The Dallas Opera has announced its 2019-20 season and it features some of the most diverse programming of any season announcement to date. The proceedings kick off with Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” The classic opera will feature Paolo Fanale, Andrea Carroll, Markus Werba, Olga Pudova, and Morris Robinson, among others. Emmanuel Villaume conducts the score in a production originally directed {…}
Baritone Alexander Birch Elliott is set to make his Houston Grand Opera debut when he replaces Mariusz Kwiecien in the company’s production of “The Pearl Fishers.” Per a press release, Kwiecien, who was set to take on the role of Zurga, has withdrawn “due to personal circumstances.” Elliott also replaced Kwiecien at the Met Opera’s recent revival of the work. {…}
The Metropolitan Opera has announced that Alexander Birch Elliott will sing the remaining performances of “Les Pêcheurs de Perles.” Mariusz Kwiecien, who was originally cast, as Zurga will sit out due to illness. Kwiecien reportedly sang the first three performances, but constantly withdrew at the first interval due to his illness. The Polish baritone had sung the original run of {…}
On Wednesday, November 14, 2018, the Metropolitan Opera opened this season’s production of Georges Bizet’s “Le Pecheurs de Perles.” This was the third time that the Bizet opera was revived at the Met after the successful showcase a few seasons ago starring Diana Damrau, Matthew Polenzani, and Mariusz Kwiecien. And was the case during that run, this year’s take on {…}
For just the third time in Metropolitan Opera history, Bizet’s “Les Pêcheurs de Perles” will receive a revival. The opera had its Met premiere on Jan. 11, 1896, but only two of its acts were performed. The first full performance of the opera would have to wait 20 years when it appeared on opening night, Nov. 13, 1916. The cast {…}
For many opera lovers appalled by the excesses of regie theater, concert performances are an appealing alternative. Singers standing in sackcloth and rags are infinitely preferable to Hans Neuenfels’ whisker-twitching “Lohengrin” rats or Claus Guth rocketing Rodolfo into outer-space in a South Park Kenny space suit. The problem is that as Richard Strauss and Clemens Krauss wittily explained in “Capriccio,” opera has {…}
American baritone Craig Verm will take over the run of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” at the Dallas Opera. The company announced that Verm will sing the title role in the final three performances, replacing the originally scheduled Mariusz Kwiecien who was forced to cancel due to illness. Originally scheduled to sing the role of Masetto, Verm will be replaced by bass-baritone {…}
The Bayerische Staatsoper has announced its 2018-19 season, which is set to include eight new productions and a number of revival productions. The season will also include a number of concert performances as well as recitals in the company’s summer festival. Here is a look at all the operatic events. New Productions Amélie Niermeyer directs a new production of Verdi’s {…}
It was Latin night at the Met on Friday, Dec. 29, 2017, with three Latin American artists headlining a revival of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro.” Ailyn Pérez, Isabel Leonard, and Nadine Sierra all topped the billing of a cast that also included two Eastern Europeans, Ildar Abdrazakov and Mariusz Kwiecien, as Figaro and the Count Almaviva respectively. To put {…}
It’s going to be a busy December with the Met showcasing a number of revivals leading up to a major new production on the final day of the year. The first work to makes its return to the repertoire is one of its finest (it was even named the Greatest Opera of All Time in a recent survey) – Mozart’s {…}
There have been a good number of performances of “The Pearl Fishers,” or “Les Pêcheurs de Perles,” around the country in recent years. Peggy Woolcock’s English National Opera production was seen at the Metropolitan Opera and LA Opera while the late Lee Blakely’s version was in Santa Fe’s 2012 season. The production viewed in probably the most locales is one {…}