Rai5 is set to present the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma’s opening night production of Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.” Rai Cultura will produce the recording which will be shown at 7:15 p.m. on Nov. 27, 2024. The production will be directed by Richard Jones with sets and costumes by Antony McDonald. Michele Mariotti will conduct the production which will star Luca Salsi {…}
The Teatro Comunale di Bologna has announced its 2025 season. Opera The season opens with Puccini’s “La Fanciulla del West” with Riccardo Frizza conducting a cast that includes Carmen Giannattasio, Angelo Villari, and Claudio Sgura. Paul Curran directs. Another cast includes Ann Petersen, Amadi Lagha, and Gustavo Castillo. Performance Dates: Jan. 24-30, 2025 Jessica Pratt, Giovanni Sala, Marko Mimica, and Lucas Meachem lead Donizetti’s {…}
(Credit: Teatro alla Scala / Brescia – Amisano) Lisette Oropesa is recording Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.” The Soprano took to social media to announce the upcoming album and noted that the opera will be recorded in Sicily. The cast will include Stefan Pop as Edgardo, Mattia Olivieri as Enrico, and Riccardo Zanellato as Raimondo. Maestro Fabrizio Maria Carminati will conduct. Oropesa {…}
The Royal Opera House has announced its 2024-25 season. Here is a look at the season. Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” will open the season with a cast that includes Luca Micheletti, Ying Fang, Huw Montague Rendall, Jacquelyn Stucker, and Ginger Costa-Jackson. Performance Dates: Sept. 2-15, 2024 Verdi’s “La Traviata” will feature two casts. The first cast will be headlined {…}
The Finnish National Opera has announced its 2024-25 season. Premieres Leevi Madetoja’s “The Ostrobothnians”, which is known as Finland’s “national opera” will be directed by director Paavo Westerberg. The cast will include Jukka Rasilainen, Ville Rusanen, Jussi Vänttinen, Johanna Lehesvuori, Maria Turunen, Iida Antola, Päivi Nisula, Tuomas Pursio, Aarne Pelkonen, Ilkka Hämäläinen and Mika Pohjonen. The Orchestra of the Finnish National {…}
The Opéra de Paris has announced its 2024-25 season. Opera Verdi’s “Falstaff” opens the season with a cast that includes Ambrogio Maestri, Olivia Boen, Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, Andrei Kymach, Gregory Bonfatti, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Iván Ayón-Rivas, and Federica Guida. Michael Schønwandt conducts the production by Dominique Pitoiset. Performance Dates: Sept. 10-30, 2024 Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” will star Eleonora Buratto, Elena Stikhina, Aude {…}
(Photo: Camilla Greenwell/Royal Opera House) Trailing draggily behind Puccini’s rue and jubilance, this season’s Royal Opera House revival of the tearful “La bohème” appears afraid of the work’s earnestness. Decked out in semi-mockeries of 1830s Paris, Richard Jones’ 2017 production favors episodes of bawdiness at the expense of the Bohemian; endangering its players’ vocal liberties. Perhaps as the result of {…}
Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world. This week you get albums from two very famous singers, a soundtrack to one of this year’s Oscar contenders, and two complete opera recordings you cannot miss. Maestro Deutsche Grammophon releases the official soundtrack to Bradley Cooper’s new film “Maestro.” The recording features {…}
After this summer’s “Un Ballo in Maschera,” the forces behind the Dutch label Pentatone are turning their attention to another heavy-hitter from the Italian repertoire: with “Tosca” they enter the well-trodden territory of one of the most recorded operas ever. Yet, Carlo Montanaro and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester do not pretend to proverbially reinvent the wheel the way Rostropovich famously did in {…}
(©Tristram Kenton) The Royal Opera presented at their Covent Garden Theatre a revival of their new production of “Rigoletto” by the stage director, and artistic director of the Royal Opera, Oliver Mears. Oliver Mears’ production is austere and minimalistic. The first two acts have a back golden wall, with big paintings hanging on the palace’s scenes, and Gilda’s room for {…}
The Semperoper Dresden has announced its 2023-24 season. Here is a look at the operatic productions of the season. Premieres Puccini’s “Turandot” is set to star Elisabeth Teige, Aleksei Kulagin, Yonghoon Lee, and Elbenita Kajtazi. Ivan Repušić conducts the new production by Marie-Eve Signeyrole. Performance Dates: Oct. 7-Nov. 25, 2023 Mary Plazas, Katerina von Bennigsen, Peter Tantsits, and Andrew Nolen {…}