Joyce DiDonato and Piotr Beczala won top prizes at the first annual Oper Magazine awards. The singers won Best Female and Male singer of the year, while the Best Opera House award went to the Zurich Opera House. The awards also saw the Donizetti Opera Festival take home the Best Festival award, while Joana Mallwitz won the as Best Conductor award. {…}
The shortlist for the Gramophone Awards 2019 has been announced. For the purposes of this article, we will focus solely on opera or vocal related awards. In the opera category, John Adams’ “Doctor Atomic” with the compose conducting was the first of three selections. Halevy’s “La Reine de Chypre” was the second nomination; this production featured the Orchestre de chambre {…}
(Credit: Gran Theatre del Liceu/Bayerische Staatsoper/Metropolitan Opera) This weekend is stacked with a number of new productions and revivals with some of the biggest stars. Here is a look at seven works we think are unmissable. Guillaume Tell – Chorégies d’Orange, France Nicola Alaimo takes on Rossini’s final opera, a work that has become his signature. He is joined by {…}
Opera de Limoges is set to present a 2019-20 season with a diverse repertoire and a number of recitals. Guignard’s “Jungle” opens the season with Vivien Simon, Sylvain Manet, Clara Pertuy, and Halidou Nombre. Stéphane Guignard directs the production. Performance Dates: Oct. 17-18. 2019 Anne Kessler directs Offenbach’s “Madame Favart” with Laurent Campellone conducting that includes Marion Lebègue, Anne-Catherine Gillet, and Christian Helmer. Performance Dates: Nov. 3-7, {…}
Opéra de Montpellier has announced its 2019-20 season featuring contemporary and numerous classic works. The season opens with Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” starring Karah Son, Fleur Baron, Jonathan Tetelman, and Armando Noguera. Ted Huffmann directs the production with Matteo Beltrami conducting. Performance Dates: Oct. 2-6, 2019 Reinhardt Wagner’s “Poil de carotte” gets a production with Zabou Breitman directing and Victor Jacob conducting. Amélie Tatti, Sylvia Bergé, Bernard Alane, Yoann Le {…}
The Opera Royal de Wallonie-Liege has announced its 2019-20 season featuring nine operas, six of which are new productions. Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” opens the season in a new production by Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera. Two casts will be led under the baton of Speranza Scappucci, featuring Svetlana Aksenova and Yasko Sato sharing the title role, Alexey Dolgov and Dominick Chenes {…}
The Théâtre du Capitole has announced its 2019-20 season featuring nine operatic productions and a number of recitals. Here is a look at what to expect. Marina Rebeka and Klára Kolonits share the title role in Bellini’s “Norma” in a new production by Anne Delbée. The cast is rounded out by Karine Deshayes and Ilseyar Khayrullova who portraya Adalgisa, Martin Mühle and Airam Hernández {…}
This new recital of florid Offenbach rarities sung by Jodie Devos, a young Belgian soprano, is lightning in a bottle. I can’t recall the last time I felt such an ecstatic sense discovery while a CD unspooled around me: nearly a dozen obscure gems from one of the most prolific and ingenious composers of all time are made to sparkle {…}
The Théâtre Champs-Élysée has announced its 2019-20 season featuring five opera productions, numerous concert performances, operas in concerts, a Beethoven celebration and a number of recitals. For this season announcement we have narrowed it down to only vocal or operatic performances. Here is a look at the massive season. Deborah Cohen directs a new production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” with {…}
La Monnaie du Mont has announced its 2019-20 season showcasing two world premieres, Mozart’s Da Ponte trilogy and two Joan of Arc operas. The season will also see a celebration of Offenbach, as well as a number of recitals from some of the leading artists in opera. The seasons opens with Pascal Dusapin’s “Macbeth Underworld.” The new opera adapted from {…}
No one ever pretended that opera was a cheap art form. As an extreme example, the Salzburg Festival has a budget of over 60 million euros for just six weeks, making its balance sheet the envy of several small Pacific island states. But even in countries with an immense musical patrimony such as Italy, there is a tendency for populist {…}