Pittsburgh Opera is set to perform Verdi’s “La Traviata” for the first time in seven years. The opera is set to be performed by Vuvu Mpofu in her Pittsburgh debut, Duke Kim, also making his Pittsburgh Opera debut and Michael Chioldi. The cast also includes Julia Swan Laird, Fran Daniel Laucerica, Brandon Bell, Evan Lazdowski, Oren Gradus, and Leah Heater. Antony Walker will {…}
The Teatro dell’Opera di Roma is set to present a double bill “Gianni Schicchi / L’heure espagnole.” The production will be directed by Ersan Mondtag and conducted by Michele Mariotti. “Gianni Schicchi” will star Carlo Lepore, Vuvu Mpofu, Sonia Ganassi, and Giovanni Sala. It will be rounded by Ya-Chung Huang (Gherardo), Roberto Accurso (Betto), Nicola Ulivieri (Simone), Daniele Terenzi (Marco), Domenico {…}
The Pittsburgh Opera has announced its 2023-24 season. Opera Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” opens the season with Lunga Eric Hallam, John McCullough, Stephanie Lauricella, and Musa Nqungwana. Antony Walker conducts the production by Crystal Manich. Performance Dates: October 14, 17, 20, 22, 2023 Kyle Albertson, Marjorie Owens, Daniel O’Hearn, and Leah Heater lead Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman.” Antony Walker {…}
Photo credit: © Glyndebourne Productions Ltd. “La bohème”, as the archetypal verismo opera, tends to resist stagings that take it much beyond the confines of nineteenth-century Paris, and indeed non-naturalistic approaches to the work. (Audiences tend to resist them too.) The two most successful in London recently have been John Copley’s recently retired version at the Royal Opera House – {…}
(Credit: Gerard Collett) Theater St. Gallen is set to showcase Verdi’s “La Traviata” starting on March 19, 2022. The showcase, which will be presented in the UMIBAU venue, will be directed by Nina Russi who has no intention of setting the opera in its original 19th-century milieu. Instead, she will present the opera in a newer time period noting in {…}
(Credit: Richard Hubert Smith) On Sept. 18, Switzerland’s Theater St. Gallen will open a new production of Missy Mazzoli‘s 2016 “Breaking the Waves,” one of the most acclaimed operas of recent years. This run of performances will mark the first time the country presents the work, which will bring a cast of rising stars including Vuvu Mpofu. Mpofu will interpret {…}
This week climaxes in World Opera Day on Oct. 25. So in leading up to that momentous celebration (which will feature half of the entries on this list), our recommendations will spotlight diversity in the opera world, offering up audiences a chance to check out works by and featuring BIPOC composers and performers as well as unique performance experiences that {…}
(Credits: Michael Cooper / Boston Symphony Orchestra official website / Jiyang Chen / Fay Fox OperaVision has announced, in collaboration with Opera Europa, Opera America, Ópera Latinoamérica, and Opera For Peace, the final program for the big World Opera Day Celebration concert on Oct. 25, 2020. The concert is structured in four acts, in four different time zones. The first {…}
The Opéra national de Lorraine has announced its 2020-21 season. Here is a look at the production and vocal concerts that the theater will showcase this season. Opera The season opens with Zemlinsky’s “Görge le rêveur” starring Peter Wedd, Helena Juntunen, Susanna Hurrell, Andrew Greenan, Piotr Lempa, Allen Boxer, Alexander Sprague, Wieland Satter, Piotr Lempa, Aurelie Jarjaye, Kaëlig Boché, and {…}
(Credit: Iko Freese / Operavision) OperaVision has announced that its May streaming slate will be dedicated to Russian opera. On May 1, the company will stream the Komische Oper Berlin’s production of “Eugene Onegin.” The opera stars Asmik Grigorian, Karolina Gumos, Ales Briscein, and Günter Papendell under the musical direction of Henrik Nánási. The performance will be available for repeat {…}
(Credit: Gerard Collett) On the eastern side of the Cape of Good Hope, at the very tip of South Africa, sits Port Elizabeth, a city with a population just shy of one million people. The population size matters because it makes soprano Vuvu Mpofu one in a million, a ratio perhaps not unlike the shot she had at making it {…}