The San Francisco Opera will inaugurate its 2023-24 season with a gala on Sept. 8, 2023. The gala will also include an Opera Ball that will include a reception, dinner, and an after-party in San Francisco’s City Hall. Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus will lead soloists Roberto Alagna and {…}
The Arena di Verona and Rai Cultura are set to broadcast four operas. The first opera to be broadcast will be Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” in a production by Hugo de Ana. The opera will be shown on Rai3 on August 10 and on Rai 5 on Sept. 7. The production stars Dalibor Jenis, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Antonino Siragusa, Carlo {…}
The Teatro alla Scala has announced ts 2023-24 season. The season opens with Verdi’s “Don Carlo” which will star René Pape, Francesco Meli, Luca Salsi, Ain Anger, Anna Netrebko, and Elīna Garanča. Riccardo Chailly conducts a production by Lluis Pasqual. Maria Jose Siri and Ekaterina Semenchuk perform the final two performances. Performance Dates: Dec. 7, 2023-Jan. 2, 2024 Sonya Yoncheva {…}
Roberto Alagna is a renowned French-Sicilian tenor whose career could grace a fairy tale novel. Considered to be the least talented in a large family of musicians, he nonetheless spent his youth busking around Paris cabarets, singing pop music accompanied with his guitar. But his passion, fired by Mario Lanza films, was opera and, largely self-taught, he pursued that dream. {…}
The Grand Théâtre Genève has announced its 2023-24 season. First up is “Don Carlo” in a production by Lydia Steier starring Charles Castronovo, Leonardo Capalbo, Dmitry Ulyanov, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Stéphane Degout, and Êve-Maud Hubeaux. Marc Minkowski conducts. Performance Dates: Sept. 15 – 28, 2023 Lea Desandre, Ana María Labin, Ana Vieira Leite, Hugh Cutting, Kresimir Spicer, Moritz Kallenberg, and Renato {…}
Performances of the musical “Al Capone,” which starred famed tenor Roberto Alagna, have been canceled. Per reports, the production, which opened in January 2023 and was set to restart on April 13, was poorly attended and hence the decision was made to discontinue its run altogether. In sum, only 48 of the originally planned 90 performances took place. In an {…}
Aleksandra Kurzak’s early singing career saw her perform as a specialist in lyric and coloratura soprano roles before moving into heavier roles in 19th-century Romantic and verismo operas. The 2004-05 season saw her have two hugely successful debuts, at the Metropolitan Opera House and the Royal Opera House. She has since sung many leading roles in opera houses throughout the {…}
Verona’s Teatro Filarmonico is set to celebrate the New Year with a gala performance of “La Bohème.” The performance will star Aleksandra Kurzak and Roberto Alagna in a production by Stefano Trespidi. Andrea Battistoni will conduct the evening. While the company is currently performing the Puccini opera, Kurzak and Alagna will appear at the Verona company for one night only. {…}
(Credit: Teatro alla Scala / Brescia – Amisano) On Oct. 18, the Teatro alla Scala held the second performance of Giordano’s “Fedora.” The work first premiered in 1898 and has a history with the theater with Maria Callas and Mirella Freni among the most renowned performers of the work. It has also been a vehicle for Franco Corelli, Plácido Domingo, {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera) The Metropolitan Opera is set to revive Puccini’s “Tosca” for 15 performances. The production by Sir. David McVicar, which is set to open on Oct. 5 and run through April 15, 2023, will star Aleksandra Kurzak in the first run of performances alongside Michael Fabiano and Roberto Alagna. They will be joined by John Lundgren in {…}
(Credit: Tristram Kenton/Royal Opera House) Double-crossing, licentiousness, and the sad demise of a once popular showman: that was all going on down the road in Westminster while the Royal Opera House revived Damiano Michieletto’s double bill of “Cavalleria rusticana” and “Pagliacci.” Sightings of former prime minister Theresa May and former Johnson ally Michael Gove – himself ignominiously sacked by Johson {…}