This week a new production of Ponchielli’s “La Gioconda” is set to open at the famed Salzburg Easter Festival. The opera, which is rarely performed, required six of the greatest voices and the festival lined up a star cast including rising star Eve-Maud Hubeaux, who is set to portray her first Laura. Over the past years, the mezzo has become {…}
On March 10, 2024, Music of Remembrance will present the world premiere of “Phoenix,” a work that was inspired by the 16-year-old Nika Shakarami who joined other Iranian girls and citizens in protesting the death of Mahsa Amini and who died in the custody of the Iranian morality police after appearing in public without the mandated head covering. The new {…}
This week the Opera de Tenerife is set to present a new production of Dvořák’s most popular opera “Rusalka.” The work will include famed Spanish singers and will be directed by Brazilian director André Heller-Lopes, one of Latin America’s most popular opera directors. OperaWire spoke with Heller-Lopes regarding his ideas and inspiration for Rusalka. The following are the director’s thoughts {…}
(Photo Credits: H. Paul Moon) Performed among the foliage and resplendences of Campos Community Garden in New York City, one of a myriad of analogous respites, sanctuaries if you will, from the tyranny of cement and metal, the monotonous timbres and assaults of the urban soundscape, and the droning apathy and cold banality of inner-city dwelling, the caressing melodiousness of {…}
This week the Teatro Manoel di Malta is presenting Rossini’s “Armida” one of the composer’s most difficult operas and one that has six tenors. This week as the company presents the opera, Anle Gou will sing two of the opera’s tenor roles bringing out his superb Rossini tenor. Gou, who recently spoke with OperaWire about the technical challenges of Rossini {…}
(Photo: Jill Steinberg) National Sawdust and The Met Opera presented “Opera Evolved: Genre Fluidity” on Thursday, February 22nd, 2024. This was the second installment of this three-part series that, according to the program, celebrates artistic convergence by investigating the intersection of innovation and tradition at National Sawdust. The evening included composer and co-founder of National Sawdust, Paola Prestini, and theater {…}
Giacomo Puccini is widely regarded as one of opera’s greatest composers. “Turandot,” “La bohème,” “Tosca,” and “Madama Butterfly” are all widely performed and beloved the world over. Since its premiere in 1900, “La bohème” has been performed over 1,200 times and in all but eight seasons at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. The 1981 Zeffirelli production is the most seen opera {…}
Having recently become a Knight and awarded the prestigious, “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,” baritenor Michael Spyres has quickly arisen as one of modern opera’s central luminaries, sensuously consonant with others like the ineffable Sondra Radvanovsky, the Puccini grande dame Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, Susan Graham, Mikhail Kruglov, Allan Clayton, Elīna Garanča, and Javier Camarena to name only a {…}
This week the Opera de Bellas Artes is set to revive Verdi’s “Giovanna d’Arco” for the first time in 167 years. The company will showcase a cast of leading Mexican artists, including legendary tenor Ramon Vargas, who last year celebrated his 40th anniversary at the legendary Mexican theater. Throughout his illustrious career, Vargas has received raves for his “golden” tone {…}
