Opera News Archives

“Billy Budd, king of the birds”

Throughout Houston Grand Opera's Billy Budd , an unseaworthy mechanical gizmo spins on stage - it's an annoying mechanical platform that's supposed to be the deck of the English warship Indomitable . via Houston Press

The Phantom is going strong, 22 years on. Twelve years after the Phantom last graced a New Zealand stage, Andrew Lloyd Webber's famed musical is set to return to our shores, playing a limited season at ... via The New Zealand Herald

There are a number of marriages in "Figaro," but, all things considered, the most important marriage is the inspired pairing of Beaumarchais' "The Marriage of Figaro, and Mozart's opera of the same name. via Pleasant Hill Record

An editor's pick of interesting events happening tonight in Toronto, updated daily by 2 p.m. This comic musical which has taken T.O. by storm is based on the low-budget, cult-classic - 80s film, and stars actor ... via Toronto.com

“It is something that will have to grow.”

The stage was set here last year. The 2007 opening ceremony of the Spoleto Festival USA featured the mayor of Spoleto, Italy, who left no doubt how anxious officials of his country were to arrange a reunion ... via The Post and Courier

This week's diarist is Marshall Pynkoski, co-artistic director of Toronto's Opera Atelier. via Canada.com

“The signals that we have received have been very good. We can be cautiously optimistic”

FILE ** In this July 25, 2007 file photo, Wolfgang Wagner, grandson of German composer Richard Wagner, right, and his daughter Katharina, left, stand prior to the Wagner Festival opening in front of the ... via Athens Banner-Herald

BARITONE ANTON BELOV will perform a free concert at at 3 p.m. May 17 the Highland Park Public Library, 31 N. Fifth Ave. via Courier News

Better Than: 100 years of symphonic solitude sung by Marquez himself. It's not every night that one gets to hear a hundred year span of classical music played live; then again, it's not every night that The ... via Miami New Times

Opera star Katherine Jenkins will be the first person to sing the Welsh national anthem at Wembley when she performs ahead of the FA Cup final. via IcScotland

With Measha Brueggergosman's media engine presently in high gear, making her first stage appearance in a Mozart opera now is certain to blur the line between critical praise and adoring hysterics. via National Post

It looks like today's big news swept away most of the other would-be Bronte news. via Bronte Blog

“But I couldn't find a story that I could wrap my head around.”

Production will focus on day in the life of a singer Rufus Wainwright is set to compose an opera for the Metropolitan Opera . via NME.com

“There is always some flaw in it”

Even the people we think we know best move to forces we cannot know or understand. via Quick

“Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail”

Two lovers who are separated by fate but remain true to one another. Show-stopping arias filled with coloratura ornamentation. via Athens Banner-Herald

“I wanted to write an opera that you could take a child to”

Asteroids swirl and stars glimmer in the basement of Davies Symphony Hall, as a small prince and his beloved rose sing words that have entranced generations of children. via Inside Bay Area

“Vesperae Solennes de Confessore”

The College-Community Orchestra of SUNY Cortland will feature music about the English Renaissance in its spring concert on Tuesday, April 29 at 8 p.m. in the Dowd Fine Arts Theatre. via Ithaca Journal

“I am sure that when it comes to Papageno, he (Mozart) would have been okay”

Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" has been performed all over the world but Berliners will be treated from this week to a modernised production with a difference -- in an underground metro station. via XtraMSN Real Estate

“If I Were a Bell - The Songs of Frank Loesser.”

Inspiration is a mysterious thing - sometimes the muse whispers softly in your ear, other times she turns up with Mozart and Beaumarchais, the German composer and French author/rapscallion whose work has been ... via Contra Costa Times

I saw this company's last Bay Area production, "The Miser," and I can tell you, these guys are extraordinary. via Inside Bay Area

“We find it easy to play music by Italian composers because both are emotional, soft and full of passion. German music is a little tough because the tenor is different”

New Delhi, April 25: The conductor of a Russian orchestra said his group enjoyed playing a rich collection of Western classical works by famous composers like Pytor Tchaikovsky here since the Indian audience ... via Newkerala.com

“When I took over as artistic director, one of my goals was to expand out season incrementally”

Last fall, Pasadena-based Celestial Opera went head-to-head with Los Angeles' biggest opera company, offering their version of Beethoven's "Fidelio" just months after Los Angeles Opera opened its season with a ... via Whittier Daily News

Some critics have labeled "The Magic Flute" Mozart's greatest work and the foundation of all German opera. via Fremont Bulletin

The Met Opera will move to Brooklyn's Prospect Park for one night this summer -- June 20 -- for a free concert that could draw as many as 150,000 people, the Met Opera announced today . via NewYorkology

“You can leave with your head held high.”

The music of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber marked the end of the road for "American Idol" finalist Carly Smithson on Wednesday after fans of the hit TV talent show cast the fewest votes for her rendition of ... via Reuters

Katherine_Jenkins SHE'S dazzled audiences around the world, but Katherine Jenkins has finally made her debut on a new stage - a list of the world's 100 sexiest women. via IcWales

Opera heads below ground as Mozart's "The Magic Flute" is performed in an unopened Berlin underground station. via Reuters Video

“All of us in Charleston are deeply indebted to the town of Spoleto and the festival that is so much a part of that town. It will be very fitting to bring the two festivals closer together.”

After a nearly 15-year-split, Spoleto Festival USA and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, will once more unite to present artistic programs. via The Post and Courier

"The Metropolitan Opera will simulcast its opening-night gala featuring Renee Fleming to theatres in North America as its program of high-definition broadcasts expands from eight to 11 next season. via The Toronto Star

Mozart's world-famous opera "The Magic Flute" is performed in a Berlin underground station. via Reuters RSS Reuters.com

Rewarding a rare encore with an even rarer standing ovation in midperformance, a rapturous Metropolitan Opera audience hailed the company's beguiling new production of Donizetti 's comic gem, "La Fille du ... via WTOP

One of the world's most respected critics in classical music will be The Post and Courier's new overview writer for this year's Spoleto Festival USA. via Post and Courier

More than 30 years ago, this critic sat in a darkened theater and watched Ted Neeley wail the title role in Webber and Rice's controversial rock opera 'Jesus Christ, Superstar.' Decades later, he reprised the ... via WisInfo

“This year will be our highest-quality performance”

Italian-inspired music, food, art featured at event By Katie Collins Sunday, April 20, 2008 Clay Owen Jaden Janowick, 2, tries spaghetti and meatballs Saturday during the 7th annual Rossini Festival on Gay ... via The Knoxville News Sentinel

“Aida") and it certainly has operatic emotions, from the fearful "Dies Irae”

Save the biggest for last. That was the recipe for Saturday's Pasadena Symphony Orchestra concert, the last one in the orchestra's 2007-08 season. via Pasadena Star-News

“The experience of having brought the French musicians together with Indian, Sri Lankan musicians and singers has been wonderful”

Written by French composer Georges Bizet, the opera revolves around Carmen, a beautiful gypsy with a fiery temper. via India eNews

“I think it's a very dark piece”

The grim Greek myth of the Minotaur, half-beast and half-human, has been brought to life in a new, blood-drenched opera by leading composer Harrison Birtwistle. via Reuters UK

To review the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Philip Glass's Satyagraha in a newspaper - 'in this old-fashioned, dying form of media - 'seems particularly apt, as newspapers both physically and ... via Columbia Spectator

“They were such brilliant songwriters that just cross over every age group”

Nickelodeon's "The Wonder Pets!" introduced preschoolers to classical music and opera during its first season. via The Ledger

Posted in Classical & Opera , Music by Steve Smith on April 11th, 2008 You know that the Metropolitan Opera has a major hit on its hands when the entire run of a new show sells out before opening night. via Time Out New York

The 18th season of the College of Charleston's International Piano Series closed Tuesday night with an amazing concert of Iberian and Iberian-influenced music, which made for an astonishingly fresh musical ... via Post and Courier

Katharina Wagner, who will share curating duties at the Bayreuth opera festival with her sister, Eva Wagner-Pasquier. Photograph: Eckehard Schulz/AP The Wagner family feud over who should take the helm at the ... via Guardian Unlimited

Tioga County Council on the Arts will present the fourth in a free four-part series, "Always on Sunday," at the First Presbyterian Union Church from 3-4:30 p.m. Sunday. via Press & Sun-Bulletin

“The reporting was quite kind and she received many compliments”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was "quite shocked" by the press coverage of the dress she wore in Norway that showed an unprecedented amount of cleavage. via The Standard

Kelly Kaduce is Rusalka, and Robert Pomakov is the Water Gnome in the Minnesota Opera's production of "Rusalka." Video of the production "Cursed human passion!" That's the lament of Rusalka, a lake nymph whose ... via Twincities.com

When Philip Glass has a musical idea, he repeats it. And repeats it. And repeats it.

On and on and on. Dozens of times, maybe hundreds, perhaps thousands. It's like an aural jackhammer, lulling the listener into a trance or pounding him into submission, according to one's taste.

Glass' 'Satyagraha,' based on the life of Mohandas K. Ghandi, was given its Metropolitan Opera premiere Friday night. Lovers of Glass will find it compelling. Many others will conclude it is among the dullest, most tedious operas ever composed. Read more

“Cantamos y Aprendemos con Jose-Luis Orozco - Singing and Learning with Jose-Luis Orozco.”

Israeli clarinet virtuoso Sharon Kam makes her Oregon Symphony debut at 8 p.m. Tuesday in a performance of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto at Willamette University's Smith Auditorium, 900 State St., Salem. via Statesman Journal

There has been a lot of talk about how it's taken almost 60 years to revive 'South Pacific' on Broadway. via Home News Tribune

“This house for many generations to come will be filled with music, dance and song.”

OSLO, Norway - King Harald V opened Norway's long-awaited national opera house on the shores of the Oslo Fjord on Saturday, kicking off a gala performance before royalty, national leaders and music lovers. via Newsday.com

Yes, Anna Netrebko is pregnant. No, you can't see it. The Russian diva returned to the opera stage Sunday for the first time since her pregnancy was announced Feb. via St.Petersburg Times

“So a lot of the images are created by ensembles of people.”

One of the puppets in the Philip Glass opera "Satyagraha," nicknamed J-Lo, has Darmesh Patel inside to bring it alive. via New York Times

“Many hoped that the new opera house in Bjoervika would be just as grand as the one in Sydney, (Australia). It is”

Norwegians are set to open their new national opera house on the edge of the Oslo Fjord on Saturday in a royal celebration that marks the end of a more than 120-year wait for music lovers. via MyTELUS

The New York Times has a behind-the-scenes look at a new version of Phillip Glass's modernist opera, "Satyagraha," which is playing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York until May 1. There is also a ... via Amardeep Singh

It's called 'A Little Music Among Good Friends,' but participants in Saturday's musicale at Temple Concord are not only each other's chums but friends of the synagogue itself. via PressConnects.com

“The Yangtze River Delta is one of the areas which boosts strongest cultural resources in the country. As a Chinese theatre, it's our task to introduce world arts to Chinese audiences. We should also do our bit for our national culture.”

In the art world China not only remembers its traditions but is working hard to recreate and refresh them. via Xinhuanet

“The score is a one-of-a-kind achievement”

All of a sudden, the American musical seems adventurous again. Last fall was a particularly barren time for song on Broadway with only "Young Frankenstein" and "The Little Mermaid" arriving during the ... via Slam Sports

“As Tears Go By") without cinematographer Christopher Doyle, but Darius Khondji, a different kind of genius, makes "My Blueberry Nights”

During last week's Met Opera broadcast, baritone Thomas Hampson was sharing his career conclusions about opera: It's not about the plotline, he said. via Newsday.com

“When I arrived in Mexico I saw the films of Imperio Argentina, Concha Piquer, Juanita Reina”

Placido Domingo recorded his new album of popular Spanish songs because they reminded the singer of his homeland when he lived in Mexico as a child and young man. via Reuters

The Peninsula Music Festival has set its schedule for a 56th season of classical music by a professional orchestra. via Green Bay Press-Gazette

“I am excited by this pioneering new direction for the Royal Opera House at the start of the 21st century”

Digital cinema outfit Arts Alliance Media is partnering with rights holder DigiScreen Corporation, consultancy the Pillar Group and Opus Arte, the Royal Opera House's TV and DVD production company, to bring ... via Variety

No, you can't see it. The Russian diva returned to the opera stage Sunday for the first time since her pregnancy was announced Feb. via SF Gate

“That's great, because I think it's sort of a holistic approach to an artist in the community”

Composer Daniel Kellogg has a special month going - two world premieres. The first is Saturday, when the Green Bay Symphony and the Dudley Birder Chorale perform "La Luz." It's the fruition of another chapter ... via Green Bay Press-Gazette

“It really makes you emotional.”

Hundreds of people packed Lima's main plaza to catch a glimpse of tenor Juan Diego Florez and his German-born, Australian-raised wife Julia Trappe who exchanged vows yesterday in Peru's "wedding of the year". ... via The West Australian

Two of opera's venerated statesmen captivated the crowd in a Zurich staging of "Tosca," despite imperfect performances by the orchestra and title role. via Centre Daily Times

“If you had talked to me 10 or 15 years ago, I would have said I do not really care about this”

The Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky has carved out an impressive international career but says he feels increasingly close to his homeland and the Russian repertoire. via The St. Petersburg Times

“The image was stolen and used without her permission.”

Comments A photograph of opera star Katherine Jenkins appeared in an online video in support of the British National Party. via Daily Mail

“It's very operatic and sad. She was quite a smart lady with the tragic flaw that she could not seem to get through life without a vat of prescription painkillers.”

Replete with doomed love affairs, failed bids for fame and an early tragic death, Anna Nicole Smith's life story is the stuff of opera. via CBC

Actress Terry Hatcher arrives for the Vienna opera ball on January 31, 2008 in Vienna, Austria. via CW West Palm

“I want to pay tribute to the technical expertise of the Met, what they do.”

THEY CALL me Mimi. I don't know why." These are eight of the most famous words in opera, Act I of La Boheme. via BaltimoreSun.com

BALTIMORE -- The opera world is always looking for the next hot new tenor, and some people's money is on Stephen Costello. He's young, well built and has a lovely voice. And this year, when he made his Metropolitan Opera debut on opening night in the second tenor role of Arturo ('Lucia di Lammermoor'), he impressed enough people that music director James Levine asked him to take over as the lead in a single performance. This is in keeping with the tone of his upcoming schedule, with debuts in Salzburg, Chicago, Berlin and other starry locales. Read more

“I trained as a singer for seven years and sometimes it comes in handy”

A performance of Aida at the Pittsburgh Opera on Tuesday night led to what may very well have been an operatic first: faced with an ailing Radames, whose cover was unavailable because of a delayed flight, ... via Opera News

“So singing it at the Papal Mass was a natural.”

Rehearsal assistant David Mathers brought his lapel microphone up to his mouth for a throaty demonstration of the German word "dich," putting particular emphasis on the guttural "kh" sound at the end. via WTOP

Richard Wagner's "Goetterdaemmerung" and "Das Rheingold" are among the four new productions being staged by the Vienna State Opera for its coming season, ahead of a full staging of the German master's Ring ... via CBC News

Familiar as it is, the tale remains poignant. The Nazis created the 'model camp' of Theresienstadt in the present-day Czech Republic in 1941; to it, they deported the elderly and the cultural elite, and at one point built stage sets of stores and cafes to help show the Red Cross how well they were treating their Jews. Meanwhile, composers, musicians, artists and writers continued to create and perform in a mingled spirit of defiance and existential affirmation.

The tale resurfaces every so often, from stagings of Hans Kri 1 2sa's opera 'Brundibar' (performed in 1943 by the camp's children) to exhibitions like 'I Never Saw Another Butterfly,' a collection of children's drawings and poems from Theresienstadt. This spring, two singers are putting it into the spotlight. Released last month, the latest CD in the mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter's seemingly inexhaustible contract with Deutsche Grammophon, 'Terezin/Theresienstadt,' brings together several artists, including baritone Christian Gerhaher and violinist Daniel Hope. On Tuesday night at the Austrian Embassy, baritone Wolfgang Holzmair presented his own selection -- also CD-length, and no doubt destined for a recording -- of Theresienstadt music, accompanied by pianist Russell Ryan. Read more

“When you think of an opera house crowd, you think of black tie, don't you? Of course, it's fine to go in jeans but that's not the perception.”

LAST week, at the launch of the new Royal Opera House season in London, chief executive Tony Hall braved the wrath of Covent Garden purists by reportedly announcing that he wanted "to get that buzzy cool crowd ... via Scotsman.com Living

“Isabel Bayrakdarian is an astonishing talent and the passion, romance and sheer beauty of this music will knock everyone's socks off”

Star Armenian-Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian will open the 2008 Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival July 25, performing music from her recent album Tango Notturno, the festival has announced. via Ottawa Citizen