Spears in July 2022. The opera, written by librettist Tracy K. Smith, centers on two cousins from an African American family who find themselves at odds over the fate of a historic parcel of land they have inherited in the American South. Deeply relevant to ongoing {…}
Opera Roanoke in Virginia has announced its 2021-22 season, which will feature three unique productions. The season opens with a production of Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” starring Kyle Albertson and Jennifer Johnson Cano as Bluebeard and Judith, respectively. Steven White conducts the masterwork, which will be the American premiere of the chamber orchestra version by Eberhard Kloke. Performance Dates: Nov. 5 {…}
The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 2021-22 season. For the purposes of this performance, our focus will be mainly on operatic and vocal performances. It all starts with Andrea Carroll’s Severance Hall debut alongside bass-baritone Dashon Burton as the two perform a two-piano arrangement of Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem.” Lisa Wong conducts the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. Performance Date: Oct. 28, {…}
The Houston Grand Opera has announced its 2021-22 season, which will feature six productions. It all starts with Bizet’s “Carmen” starring Carolyn Sproule, Richard Trey Smagur, Christian Pursell, and Heidi Stober. Lidiya Yankovskaya conducts a production directed by Rob Ashford. Performance Dates: Oct. 22 – Nov. 7, 2021 Next up is the world premiere of “The Snowy Day.” The new {…}
This week audiences will get a chance to hear a number of solo albums, including a cross-over album. And what’s more, there is also a fashion opera on offer. Here is a look at this week’s new releases. Songs From Far Away Vittorio Prato releases his first CD-Book on Illiria. The book is dedicated to Francesco Paolo Tosti and Prato {…}
The Metropolitan Opera has announced the next two weeks of nightly streams which will include a number of operas focused on the greatest roles for sopranos as well as its greatest anti-heroes. Here’s a run-down of the two-week slate. Week 45– Leading Ladies: Opera’s Greatest Heroines Monday, January 18 – Bizet’s Carmen Starring Anita Hartig, Anita Rachvelishvili, Aleksandrs Antonenko, and Ildar {…}
Boston Lyric Opera’s podcast AT ITS (s)CORE opens Season Two with legendary theater and opera director Anne Bogart and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano. The first episode will showcase Cano and Bogart discussing their work together on BLO’s 2019 production of Poul Ruders’s opera, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The pair will discuss the opera’s majestic and challenging music, including how Ruders “created a sonic {…}
(Credit: Met Opera / Ken Howard / Marty Sohl) The Metropolitan Opera has announced the 24th week of its nightly streams. For the final week of August, the company will be dedicated to presenting operas by Verdi. This is the second time that the company places a focus on one composer, having done a similarly themed marathon of Wagner operas. {…}
The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Long Yu have announced the 2020-21 season. For the purposes of this article, we will focus primarily on vocal and operatic performances. Long Yu will conduct Fauré’s “Requiem” in a performance starring Soprano Ying Huang and Baritone Liao Changyong. The concert will also feature Huang Ruo’s “A Dust in Time” and Chopin’s “Andante {…}
Over 100 singers came together for a video performance of “Light Shall Lift Us,” a work by librettist Mark Campbell and composer Paul Moravec. The duo, which has worked together on “The Shining” proposed the idea to Marc Scorca of Opera America, who embraced the idea and helped put together the 107 artists who would eventually record their individual parts {…}
(Photo by © Marco Brescia & Rudy Amisano | Teatro alla Scala) It’s Monday, which means a lot of companies are re-upping their streaming services and offering up a completely new slate. Over the last few weeks, we have been emphasizing operas you should see over the weekend, but in reality that is just cutting down on the multitude of {…}