The Puccini Festival of Torre del Lago has announced its intentions to move forward with its 2020 edition. The Italian festival has remodeled its program, which will now begin on June 26 through August 14. Among the major events set to take place is a concert featuring Sir Antonio Pappano as an honored guest as he leads the Orquesta de {…}
The Teatro la Fenice has announced new streams for May 15 and May 22, 2020. The company will first stream Verdi’s “Aida” conducted by Riccardo Frizza. The performance from May 2019 stars Roberta Mantegna in the title role, Roberto Frontali, Francesco Meli, and Irene Roberts. Meanwhile, the May 22 stream will be Puccini’s “Tosca” conducted by Daniele Rustioni. The cast {…}
(Credit: Ken Howard) The Metropolitan Opera has unveiled week 6 of its streaming service which features an all-star gala and six operas with such stars as Sonya Yoncheva, Anna Netrebko, Nina Stemme, Renée Fleming, Natalie Dessay, Joyce DiDonato, and Juan Diego Flórez, among others. Here is a breakdown. Monday, April 20 – Strauss’s Elektra Starring Nina Stemme, Adrianne Pieczonka, Waltraud Meier, {…}
(Photo Credit: Wiener Staatsoper/Giampaolo Maria Bisanti) Conductor Andrea Battistoni has withdrawn from the production of Puccini, Giacosa and Illica’s “Tosca” at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich due to illness. As a result, Giampaolo Bisanti will conduct in his stead for performances on Feb. 17 & 20, 2020. Bisanti will lead the cast that includes Anja Harteros in the title role, {…}
(Credit: Candy Welz) Soprano Camila Ribero-Souza was born in São Paulo, Brazil, where she studied singing with Jocelyne Gallo, Edilson Costa, and Luiz Tenaglia. From March 2011 until January 2018, she was a member of the soloist ensemble of the Meininger Staatstheater. In February 2018, as a spinto soprano, she joined the ensemble at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, where she {…}
(Photo Credit: Metropolitan Opera House/Vladimir Shirokov) Soprano Anna Netrebko has been named the Laureate for the 2020 Polar Music Prize. The announcement was made on Tuesday morning, Feb. 11 at the Stockholm City Hall by Alfons Karabuda, chairman of the Polar Music Prize award committee. The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, the manager and music {…}
Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth today announced the programming and creative teams for Utah Opera 2020-21 season. Casting details will be announced at a later date. In this upcoming season, Utah Opera will showcase four operas at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre. Wagner’s opera “The Flying Dutchman” will open the season in October 2020, with the premiere on {…}
Baritone Željko Lučić was born in Serbia, in a small town of Zrenjanin, northeast of the capital Belgrade. For anyone familiar with the looks of historical small towns in the countries of the Western Balkan, this is a significant fact. “Yes, my hometown is indeed a small one, but also an absolutely wonderful place,” Lučić, smiling, told OperaWire in a recent {…}
(Credit: Royal Opera House/Clive Barda) Soprano Angela Gheorghiu will not be appearing in the title role of Puccini’s opera “Tosca” on March 7, 2020 at the Semperoper Dresden, according to the official press statement on the company’s website. In her stead, audiences will get a chance to see British soprano Emily Magee, who was already scheduled to take on the {…}
(Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera) The 2019-20 Metropolitan Opera New Year’s Eve gala started at 5:30 p.m and was scheduled to end around four hours later, leaving plenty of time for pre-midnight festivities. However, throughout the performance, you often wondered if the audience, despite witnessing three short Puccini acts from “La Bohème,” “Tosca,” and “Turandot,” might actually welcome the {…}
(Credits: Patricia Varela) Young Norwegian soprano Elisabeth Teige has established herself as one of the most sought-after dramatic sopranos of her generation. She has appeared in the number of dramatic roles including Senta in “Der Fliegende Holländer,” Leonore in “Fidelio,” Cio-Cio-San in “Madama Butterfly,” Irene Wagner’s “Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen,” Elsa in “Lohengrin,” and the title character of Puccini’s {…}