The Mozarteum has announced its slate for Mozart Week in 2021, set to take place between Jan. 21 and 31. For the purposes of this article, our focus will be solely on vocal performances. The festivities will kick off with a concert performance moderated by Festival Director Rolando Villazón and starring baritone Simon Keenlyside, flutist Mathilde Calderini, and harpist Xavier {…}
This week’s top 10 will feature numerous selections ranging from baroque operas to more modern works, including one by Rufus Wainwright. Those who are looking for some star power can bank on a Leontyne Price special flanked by Giuseppe Giacomini and Leo Nucci. Or maybe you want some comedic gold, in which case we have two distinct productions and four {…}
This week climaxes in World Opera Day on Oct. 25. So in leading up to that momentous celebration (which will feature half of the entries on this list), our recommendations will spotlight diversity in the opera world, offering up audiences a chance to check out works by and featuring BIPOC composers and performers as well as unique performance experiences that {…}
This week, audiences can experience world premiere recordings, a debut album, and a number of rising stars. Here are this week’s must-streamed releases. L’Ange de Nisida Dynamic releases the world premiere DVD of the first-ever staging of the reconstructed “L’Ange de Nisida.” The work, which was long-presumed-lost semiserious opera, was directed by Francesco Micheli and starred Lidia Fridman, Konu Kim, {…}
(Credits: Michael Cooper / Boston Symphony Orchestra official website / Jiyang Chen / Fay Fox OperaVision has announced, in collaboration with Opera Europa, Opera America, Ópera Latinoamérica, and Opera For Peace, the final program for the big World Opera Day Celebration concert on Oct. 25, 2020. The concert is structured in four acts, in four different time zones. The first {…}
San Francisco Opera has announced its streaming slate for the month of October. The company will kick things off with “Tosca” in a production from 2014 starring Lianna Harooutounian in the title role alongside Brian Jagde and Mark Delavan as Cavaradossi and Scarpia, respectively. Riccardo Frizza conducted the production by Thierry Bosquet. Streaming Dates: Oct. 10-11, 2020 Ferruccio Furlanetto, Samuel {…}
(Credit: Musacchio & Ianniello) The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy has announced its 2020-21 season. For the purposes of this article, we will only focus on the vocal performances. The season opens with Gerhild Romberger and Clay Hilley performing Bruckner’s “Te Deum” and Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde.” Antonio Pappano conducts. Performance Dates: Oct. 16-18, 2020 {…}
(Credits: Sandrine Expilly / Bertie Watson) The Gramophone has announced its 2020 Awards. The top Opera recording went to the Erato’s release of Handel’s “Agrippina”, featuring Joyce DiDonato, Elsa Benoit, Luca Pisaroni, Franco Fagioli, Jakub Józef Orliński, Andrea Mastroni, Carlo Vistoli, Biagio Pizzuti, and Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Maxim Emelyanychev conducted the Il Pomo d’Oro orchestra. Sandrine Piau received the Recital prize {…}
October 25 marks World Opera Day 2020, and in celebrating the impact the art-form has had worldwide, Opera Europa has partnered with several international organizations to bring opera to audiences across the globe. The theme for their 2020 edition pays tribute to Beethoven on the 250th year since his birth. To that end, online platform OperaVision will stream three different {…}
(Credit: Frances Marshall) In 1353, a few years after the Black Death raged in Florence, Giovanni Boccaccio finished “The Decameron,” 100 stories told by seven women and three men holed up in a countryside villa as they awaited the passing of the plague. It’s a classic of literature, many times bawdy, sometimes tragic, and extremely apropos considering our present-day pandemic. {…}
Credit: Gregor Hohenberg/Sony Gramophone has announced the recordings that have advanced to the final round of the Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2020. For the purpose of this article, we will focus on vocal, choral, and opera categories. The first contestant in the opera category is the Barber’s “Vanessa,” performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Chorus, under the musical {…}