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Sally Greenhill, who dreams of seeing the Metropolitan Opera in person one day, has found the next best thing: watching it live at a London movie theater.
A project by Met General Manager Peter Gelb to make opera cheaper, more accessible and appealing to younger people has turned into sold-out performances aired live in film theaters worldwide. With an average price of $25 a ticket, it's easier on the wallet: a top seat at the Met in Manhattan costs $375.
— Read more at Bloomberg.com

This is the season of colds. And illness has certainly taken a toll at the Metropolitan Opera this winter, as it did on Thursday night for the first performance of Strauss's "Ariadne auf Naxos" in a revival of Elijah Moshinsky's slightly surreal 1994 production.
— Read more at NYTimes.com

The Opera Company of Philadelphia is bouncing back from its blues. Ticket sales are growing, fund-raising is progressing, and ambitious new programming is in the works.
— Read more at Philadelphia Inquirer

Nina Stemme returned to the Metropolitan Opera for the first time since her debut run nearly a decade ago, and sang a radiant performance in a charming revival of Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos."
The Swedish soprano has made her mark in Wagner - her only previous Met appearances were as Senta. Her Ariadne on Thursday night showed off both glimmering high notes and a powerful, honey-filled lower register, holding together a cast that despite the absence of top-rank stars combined for an entertaining night.
— Read more at SignOnSanDiego.com

There were plenty of high notes but not quite enough heart as Donizetti's comic romp "La Fille du Regiment" ("The Daughter of the Regiment") returned to the Metropolitan Opera.
The revival of the endearing production by Laurent Pelly, first seen at the Met two seasons ago, opened Saturday night. Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez was back to portray the lovesick peasant Tonio, while German soprano Diana Damrau appeared for the first time here as the tomboyish title character, Marie.
— Read more at ABC News

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AT the end of "La Boheme," as Puccini envisioned the opera, the frail seamstress Mimi dies in bed in a garret overlooking the rooftops of Paris, attended by only her five bohemian cronies. As seen live on Swiss television in September, she boarded an empty bus from a curb outside a shopping mall, leaving not only her friends but an indeterminate number of onlookers. Then the bus pulled away, pursued for a time by her stricken lover Rodolfo until he collapsed on the pavement.
— Read more at NYTimes.com

Under Peter Gelb, the Metropolitan Opera has been focused on the fresh and the new, streaming out spiffy high-def broadcasts of its elegantly marketed new productions. But this week brings to the company a blast from the past with the return of a familiar face. Joseph Volpe, who served as the Met's general manager from 1990 to 2006 and authored a memoir about the experience called The Toughest Show on Earth, has been hired by Mr. Gelb, his successor, to represent the company in upcoming contract negotiations with its three major labor unions.
— Read more at Zachary Woolfe - The New York Observer

The curtain came down yesterday on opera-loving fraudster Alberto Vilar, who was sentenced to nine years behind bars for conning investors out of more than $20 million.
But Vilar -- who was also ordered to pay more than $44 million in restitution and forfeitures -- was spared an even longer term by a judge who said he deserved the "hope" of a post-prison encore as a free man.
— Read more at NYPOST.com

The Argentine composer Ginastera made an unlikely appearance in Donizetti's "Fille du Regiment" when Laurent Pelly's lively and broadly comical 2008 production returned to the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday evening.
— Read more at NYTimes.com

First it was eight, then two and now zero. Those are the number of Angela Gheorghiu's appearances this season in "Carmen," a production created for her at the Metropolitan Opera. It was to be her first Carmen. The Met on Friday said she had withdrawn from her two remaining scheduled performances of the work, directed by Richard Eyre.

— Read more at nytimes.com

Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Florez star in La Fille du Regiment, Donizetti's comedy about the tough-hearted young woman who was rescued and raised by the 21st regiment of the French army, and her romance with a hapless soldier-suitor. Florez returns to his triumphant portrayal of Tonio of two seasons ago, when he electrified audiences and was hailed as the "new hero of the high C's" by Newsweek. He garnered a rare, on-the-spot encore of his aria "Pour mon ame," which the New York Times called "one of those thrilling moments that opera impresarios live for." Kiri Te Kanawa returns to perform her first role at the Met in twelve years, taking on the comic part of the Duchess of Krakenthorp. Maurizio Muraro sings his first Sergeant Sulpice at the Met, and Meredith Arwady makes her Met role debut as the Marquise of Berkenfield. Laurent Pelly's 2008 production, his Met debut, was hailed by the New York Times as "one of the hottest tickets of the Met's season." Pelly also designed the costumes, and the sets are by ChantAl Thomas. Joel Adam designed the lighting, and choreography is by Laura Scozzi. Performances run through February 22.
— Read more at broadwayworld.com

Seventy-five years ago, the first great American opera - and, many would persuasively argue, the greatest American opera - was born. Not everyone noticed.
An eminent critic complained about "a libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen [by a composer] who should never have attempted it." Another bristled at "sure-fire rubbish" in the score.
— Read more at Tim Smith - baltimoresun.com See also: The enduring 'Porgy' and the remarkable Till Fellner

Sometimes slight flaws in an otherwise great opera - say, a convoluted plot twist or impractical vocal demands - can account for the work's neglect. That Gluck's magnificent 1777 "Armide," a seemingly flawless masterpiece, continues to be a rarity is inexplicable.
In decades of operagoing I had encountered "Armide" only once, an earnest student production at the Juilliard School in 1999, before the concert performance in the Frederick P. Rose Hall of Lincoln Center on Wednesday night. It was presented by Opera Lafayette, an adventurous period company in Washington celebrating its 15th season.
— Read more at NYTimes.com

San Francisco Opera released their FY 2008-2009 results. There is some good news, and not-so-good news. First, the good: the budget is balanced at about $67M, with an operating income of $416,032. Summer season ticket sales were strong, according to the press release. Contributions to the annual fund accounted for approximately 50% of the budget.
— Read more at starksilvercreek.com

The power of tragedy is nobly served in Benjamin Britten's chamber opera "The Rape of Lucretia," which Pittsburgh Opera is presenting through Sunday afternoon.
Tuesday evening's performance at the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts school, Downtown, was a powerful experience in which insightful interpretation left the tragedy and the questions it poses lingering in the mind for days.
— Read more at Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Opera Lafayette celebrated its 15th anniversary on Monday night with a gesture that, before the fact, seemed almost quixotic. The company, which usually performs in the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater -- seating about 500 -- rented out the Concert Hall, which holds more than 2,000 people, for a performance of Gluck's "Armide." In honor of its anniversary, the group charged $15 a ticket, a quarter of what it regularly charges.
And it sold out the Concert Hall. Happy Birthday, Opera Lafayette.
— Read more at Anne Midgette - washingtonpost.com

The junk hauler figured they had to be worth something, these 15,000 black discs that filled an entire room in a Silver Spring house.
"It's by far the largest collection in the seven years I've been cleaning out people's houses," Alan Cook told me as three of his employees lugged box after box out to a truck parked on the cul-de-sac.
— Read more at washingtonpost.com

The Minnesota Opera's claim to being an exemplary producer of bel canto opera grows stronger every year, and "Roberto Devereux" is its latest triumph.
— Read more at Postbulletin.com

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Ana Maria Martinez's debut in the role of the tragic Cio-Cio San in Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly; Houston Grand Opera's first staging of Dead Man Walking, one of the most acclaimed new operas of the past decade; and a troika of dynamic divas - Laura Claycomb, Christine Goerke and Susan Graham - to power Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos - are amongsome of the noteworthy aspects of Houston Grand Opera's 2010-11 season.
— Read more at Houston Chronicle

Geneva's opera house has taken the unusual step of issuing a warning to audiences about its new production of Alban Berg's harrowing opera "Lulu", saying it may be unsuitable for people aged less than 16.
— Read more at Reuters.com

Whether you spell the name "Schweik" or "Svejk" (the original Czech spelling), or pronounced "Schvike" or "Shvake," is a matter of preference.
In either case, the enthusiastic opening night audience greeted Robert Kurka's irreverent opera, "The Good Soldier Schweik," with peals of applause and a roaring standing ovation.
Now in its 31st year, Long Beach Opera has established itself as a bold, unconventional company where audiences can "expect the unexpected." Last weekend was no exception.
— Read more at gazettes.com

Another routine night at the opera.
It was routine for Long Beach Opera, at least: a lively, in-your-face production at the Center Theater of a modern, obscure work by an unknown composer.
"The Good Soldier Schweik" is an opera I'd heard of and read about, but never seen. It received its premiere in 1958 at New York City Opera and was the work of American Robert Kurka, who died of leukemia at the same age as Mozart, 35.
— Read more at gazettes.com

Since I first sang the praises of my friend, soprano Heidi Melton on jcm, she has moved several steps closer to the exposure that her prodigious gifts hinted at. I'm very excited to share with you (Melton fans and newbies alike) my new e-interview with her: she, in Berlin, sidled up to her laptop with frosty brew-in-hand, and me, in San Francisco, eagerly awaiting her return to the SFO, in 2011. Ah, it's the next best thing to sitting down in-person at a pub!
— Read more at jumping clapping man

[from press release] Scottish Opera will premiere five original short operas at the Word Festival in Aberdeen this May, marking the third year of the Company's commissioning strand - Five:15 Operas Made in Scotland. This, along with a move to the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, strengthens the project's connections with other forms of new writing in Scotland. Five:15 is again sponsored by Accenture.
Five teams of composers and writers are currently working on the brand-new operas, featuring themes as diverse as isolation, exploration, spirituality, sublimation, the philosophy of Zen, modern morality and the state of the economy.

Sometimes, the opera that unfolds backstage is at least as colorful as the one playing out at the footlights. And in Terrence McNally's new play, Golden Age, at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, it's just as intense.
Golden Age, one of three world premieres that opened in Center City on Wednesday - the other two being at the Walnut main stage and InterAct - is the third of McNally's plays involving opera, and it's set at yet another world premiere. The smoothly performed production, directed by Austin Pendleton, continues the company's long association with McNally, whose Master Class premiered here and went on to win the best-play Tony.
— Read more at Howard Shapiro - Philadelphia Inquirer

I can't think I've ever heard the orchestral score of Tosca so magnificently played - or so compellingly argued as truly great music - as in Houston Grand Opera's performance Saturday evening. Credit belongs to HGO music director Patrick Summers and the HGO Orchestra, which from delicate shimmers and flutings to brazen climaxes ravished the ear.
Sometimes, in fact, the orchestra got exalted at the singers' expense. But this isn't the most charismatic cast, and John Caird's staging manages to mix unconvincing innovations with hoary traditions worth discarding.
— Read more at Scott Cantrell - Dallas Morning News

When Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) wrote "Roberto Devereux," which opened Saturday at the Ordway Center in a terrific new staging by the Minnesota Opera, he was Italy's foremost active composer. The year was 1837. Rossini, opera's comic genius, had fallen silent. Bellini, master of the long-limbed melody, was dead. Verdi, who would filch material from "Devereux" for at least three of his own operas, wasn't yet a contender. But Donizetti's fortunes would soon ebb. By the 1880s, his 70 stage works seemed like relics; only a few of his comedies lingered in the repertoire.
— Read more at StarTribune.com

Deception, subterfuge, concealed identities, hapless schemes, mistaken identities and lots of music - "The Marriage of Figaro" has got it all.
The Skylight Opera Theatre's production of Mozart's comic opera that opened this weekend captures the silliness and froth of the tale and delivers it with some lovely singing.
— Read more at JSOnline

Toronto's Opera Atelier plans to celebrate its 25th season in 2010-11 with productions of Handel's Acis and Galatea and Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito.
The small company, which is devoted to opera of the Baroque period, has ambitions to scale up its productions and take on new material, general manager Jane Hargraft told CBC News.
— Read more at CBC News

Like so many arts groups nationally, Opera San Jose has been toughing it out in the current economy. What a brave move then that the company will open its 27th season not with tried-and-true Puccini or Rossini, but with a contemporary work: "Anna Karenina," American composer David Carlson's setting of the 19th-century novel by Leo Tolstoy.
This will be the West Coast premiere of "Anna Karenina," which opens for eight performances at the California Theatre on Sept. 11. Larry Hancock, Opera San Jose's general manager, is billing "Anna'' as a spectacle, by far the most ambitious undertaking ever attempted by the company. It has 46 characters and 19 scenes flowing one to the next, cinematically.
— Read more at Richard Scheinin - San Jose Mercury News

The burgeoning world of budget opera in the Bay Area grew even fuller over the weekend, as the new-music group Ensemble Parallele unveiled its canny and musically first-rate production of Berg's "Wozzeck."
— Read more at sfgate.com

Oh dear, Carie Delmar, Los Angeles' raving anti-Wagner loon, at it again, this time under the pseudo-pseudonym "Carol Jean Delmar."
Somehow she's managed to convince the Huffington Post to publish her, giving her previously marginalized perspective a much greater audience than she deserves. Jumping on the anti-Domingo bandwagon as an excuse to take some cheap and inaccurate shots at LA Opera's Ring Cycle, Delmar's post is disingenuous on several fronts. I'll give her credit for one thing though- she's tenacious, crafty- and she just blew the credibility of one of the web's most heavily trafficked sites.
— Read more at John Marcher - abeastinajungle.blogspot.com

Opera Boston presents the company's first commissioned work- the world premiere of Madame White Snake, an opera by composer Zhou Long and librettist Cerise Lim Jacobs, based on a beloved ancient Chinese legend. The project was conceived by Brookline, Mass. residents Charles Jacobs and Cerise Lim Jacobs. Co-commissioned with the Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation (BMF), it is the first world premiere by the BMF and an American company. Madame White Snake will have three performances - Feb. 26 at 7: 30 p.m., Feb. 28 at 3 p.m., and March 2 at 7:30 p.m. - at the Cutler Majestic Theatre in Boston (219 Tremont St.). Madame White Snake will be sung in English with English and Chinese titles. All performances feature a free talk one hour before curtain, and the Sunday matinee will be followed by an artist talkback.
— Read more at broadwayworld.com

Alban Berg's "Wozzeck" is so weighted down by its reputation - the first full-length atonal opera, a thorny 20th-century masterpiece - that audiences fear it without ever hearing it. In fact, in this economy, who would have the nerve to stage "Wozzeck"?
The answer is Nicole Paiement, the venturesome advocate for contemporary music whose Ensemble Parallele staged a powerful "Wozzeck" over the weekend at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The house was largely full for Sunday's performance, and the enthusiastic audience clearly got the message: This withering storm of an opera isn't some obscure thing; it's visceral, a boot kick to the gut, as communicative as "Your Cheatin' Heart," but a whole lot darker.
— Read more at Richard Scheinin - San Jose Mercury News

Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro" ("The Marriage of Figaro") often has been described as the most perfect opera ever composed.
In September 2004, Opera San Jose chose "Figaro" as its inaugural production in the California Theatre, when that old vaudeville palace reopened after a $75 million face lift. Now, starting Saturday, the company is reviving "Figaro" at the California for eight performances with a pair of revolving casts.
— Read more at Richard scheinin - San Jose Mercury News

Eric Owens enjoys singing in English. "I always get so jealous of Italians and native Germans," says the opera singer. As an American singing opera, "even if you get really fluent, there's always a certain amount of disconnect, because you didn't grow up with the language," Owens says. "When I sing American music, it's really satisfying to identify and connect so well with the text."
— Read more at Anne Midgette - washingtonpost.com

Los Angeles Opera's general director Placido Domingo announced details of the company's 2010-11 season (Jan. 27) without the usual press conference and with no mention of the annual red-carpet opening week-end extravaganza bedecked with black-tie dinner gala and sumptuous luncheon on the grounds of the Music Center's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. One could say it's the tide of the times that has necessitated the company to abandon all the glitz and glamour and reduce its productions from 10 a few years ago to six now, and from 75 performances to 42. In reality, it is the $32 million "Ring" festival that has done the company in, forcing it to seek a $14 million loan from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to stay afloat.
— Read more at Carol Jean Delmar - huffingtonpost.com

Benjamin Britten was fascinated by evil - how it worms its way in, how it corrupts and steals innocence. Indeed, the British composer's operas are variations on the theme of lost innocence.
The theme is spookily, even creepily, explored in the chamber opera The Turn of the Screw, which opened Friday evening in a Houston Grand Opera production imported from Opera Australia. Based on a Henry James novella and set in a 19th-century English country home, the opera portrays two orphaned children (Miles and Flora), their housekeeper (Mrs. Grose) and their new Governess (otherwise unidentified).
— Read more at Scott Cantrell - Dallas Morning News

The romantic and political machinations of a former pirate in the port of Genoa become the centerpiece for an opera of monumental proportions, starring Placido Domingo in his first-ever baritone role.
The world-beloved Spanish tenor has the Midas touch in this Metropolitan Opera production of "Simon Boccanegra," as do fellow cast members Sicilian tenor Marcello Giordani, Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka and American bass James Morris.
— Read more at GloucesterTimes.com

In an age where TV dramas claim to be 'ripped from the headlines,' the Minnesota Opera's new show envisions Queen Elizabeth I of England as the world's first "Cougar." (That would be an older woman with a much younger lover.)
While that's a little tongue in cheek, "Roberto Devereux" does explore issues of politics, power, and religion which resonate today. The opera is not so much about a love triangle as a love square, steeped in the intrigues of the Elizabethan court.
— Read more at Minnesota Public Radio News

When not on the job as the deputy court clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Robert Dawson, Mokihana Presley performs the operatic roles of strong women in control of their circumstances.
"It's not the woman-in-distress. It's rather the woman that has more control and power," Presley said recently.
— Read more at arkansasonline.com

Mozart's opera, Don Giovanni, was heard on Sunday afternoon (January 25) at Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, in a skillful "semi-staged" performance by professional soloists with the Boston Youth Symphony Chamber Orchestras and members of the Chorus pro Musica, conducted by Federico Cortese. I'm not sure I ever want to hear/see a "staged" performance of this opera again-this one was so convincing, and intelligently presented in every way. It continues a series Cortese began in 2008 by semi-staging Cosi fan tutte, and Le nozze di Figaro in 2009, as a way to immerse the students in both the nuances of classical music, and the emotions of dramatic music. In the program notes he quotes the statement, "Art is the education of feelings," as an operant value in his brief essay, "Why We Perform Opera at the BYSO," where he emphasizes that this training is particularly important for teenage musicians.
— Read more at The Boston Musical Intelligencer

[from press release] The Royal Opera of Liege will present OperaLive: the live broadcast of a selection of operas on the internet. The live broadcast can be watched on demand up 'till five days after the performance.
The first live broadcast is scheduled for this Tuesday, February 2nd at 8pm (GMT +1). The opera which gets the honor of being premiered is "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" by Vincenzo Bellini, starring Patrizia Ciofi and Laura Polverelli. Forthcoming broadcasts are: "Rigoletto" by Giuseppe Verdi, Tuesday March 23rd at 8pm (GMT+1) and "Rita ou le mari battu & Il Campanello di notte" by Gaetano Donizetti, Tuesday May 11th at 8pm (GMT+1).
— Read more at operalive.org