(Photo credit: Karen Almond / Met Opera) This season’s premiere of Met Opera’s “Tosca” features Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, in the titular role, marking her 100th Met performance. Her Met debut was in 2004 as Olympia in Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” and her performances leading up to this season have all been unforgettable, especially Kurzak as Tosca. Her voice alongside tenor {…}
(Credit: Philip Groshong) Cincinnati Opera’s 2024 Summer Festival which took place in July will be broadcast in November via 90.9 WGUC. The broadcasts will be on Sunday at 8 p.m. and can also be heard online at wguc.org. The first broadcast will feature Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” conducted by Dame Jane Glover and starring Elliot Madore, Jessica Faselt, Jessica Rivera, Aaron {…}
The Cincinnati Opera concludes its 2024 Summer Festival with the highly anticipated world stage premiere of Paul McCartney’s “Liverpool Oratorio” at Cincinnati’s historic Music Hall. The classical piece features music and lyrics by Paul McCartney and Carl Davis with all new sets, costumes, lighting, staging, and choreography. The “Liverpool Oratorio” will star Andrew Owens, Jacqueline Echols McCarley, Kayleigh Decker, Kevin Short, {…}
The Washington Opera Society will commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Passing of Giacomo Puccini’s with “The Girl of the Golden West.” The performance will be showcased on May 28 at the Atrium of the Embassy of France and will feature Jonathan Burton as Dick Johnson, Kristin Sampson as Minnie, Kevin Short as Jack Rance, Michael Butler as Nick, Andrew {…}
Perhaps it was the eclipse, an event typically devoid of human influence, yet on the evening of April 8, 2024, it seemed to cast an otherworldly aura over Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmons’ production of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” The production premiered at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2019 before moving to the Met to sold-out audiences {…}
After this summer’s “Un Ballo in Maschera,” the forces behind the Dutch label Pentatone are turning their attention to another heavy-hitter from the Italian repertoire: with “Tosca” they enter the well-trodden territory of one of the most recorded operas ever. Yet, Carlo Montanaro and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester do not pretend to proverbially reinvent the wheel the way Rostropovich famously did in {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard / Met Opera) The Metropolitan Opera is in the midst of reviving “Un Ballo in Maschera” for the first time since 2015. Considered one of Verdi’s masterpieces, the work has some of the greatest arias and ensembles the composer ever wrote. For this revival, the Met brought a solid cast in an unfortunate production that should have {…}
Cincinnati Opera has announced its 2024 Summer Festival, which will take place from June 13 to July 27, 2024. The season opens with Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” which will star Elliot Madore, Jessica Faselt, Jessica Rivera, Aaron Blake, Christian Pursell, Erin Keesy, Joseph Parrish, and bass Patrick Guetti. Alison Moritz directs and Dame Jane Glover conducts. Performance Dates: June 13 & 15, 2024 Vderi’s {…}
(Credit: KarenAlmond/Metropolitan Opera) A “shabby little shocker.” That’s how musicologist Joseph Kerman described Puccini’s “Tosca.” Shabby? No. A little shocker? No. It’s a big shocker. Perhaps we’ve become inured to how dark and violent “Tosca” is with scenes of rape, murder, torture, and suicide. There was no mistaking the grittiness of Puccini’s fast-paced thriller at the Metropolitan Opera. The October {…}
Florida-based Frost Opera Theater and the Frost Symphony Orchestra are set to present the world premiere of Michael Dellaira and J.D. McClatchy’s “The Leopard” on March 5, 2022. The opera which is based on the 1958 novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (which was the basis for the famed film by Luchino Visconti) will be conducted by Gerard Schwarz and {…}
This week audiences will get a chance to hear two solo albums from some of the most exciting artists in the industry, world premiere recordings, and a rarely performed opera, among others. Here is a look at the new releases: Élégie Sony Classical will release Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili’s second album. The new album will showcase Rachvelishvili in the song {…}