Julia Bullock, Christine Goerke & Christian Gerhaher Lead White Lights 2019 Festival

The White Lights Festival has announced its 2019 festival featuring numerous experimental works and a number of operatic and vocal evenings. For this article, we will only announce vocal events. “En Masse,” a work created by Yaron Lifschitz with the Circa Ensemble, is set to feature selections by Swedish composer Klara Lewis interspersed with selections from Schubert’s “Winterreise” and “Schwanengesang.” Performance {…}

Jun 14, 2019

Janai Brugger, Karen Slack, Ginger Costa-Jackson Star In Top 5 Operas To See This Weekend (North America)

(Credit: Suzanne Vinnik / Dario Acosta) This weekend’s recommendations are full of variety of repertory spread across the U.S. including two essential world premieres and the performance of a rare work. All of them feature tremendous star power. Here are the five operas that we recommend for your Father’s Day celebration (in alphabetical order by company). The Marriage of Figaro {…}

May 23, 2019

Julia Bullock & Marc Laho Lead Opéra De Lille’s 2019-20 Season

The Opéra de Lille has announced its 2019-20 season featuring a number of rare works and one of the great masterpieces of the canon. Purcell’s “The Indian Queen” opens the season with Anna Dennis, Tristan Hambleton, Hugo Hymas, Gareth John, Rowan Pierce, Nick Pritchard, Christopher Ettridge, Elisabeth Hopper, James McGregor, Julie Legrand, Ben Porter, and Jules Werner. Emmanuelle Haïm conducts Guy Cassiers’ production. {…}

May 14, 2019

Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann & Placido Domingo Highlight Royal Opera’s 2019-20 Season

The Royal Opera House has announced its 2019-20 Season featuring some of the greatest singers in the world in 17 new productions of both ballet and opera. For this article, we will only focus on opera performances. Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” opens the 2019-20 season with Erwin Schrott in the title role alongside Roberto Tagliavini, Malin Byström, Christine Rice. Daniel Behle, Emanuele D’Aguanno, Louise Alder, Lars Woldt, {…}

Mar 19, 2019

Opera Forward Festival Review 2019: Girls of the Golden West

The 1848 Californian gold rush has an almost mythical place in American cultural history, with its associations of lucky strikes and the pioneering spirit, as well as more negative connotations of lawlessness, hard toil and poverty for those who were not so lucky. It has spawned Hollywood films, documentaries, books and songs, while opera-goers are also likely to associate it {…}

Mar 19, 2019

Magdalena Kožená, Michael Spyres & Eric Cutler Hightlight La Monnaie’s 2019-20 Season

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 {…}

Mar 15, 2019

Top 5 Operas to See This Weekend – International (3/15-17)

This weekend is filled with exciting casts, classic operas, and two rare gems. One is an early work and the other is a new modern opera, which had its world premiere last year. Here is a look at what OperaWire recommends you see this weekend. Tosca – Emirates Palace Auditorium, Abu Dhabi Kristine Opolais makes her Arab debut singing the {…}

Mar 14, 2019

Julia Bullock, Sasha Cooke & Emily Magee Highlight San Francisco Symphony’s 2019-20 Season

San Francisco Symphony has announced its 2019-20 season, which marks the 25th and final season of Michael Tilson Thomas’ distinguished tenure as Music Director. For the purposes of this article, we will focus primarily on vocal performances. The season will start off with a concert led by Michael Tilson Thomas featuring tenor Nicholas Phan and cellist Oliver Herbert, along with {…}

Mar 7, 2019

Julia Bullock To Host ALL ARTS Broadcasts, Starting with ‘Katia Kabanova’

Soprano Julia Bullock will take the charge of hosting a wide range of opera content on the newly formed ALL ARTS broadcast channel and streaming platform. ALL ARTS is a new arts platform from WNET that offers free streaming to viewers. The channel will launch its opera content with the Théâtres des Bouffes du Nord’s production of “Katia Kabanova.” The {…}

Feb 19, 2019

Golda Schultz, Julia Bullock & Gustavo Dudamel Headline LA Philharmonic’s 2019-20 Season

The LA Philharmonic has announced its 2019-20 season featuring numerous world premieres and a number of superstars. Here is a look at what the season has to offer. Please note that we have only announced the vocal performances. Julia Bullock headlines a concert that includes Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” Gershwin’s Concerto in F, the world premiere of Andre Previn’s {…}

Jun 26, 2018

CD / DVD Releases – Week of June 25: Anna Netrebko & Gregory Kunde Lead New Releases

This week we see the release of two full operas and a compilation by Anna Netrebko. Here is a look at what this week will offer. Il Trovatore The Royal Opera and Opus Arte will release a production of Verdi’s ‘Il Trovatore” starring Gregory Kunde, Anita Rachvelshvili, Lianna Haroutounian, and Vitaly Bilyy. Richard Farnes conducts the production, which was directed {…}