The holiday season is officially underway. For many, that means going out and buying a plethora of gifts for loved ones. But what about that opera lover in your life? What do you buy him or her? There’s a ton to choose from and this year featured a plethora of amazing recordings to choose from. So to give you a {…}
This weekend, it’s all about new productions. From South America to Europe, three of Verdi’s greatest opera are getting new productions. Meanwhile, Saint-Saëns’ masterpiece is getting a rare performance while the Festival Donizetti is in full swing. Check it out. La Traviata – Teatro Municipal Enrique Buenaventura, Colombia Federico Figueroa directs a new production of “La Traviata” in Cali starring Gabriela {…}
Jonas Kaufmann is set to make his role debut as Eisenstein in “Die Fledermaus.” The tenor will participate in the Dresden Staatskapelle’s annual New Year’s Eve concert, which will be televised worldwide. Kaufmann joins Rachel Willis-Sorensen, who will portray Rosalinde, Elisabeth Kulman as Prince Orlofsky, and Andreas Schager as Alfred. Franz Welser-Moist will conduct the performances the two performances on Dec. 29 and {…}
It’s National Opera Week, so as you can imagine, there are a ton of operas being offered this weekend. So we looked through and picked out the five we feel you have to see no matter what (in alphabetical order by company). You’ll notice that many are slowly but surely drawing to a close and this might just be your {…}
Jonas Kaufmann will appear in his first Live in HD performance at the Met in many years this Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018 as he stars in Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West.” The broadcast, which is scheduled for 12:55 p.m. Eastern time, will feature the tenor as Dick Johnson, singing the final performance of the production this season. Kaufmann will star {…}
Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 was a new beginning for the Metropolitan Opera’s production of “La Fanciulla del West.” While Eva-Maria Westbroek and Zeljko Lucic remained at the center of the drama, a new star would be taking over the mantle of Dick Johnson / Ramirez – tenor Jonas Kaufmann. In many ways, this was THE story of this production and {…}
The Bayerische Staatsoper has announced its video-on-demand schedule, which will feature a total of seven performances starting in Dec. 2018. The first such performance to stream will be Verdi’s “Otello,” featuring Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros. That performance will be streamed on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2018, and will be available on demand Dec. 4 for 24 hours. Smetana’s “The Bartered {…}
It was a special evening at Carnegie Hall. It was the return of Jonas Kaufmann to New York, where he is also slated to return to the Metropolitan Opera this season. So it was fitting the tenor would serve up an appetizer to the New York public in anticipation for his big opera return. The delightful program, which was made up {…}
This Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018, the Metropolitan Opera will bring back Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West,” which incidentally had its world premiere with the company back in 1910. In the context of other Puccini works, this one is seldom performed. For context, “La Bohème,” is the company’s most performed work, with 1300-plus performances in the company’s history. “Tosca,” meanwhile has {…}
The 2018-19 season is about to start with numerous new productions, revivals and world premieres. With a ton of selections to be sure in many of the world’s greatest houses, we whittled it down to the 10 Must-See productions operas that you cannot miss this fall. Medée – Berlin State Opera Sonya Yoncheva takes on her 50th role in Cherubini’s rarely {…}
As the holiday season approaches, a number of new releases will be available this week. Last week we saw the releases of new albums by Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, and the world premiere recording of Anton Rubenstein’s “Moses” and this week’s offerings include an homage to Dmitri Hvorostovsky, a new release for Jonas Kaufmann, a new collaboration between two major {…}