(Credit; Simon Pauly / Stephanie Girard) The San Francisco Opera is gearing up to present “Hansel and Gretel” starting on Nov. 15, 2019. The production of the Humperdinck opera, created in collaboration with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, is set to run through Dec. 7, 2019. It will be directed and designed by Anthony McDonaldo and is set to {…}
Three major releases are set for this week. Two will be world premiere recordings while the other will be the soundtrack to a highly anticipated movie. As One Bright Shiny Things is set to release the world premiere of “As One” by composer Laura Kaminsky and librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed. The recording is set to star Sasha Cooke and {…}
The San Francisco Opera is set to present Handel’s “Orlando” in a production by director Harry Fehr. The production is set to update the setting of the work to World War II London during the Blitz. English conductor Christopher Moulds makes his Company debut with Sasha Cooke in the title role of Orlando. She will be joined by Heidi Stober, Aryeh Nussbaum {…}
San Francisco Symphony has announced its 2019-20 season, which marks the 25th and final season of Michael Tilson Thomas’ distinguished tenure as Music Director. For the purposes of this article, we will focus primarily on vocal performances. The season will start off with a concert led by Michael Tilson Thomas featuring tenor Nicholas Phan and cellist Oliver Herbert, along with {…}
The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 2019-20 season featuring a number of soloists and great conductors. For the purpose of this article we will only focus on the vocal and operatic performances. Joélle Harvey performs in a program entitled “Adams and Mahler” with conductor Jakub Hrůša leading The Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, members of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, and members {…}
The Houston Symphony has announced its 2019-20 season with a number of great artists and conductors featured in a variety of repertoire. For this season announcement, we will focus on the vocal performances and operatic repertoire. Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Andrés Orozco-Estrada team up for a concert, which will include a suite from “Porgy and Bess” by Gershwin, as well as the {…}
The San Francisco Opera has announced its 2019-20 season featuring seven new productions and two new revivals. There will also be a notable company premiere with many rising and established stars taking the stage. Main Stage The 2019–20 season opens with Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” in a new production by Jean-Louis Grinda. The opera returns after a 31-year absence with {…}
There are cases for quite serious readings of Engelbert Humperdinck’s 1893 opera “Hansel and Gretel,” which Los Angeles Opera has just opened at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in a revival of Doug Fitch’s 2006 production. In his program booklet essay “Hansel and Gretel” (“Fact and Fiction”) Basil De Pinto pointed out the opera’s very real concerns with hunger and poverty {…}
Two new CDs and DVDs will be released this week. The first is a world premiere recording from one of last year’s biggest hits and another of an acclaimed new production of one of Mozart’s masterpieces. Here is a look! The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs Mason Bates and Mark Campbell’s “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” gets its world premiere recording {…}
Concert performances of operas can be a rather mixed bag. The works themselves were concocted with the vision of being complete art forms and taking them out of this context can be difficult. Many operas can get away with it simply by the symphonic qualities of the music (see Wagner or Strauss). But this can take an even more complex {…}
The San Francisco Opera has announced its 2018-19 season, which features eight operas and one important concert performance. All of the productions will be brand new for the 2018-19 season. The season opens on Sept. 7, 2017, with the famed “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci” as directed by Jose Cura. The production will star Ekaterina Semenchuk, Roberto Aronica, and Dimitri Platanias {…}