(Photo credit: Ben Wolf & Gregor Hohenberg) Festival Napa Valley has released details of its upcoming season. This article only contains vocal performances. The first “Festival Live!” concert featuring the Frost School of Music’s Blackburn Music Academy kicks off the festival. Performance Dates: July 6 – 20, 2024 Soprano Pretty Yende and tenor Jonathan Tetelman perform with the Festival Orchestra. {…}
Pretty Yende has been appointed ambassador of Dior. The soprano will be an ambassador for Maria Grazia Chiuri’s collections. In a statement from the House of Dior, the company said, “The soprano henceforth embodies the audacity, grace and elegance of Dior style, a femininity continually reinvented. More than ever, this alliance celebrates the privileged ties that have always united the House {…}
The Polish National Opera is set to ring in the New Year with a gala concert featuring Pretty Yende and Michael Fabiano on Dec. 31, 2023. Both superstars will perform Arias and duets from: J. Massenet’s “Manon,” G. Verdi’s “Otello,” G. Puccini’s “La fanciulla del West,” G. Puccini’s “La rondine,” C. Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette,” G. Verdi’s “Luisa Miller,” R. {…}
(Credit: Emilie Brouchon) Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” might be the most passionate love letter ever written to opera. After a career creating operettas and comic works, the composer set his sights on creating an opera, a work that would align with his style and sensibilities, but also one that would transcend them. And from it came a work that is {…}
(©Tristram Kenton) The Royal Opera presented at their Covent Garden Theatre a revival of their new production of “Rigoletto” by the stage director, and artistic director of the Royal Opera, Oliver Mears. Oliver Mears’ production is austere and minimalistic. The first two acts have a back golden wall, with big paintings hanging on the palace’s scenes, and Gilda’s room for {…}
The Opéra de Paris has announced details for its upcoming “Vissi d’arte – Gala Maria Callas.” As previously announced, the gala will be conducted by Eun Sun Kim and directed by Robert Carsen. Sondra Radvanovsky will sing selections from “Tocsa,” “Macbeth,” “Norma,” and “Manon Lescaut.” Meanwhile, Pretty Yende will sing excerpts from “La Traviata” and “La Sonnambula,” while Elīna Garanča {…}
(Photo credit: Marco Borrelli & Simon Pauly) The Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg has announced its 2023-24 season starring Joyce DiDonato and Michael Spyres. “Don Giovanni in the Underworld” is presented by the Choir of the Opéra national du Rhin. Performance Dates: September 16-21, 2023 Ernst van Tiel conducts the Strasbourg Philharmonic Choir in “Amadeus Live.” Performance Dates: October 13-14, 2023 {…}
The Festival Cap Rocat is dedicating Nadine Sierra and Francesco Demuro’s August 6 concert to Pretty Yende’s mother. Yende took to social media and said, “I’m terribly saddened to miss the concert tonight Festival CapRrocat with Nadine Sierra. I’m very grateful to Francesco Demuro for performing tonight and sending my sincerest gratitude for the entire management team for dedicating the concert {…}
(Credit: Gregor Hohenberg) Pretty Yende has canceled her recital at the Glanum Festival on July 22 due to a family emergency. The soprano took to social media and said, “Dearest Friends, to my deepest regret, I have to withdraw from my recital at the Glanum Festival tomorrow due to serious family circumstances.” She added “I am very grateful to the {…}
(Photo credit: Festival d’Aix-en-Provence © Vincent Beaume) In an arbored patio, Pretty Yende, ethereally sings the final terzett of the last Petrarch sonnet by Liszt, “ed era il cielo a l’armonia sí intento,” “che non se vedea in ramo mover foglia,” “tanta dolcezza avea pien l’aere e ’l vento.” (“and heaven so intent upon the harmony, no leaf was seen {…}
The Wiener Staatsoper has announced that three operas will be presented as part of the Film Festival am Wiener Rathausplatz. The festival will first present Puccini’s “Tosca” from a 2020 recording. The legendary production by Margarethe Wallmann stars Anna Netrebko in the role of Tosca, Yusif Eyvazov as Cavaradossi, and Wolfgang Koch as Scarpia. Conducting the production is Bertrand de Billy. Presentation: July 5, 2023 {…}