Soprano Jessica Pratt has withdrawn from her performances at the Arena di Verona. In a statement, the soprano said, “Unfortunately due to personal reasons I won’t be participating in this season’s ‘Barbiere di Siviglia’ or ‘Carmina Burana’ with Arena di Verona. My next engagement after the summer will be my mad scenes concert with the Orchestra and Chorus of Maggio {…}
The Teatro Comunale di Bologna’s 2025 season has been announced. Riccardo Frizza conducts Puccini’s “La Faniculla del West” with Paul Curran directing. Carmen Giannattasio, Angelo Villari, and Claudio Sgura star. Performance Dates: Jan. 24-30, 2025 Jessica Pratt, Giovanni Sala, and Lucas Meachem headline Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” with Daniel Oren conducting a production by Jacopo Spirei. Performance Dates: Feb. 20-25, {…}
The Teatro Mssismo di Palermo has announced its 2024-25 season. Opera The season opens with Ligeti’s “Le Grand Macabre” which will be performed for the first time in Palermo. Omer Meir Wellber conducts the opera in a production by Barbora Horáková. Performance Dates: Nov. 24-Dec. 1, 2024 Mario Martone directs Verdi’s “Otello” with a cast that includes Yusif Eyvazov, Nicola {…}
The Teatro Trieste di Verdi has announced its 2024-25 season. Opera The season opens with Verdi’s “La Traviata“ featuring Maria Grazia Schiavo, Francesca Sassu, Antonio Poli, Klodjan Kaçani, Roberto Frontali, and Federico Longhi. Arnaud Bernard directs and Enrico Calesso conducts. Performance Dates: Nov. 8-Dec. 19, 2024 Mozart’s “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” is set to be conducted by Beatrice Venezi {…}
The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino has announced its Fall 2024 season from September to December. Opera Teresa Iervolino leads Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” with Matteo D’Apolito, Patrick Kabongo, William Hernandez, and Marco Filippo Romano. Ginaluca Capuano conducts. Performance Dates: Sept. 20-27, 2024 Daniele Gatti conducts Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” with Carolina López Moreno, Piero Pretti, Vincenzo Costanzo, Marvic Monreal, and Nicola Alaimo headlining the cast. {…}
The Arena di Verona is set to present a concert “La Grande Opera Italiana Patrimonio dell’Umanità” on June 7. The Ministry of Culture and Fondazione Arena di Verona will present the concert, in collaboration with Rai Cultura. It will celebrate the recognition of opera as a vital contribution to cultural heritage. Riccardo Muti will conduct 154 orchestra musicians and over {…}
The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées has announced its 2024-25 season. Here are the vocal performances. Opera in Production Bach’s “Passion selon Saint” will be conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón and directed by Sasha Waltz. The cast will include Sophie Junker, Georg Nigl, Christian Immler, Benno Schachtner, Valerio Contaldo, and Mark Milhofer. Performance Dates: Nov. 4 & 5, 2024 Poulenc’s “Dialogues des {…}
The ABAO Bilbao Opera is set to present Mozart’s “Die Entführung aus dem Serail.” The performances, which will take place between Jan. 20 and 29, 2024 at the Euskalduna Bilbao, will star Jessica Pratt in the role of Kostanze, Moisés Marín as Belmonte, Leonor Bonilla as Blonde, Mikeldi Atxalandabaso as Pedrillo, Wojtek Gierlach as Osmin, and Wolfgang Vater as Selim. {…}
Lisette Oropesa has canceled her performance of “I Puritani” on Dec. 10 due to illness. The soprano took to social media and said, “Dear friends, I’m having a rocky end to the year. After being in Dresden for several days recording I Puritani with the most incredible cast I could ever imagine, I seem to have caught some kind of {…}
The Teatro alla Scala has announced its streaming schedule for La ScalaTV in 2024. The company will begin its streaming season with Filarmonica della Scala’s concert conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. Streaming Date: Jan. 2024 The following stream will be “Simon Boccanegra” starring Luca Salsi, Ain Anger, and Roberto De Candia. Streaming Date: Feb. 2024 Benjamin Britten’s ‘The Little Sweep” will {…}
Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world. In this edition, a leading Bel Canto interpreter delves into mad scenes with her new alum while a rarely performed opera by a female composer gets a new release. There is also a special Wagner recording out this week. Rheinberger & Mendelssohn Choral {…}