(Photo: Eric Woolsey) For their 2024 mainstage summer festival season, Opera Theatre Saint Louis (OTSL) paired two fixtures in top-ten performance frequency, “The Barber of Seville” and “La Bohème,” with two exciting, less offered menu items. Philip Glass’s “Galileo Galilei” (2002) received just its fourth staging anywhere, while George Frideric Händel’s operatic capolavoro, “Julius Caesar” (“Giulio Cesare in Egitto,” 1724) {…}
(Photo credit: Raftermen Photography) Of late, The Atlanta Opera (TAO) makes possible the nearly-impossible. In March, your reviewer summarized the robust health this company enjoys despite the current fiscal climate that shrinks arts organizations. With each gut punch to classical music lovers in the United States—the Metropolitan Opera Guild evaporating and Opera News taking the form of a brief supplement {…}
(Credit: Karen Almond / Met Opera) On Sunday, March 17, the Met Opera hosted the grand finale of the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. Out of an initial group of 1,500 hopefuls, ten standout singers got their chance to shine before their first Met audience. Denyce Graves hosted the event, featuring a special bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green performance. The afternoon {…}
The 2024 Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition has announced the finalists. The finals will be held on March 17 at 3 p.m. and will be hosted by Denyce Graves and there will be a special performance from bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green. Finalists were chosen by a panel of judges comprising artistic leaders from the Met and other companies. {…}
The Houston Grand Opera has announced the semifinalists for the 32nd annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias. The event, which will take place on Feb. 7, 2020 at 7 p.m. at the Wortham Theater Center. Sopranos led the semifinalists with a total of seven participants – Tatiana Carlos, Lindsey Chinn, Amani Cole-Felder, Caitlin Gotimer, Emily Kern, {…}