Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” is one of the most popular operas ever written. According to OperaBase, the work was the second most performed in 2015-16, a trend likely to continue into the upcoming seasons. For its 2017-18 rendition of the opera, the Metropolitan Opera is doing something quite unusual, at least by the company’s standards – it is showing the famed {…}
Maestro Carlo Rizzi has led over 180 performances at the Met and when all is said and done in 2017-18, he will have topped 200 performances with the company. He has led works by such composers from a vast range of Italian composers including Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti, and Rossini. Of all the works he has conducted, “La Bohème” has been {…}
“Les Contes d’Hoffmann,” or “The Tales of Hoffmann,” has always been a Metropolitan Opera favorite, receiving performances in every single decade since it 1913 debut at the big house. The opera returns this season, opening on Sept. 26 for nine performances featuring star tenor Vittorio Grigolo in the lead role and one which he has performed previously at the house {…}
A Metropolitan Opera season will start with Bellini’s “Norma” for the third time in its history when Sondra Radvanovsky, who conquered the role at the Met a few years back, takes it on on Sept. 25, 2017. Radvanovsky will join a long line of famous sopranos that have taken on the opera with the company, beginning with Lilli Lehman, who {…}
Peter Allen was not simply “another voice” on the radio, but, rather, an exemplar of how to be a voice on the radio. Allen, who passed away last October and would have turned 97 on September 17, spent 29 seasons in The Metropolitan Opera’s broadcast booth as host of the Saturday matinée radio broadcasts (1975-2004). He filled the airwaves with {…}
Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra” was supposed to be an opera for the ages. But it was not to be. Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera for the opening of its new house at Lincoln Center, the opera’s Sept. 16, 1966, world premiere is widely remembered as a colossal failure, not only because the Franco Zeffirelli production was filled with one {…}
Rihab Chaieb is a rising star in the opera world having won the 2016 Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition and becoming a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program. The Tunisian mezzo-soprano has quickly earned praise singing a number of houses including the Canadian Opera Company where she was a member of the Ensemble Studio and participant in {…}
Ramón Vargas is one of the great artists of the past few decades. Born on Sept. 11, 1960, the tenor has managed an international career in a wide range of repertoire from the great Bel Canto roles through some more dramatic territory in recent years. Hailing from México City, the tenor started singing at age nine and would go on {…}
The Metropolitan Opera has released the trailer for Susan Froemke’s new documentary “The Opera House.” The new documentary chronicles the creation of the Met’s new home in Lincoln Center during a period of momentous change for New York City. The film will include interviews with Leontyne Price and other legends who saw the building of the new house. The film will make {…}
The Metropolitan Opera Guild is doing its best to set up the next generation of opera administrators by creating DaCapo (Developing Artistic and Creative Administrative Professionals) Arts Administration Program. The program is set to be a two-day intensive on Oct. 14 and 15 that will teach students about a wide array of topics including Advanced Planning & Production, Crisis Management, {…}
The Metropolitan Opera and New York Film Festival are teaming up to showcase a new documentary about the company’s history at the middle of the 20th century. Directed by Susan Froemke, “The Opera House,” per a press release, “surveys a remarkable period of the company’s rich history and a time of great change for New York.” It draws on rarely {…}