Sonya Headlam, Angela Meade, J’Nai Bridges, & Won Whi Choi Star in Trinity Church’s 2025 Spring Season

(Photo credits: Rosenberg, IMG Artists, & UIA Talent) Trinity Church has unveiled its 2025 spring season. For the purposes of this article only classical vocal concerts are included. Soprano Sonya Headlam opens the season in “Sunday Afternoon Music,” featuring works by Ignatius Sancho, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Trevor Weston, Peter Ashbourne, and others. Performance Date: February 2, 2025 (St Paul’s {…}

Dec 18, 2024

CD Review: Gordon Getty’s ‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips’

The score of Gordon Getty’s “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” breathes all the unpretentiously sweet melancholy of its many predecessors – from James Hilton’s 1933 novella of the same title to subsequent adaptations as, among others, radio plays and lavishly cast movie musicals. Yet it is not exactly the feel-good opera advertised in Pentatone’s press release; rather, the eponymous Mr. Chips – {…}

Oct 7, 2024

Metropolitan Opera 2024-25 Review: Tosca

(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 {…}

Oct 2, 2024

Cincinnati Opera to Broadcast 2024 Season

(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 {…}

Jul 5, 2024

Cincinnati Opera to Present Paul McCartney’s ‘Liverpool Oratorio’

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, {…}

May 18, 2024

Washington Opera Society to Present ‘The Girl of the Golden West’

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 {…}

Apr 12, 2024

Metropolitan Opera 2023-24 Review: Fire Shut Up in My Bones

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 {…}

Nov 16, 2023

CD Review: Pentatone’s ‘Tosca’

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 {…}

Oct 25, 2023

Metropolitan Opera 2023-24 Review: Un Ballo in Maschera

(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 {…}

Sep 23, 2023

Paul McCartney, Elliot Madore & Gilda Fiume Lead Cincinnati Opera’s 2024 Season

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 {…}

Oct 6, 2022

Metropolitan Opera 2022-23 Review: Tosca

(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 {…}