This review is for the performance on Monday, January 14, 2019. This season’s revival of “Aida” is well underway after opening in September of 2018, boasting a compelling cast of artists such as Anita Rachvelishvili and Anna Netrebko. The second cast which reopened the opera’s run earlier this month has re-stoked the fires of excitement and offered audiences freshness to {…}
January is more than halfway done and a lot of companies are starting up again with unique performances. This week’s picks center on works composed in the 20th century and beyond, with one exception. Here’s the list (in alphabetical order by company). As One – Alamo City Opera For two nights (Saturday and Sunday), Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell, and Kimberly {…}
PBS will showcase the Live in HD broadcast of “Aida” from the Metropolitan Opera as part of its Great Performances Series on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019. The broadcast, the first to showcase a performance from the 2018-19 season, will kick off at 12 p.m. EDT and features Anna Netrebko in Verdi´s famed opera. The performance also featured Anita Rachvelishvili as {…}
This week, Debussy’s masterwork “Pelléas et Mélisande” returns to the Metropolitan Opera stage for the first time since 2011. The opera will feature Paul Appleby and Isabel Leonard in the title roles respectively. Appleby will be the 15th Pelléas in Met history while Leonard will be the 17th singer to inhabit the role of his doomed lover Mélisande. Here is {…}
As we enter the second weekend of January the opera schedule starts to get busier around North America, especially with the Prototype Festival in full swing. Many of those works were in last week’s recommendations and they still stand. But there are other major productions worth considering for your opera enjoyment this weekend (in alphabetical order by company). Stinney – {…}
Sonya Yoncheva canceled the final performance of Verdi’s “Otello” at the Metropolitan Opera on Jan. 10, 2019. The soprano canceled about an hour before the curtain, announcing via social media that she had a concerning health-related episode that forced her to withdraw from the final performance. “I am so, so, so sorry I can’t perform tonight for the last Otello {…}
Jorge de León will sing Radamès in “Aida” at the Metropolitan Opera replacing Aleksandrs Antonenko. The Met press office announced that De León will sing the role on Feb. 28, March 4, and March 7. Antonenko was set to reprise the role he performed in the fall. He returns to the Met in March for a revival of “Samson et Dalila.” {…}
The Met Opera will continue its Live in HD series this Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019 with a performance of Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur.” The broadcast, which kicks off 12:55 p.m. Eastern time, will showcase star soprano Anna Netrebko in the title role; this is the second HD transmission for the diva. This will be the Russian diva’s 15th Live in HD broadcast; {…}
This review is for the performance on Jan. 4, 2019. They say three times is a charm but in the case of the Metropolitan Opera, it took four tries to finally put on a production worthy of its legendary stature in the opera world. After three lackluster new productions, the company has finally hit a high note with Sir David McVicar’s 2010 {…}
After the holidays, it is unsurprising that few opera companies will be in action. Yet there are still a few that are willing to bet on audiences wanting opera right away after the break. Metropolitan Opera The company that never sleeps, literally never stopped performing throughout the holidays, continuing its offerings the night and day after Christmas and showcasing its {…}
The Metropolitan Opera has announced that Thomas Lausmann, currently the Head of Music at the Vienna State Opera, will become the Met’s Director of Music Administration at the start of the 2019–20 season. The Met announced that John Fisher, the current Director of Music Administration, decided to step down to resume his freelance musical career. The company noted that he will continue to {…}