The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 2024-25 Season. Here are the vocal performances. Klaus Mäkelä and Jennifer Johnston perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. Performance Dates: Oct. 17-19, 2024 Franz Welser-Möst conducts Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” and a new work by Bernd Richard Deutsch. Limmie Pulliam and Iurii Samoilov are the soloists Performance Dates: Nov. 21 -23, 2025 Fabio {…}
The Philadelphia Orchestra has announced its 2024-25 Season. Here is a look at the vocal performances for the season. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Joyce DiDonato as the featured soloist. Performance Dates: Oct. 3-5, 2024 Riccardo Muti conducts Verdi’s Requiem with soloists Juliana Grigoryan, Isabel De Paoli, Giovanni Sala, and Maharram Huseynov. Performance Dates: Oct. 24-26, {…}
(Photo credit: © ROH 2024/Tristram Kenton) Had a family bust-up over the holidays? Don’t worry – it could be worse. Richard Strauss’ “Elektra,” with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal from his 1903 play of the same, took a dysfunctional family of the opera stage to new extremes, boiling up Sophocles’ tale of matricide in the Freudian pressure cooker of {…}
The Teatro Massimo di Palermo has announced its 2023-24 season. Opera The season opens with Bellini’s “I Capuleti e Montecchi.” Omer Meir Wellber conducts the production by Idan Cohen. The cast includes Maria Kataeva and Anna Pennisi as Romeo and Marina Monzó and Francesca Pia Vitale as Giulietta. Ioan Hotea, Mert Süngü, Marco Spotti, and Gabriele Sagona round out the {…}
Credit: San Francisco Opera On June 4, a Sunday afternoon, everyone was high with anticipation. David Hockney‘s production of R. Strauss’ “Die Frau ohne Schatten” was opening at San Francisco Opera. Since its American premiere in 1959, the work had only been rarely mounted in San Francisco (five times since 1959), or in other houses, in Paris or Vienna, or {…}
(Credit: Neda Navaee) Soprano Nina Stemme was awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal immediately following the June 4 premiere of “Die Frau ohne Schatten.” During an on-stage ceremony, Matthew Shilvock, the General Director of San Francisco Opera, stated, “Nina, your artistry brings a transcendent quality into our world, resonating deeply within our souls. You have led us on countless heroic {…}
On a cloudy California afternoon, Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall was bright with musical radiance. Nina Stemme, the great Swedish dramatic soprano, entered adorned in a red velvet gown. Her very presence cast light. From Wagner to Mahler, and Sigurd von Koch to Kurt Weill, the recital was full of beauty. This was opera royalty, “right here in river city.” Her pianist, {…}
The Berlin Philharmonic has announced its 2023-24 Season. Here is a look at the vocal performances. Iván Fischer conducts Michael Nagy in works by Jörg Widmann and Gustav Mahler. Performance Date: August 26, 2023 Alexander Rudin, Alexander Melnikov, Nadezhda Pavlova, and Olga Pashchenko perform works by Sergei Rachmaninov. Performance Date: August 27, 2023 Robin Ticciati conducts Wu Wei Sheng, Karen {…}
(Credit: Robert Millard) The San Francisco Opera is set to present Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s “Die Frau ohne Schatten” from June 4–28 at the War Memorial Opera House. The work will return to the stage after a 34-year absence and will feature a new production by David Hockney. Former San Francisco Opera Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles conducts {…}
(Photo Credit: Neda Navaee) Soprano Nina Stemme was named an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera following a performance of “Lohengrin” on April 23, 2023. The soprano, who was performing the role of Ortrud in the production, was previously awarded with the distinction of Kammersängerin at the Bayerische Staatsoper back in August of 2022. Stemme was a winner of {…}
(Credit: Neda Navaee) The Bayerische Staatsoper has announced a cast change for its April 6 “Tristan und Isolde” performance. The company said that Nina Stemme will sing the role of Isolde, replacing Elena Pankratova. Stemme is one of the great Wagnerian sopranos of her generation who has performed the role of Isolde around the world including at the Metropolitan Opera {…}