The Royal Opera House has named Antonio Pappano, the first Conductor Laureate of The Royal Opera, effective immediately. Following a 22-year tenure as Music Director, the title recognizes Pappano’s legacy as the longest-serving Music Director in Covent Garden history. He conducted over 700 performances from September 2002 to June 2024, and in future Seasons he’ll conduct regularly, including the final {…}
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 {…}
(Photo: Mark Allan) Puccini called his work “La Rondine” a “commedia lirica,” effectively COMIC opera, but I consider it a TRAGEDY that this work isn’t performed more in the opera house. “La Rondine” comprises some of the most exquisite, emotive music the maestro ever penned. Alas, devoid of the dramatic impact and impetus of his more famous, regularly performed works, {…}
A truly packed house, a cast of operatic luminaries and a program of works chosen and compiled by Maestro Pappano himself; a Gala, fit for a KING, surely? Which is just as well because His Royal Highness King Charles III was in the audience as a truly surprise guest of honor, courtesy of a massive covert security operation that even {…}
The Olivier Awards have announced the 2024 winners. For this article, we will focus on the opera categories only. The TAIT Award for Best New Opera Production went to “Innocence” by the Royal Opera at the Royal Opera House. The opera, which had its world premiere in 2021, was Kaija Saariaho‘s final opera. The award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera {…}
Sir Antonio Pappano is defending his choice to work with Anna Netrebko in the upcoming production of Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda” at the Salzburg Easter Festival. In a statement to Times UK during the Royal Opera House’s 2023-24 season announced, the Music Director said “There’s a lot of inept cancelling going on in the world” and added that Netrebko was a {…}
Photo: Marc Brenner Having an unequivocal passion for Puccini, this reviewer must confess to being somewhat conflicted over his final work. These concerns, though, have always been assuaged with the knowledge that many others have also been plagued with such uncertainty, not least with the original work itself, for, of course, the maestro died before the completion of “Turandot.” After {…}
On Oct. 26, 2021, the Metropolitan Opera will revive a production of Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” for the first time in seven years. The production will mark the return of Lise Davidsen in a role debut, Michael Volle in a signature role, and Klaus Florian Vogt, one of the greatest Wagnerians of his generation. But perhaps what makes this {…}
On April 16, Lisette Oropesa and Xabier Anduaga will join Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for a Bel Canto concert. Sir Antonio Pappano will conduct the two stars in a program that will include music from Bellini’s “I Puritani” and “La Sonnambula” and Donizetti’s “La Fille du Regiment,” “Lucrezia Borgia,” “Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Don Pasquale,” and “L’Elisir d’Amore.” The {…}
(Credit: Musacchio & Ianniello licensed to EMI Classics) The Royal Opera House Covent Garden has announced that it will stream a specially recorded film which will feature the opera house’s young artists and Music Director Sir Antonio Pappano. The film will be broadcast on Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. GMT. “Tony and the Young Artists” brings together Pappano and members {…}
Many times the final moments of a piece of art are the ones that leave the audience with the biggest impression. It may be the final image of a film or the final bars of a musical work. In the bel canto repertoire, the final impression is generally left by whether a singer hits a certain high note, be it {…}