The Semperoper Dresden has announced that on January 1, 2022, director and administrator Johannes Matz passed away at the age of 92. He is remembered for his years of service with the company. Born in Magdeburg in 1929, Matz studied at the drama school in his hometown before being hired as an actor and assistant director at the Naumberg State {…}
On Jan. 5, 2022, famed Scottish Director Bill Bryden died at the age of 79. Born on April 12, 1942, Bryden trained with Scottish Television before becoming an assistant director at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry in 1965. He would then work as work as a director at the Royal Court Theatre from 1967 to 1971 and then the Royal Lyceum {…}
Tenor Rafael Rojas has died at the age of 59. The Mexican tenor died on Tuesday Jan. 19, 2022 but no cause of death was revealed. Born in Mexico, Rojas studied at the University of Guadalajara and subsequently joined the post-graduate opera course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama‚ completing his studies at the Royal Northern College of {…}
On Dec. 18, 2021, Czech director Tibor Torell died at the age of 50. No cause of death was given. Born in 1971 in the Czech Republic, Torell obtained his first theater experience at the National Theater in Brno and at the ABC Theater in Prague. During the 2007-08 season, he took an internship with Katharina Thalbach at the Cologne {…}
(Credit: Georges Biard) Costume Designer Christian Gasc has passed at age 76. Born on August 6, 1945 in Dunes, France, Gasc’s passion for cinema came from his mother. He moved to Paris at age 19 to pursue a career in cinema and started his career by working on Liliane de Kermadec’s “Aloïse.” From there he would go on to work {…}
(Credit; Beth Bergmann / http://www.gwendolynkillebrew.com/vitae.html) American contralto Gwendolyn Killebrew, passed away on Dec. 24, 2021 in Düsseldorf, Germany. She was 80. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Killebrew graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia, becoming a music teacher and music therapist. From there, she pursued performance studies at New York’s Juilliard School of Music. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut at 26 {…}
On Jan. 5, Central City Opera’s Artistic Director Emeritus John Moriarty died in his home located in Fall River, Mass at the age of 91. Born on Sept. 30, 1930, Moriarty received his Bachelor of Music in 1952 with the highest honors and an honorary Doctor of Music in 1992 from the New England Conservatory of Music. He studied at {…}
(Credit: Javier del Real) The Teatro Real’s former General Director Miguel Muñiz has died. Muñiz, who was the General Director between 2004 and 2012, was born in Orense in 1939 and received a degree in Ciencias Económicas at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and worked in many areas. In 1982 he was named General Secretary at the Economía y Planificación {…}
On Jan. 6, 2022, Italian baritone Carlo Meliciani died at the age of 92. The baritone died at his home in Empoli, Italy Born on Jan. 27, 1929, in Arezzo, Italy, and Meliciani began his career in the mid-1950s performing with a touring Italian opera company in Great Britain. During the 1958–1959 season, he performed with the Teatro Nuovo di {…}
Famed mezzo-soprano Maria Ewing has passed at the age of 71. According to her spokeswoman, Bryna Rifkin Ewing died Sunday at her home in Detroit, The Michigan-born singer made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1976 in the role of Cherubino and would sing 96 performances with the company until her finale as Marie in Berg’s “Wozzeck in 1997,” a span {…}
Greek soprano Martha Arapis died on Dec. 23, 2021, from COVID complications. Born in Piraeus, Greece, the soprano studied classical singing at the Conservatory of Piraeus, under George Zervanos and graduated with the highest honor. The soprano went on to perform around Greece and collaborated with almost all the national orchestras, including the Athens State Orchestra, Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, {…}