Rhode Island’s Newport Classical has announced its 2024-25 Chamber Series. Here is a rundown of the vocal performances on offer. Baritone Markel Reed takes on a program featuring works by Brahms, Benjamin Moore, Poulenc, Bonds, and Terence Blanchard. A former member of Utah Opera’s Resident Artist Program, Reed has performed with such companies as the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis {…}
Composer Edmund Cionek and librettist Maryanne Bertollo’s “Returning; The Ordeal of Olive Oatman,” makes its world premiere with Tribeca New Music at the National Opera Center on Oct. 2. “Returning; The Ordeal of Olive Oatman,” is based on the true story of a Mormon girl taken captive by Native Americans, in the Southwestern USA in 1851. The opera depicts the {…}
The Theater St. Gallen is set to present Kris Defoort and Peter van Kraaij’s “The Time of Our Singing.” The opera, which will premiere on March 11, 2023, is set to run through April 23, 2023, for a total of six performances. It will star Claron McFadden, Mark S. Doss, Kristján Jóhannesson, Joshua Stewart, Naomi Simmonds, Markel Reed, Jennifer Panara, {…}
Photo credit: James Elliott On Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, New York’s New Camerata Opera staged a double-bill featuring two French one-act operas, Lili Boulanger’s “Faust et Hélène” and Maurice Ravel’s “L’heure Espagnole.” The company, known for its fun and immersive productions, brought these relatively obscure works to the Irondale Center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The venue is beautifully decrepit and {…}
Four of New York’s rising opera stars are set to perform a program of popular love songs from classical to ragtime and much in between at Broadway’s Supper Club, Feinstein’s/54Below on March 20, 2022. The featured artists have performed at the Metropolitan Opera in recent runaway productions. Slated to sing are tenor Christian Mark Gibbs (Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess”/Met and Ricky {…}
Athlone Artists has announced that baritone Markel Reed has joined its roster of talent. Hailing from Charlotte, North Carolina, Reed grew up singing in church. His introduction to classical music came when performed as a soloist for his high school’s all-women’s vocal ensemble, and after graduating from Oakwood University, he was offered a position teaching at the University of Kentucky {…}