(Photo credit: Glyndebourne’s own official trailer highlights its festival as “No Ordinary Opera”. Certainly, the staging for “Tristan und Isolde” is far from ordinary, courtesy of a visually entrancing setting by Ronald Aeschlimann. The performers are basically encased in an elliptical vortex-type form of concentric circles, which I interpreted to be a depiction of some portal-like presence intended to illustrate {…}
The Finnish National Opera has announced its 2024-25 season. Premieres Leevi Madetoja’s “The Ostrobothnians”, which is known as Finland’s “national opera” will be directed by director Paavo Westerberg. The cast will include Jukka Rasilainen, Ville Rusanen, Jussi Vänttinen, Johanna Lehesvuori, Maria Turunen, Iida Antola, Päivi Nisula, Tuomas Pursio, Aarne Pelkonen, Ilkka Hämäläinen and Mika Pohjonen. The Orchestra of the Finnish National {…}
The Canadian Opera Company is set to open its 2023-24 with Beethoven’s “Fidelio.” The opera, which will run from Sept. 29 to Oct. 20, 2023, will be directed by Matthew Ozawa. In a statement, the director said, “I would say the biggest takeaway [I would hope for audiences] is that someone comes away from Fidelio reminded that they have the {…}
The 2024 Glyndebourne Festival has been announced celebrating its 90th season. The season will open with a new production of Bizet’s “Carmen,” directed by Diane Paulus in her Glyndebourne directorial debut. Music Director Robin Ticciati and conductor Anja Bihlmaier will share conducting duties with two casts. The first cast will include mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb in the role of Carmen and {…}
The Bayerische Staatsoper has announced a cast change for its performance of “Die Frau ohne Schatten” on July 31. The company announced that Nina Stemme fell ill and as a result, will be replaced by Miina-Liisa Värelä. Due to short notice, the company had to postpone the performance a few hours in order to allow Värelä to arrive in Munich. {…}
The Orquesta and Coro Nacionales de España have announced their 2022-23 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances for the season. The season opens with György Ligeti’s Requiem and Richard Strauss’ Eine Alpensinfonie conducted by David Afkham with soloists Jenny Daviet and Barbara Kozelj. Performance Dates: Sept. 23-25, 2022 György Ligeti’s Atmosphères and Antonín Dvořák’s Te Deum and {…}
The Finnish National Opera has announced its 2022-23 Season featuring new productions and classic opera. Here is a look at the opera productions for the season. “Between” features music by Kaija Saariaho, Matias Vestergård, and Sebastian Hilli. Clément Mao-Takacs conducts a cast that includes Thomas Kellner, Tuuli Lindeberg, and Peter Herresthal. Performance Dates: August 31-Sept. 3, 2022 “CircOpera 2.0″ will {…}
The Seattle Symphony has announced its 2022-23 season featuring several international performers. Here is a look at the vocal performance. Enrique Lopez-Yañez conducts José Sibaja and Mónica Ábrego in a program of Latin American music. Performance Dates: Oct. 14 & 16, 2022 Tan Dun conducts his piece “Buddha Passion” with Sen Guo, Huiling Zhu, Kang Wang, Yupeng Wang, Batubagen, and Chen Yining. {…}
The Los Angeles Philharmonic has announced its 2022-23 season. For the purposes of this article, we will only focus on operatic and choral performances. Gustavo Dudamel Leads “Songs of the Americas” in a program that will include music by Abreu, Bor, Esteve, Ortiz, and Villa-Lobos with the Tambuco Percussion Ensemble and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Performance Dates: Sept. 30- {…}
The Gran Teatre del Liceu has announced cast changes for its upcoming production of Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos.” The company announced that due to an injury, Iréne Theorin has canceled her participation in the title role. As a result, soprano Miina-Liisa Varela will sing the role of Primadonna (Ariadne). Additionally, Brandon Jovanovich has been forced to cancel his participation in {…}
(Credit: © Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. Photo: Bill Cooper) Glyndebourne’s final production of this year’s festival is a semi-staged realization of Richard Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde,” conceived by Daniel Dooner and featuring Glyndebourne music director Robin Ticciati in the pit, accompanied by their resident orchestra the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It’s a production that boldly sets out several role debuts, in Simon {…}