Lyric Opera of Chicago announced its 2018-19 season today, marking the fourth planned together by general director Anthony Freud and music director Sir Andrew Davis. Members of the media, including this OperaWire writer, were treated to a discussion with both gentlemen on the stage with the set of “I Puritani” in the backdrop. Here are some notes and highlights of {…}
The Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced its 2018-19 season with a number of the greatest stars performing in new productions. The season will also include two important recitals from two of the world’s greatest sopranos. Recitals & Concerts Anna Netrebko returns to Chicago for the first time since 2013 when she performed “La Bohème.” This time she performs some {…}
In this week’s edition of our top five operas to see, we travel all around Europe and to Oman for five operas that are worth seeing with stellar casts. Let’s take a look. “Il Prigioniero” & “Das Gehege” – La Monnaie, Belgium Two rare masterpieces by Luigi Dallapiccola and Rihm will be showcased at the famous Belgium theater starring a Ángeles {…}
The Festival season continues with one of the most anticipated premieres slated to open. Austria That premiere, of course, is Anna Netrebko’s role debut as Aida at the Salzburg Festival. She will be accompanied by Riccardo Muti and Francesco Meli, who is also making his role debut as Radamès, with Ekaterina Semenchuk as Amneris. The festival will also continue runs {…}
The Operalia Competition is just days away and in anticipation of the famed event, we will take a look back down memory lane at the opera singers who became stars after big performances at the competition. For this week’s installment, we will look at the early years of the competition and the 90s. Here are the winners of that decade {…}
The opera season continues in full swing as many of the top stars continue runs of important operas around the world. Austria The Vienna State Opera kicks off its weekend with Strauss’ “Elektra” starring Waltraud Meier, Nina Stemme, Regine Hangler, Herbert Lippert and Alan Held. It follows on Saturday with Debussy “Pelléas et Mélisande” with Franz-Josef Selig, Bernarda Fink, Adrian Eröd, Simon {…}
This article is a joint collaboration between David & Francisco Salazar. This past weekend saw the end of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2016-17 season. This week we will take a look back at the greatest moments that this season brought us, beginning with the top performers that we enjoyed. Since ladies should always go first, we start with the top 10 {…}
Everyone knows Nina Stemme for her dramatic skills, particularly for her Wagner repertoire. As a matter of fact, she is the leading Brünhilde and Isolde of our time and she is in demand all over the world. But in fact, Stemme did not begin with this repertoire and before her breakout Isolde with Plácido Domingo, this singer did a number {…}
The BBC Proms has announced its summer schedule and as always there will be a lot of offerings for opera lovers. Here is a look at what audiences can look forward to. July The BBC Proms opens with John Adam’s choral masterwork “Harmonium” on Friday, July 14, 2017, at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This concert will include the {…}
On Thursday, April 13, 2017, the Vienna State Opera is live streaming its current run of Wagner’s “Parsifal.” The Vienna State Opera’s current production of “Parsifal” has garnered strong reviews since it debuted a few weeks ago with Classical Source praising conductor Semyon Bychov for leading “a patient but never dragging interpretation. He and his musicians demonstrated great endurance and {…}
No opera house has more superstars on the roster next season than the Bayerische Staatsoper. Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann, arguably the two biggest stars in the opera world, will both appear in Munich in 2017-18, albeit in limited runs. Their appearances in America are limited to a total of eight shows between the two of them. In Munich, that {…}