(Credit: Rosa Frank) The Wiener Staatsoper has announced that soprano Vera-Lotte Boecker will sing the role of Micaëla for the premiere of Bizet’s “Carmen,” replacing Olga Kulchynska. Boecker is the second cast change in the production after Piotr Beczała took over the role of Don José replacing Charles Castronovo. Last month there was a COVID-19 outbreak at the opera house {…}
The Royal College of Music (RCM) announced additional details about its upcoming two-part series, Opera Scenes. RCM selected works from across the repertoire that touch on themes of isolation, separation, and resolution. The premiere of Opera Scenes will stream on the College’s YouTube channel and Facebook page on Nov. 27 and 28 at 7:00 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time. The Nov. {…}
(Credit: Chris Singer) Only seven days before the COVID-19 pandemic fell on our heads, American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato was in New York portraying the role of Agrippina at the Metropolitan Opera House. Taking on the role of the cunning queen, DiDonato already had been in the eye of the storm. At that moment very few people really understood well what {…}
Baroque opera was new to me in 1975. When San Francisco Opera announced it would premier a work of Monteverdi, one of the progenitors of Italian opera, I debated whether to audition for another non-singing Super role with the company. I had a whole other life to consider—professional and familial. With nightly rehearsals over the course of six weeks in {…}
Miami Classical Music Festival has announced its summer 2019 season, featuring over three-hundred performers in over fifty performances. We will focus only on opera and other vocal events. Opera The season will open with a double bill of two 21st Century operas, Nico Muhly’s “Dark Sisters” and Osvaldo Golijov’s “Ainadamar.” Performances will be held in the Carl Fisher Auditorium of {…}
Bare Opera has announced its 2018-19 season, which will feature operas from the art forms very beginnings and another from a more recent time. The season starts in November with performances of Monteverdi’s seminal “L’Incoronazione di Poppea.” The production will be directed by David Paul. “He enthusiastically approached me last year with the concept of his edgy production of Poppea {…}
Claudio Monteverdi is by many considered to be the “father of opera.” His greatest works in the genre are among the first to survive, with one of them a major fixture of the standard repertoire. Monteverdi was baptized on May 15, 1567, and developed an extensive career first at the Court of Mantua and then at the Republic of Venice. {…}
The first performance of Monteverdi’s “L’Incoronazione di Poppea” is largely unknown, though the only recorded date is from Dec. 26, 1842. The opera, one of only three from Monteverdi that has survived in its complete form, is among the first to describe actual historical subjects instead of focusing just on mythological characters. The original manuscript does not survive the two {…}
As part of Claudio Monteverdi’s 450th birthday anniversary, Sir John Eliot Gardiner is going on tour to recognize the father of opera. The tour is slated to last a whopping seven months, taking place around the globe in such countries as the UK, Germany, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain and the USA. The tour will essentially feature performances of {…}