opera.in

New York City Opera goes 20th century next season

AF — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:06:00 +0000

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

Groundbreaking opera ‘Nixon in China’ is neglected no longer

AF — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

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

The Sweet Smell of Success

AF — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:56:00 +0000

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

Finalists Named for Met’s National Council Auditions Grand Finals Concert, 3/14

AF — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:54:00 +0000

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 announces the 2010-11 Season

AF — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:50:00 +0000

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

Met Radio Broadcast Schedule

AF — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:20:00 +0000

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

Regie round the clock

La Cieca — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:57:27 +0000

Bravo Monsieur (or Madame) 79CXR for your guess in the most recent Regie quiz. The work depicted is indeed Béatrice et Benedict, in a production for the Opéra Comique directed by Dan Jemmett. The staging, La Cieca regrets to say, was not taken in with pleasure; critiques are headlined everything from “The enterprise overall does a disservice to the cause of Berlioz” to “Berlioz entre Guignol et les Monty Python.” Let’s hope this week’s puzzler got better notices!

Netrebko Sells Her Deluxe NYC Apartment In The Sky

opera chic — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:20:05 +0000

Anna Netrebko sold her Upper West Side apartment, a 1,247 sq ft two-bedroom at the Beaumont, for a slight loss,...

TSO + TTR + Henze’s Erlkönig Australian Premiere = Win

opera chic — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:43:40 +0000

Native New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes (thy blessed saint of laboriously-crafted guns and cut abs), just gave a colorfully...

A very modern opera

AF — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:58:00 +0000

The timing couldn't have been worse. Vancouver Opera made a bold decision to launch a new, lavish production of John Adams's opera Nixon in China. The Canadian premiere would coincide with the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, playing off those global events and taking advantage of an international audience. Such an exciting venture would no doubt attract another opera company to partner in the production, which would provide much-needed help with resources.
— Read more at The Globe and Mail