Saimir Pirgu, Anna Pirozzi & Roberta Mantegna Highlight Teatro Dell’Opera Di Roma’s 2019-20 Season

The Teatro dell’Opera di Roma has announced its 2019-20 season featuring numerous new productions and two special concerts. Daniele Gatti conducts a new production of Verdi’s “Les Vêpres Siciliennes” by Valentina Carrasco. The production stars Roberto Frontali, John Osborn, Michele Pertusi, and Roberta Mantegna. Performance Dates: Dec. 10-22, 2019 Lyudmila Monastyrska and Monica Zanettin share the title role in Puccini’s “Tosca” with Giorgio Berrugi {…}

Oct 23, 2018

Opéra de Lyon 2018-19 Review: Mefistofele

The old Irish proverb “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t” is particularly applicable to Barcelona-born director Àlex Ollé. Without insinuating any untoward obsession with Satan, in the past ten years Ollé has had numerous dramaturgical dalliances with the Prince of Darkness. First was the cutesy “[email protected]” in collaboration with Fura dels Baus co-director Carlos Padrissa. In {…}

Oct 19, 2018

Top 5 Operas to See This Weekend – International (10/19-21)

It’s another week of discovery for OperaWire. Instead of the classic gems of the repertoire, this week we have opted to concentrate on companies presenting rare works as well as modern classics and a world premiere. Here is a look! Orfeo – Beijing Music Festival, China Fay Jueen Wang and Zou Shuang’s new immersive opera makes its world premiere in a {…}

Jun 12, 2018

CD / DVD Releases – Week of June 11: Anna Netrebko, Barbara Hannigan & Leonard Bernstein Highlight New Releases

This week, Anna Netrebko, Barbara Hannigan, Leonard Bernstein and George Gagnidze release new DVDs and CDs. It will be a chance to see some of your favorite singers and conductors in signature roles as well as rarely performed works. Take a look! “Giovanna d’Arco” Anna Netrebko’s celebrated interpretation of Verdi’s early work comes to DVD. The production, which opened the {…}

Jun 4, 2018

Leo Nucci, Stéphane Degout, Anna Pirozzi Among Major Stars At Opéra De Lyon’s 2018-19 Season

The Opéra de Lyon has recently announced its offerings for the 2018-19 season, which will feature staged productions, concerts, and the Opera Underground series. Here’s a look at what’s on offer for next season. Opera Boito’s “Mefistofele” opens the season with the company’s Music Director Daniele Rustioni leading the musical forces. Evgenia Muraveva takes on the two lead roles of {…}

May 16, 2018

Opera Di Roma 2017-18 Review – Billy Budd: Company Premiere of Britten Masterwork Given Pitch-Perfect Production

The central drama in “Billy Budd” unambiguously rotates around the relationships between Seaman Billy Budd, Captain Vere, and the Master-at-Arms, John Claggart. However, the exact nature of the relationships and the psychological motivations upon which they are founded are shrouded in a white mist, opening up the possibility for directors to pursue a variety of valid interpretations. Many recent productions {…}

May 9, 2018

Den Norske Opera Announces Its 2018-19 Season

The Den Norske Opera has announced its upcoming 2018-19 season featuring a wide range of repertoire and rising stars as well as some of the leading Norwegian singers in the world. Here is a look. Productions The season will open with Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and Enrique Mazzola conducting Richard Jones’s production. Johannes Weisser, Jakob Bloch Jespersen, Brigitte Christensen, and Anthony Gregory star {…}

Mar 8, 2018

Sonya Yoncheva, Valery Gergiev & Gerald Finley To Be Featured At The Philharmonie De Paris’s 2018-19 Season

The Philharmonie de Paris has announced its 2018-19 season filled with numerous concerts and operatic selections. The season will see a number of international stars and orchestras as guest artists to this important Parisian hall. Here is a look at the vocal highlights. Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra continue their exploration of the Ring Cycle with “Siegfried.” The opera {…}

Feb 25, 2018

Plácido Domingo, Angela Gheorghiu & Rolando Villazón Headline Semperoper Dresden’s 2018-19 Season

(Credit: © Semperoper Dresden/Klaus Gigga) The Semperoper Dresden has announced its 2018-19 season featuring a number of superstars and nine new productions of operettas, chamber opera, and grand opera. As always, the following will only cover the operas that will be shown next season and not the ballets that were also included in the season announcement. New Production Arnold Schönberg’ {…}

Feb 17, 2018

New York Philharmonic 2017-18 Review – Die Walküre: Jaap van Zweden & Soloists Deliver Sublime Rendition of Act One of Wagner Masterwork

In 2018-19, Jaap van Zweden, the current Music Director Designate of the New York Philharmonic, will drop the Designate part of that label. And if the concert on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018 is any indication, he is going to be providing audiences with some dazzling music for years to come. In a series of concerts that kicked off on Valentine’s {…}

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