Saimir Pirgu is one of today’s top tenors, singing at every major international theater, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Teatro alla Scala, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Paris Opéra, the Berlin Staatsoper and Deutsche Oper, the Zurich Opera, Barcelona’s Liceu, the San Francisco Opera, and the Salzburg Festival. This season he heads to the Teatro {…}
Ramón Vargas is one of the great artists of the past few decades. Born on Sept. 11, 1960, the tenor has managed an international career in a wide range of repertoire from the great Bel Canto roles through some more dramatic territory in recent years. Hailing from México City, the tenor started singing at age nine and would go on {…}
It’s going to be a busy day for opera lovers this Saturday with three major showcases on a television. First up is a performance of “Don Carlo” from La Scala starring Ferruccio Furlanetto, Stuart Neil, Dalibor Jenis, Anatolij Kotscherga, Fiorenza Celodins, and Dolora Zajick on RAI Cinque. The showcase kicks off at 4 p.m. in Europe. The performance was conducted {…}
Sharon Sweet and Krassimira Stoyanova. Two sopranos born on August 16 with rather different careers. The former was a well-known American dramatic soprano who took on a wide range of Italian and German repertoire, most prominently singing operas by Wagner and Verdi. The latter, a Bulgarian with a far lighter voice, has slowly dug into that very same dramatic repertoire, {…}
Seven years. The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Berlin State Opera, Royal Swedish Opera and Metropolitan Opera. Those are just some of the companies that have featured spinto tenor Riccardo Massi. Seven years. Now in his 30s, the tenor is slowly stealing the spotlight as one of the most exciting tenors on the rise, his vocal artistry matched by his {…}
“Opera Meets Film” is a feature dedicated to exploring the way that opera has been employed in cinema. We will select a section or a film in its entirety, highlighting the impact that utilizing the operatic form or sections from an opera can alter our perception of a film that we are viewing. This week’s installment features Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo.” {…}
Maria Guleghina and Salvatore Licitra were always great friends and onstage partners. They also celebrated birthdays one year apart. With Guleghina born on August 9 and Licitra on August 10, it is no surprise that we continue to find links between these two great artists and that in some ways, their legacy is joined. Of course, the two had incredible {…}
In 1840 Verdi’s second opera, and his first attempt at comedy, “Un Giorno di Regno,” was premiered at La Scala in Milan to widespread criticism, criticism that the composer took to heart to the point that it took more than 50 years before he would write another comedy. Of course, we know how that second comedic experiment turned out as {…}
There are a ton of Verdi tenors out there capable of dominating his major roles. But few are like Francesco Meli. The Italian tenor has made the works of the great Busetto genius his bread and better, performing such major works as “La Traviata,” “Il Trovatore,” “Rigoletto,” “Nabucco,” “Macbeth,” “Ernani,” “Don Carlo,” “Luisa Miller,” “Un Ballo in Maschera” and even some {…}
For Luca Salsi, there is no composer better than Verdi. No one. Salsi, the Italian baritone, who is slated to sing the role of Amonasro at the Salzburg Festival starting in early August, has repeatedly professed that no composer in the history of Italian opera was able to fuse music and text with the same level of conviction and depth. {…}
Riccardo Muti, born on July 28, 1941, is one of the greatest conductors of all time. He has specialized in the Italian repertoire, particularly the works of Verdi and has been incredibly valuable in bringing some of the composer’s early works to the fore. Muti has also been recognized for performing works without cuts and sticking to what is written {…}
