Clay Hilley, Sara Jakubiak, Gerald Finley, Chen Reiss & Marlis Petersen Lead London Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-26 Season

The London Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2025-26 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances. The season opens with Sir Antonio Pappano conducting a Bernstein and Copland program featuring Dame Felicity Palmer and Katharina Konradi. Performance Date: Sept. 14, 2025 Sir Simon Rattle conducts Janáček’s “The Makropulos Affair” with Marlis Petersen, Aleš Briscein, Jan Martiník, Svatopluk Semand Peter {…}

Mar 31, 2025

Teatro Alla Scala Previews 2025-26 Season, Starring Sara Jakubiak, Anna Netrebko, Roberto Alagna & Luca Salsi

The Teatro alla Scala has advanced plans for the Teatro alla Scala’s 2025-26 season. The season will open with Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” directed by Vasily Barkhatov and Sara Jakubiak. Riccardo Chailly will conduct. In February 2026, the company will give the entire “Ring Cycle” with Simone Young and Alexander Soddy. In April, the company will revive “Turandot” in {…}

Mar 14, 2025

Jonas Kaufmann, Rosa Feola, Christian Immler, Anastasia Bartoli, Lucy Crowe & Sara Jakubiak Lead New CD/DVD Releases

Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world. It’s a big week for releases with a leading tenor releasing a DVD, a major soprano making her debut album and several world premieres. There are also several rare pieces and a big verismo piece you have to hear. O Listen! To the {…}

Dec 5, 2024

Jonas Kaufmann, Elina Garanča, Magdalena Kozena, Asmik Grigorian & Diana Damrau Among 2025 ICMA Nominees

The International Classical Music Awards has announced the nominations for its 2025 Awards. The winners will be revealed on Jan. 14 and will receive their trophies at the gala at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf on March 19. Here are the vocal nominees. Baroque Vocal Johann Sebastian Bach: Complete Solo Cantatas for Alto and Bass: J.S. Bach: Cantatas BWV 56, BWV {…}

Aug 6, 2024

Sara Jakubiak & Michael Volle Lead New CD/DVD Releases

Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world. This week audiences will get to hear two complete Salzburg productions and two world premiere recordings. Joy Too The Vertex Duo, composed of mezzo-soprano Kristin Gornstein and pianist Jeremy Chan release an album about grief. The result is “JOY, TOO,” a collection of {…}

Jun 28, 2024

Teatro La Fenice 2023-24 Review: Ariadne auf Naxos

(Photo: ©Michele Crosera) Teatro La Fenice was transformed into a palace of playfulness and passion for Strauss’s “Ariadne auf Naxos.” The last time I saw this opera was in 2011 at the Met and in that space, I felt, there was just too much space. Therefore, to experience “Ariadne auf Naxos” in a more intimate space such as La Fenice {…}

Apr 14, 2024

Jonathan Tetelman, Aigul Akhmetshina, Aušrine Stundyte, David Butt Philip & Sondra Radvanovsky lead Deutsche Oper Berlin’s 2024-25 Season

The Deustche Oper Berlin has announced its 2024-25 season. Premieres Respighi’s “La Fiamma” will be directed by Christof Loy and conducted by Carlo Rizzi. The cast will include Aušrine Stundyte, Georgy Vasiliev, Vladislav Sulimsky, Martina Serafin, Sua Jo, Cristina Toledo, Martina Baroni, Karis Tucker, Caren Van Oijen, Doris Soffel, and Patrick Guetti. Performance Dates: Sept. 29-Oct. 18, 2024 Enrique Mazzola {…}

Feb 23, 2024

Dallas Symphony Orchestra Announces 2024-25 Season

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2024-25 season. Here are vocal performances that will be seen. The orchestra will present an opera-in-concert version of Wagner’s epic “Der Ring des Nibelungen” in its entirety, becoming the first American orchestra in recent history to do so. Luisi and the DSO will perform “Siegfried” on Oct. 5, 2024, and “Götterdämmerung” on Oct. {…}

Jan 16, 2024

Royal Opera House 2023-24 Review: Elektra

(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 {…}

Jan 11, 2024

Artist Management Zürich to Represent Sara Jakubiak

Artist Management Zürich has announced that it will be representing soprano Sara Jakubiak. This season, the soprano will appear in a production of “Elektra” at the Royal Opera House followed by her debut as Sieglinde with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. She will also appear in “Ariadne auf Naxos” at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. She appeared with such companies as the {…}

Aug 21, 2023

Salzburg Festival 2023 Review: The Greek Passion

(Photo: SF/Monika Rittershaus) Bohuslav Martinů’s opera “The Greek Passion” is a work still in search of its audience. The opera, seldom performed, is considered to be one of Martinů’s finest compositions. This season’s Salzburg Festival tried hard to make “The Greek Passion” a rare and visually noteworthy production. But it didn’t quite work out. The opera’s political radicalness and musical accomplishments are {…}

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