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La Scala Opening Night Features Verdi's 'Joan of Arc'
Giovanna d'Arco (Joan of Arc) may not be one of Verdi's best known operas, but the story of the 15th-century heroine burned at the stake has captured imaginations ever since her martyrdom. Lisa Simeone...
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Soprano Ailyn Pérez Wins Beverly Sills Award
American soprano Ailyn Pérez has been announced the winner of the Beverly Sills Award, annually given to a young singer between 25- and 40-years-old who has sung at the Metropolitan Opera and is...
View ArticleDomingo and Levine Partner for 'Simon Boccanegra'
On Saturday at 12:30 pm, two operatic legends partner to present Verdi's Simon Boccanegra from the Metropolitan Opera. James Levine conducts and Placido Domingo takes on the title role of the...
View ArticleHow Old Is Too Old for the Opera Stage?
I hear often from singers who suggest ideas for articles I might do. One of the most frequently mentioned is the delicate but important issue of why many artists who are past the age of 50 have trouble...
View ArticleLes Arts Florissants Revive an 18th-Century 'Hit'
A wild carnival sets the stage for gambling, intrigue, trysts and mistaken identities, while long-legged dancers strut lasciviously around stage in revealing crimson costumes. The scene seems taken...
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Dmitri Hvorostovsky Takes on the Title Role in ROH's 'Eugene Onegin'
Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings one of his trademark roles, as the conceited Eugene Onegin, in a production of Tchaikovsky's great opera from the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London. Based on a...
View ArticleJames Levine Set to Retire from the Met
After much speculation, debate and even New York Times-chronicled doctors visits, the beloved music director of the Metropolitan Opera, James Levine, 72, has announced that he will retire at the end of...
View ArticleSalonen Reveals the Dramatic Core of Strauss's 'Elektra'
If anything could drown out preoccupying thoughts about the Met's announcement of James Levine's retirement and transition to conductor-emeritus status, it's Elektra.Loud, nasty and relentlessly...
View ArticleSondra Radvanovsky Summons Queen Elizabeth in 'Roberto Devereux'
Tune in Saturday at 1 pm as soprano Sondra Radvanovsky sings the role of Queen Elizabeth I in the third of Donizetti's three Tudor queens operas to be staged at the Met this year. The opera focuses on...
View ArticleSpeculation Begins on Levine's Successor at the Met
As the reality sinks in of James Levine's retirement at the end of this season as music director of the Metropolitan Opera, a list of potential successors is starting to take shape.The leading...
View Article'Les Fêtes Vénitiennes,' a Vaudevillian Spectacle from the Baroque
Though not a complete stranger to New York City, André Campra's greatest stage hit, Les Fêtes Vénitiennes, received a vividly Dionysian production in one of Les Arts Florissants's more sophisticated...
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Janáček's 'Cunning Little Vixen' from Turin
This week, Lisa Simeone hosts Leos Janáček's fairy tale opera, The Cunning Little Vixen. The composer was inspired to write the opera after reading a newspaper comic strip illustrating the adventures...
View ArticleA Verdian Season in New York
Giuseppe Verdi, that colossus of opera and courageous nation-builder, was celebrated in New York last week in four distinct ways. There were important visitors from Parma, where Verdi is venerated. A...
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A Second 'Otello'? The Other Operas Inspired by Shakespeare
Whether offering hijinks or high drama, Shakespeare’s plays have been transformed into operas by many of the great composers, and several of these works have inspired more than one adaptation. Opera...
View ArticleVerdi Nods to Shakespeare with 'Otello'
Tune in at 1 pm Saturday to hear Verdi's Otello from the Metropolitan Opera on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. The Bartlett Sher production, which premiered earlier this...
View ArticleA Supporting Artist Who Steals the Show
Every major opera company in North America and abroad has a small team of valuable artists familiar to audience members who focus on casts and voices. These singers play the maids, servants, lackeys,...
View ArticleResurrected New York City Opera Revives an American Work
New York City Opera isn't the only comeback being celebrated when the reorganized company stages its first presentation entirely under its own aegis on Thursday night at the Harlem Stage. The moment...
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Sweden's Göteborg Opera Presents 'Madama Butterfly'
Lisa Simeone hosts this broadcast of Puccini's beloved tragedy, Madama Butterfly, from Göteborg Opera in western Sweden. The production stars Jung Nan Yoon in the title role and tenor Marcelo Puenti as...
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JFK Sings on the Moon
Historians and conspiracy theorists have obsessed over every scrap of evidence from the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. But we don’t usually pay attention to what the president was doing the...
View ArticleGig Alert: Hopper's Wife
EVENT: Hopper's Wife, New York City Opera at Harlem StageThe New York City Opera was called “the people’s opera” by Mayor LaGuardia – so it was a major loss when the company filed for bankruptcy in...
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