Welcome back as we explore the latest CD and DVD releases from around the opera world. This week, audiences will get to see a new production of “Nabucco” with a great diva, while another great mezzo releases a new album. There is also a world premiere recording of an opera from the Metropolitan Opera. Here are the new releases of {…}
The Berkeley Symphony has announced its 2026-27 season. Here are vocal performances. The Berkeley Symphony’s 2026–27 season concludes with “Remembrance,” a program of resilience and renewal. Conductor Kwamé Ryan leads the first live performance of the orchestral version of Jake Heggie’s “Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope,” featuring mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce and violinist Benjamin Beilman. The program also includes {…}
(Credit: Emily Doyle Moore) The Santa Fe Opera has announced its 2027 season. John Fiore conducts Puccini’s “Turandot” with Paul Curran directing. Angela Meade, Arturo Chacón-Cruz, Kathleen O’Mara, and Peixin Chen star. Performance Dates: July 2-August 28, 2027 Iván López Reynoso conducts Rossini’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia” with Stephen Barlow directing. Sun-Ly Pierce, Jonah Hoskins, Luke Sutliff, Kevin Burdette, and William Guanbo Su {…}
The Music Academy of the West has named mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce as the recipient of its 2026 Alumni Performance Award, sponsored by Kandy Budgor and the Luria/Budgor Family Foundation. As part of the award, the Academy will present Pierce in her Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall debut on April 15, 2027, featuring the world premiere of a commissioned song {…}
The Houston Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2026-27 season. Here are the vocal performances. Steven Reineke conducts opening night with Isabel Leonard as the soloist. Performance Dates: Sept. 19, 2026 Juraj Valčuha conducts a Rachmaninoff performance with Aleksey Bogdanov and the Houston Symphony Chorus. Performance Dates: Oct. 2, 3, & 4, 2026 Juraj Valčuha conducts Sasha Cooke in a program that {…}
LA Opera is set to perform Phelim McDermott’s production of Philip Glass’s “Akhnaten.” The production will be conducted by Dalia Stasevska and will star countertenor John Holiday in the title role. He will be joined by bass Zachary James as Amenhotep III, mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce as Nefertiti, and soprano So Young Park as Queen Tye. Also starring include tenor Yuntong {…}
It’s that time of the year. The end of the year. As with every year, 2025 was full of a lot of opera revelations in productions, concerts and competitions. So in recognitions of those breakouts, here’s a look at some of the young singers who are likely to make operatic waves in the very near future. Here are OperaWire’s 10 {…}
(Credit: Evan Zimmerman / Met Opera) The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD season will continue with Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” on April 26, 2025. The production by Richard Eyre will be conducted by Joana Mallwitz and will star Michael Sumuel and soprano Olga Kulchynska as Figaro and Susanna. They will be joined by Joshua Hopkins as Count Almaviva, Federica Lombardi as the {…}
Let’s briefly address the elephant or rather demon in this particular review, as it were. Namely, what is it with the fascination of so many 19th century composers with this classic Romantic literature – often considered the greatest work of German literature – Goethe’s “Faust”? There is Hector Berlioz’s masterpiece, “La damnation de Faust”, which I recently reviewed in a {…}
The Des Moines Metro Opera has announced its 2025 Festival Season. “The 2025 Festival Season builds on the company’s reputation for curating a daring collection of works. These three fascinating pieces—legends, myths and parables—are drawn from far-flung corners of the operatic repertory and each elevates the intrinsic appeal of the other in beautiful ways,” said Linda Koehn General and Artistic {…}
(Photo credit: John Matthew Myers) Houston Grand Opera and the Asia Society Texas announced their co-production of the world premiere of Meilina Tsui and Melisa Tien’s opera “The Big Swim.” The new opera weaves together Eastern and Western cultures, with Tsui’s score incorporating opera buffa, Peking and Cantonese opera, Gregorian chants, American and Asian pop music, animated musicals, and more. {…}