Interchanging Idioms

Greg Carpenter’s contract renewed as General Director DENVER, CO (May 20, 2015) Opera Colorado today announced the appointment of Ari Pelto as the first Music Director in its history and the extension of Greg Carpenter’s role as General Director through 2018. Pelto fills an important new role at the Company—partnering with Carpenter to further Opera Colorado’s mission, increase and diversify its programming and repertory, build the national scope of its Young Artists program, and further extend the Company’s reach through engagements in venues outside of the traditional opera house. Pelto will serve as Music Director designee beginning July 1, 2015 and take the helm as Music Director beginning July 1, 2016. “This is an exciting moment in the history of Opera Colorado,” said Greg Carpenter. “Our hard work over the past few years has provided us with the platform we need to take risks and find ways to reach a variety of audiences. As we look to the future, we need an artistic leader...

March 22, 2014 | Ellie Caulkins Opera House Lobby Denver, CO — (February 17, 2014)  In collaboration with and sponsored by Arts & Venues Denver, Opera Colorado presents  Family Day at the Opera  on March 22 at  10:00 a.m.  in the lobby of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. This free family performance will feature an abridged production of  The   Barber of Seville  sung in English. Performed by Opera Colorado’s 2014 Young Artists,  Family Day at the Opera  features the professional production of  The Barber of Seville  that Opera Colorado takes directly into schools and community venues across the state of Colorado. Kevin Taylor at the Opera House will offer family-friendly refreshments and snacks available for purchase in the lobby of the Opera House.  Family Day at the Opera  includes a short Q&A session after the 50 minute performance, along with hands-on crafts and entertainment. Don’t miss this oppor...

Done for the Mini Operas project by English National Opera Synopsis: Humanity lies sleeping as The Sweeper of Dreams enters making his daily rounds to clear away the night’s imaginings. The Sweeper is very thorough and leaves no tatters or smattering of dreams to pollute the waking lives of the humans. He is good at his job but does not enjoy it and has perhaps become a bit careless. One of the dreamers, Promethea, is still deeply involved in her dream of flying and freedom. The Sweeper’s actions rip the dream from her and she plunges towards consciousness screaming. Clinging to the memory of her dream, Promethea argues with the Sweeper. When he remains adamant, she steals back her dream, in the process damaging his broom. No longer will he be able to efficiently remove all of humanity’s dreams. The residue of both dreams and nightmares linger to haunt the waking hours. Promethea by Chip Michael Featuring the voices of: Theodore Sipes - The Sweeper Megan Ihnen - Prometh...

Ildar Abdrazakov will join conductor Riccardo Muti – his friend and frequent collaborator– to sing Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from June 14-19. Abdrazakov (pronounced ahb-drah-ZAH-koff) has sung with Muti on many of the world’s most hallowed stages, including those of La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera and the Salzburg Festival, and their 2010 live recording of Verdi’s Requiem with the CSO won them Grammy Awards for “Best Classical Album” and “Best Choral Performance.” Of the performance that yielded the recording, the Chicago Tribune said: "The discovery of the evening was Ildar Abdrazakov, whose intriguing Slavic bass plumbed the somber depths of his music with real commitment." For those who can’t make it to Chicago for any of the three concerts, the Russian bass can be heard singing the Shostakovich song cycle, which the composer considered his sixteenth symphony in all but name, in a 2006 recording for Ch...

THREE SHOWS ONLY AT FESTIVAL THEATRE, EDINBURGH Thursday 7 – Saturday 9 June, Evenings 7.30pm; Matinee: Sat 2.15pm Ruddigore , Opera North’s hugely successful operetta, will come to Edinburgh Festival Theatre as part of a one-off tour this Summer as well as visiting new venues in Sheffield, Belfast and Dublin. Audiences in Edinburgh will now be able to revel in this witty Victorian melodrama, which is considered one of Gilbert & Sullivan’s most inventive works. Building on the spirit of collaboration established between Opera North and The Sage Gateshead, the Northern Sinfonia has been invited to perform alongside the Opera North chorus throughout the tour, whilst the Orchestra of Opera North performs the second installment of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Die Walküre , also across the country. First performed by Opera North in 2010 and then again last year and directed by Jo Davies, Ruddigore received widespread critical acclaim and was declared a ‘gem of a discovery’. The tale c...

When the Metropolitan Opera’s 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Angela Meade starred in the company’s recent production of Ernani , she gave “a true star-making Met performance” (WQXR) that “showed what this uncommonly gifted rising artist is capable of” (Anthony Tommasini, New York Times ). In May the soprano tackles another Verdi heroine, making her Deutsche Oper Berlin debut as Lucrezia in two concert performances of I due Foscari . More high-profile “firsts” follow in August when Meade makes a trio of major U.S. music festival debuts, headlining “A Night at the Opera” with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival; “Italian Opera Night” with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin at Saratoga, and Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand” with Robert Spano in Aspen. In June – as a preview of next season’s debut with Washington National Opera – she portrays the title role of Bellini’s Norma in concert at Oregon’s Astoria Music Festival, and in July she sings Leonora in V...

“An indispensable part of the summer operatic landscape.” – Musical America on Bard SummerScape Reviving important but neglected operas is one of the ways the Bard SummerScape festival paints a faithfully-nuanced portrait of each past age, and this year’s exploration of “Saint-Saëns and His World” is no exception. To enrich its immersion in the music of Belle Époque France, with all its trademark opulence and emotional richness, Bard presents the first staged revival of the original 1887 version of The King in Spite of Himself ( Le roi malgré lui ) by Saint-Saëns’s compatriot and contemporary Emmanuel Chabrier. The production, starring the “lyrical, expressive baritone” ( New York Times ) of Liam Bonner, will receive a contemporary treatment from Thaddeus Strassberger, director of SummerScape’s previous hit productions of Les Huguenots and The Distant Sound. The opera’s five performances (July 27 & 29; August 1, 3, & 5) involve the festival’s resident American Symphony Orche...

STARTS TODAY Wagner’s Dream A documentary by Susan Froemke U.S./Canada Screenings: Monday, May 7 at 6:30 p.m. local time Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes Premiere The stakes could not be higher as visionary director Robert Lepage and the Metropolitan Opera tackle Wagner's Ring cycle. A backstage look at the enormous theatrical and musical challenges of staging opera’s most monumental work, the film chronicles the five-year journey to create the most ambitious staging in Met history, featuring a 90,000-pound set nicknamed "The Machine.” Soprano Deborah Voigt is torn between excitement and fear as she prepares to take on the role of Brünnhilde for the first time, while unexpected drama arises as a new tenor, Jay Hunter Morris, steps in as the Ring’s hero, Siegfried – days before the production's world premiere. Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold) U.S./Canada Screenings: Wednesday, May 9 at 6:30 p.m. local time Running time: 168 minutes; no intermission Original liv...

On Sunday, April 29, the seventh annual Opera News Awards will be presented at a gala celebration in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza in New York City, paying tribute to five extraordinary artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: sopranos Karita Mattila and Anja Silja, baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Peter Mattei, and director Peter Sellars. Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, who sings Fricka in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Wagner’s Ring , will host the awards. Among the special guests for this year’s festivities are conductor James Conlon (a 2005 Opera News Award-winner), who will present the award to Ms. Silja; legendary baritone (and 2008 Opera News Award-winner) Sherrill Milnes, who will present the award to Mr. Hvorostovsky; bass-baritone Eric Owens, another star of the Met’s Ring , who will present to Mr. Sellars; Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who will present to Ms. Mattila; and soprano Deborah Voigt, a 2007 Opera News Award-wi...

New York City Opera remains true to its roots with today’s 2012-13 season announcement, presenting New York City audiences with new artists and productions, ranging from rarely heard opéra bouffe and bel canto opera to edgier contemporary fare. Through three-year alliances with two theaters – BAM in Brooklyn and New York City Center in midtown Manhattan – the company offers four brand new productions from leading directors Jay Scheib, Sam Buntrock, Michael Counts, and Christopher Alden, plus a fall showcase of the celebrated VOX program in conjunction with OPERA America’s New Works Forum. Speaking on behalf of NYC Opera’s entire Board, Chairman Chuck Wall remarked: “We are thrilled with George Steel's artistic vision and leadership. Our commitment to that vision is supported by the fact that next season’s productions will take place at two of the most ideal opera venues in this great city, and all four productions will be brand new to the stage. This season’s sold-out perf...

SATURDAY, APRIL 14 at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT THE MET: LIVE IN HD LA TRAVIATA Running time: Approximately 160 minutes, including one intermission Host: Deborah Voigt For more information: metopera.org/liveinhd Acclaimed French soprano Natalie Dessay makes her Met role debut as Violetta, the fallen woman who sacrifices her last chance for love. Matthew Polenzani co-stars as Alfredo Germont, a young man from a good family who is willing to risk everything for Violetta. Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father, who disapproves of Violetta’s lifestyle but is moved by her plight. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads Verdi’s romantic tragedy, one of the most-loved operas of all time, in Willy Decker’s highly theatrical production, a hit when it premiered at the Met in 2010. Soprano Deborah Voigt hosts the transmission.

First performance of this masterpiece at Opera Colorado in 27 years Considered by many to be one of the greatest masterpieces by one of the world's greatest opera composers, Verdi's Il Trovatore closes the Opera Colorado 2012 Season with four performances, April 28 through May 6. Conducted by Alexander Polianichko and directed by Tara Faircloth, the opera stars soprano Michele Capalbo as the noblewoman Leonora, mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby as the gypsy Azucena, tenor Avgust Amonov as Manrico, and baritone Robert Hyman as Count di Luna. A dramatic tale of romance and revenge, the story takes place in 15th century Spain where a noble family mourns the death of their cherished infant son at the hands of a mysterious gypsy woman. Years later, two men, one of the royal family's brothers, and one a handsome troubadour, both vie for the hand of the noblewoman Leonora. However the tragic death of the past will haunt the present in a plot filled with dramatic twists and turns and...

Internationally-renowned tenor PIOTR BECZALA wowed critics and Metropolitan Opera audiences, alike, Monday evening (March 26) with his first assumption of the role of the hapless and hopelessly romantic Chevalier des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon . Mr. Beczala shares the stage with soprano Anna Netrebko as the work’s seductive, eponymous heroine. This new production, directed by Laurent Pelly, receives eight subsequent performances (March 31e; April 3, 7m, 11, 14e, 17, 20 & 23) www.metoperafamily.org The April 7 Manon will be a part of the Met’s popular “Live in HD” series, currently seen in over 1700 theaters in 54 countries. In coming months it will be aired on PBS and subsequently available for commercial release on DVD. Reviewing the production’s premiere, Anthony Tommasini noted in The New York Times that, “[Mr. Beczała’s] ardent, virile voice sounded wonderful.” Verena Dobnik, reporting for the Associated Press, said that the tenor, “…may well be setting a gold standard as...

Screenings of all four operas in Wagner’s epic begin May 9 in the U.S. and Canada The Metropolitan Opera will present worldwide movie theater screenings of Robert Lepage’s new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen , as well as Wagner’s Dream , a new documentary chronicling the creation of this ambitious new staging. In the United States and Canada , the series will begin May 7 with a screening of the documentary, directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, and continue on May 9 with Das Rheingold , the first opera in the cycle. The entire four-part Ring cycle and documentary will be screened in many countries this spring and summer, including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. More details on the screenings are below. Please note that showtimes in some markets may vary. Tickets go...

The great music of Jules Massenet's Manon is available for the first time in the form of a violin fantasy, Manon de fantasie . The arrangement by Chip Michael is available for a limited time free for the duration of Netrebko's performance at the met in the title role. For more information and a sample of the violin fantasy, click here .

In honor of this event, I am offering free downloads of my violin fantasy, Manon de fantasie based on the music of the opera. Following her star turn as the title character in the Metropolitan Opera’s season-opening production of Anna Bolena last fall, Anna Netrebko now returns to Lincoln Center to headline her second new production of the season, this time presenting her signature portrayal of the ill-fated Manon in Massenet’s eponymous opera for the first time in front of New York audiences. “Netrebko’s Manon has them in the palm of her hand, her control underlined by her formidable vocal delivery,” reported the London Evening Standard when the Russian soprano sang the role last season at Covent Garden in this new staging by director Laurent Pelly, which transfers to the Met for a nine-performance run beginning March 26. On April 7, the matinee will be transmitted live to more than 1,700 movie theaters around the world as part of the Met: Live in HD series, as well as broadcast ...

When Ailyn Pérez and Stephen Costello came together to sing Puccini’s ill-fated lovers in Cincinnati Opera’s La bohème , it was a match made in opera heaven. The Enquirer called Pérez’s Mimì “radiant” and Costello’s Rodolfo “wonderfully sung,” and praised the “warmth of tone and effortless high notes” of their duet; likewise, Music in Cincinnati reported: “The two singers made an attractive and emotionally appealing couple, with fresh young voices that soared. … The chemistry between Costello and Pérez was potent.” Now – in the first of three collaborations together this spring – the lyric soprano and tenor dubbed “America’s fastest-rising husband-and-wife opera stars” ( Associated Press ) reprise the same roles at Los Angeles Opera, where they headline the company’s signature production of Puccini’s masterpiece. Marking Costello’s house debut, the revival opens for six performances on May 12. “I feel very comfortable with Ailyn on stage and that allows me to be more intimate in l...

Commissioned as part of Lyric’s Renée Fleming Initiative; Music by Composer Jimmy López, Libretto by Playwright Nilo Cruz, Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, Directed by Stephen Wadsworth; Based on Ann Patchett’s Best-Selling Novel; Soprano Danielle de Niese Stars in Central Role Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, today announced details of its new world premiere. Bel Canto , by the gifted young Peruvian composer Jimmy López, with a libretto by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz, is based on the best-selling novel by Ann Patchett. To premiere in Lyric’s 2015-16 season, the new opera, commissioned as part of Lyric’s Renée Fleming Initiative, will be conducted by Lyric music director Sir Andrew Davis and directed by Stephen Wadsworth. Both the 2001 book and the new opera are inspired by the Lima Crisis of 1996-97, when members of a revolutionary movement in Peru held hostages at the Japanese ambassador’s house for 126 days (Dec. 17, 1996-April 22, 1997). C...

The Metropolitan Opera Guild and Opera News, the award-winning magazine published by the Guild since 1936, will present two notable events this spring. On Tuesday, March 22, the Guild honors Thomas Hampson, one of today’s foremost singers, in its “Met Mastersingers” series at New York City’s Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College. The great American baritone – who is making his company role debut as Verdi’s Macbeth at the Met this month – will engage in an informal conversation with Paul Gruber, the Guild’s Executive Director of Program Development. The evening program will also showcase video excerpts of Hampson’s most celebrated performances; a new video biography created for the occasion; and the honoree performing songs by Liszt, Barber, and Porter (program subject to change). On Sunday, April 29, the seventh annual Opera News Awards will be presented in a gala celebration in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza in New York City, paying tribute to five extraordinary artists who have made an i...

“If City Opera gives us an Alden production a year, it'll be an extraordinary gift to our cultural life." — New York Observer New York City Opera presents the second installment in director Christopher Alden's Mozart/Da Ponte cycle for the company with Così fan tutte , March 18-24 in the intimate space of the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at Manhattan's John Jay College. After his visionary staging of Don Giovanni for NYC Opera in 2009, Alden brings similar daring to his production of Così , Mozart's bittersweet meditation on the ever-thorny issues of loyalty and commitment, attraction and desire. Covering his Don Giovanni , the New York Observer declared that Alden creates “the most consistently vibrant operatic theater in the city. . . If City Opera gives us an Alden production a year in perpetuity, it'll be an extraordinary gift to our cultural life." Così fan tutte will be enlivened by a vibrant, talented cast, including Jennifer Holloway (Dorabella), A...