The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance has announced its 2025-26 season. Opera The season opens with Bizet’s “Carmen” led by an all-female team composed of Chelsea Gallo, a rising star within the conducting world, Irene Rodriguez, an award-winning Flamenco dancer and choreographer, and Dayton Opera’s Artistic Director Kathleen Clawson as stage director. Performance Dates: Nov. 1-2, 2025 A double will be {…}
The Washington National Opera has announced its 2025-26 season. Mainstage Productions The season opens with Verdi’s “Aida” in Francesca Zambello’s production. Kwamé Ryan conducts with Jennifer Rowley starring in the leading role. She is joined by Adam Smith, Raehann Bryce-Davis, Agnieszka Rehlis, Shenyang, and Morris Robinson. Amber R. Monroe and Robert Watson also star in the lead roles. Performance Dates: {…}
(Credit: Chris Lee) The New York Philharmonic has announced its 2025-26 season. Here are the vocal performances. Jeannette Sorrell conducts soloists Sonya Headlam and Anthony McGill in a program that includes Mozart and Bologne. Performance Dates: Oct. 15-21, 2025 Jane Glover conducts Händel’s “Messiah” with Amanda Forsythe, John Holiday, Nicholas Phan, and Kevin Deas. Performance Dates: Dec. 10-13, 2025 Thomas Adès conducts {…}
LA Opera has announced its 2025-26 season. Here is a look at the program. Opera Gabriella Reyes and Duke Kim star in the company premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.” James Conlon conducts the production by Francesca Zambello. Performance Dates: Sept. 20-Oct. 8, 2025 Puccini’s “La Bohème” will return Janai Brugger, Oreste Cosimo, Erica Petrocelli, Gihoon Kim, Emmett O’Hanlon, and {…}
(Photo credit: Norman Timonera) The Grant Park Music Festival has announced its 2025 season. For the purposes of this article only classical vocal concerts are included. The Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra and Chorus give the Illinois premiere of Jake Runestad’s “Earth Symphony.” Also programmed on this concert is Gustav Holst’s “The Planets, and Lili Boulanger’s “Psalm 24.” Christopher Bell {…}
(Photo credit: Mark Allan) The English Concert announces the details of its spring 2025 spring season. Soprano Lucy Crowe performs a program of works by Handel and Corelli, under the baton of The English Concert’s founder, Trevor Pinnock. Performance Date: January 30, 2025 (Wigmore Hall) Up next sopranos Isabel Schicketanz and Joanna Songi, mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot, tenor Samuel Boden, and {…}
Famed countertenor John Holiday has been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. The 20-minute long program features Reynaldo Hah’s À Chloris,” Händel’s “Ombra Mai fù,” Abel Meerool’s “Strange Fruit,” James Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and the traditional song “I’m Going to Tell God All My Troubles.” Per NPR’s official report, “Holiday dedicates ‘Lift Every {…}
The Denyce Graves Foundation announced the 2024 Classical Vocal Arts Symposium “Shared Voices.” This year’s symposium features collaborations with 14 music schools, conservatories, and HBCUs. Participants are offered an immersive experience to engage with classical vocal arts, gain an understanding of the industry, and receive foundational music training including aspects of vocal health, mental health, and physical fitness. In the {…}
(Photo credit: Nile Scott Studios) What can one expect from an opera that the one and only Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed when he was a mere fourteen years young? It is impressive considering the age of its composer and disappointing if we bear in mind what came next—like listening to Wagner’s “Die Feen,” Verdi’s “I Due Foscari” or even Puccini’s {…}
John Holiday is set to perform at as part of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts’ Chamber Music at The Barns series in 2024-25. The concert, set for Jan. 19, 2025, will see the renowned countertenor take the stage alongside Jeann-Minette Cilliers for a program featuring works by Price, Bonds, Morris, Gershwin, Howard, and Garner. There will also {…}
Boston Lyric Opera is set to open its new season with Mozart’s “Mitridate, Re di Ponto,” an early opera seria triumph. The work, which will be presented between Sept. 13 and 15 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, will showcase Lawrence Brownlee in the title role. The production will also include soprano Brenda Rae in the role of Mitridate’s fiancée {…}