The New York Philharmonic has announced its new 2020-21 season, featuring number of orchestral and vocal works. For the purpose of this article we will focus only on vocal works. Here is a look: In time for the holiday season, Fabio Biondi conducts concert performances of Händel’s “Messiah” with soloists soprano Liv Redpath, mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey, tenor John Matthew Myers {…}
(Credit: Guergana Damianova / Opera de Paris) Attending a French opera in Paris is always a remarkable experience; in this case, as the conductor and most of the cast were French you get a special taste of French style and diction that is difficult to find anywhere else. On this occasion, the Paris Opera mounted Robert Carsen’s famed production of {…}
(Credit: Dario Acosta) Opéra National de Paris has opened its doors for the first time in months and will present Offenbach and Barbier’s opera “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” today, January 25, 2020, at the Opéra Bastille, per an official statement on the company’s website. This is the first performance of “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” of the season after an earlier one was {…}
(Credit: Jiyang Chen) The Opéra National de Paris has canceled the opening night performance of Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” scheduled for January 21 at the Opéra Bastille, according to the official statement on the company’s website. The cancellation came as a result of the strike notice against the French government pension reform and is the latest in a series of {…}
Two rarities make up this week’s major releases. One is a world premiere recording and the other is a rarely performed choral piece. Both recordings have incredibly well-established casts led by two masters. Here are our recommendations for this week’s major releases. L’Ange de Nisida Donizetti’s rediscovered work gets it world premiere recording from a live performance at the Royal Opera {…}
Opera Rara has released the world premiere recording of Donizetti’s “L’Ange de Nisida.” The new recording was taken from two concert performances of the work in July 2018 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Opera Rara’s Artistic Director Sir Mark Elder leading the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in his ninth Donizetti title for the company. The new {…}
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 {…}
92Y’s Tisch Center for the Arts is proud to launch its 2018-19 concert season with “East West Street.” The Oct. 14 performance will bring the North American premiere of “East West Street: A Song of Good and Evil,” the first event in 92Y’s new interdisciplinary Inflection series. Created by award-winning author/human-rights lawyer Philippe Sands, who also narrates, the multimedia work {…}
PBS will showcase the Live in HD broadcast of “Cendrillon” from the Metropolitan Opera as part of its Great Performances Series on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2018. The broadcast will kick off at 12 p.m. EDT and features Joyce DiDonato, Alice Coote, Kathleen Kim, Stephanie Blythe, and Laurent Naouri in the Massenet adaptation of “Cinderella.” The Live in HD broadcast was {…}
Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” is arguably the composer’s best work – an extended love duet with beautiful melodies that capture the essence of Shakespeare’s classic tale, if not its complexity. For years, the Met showcased a production that did draw closer to the greatness of Shakespeare, before replacing it with Bartlett Sher’s current interpretation. Sher’s version gets the job done {…}
Jules Massenet is one of the great composers that can’t be called an auteur in the traditional sense. When you go to any performance of music by virtually any composer, you can pretty much guarantee that said composer’s voice will come through consistently even if the means or style deviates ever so slightly. Verdi remains Verdi whether you are listening to {…}