(Photo: Beth Bergman) On Friday, February 20, 2026, the Kaufman Music Center hosted the finals of the George and Nora London Foundation Competition. Ten up-and-coming vocalists from the U.S. and Canada took the stage, hoping to win cash prizes and earn bragging rights in one of the top singing contests. Since 1971, the George and Nora London Foundation Competition has {…}
Opera Omaha has announced its 2026-27 season The season opens with Opera Outdoors. Performance Date: August 29, 2026 at Stinson Park Will Liverman will perform in concert. Performance Date: Sept. 27, 2026 at Slowdown Karen Chia-ling Ho, Demetrious Sampson, Susanne Burgess, Darren Drone, Johnathan McCullough, Nicholas Newton, and James Demler star in Puccini’s “La Bohème.” Rebecca Herman directs and Jonathan Brandani {…}
(Photo credit: Dario Acosta) One librettist, one actor, four singers, and ten composers join forces to make opera in a brand-new way as Opera Philadelphia presents the world premiere of “Complications in Sue.” This new opera unfolds in 10 vignettes by Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning playwright Michael R. Jackson in his operatic debut. Each scene takes place in a different {…}
Nicholas Newton has been named the 2025 Marian Anderson Vocal Award. Named for the groundbreaking African American contralto, the award recognizes a young American singer in opera, oratorio, or recital repertory and is given annually by the Kennedy Center, offering its winner a cash prize, a residency at Washington’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and a recital presented by {…}
(Photo: Vincent Pontent) Few operas have a more melancholic plot than this one: two brothers, twins with different fathers– one must die so the other can live. The twist? The brother destined to die happens to be immortal. In the end, they are forever united in the sky. Rameau’s “Castor et Pollux” is one of history’s great musical triumphs, and {…}
The Boston Baroque has announced its 2024-25 season. Haydn’s “Die Schöpfung” is set to start Hera Hyesang Park, Paul Appleby, and Nicholas Newton. Performance Dates: Oct. 4 & 5, 2024 Handel’s “Messiah” will include Maya Kherani, Avery Amereau, Omar Najmi, and Jesse Blumberg, Performance Dates: Dec 7 & 8, 2024 Erin Morley performs a program of Beethoven and Mozart. Performance {…}
Photo: Michael Bishop Houston Grand Opera’s season premiere, “Intelligence,” is not just another opera to take in – it’s an experience to be absorbed. It masterfully fulfills art’s big-picture role: sparking dialogues and bridging emotional divides, even when the discussions are challenging and the ties seem broken. This riveting work is realized through the collective genius of composer Jake Heggie, {…}
Photo credit: © SF/Marco Borrell It might be unfair to name Purcell as the composer of “The Indian Queen.” The opera, left unfinished, has been restored from the composer’s fragments mostly through the efforts of Teodor Currentzis and Peter Sellars. They managed to give some theatrical shape to the arias and added music from elsewhere in Purcell’s corpus that made {…}
(Credit: Kia Caldwell / HGO official website) The Houston Grand Opera is set to world premiere Joel Thompson and Andrea Davis Pinkney’s “The Snowy Day.” The opera, which is based on a book by Ezra Jack Keats, will star Karen Slack, Raven McMillon, Nicholas Newton, Elena Villalón, Blake Denson, Cory McGee, Andres Acosta, and Ricardo Garcia. HGO’s Artistic and Music {…}
The Houston Grand Opera has announced its 2021-22 season, which will feature six productions. It all starts with Bizet’s “Carmen” starring Carolyn Sproule, Richard Trey Smagur, Christian Pursell, and Heidi Stober. Lidiya Yankovskaya conducts a production directed by Rob Ashford. Performance Dates: Oct. 22 – Nov. 7, 2021 Next up is the world premiere of “The Snowy Day.” The new {…}
This is it. Next week will bring us into the traditional fall opera season where most opera companies would have initially started to open up their initial productions. In Europe, this trend will continue. In North America, it won’t. So the streaming will continue in unique and diverse formats. This week’s recommendations are no different. As always, don’t forget to {…}
