Opera Australia has announced its Winter Season featuring four productions. The season opens with Verdi’s “Aida“ directed by Dave Livermore and conducted by Lorenzo Passerini and Tahu Matheson. The production stars Leah Crocetto in the title role; Elena Gabouri as Amneris; Stefano La Colla and Najmiddin Mavlyanov sharing the role of Radamès; and Warwick Fyfe and Michael Honeyman as Amonasro. Performance {…}
Opera Australia has announced a three-month COVID-safe season that includes two productions never before performed by the Company. The organization will reduce venue capacities by 50 percent and will implement physically-distanced theater seating, regular cleaning of high-traffic and high-touch areas with hospital-grade disinfectant, and hand sanitizer stations in frequently accessed areas and near bathroom facilities. There will also be COVID-19 {…}
(Credit: Catherine Ashmore / Royal Opera House) At the tender age of 12, Jonathan Kent’s 2004 production of Tosca is among the fledglings of the Royal Opera roster. Visually simplistic and at times homogeneous, it eschews the archetypical velvet red and gleaming gold numerous incarnations of the opera take in favor of a dusky navy that enrobes the Sant’Andrea church, {…}
Marco Vratogna was let go by the Wiener Staatsoper in the upcoming revival of “Andrea Chénier.” According to Vratogna’s manager, the baritone was written out of Friday’s big-screen broadcast of “Andrea Chénier” for turning up late for rehearsal while the company noted that the baritone never turned up. According to Vratogna’s team, the baritone notified the company that he would {…}
Bravo! Vail, one of the world’s premier music festivals, has announced its first original opera production, a new, fully-staged production of Puccini’s “Tosca.” The production custom-designed for the outdoor Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater is set to be lead by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Bravo! Vail Festival Chorus, and the Colorado Children’s Chorus. Julianna Di Giacomo sings the title {…}
It’s the third weekend of the year and we have a number of great productions to recommend. For this weekend, we’re looking at three of Puccini’s most popular operas and two lesser-known classics that are getting new productions. La Bohème – Australian Opera, Australia Joyce El-Khoury takes on the title role of Mimì alongside Ivan Magrì as Rodolfo. Nicholas Milton conducts the production {…}
The week sees a number of high profile releases including a world premiere, an exciting role debut, a rarely performed gem, and an innovative production from one of the world’s greatest filmmakers. L’Invisible The world premiere recording of Albert Reimann’s new opera “L’Invisible” will be released by Oehms Classics from the Deutsche Oper Berlin. The new CD, which was recorded from {…}
The Opera Royal del Wallonie-Liege has announced its 2018-19 season featuring five new productions and nine showcases in total. The season contains a number of rarely performed works in addition to repertoire staples featuring many prominent and rising stars. Here is a look. Productions Stefano Vizioli directs Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” with Fabio Sartori in the title role and Violetta Urmana as {…}
Sony Classical has announced the release of Verdi’s “Otello” from the Royal Opera House. The production, which premiered last summer at the Royal Opera, stars Jonas Kaufmann in his role debut, Maria Agresta, and Marco Vratogna. Antonio Pappano conducted the production, which was directed by Keith Warner. When the production premiered OperaWire noted, “Jonas Kaufmann Cements His Legacy As One {…}
This weekend will see opera houses in full swing presenting classics and new modern masterpieces. For this weekend preview, we’ve gone to Europe, South America, and Asia as many leading stars are performing around the world. Three Sisters – Teatro Colón, Argentina Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös’ opera opens the Teatro Colón in a new production by Rubén Szuchmacher. Jovita Vaskeviciute, Anna Lapkovskaja, {…}
Anja Harteros. Anja Harteros. Anja Harteros. Yes, reading that isn’t very interesting. Listening to her and experiencing her is quite a different story. The German soprano was nothing short of sensational on a starry Saturday opening night of a revival of the Robert Carsen production of “Tosca” at the Zurich Opera. It was recently reported that Harteros has stopped singing {…}