(Credit: Jon Adjahoe) The Washington Performing Arts has announced that operatic bass and social justice advocate Soloman Howard is the recipient of its 2021 Ambassador of the Arts Award. Howard is a well-known bass who has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Teatro Real, and Teatro Municipal de {…}
(Credit: Chris Singer/Fay Fox/Yan Bleney/Bree Anne Clowdus) The San Francisco Opera has announced its 2021-22 season featuring a variety of classic works and some of the greatest stars in the industry. The season will open with Puccini’s “Tosca“ with Eun Sun Kim conducting an all-star cast that includes soprano Ailyn Pérez as Tosca, tenor Michael Fabiano as Cavaradossi, and bass-baritone Alfred {…}
Those who want a major dose of operatic classics will not be disappointed by this week’s list. And what’s more, the slate is full of opera’s major superstars in these prominent works. But there is also a special performance this week, courtesy of the Houston Grand Opera. So without further ado, here are the top 10 operas to stream this {…}
Pianist and activist Lara Downes is making the stars align in a video of Leonard Bernstein’s song “Take Care of this House.” The video, which is being released on Sept. 22 in honor of National Voter Registration Day, features a wide range of major superstars from the opera and classical music world including Thomas Hampson, Anthony Orth Costanzo, Julia Bullock, {…}
The Glyndebourne has announced its upcoming slate for the 2021 season. The festival will open in May with Janáček’s “Kát’a Kabanová,” the first time the opera is presented at the festival in 20 years. Director Damiano Michieletto will make his company debut, leading a production that will be conducted by Robin Ticciati and will star Kateřina Knĕžíková in the title role. {…}
(Credits: Decca-Timothy White/ Chris Singer/ © S. Richards Photography 2016) Lyric Opera of Chicago will open the company’s redesigned fall season with a virtual concert on Sunday, September 13, 2020. “Lyric’s Opening Night Opera Ball has long been a signature project of Lyric’s Women Board,” Lyric’s General Director, President and CEO Anthony Freud stated. “Even before we began to imagine {…}
In keeping with last week’s themes of dialogue regarding racial equality in the opera world, we highly recommend checking out the several online shows such as Karen Slack’s “KikiKonversations,” Kenneth Overton’s “Black Opera Live,” and The Sitdown with LB,” hosted by Lawrence Brownlee. There is also a new conversation from Long Beach Opera regarding “Equity & Diversity in the Arts” that is {…}
(Credit: Dario Acosta / Vienna State Opera) Let’s kick this off with arguably the most essential streaming from around the opera world that you can engage with this week. Several of opera’s prominent black artists have been very outspoken in recent weeks about the issue of racial injustice that has taken hold of the international conversation, and many others have {…}
The 69th Annual Granada Festival has announced its summer season program. The Spanish festival announced that it was moving forward and for this article we will focus mainly on the vocal performances. Nadine Sierra, Carlos Mena, Xabier Anduaga, and Carlos Álvarez highlight opening night performing Mozart’s Requiem under the baton of Andrea Marcon. Performance Date: June 25, 2020 Raquel Lojendio, {…}
Over 100 singers came together for a video performance of “Light Shall Lift Us,” a work by librettist Mark Campbell and composer Paul Moravec. The duo, which has worked together on “The Shining” proposed the idea to Marc Scorca of Opera America, who embraced the idea and helped put together the 107 artists who would eventually record their individual parts {…}
The Metropolitan Opera’s At-Home Gala was one of the most hotly anticipated performances of the first half of 2020; one might argue that given its sheer star power, the showcase, which was announced just two weeks ago, was more anticipated than any performance the Met had lined up as part of its regular season. While the Met initially reneged on {…}