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American composer Peter Lieberson's closing-in on the premiere of his "Songs of Love and Sorrow" a new song cycle inspired...

La Cieca is informed that tomorrow’s final dress rehearsal of Hamlet is as closed as closed can be: covers, Met staff and a few handpicked guests of Peter Gelb are the only humans to be allowed in the auditorium as the Thomas is teched. It’s natural enough, since — as we all know — the opening night Ophélie, Marlis Petersen, will not be present for this last runthrough, busy as she is singing Medea in Vienna gleichzeitzig.  This veil of secrecy is like catnip to La Cieca, of course, so should you, cher pube, be one of the chosen few to get a glimpse of Simon Keenyside’s Dane, please, please, drop your doyenne an email with all the details!

The New York premieres of Bernstein's "A Quiet Place" and Stephen Schwartz's "Seance on a Wet Afternoon," the world stage premiere of John Zorn's "La Machine de l'etre" and the U.S. stage premiere of Morton Feldman's "Neither" highlight New York City Opera's 2010-11 season.
In its second season since returning to Lincoln Center, City Opera will focus on 20th century American composers as it presents another abbreviated schedule of just five productions.
— Read more at Deseret News

When I was in college, I hated Richard Nixon. Everyone I knew (except perhaps my father) hated Richard Nixon. My perspective was as a politically engaged undergraduate at the University of California Berkeley during the war in Vietnam - holding a low draft number.
I gradually stopped hating Nixon. But it wasn't until Oct. 22, 1987, in the company of bejeweled and Stetson-topped Texans, that I began to understand why. Houston Grand Opera had commissioned John Adams' "Nixon in China" to celebrate the opening of a new opera house.
— Read more at Mark Swed - PopMatters

Peter Gelb has had mixed results with risk-taking at the Met, but his latest gamble has paid off: The new production of Shostakovich's "The Nose" (1930) is a brilliantly conceived work of art that succeeds on every level. For this company premiere, the South African artist William Kentridge and the Russian conductor Valery Gergiev exploited the Met's formidable resources to create a huge, complex and highly original show that stunningly captured and communicated the opera's anarchic spirit.
— Read more at Heidi Waleson - WSJ.com

The Metropolitan Opera today announced the names of nine finalists who will sing in the 2010 National Council Auditions Grand Finals Concert on March 14 at 3:00 p.m., with the Met Orchestra conducted by Marco Armiliato. The finalists are: Leah Crocetto, soprano from Adrian, Michigan and Oxford, Connecticut; Lori Guilbeau, soprano from Golden Meadow, Louisiana; Rena Harms soprano from Santa Fe, New Mexico; Haeran Hong, soprano from Kang Won, South Korea; Hyo Na Kim, mezzo-soprano from Seoul, South Korea; Maya Lahyani, mezzo-soprano from Hod-HaSharon, Israel; Elliot Madore, Baritone from Toronto, Canada; Nathaniel Peake, tenor from Humble, Texas, and Rachel Willis-Sorensen, soprano from Tri-Cities, Washington.
— Read more at broadwayworld.com

The Royal Opera House has announced details of the resident companies' 2010-11 season at Covent Garden. In total, there are eight world premieres, two UK premieres, five new productions and fourteen revivals, as well as a major tour to Japan involving Anna Netrebko in Manon and Angela Gheorghiu in La traviata.
New productions of Wagner's Tannhauser, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride, Massenet's Cendrillon and Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur provide several of the highlights of the new season, along with the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Anna Nicole.
— Read more at MusicalCriticism.com

The Met radio broadcast schedule is available at AllAboutOpera.com. Click here for more information.