Today's Opera News -- Metropolitan Opera Schedule -- AllAboutOpera.com

Soprano Elizabeth Futral has been added to the lineup for New Orleans Opera's benefit concert on March 4, the company announced. Also scheduled to appear are tenor Plácido Domingo, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, tenor Paul Groves, and baritone Nathan Gunn. Robert Lyall will lead the Louisiana Philharmonic; Carol Rausch will lead the New Orleans Opera Chorus.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

Plácido Domingo celebrated his 65th birthday and the ten-year anniversary of the beginning of his tenure as general director of the Washington National Opera on January 27. At the party on the stage of the Kennedy Center Opera House, Domingo was honored with a three-tiered cake and a commissioned portrait by French photographer Antoine Schneck.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

The Gotham Chamber Opera [New York City] presents the first professional production of Benjamin Britten's sparkling masterpiece Albert Herring in New York in more than thirty years, opening on Thursday, February 9 2006, at 7:00 p.m.
Performances: Sunday February 12, 2:00 p.m. - Tuesday February 14, 7:30 p.m. - Thursday February 16, 7:30 p.m. - Saturday February 18, 7:30 p.m. At the Harry de Jur Playhouse, 466 Grand Street, New York City.
— Learn more at gothamchamberopera.org

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is proud to present the comic opera Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten, the next production in CCM's 2005-06 Mainstage Series. Led by guest director Nicholas Muni and conducted by CCM faculty member Mark Gibson, performances take place Thursday, February 9 through Sunday, February 12, 2006 in CCM's Patricia Corbett Theater on the University of Cincinnati campus.
— Ticket and Parking Information www.ccm.uc.edu

On Sunday, February 19, 2006, New Jersey Opera Theater will present a vocal Masterclass conducted by Martha Elliott. The Masterclass will be held at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, located on the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University. Admission is $3 (free for Rutgers students) and the program will begin at 2:00pm.
— Read more at NJOT.org

Eric Whitacre, a renowned American composer for choral and wind ensembles, will conduct two concert performances of his and librettist David Noroña's new opera electronica Paradise Lost (Feb. 11 and 12) during his 12-day School of Music winter residency on Northwestern University's Evanston campus. The performances will provide audiences with a chance to experience an important new work in development for the Broadway stage.
— Read more at Northwestern University School of Music

Soprano Caroline Worra and tenor Ryan MacPherson, both regular performers with New York City Opera, will make their New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall at 8:30 pm on Saturday, February 11, 2006 in a performance sponsored by their shared alma mater, the University of Missouri - Columbia.

Franco Alfano's "Cyrano de Bergerac" is one of those operas whose slim hold on posterity owes more to singers' wishes than audience demand. Plácido Domingo likes the part and saw a fit for his darkening but still impressive tenor voice. Given Mr. Domingo's many years of attention to the Metropolitan Opera and his service to opera in general, he is a hard man to refuse.
— Read more at New York Times

William Murray, author of "Fortissimo: Backstage at the Opera With Sacred Monsters and Young Singers" (Crown, $24.95), attended the Lyric Opera of Chicago several times during the 2003-2004 season to observe an opera company's young artists program.
— Read more at El Paso Times

We were promised good singers - and we got them. And if the production seemed to come out of another era - well, it worked anyway. San Diego Opera?s "new" The Barber of Seville is full of many pleasures, although a fresh approach to opera as a total art form is not one of them.
— Read more at sandiego.com

None of the Marines seemed quite sure what to expect when the strains of Figaro's aria from the Barber of Seville filled the theater on this military base by the sea. Instead of furs and tuxedoes, audience members wore desert cammies. Then again, how many operagoers are preparing for their third deployment to Iraq? And how many Marines go to the opera?
— Read more at mercurynews.com

Memory -- its currents, eddies and peculiar byways -- is what defines Mark Adamo's "Little Women." His adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel, which Kentucky Opera opened Friday night as its second Kentucky Center production of the season, is full of references to what was, what is and what can no longer be. Memory traps Adamo's characters. Ultimately, it liberates them.
— Read more at courier-journal.com [Related news items]

An experiment in "opera lite" kicked off Thursday night as the Anchorage Opera inaugurated its Second Stage series. Judging from the merry response of the audience, the experiment succeeded.
— Read more at adn.com

World-renowned opera tenor Placido Domingo will headline a March 4 benefit concert in New Orleans, the first operatic performance to be held in the city since Hurricane Katrina hit five months ago.
— Read more at Louisiana Weekly

Opera in Rochester is moving to a new and significantly higher plateau over the weekend. Mercury Opera Rochester, the city's new professional troupe, gave on Friday night at the Eastman Theatre a performance of Madama Butterfly that did exactly what an opera is supposed to do - dazzle.
— Read more at Democrat & Chronicle

Soprano Deborah Voigt will be the subject of a profile on the CBS television program 60 Minutes on January 29.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

"I'm making you sing a little louder than you're used to, right?" the legendary mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne asked, seeming very sympathetic. She was speaking to Kathryn Leemhuis, one of six young singers in her master class at Zankel Hall on Tuesday night. "Well," Ms. Horne continued with good-natured bluntness, "you should get used to it, honey. There is the small time, the medium time and the big time. This is the big time. 'Sing out, Louise!' "
— Read more at New York Times [Related news items]

Every opera diva who wades into the choppy seas of pop must decide how far out in the water it is safe to swim. Dawn Upshaw goes only waist deep, then stands there, smiling and decorously splashing water on herself. Renée Fleming boldly dives into the sea, and then depending on the waves, emerges either grinning or fighting the surf.

Deborah Voigt, who sang a program of mostly show tunes at the Allen Room of Frederick P. Rose Hall on Wednesday evening, is more reserved than both. This Wagnerian soprano, accompanied by a chamber-pop quintet led by Ted Sperling on piano, gave what might be described as a formal cabaret recital.
— Read more at New York Times [Related news items]

Growing up in Buhler - a town of about 1,300 near Hutchinson - David Lara didn?t have much exposure to opera. 'The most you'd hear was Saturday mornings with Bugs Bunny, if he did a spoof," he says. Now a graduate student at Kansas University, Lara is pursuing a career in operatic singing, and he's part of a performance of "Falstaff" that begins tonight at KU.
— Read more at lawrence.com

Opera Pacific's 2006-07 season will include Mozart's Don Giovanni, Bizet's Carmen, and Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, the company announced. The season opens on October 4 with a concert performance of Gerswin's Porgy and Bess, part of the opening celebration for the new Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, part of the expansion of the Costa Mesa-based Orange County Performing Arts Center.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

Creators of "Jerry Springer - The Opera," the musical that sparked outrage among conservative Christians when shown on British television, say protests and lobbying have dented ticket sales for a tour in what they call a blow to freedom of speech. The outcry, which culminated in more than 60,000 people complaining to the British Broadcasting Corporation when it aired the profanity-laden show last year, has also undermined plans to take the award-winning musical to Broadway.
— Read more at Reuters.com

It was a long time coming, but in October 2004, Angela Brown eventually found her way to center stage at the Metropolitan Opera. The tired cliche, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" didn't apply here. Sure, she practiced, practiced and practiced some more, first in her native Indianapolis, then through a degree at Oakwood College in Huntsville and in graduate studies at Indiana University. But for five years, a more appropriate answer might have been, "cover, cover, cover." That is, she was an understudy for Met divas who were sick or arrived late to rehearsals.
— Read more at al.com [Related news items]

Super Bowl hysteria has reached beyond the stadium and into the opera house: the general directors of Seattle Opera and Pittsburgh Opera, Speight Jenkins and Mark Weinstein, have made a wager on the outcome of the game between the teams of their respective cities. He who loses the wager will wear the winning team's jersey to his company's next board meeting--and have his picture taken in the jersey with the board standing behind him.

Seattle's Jenkins said, "It was an easy bet to make, as the Seahawks, a team of destiny, are sure to win." Pittsburgh's Weinstein countered with, "Speight, the Opera's board, and indeed all of Seattle are in for a real shock! Nothing can stand in the way of the Steelers' fifth Super Bowl victory."

Both opera companies have connections to their favorite teams as their singers have performed the National Anthem at home games in recent seasons. Seattle Opera has previously appeared with the Seattle Seahawks, as company singers have performed for two home games over the last two seasons. A star from Pittsburgh Opera's production of Rigoletto sang at a Steeler's home game last fall.

Seattle Opera is currently finishing a two-week run of Johann Strauss, Jr.'s operetta Die Fledermaus. Pittsburgh Opera opens Handel's Xerxes on February 18.

Thomas Hampson's Song of America, the companion album to the baritone's current tour, debuted on the Billboard classical-crossover chart this week at number 22.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

[Charles T. Downey of Ionarts writes:]
One of the operas I was most interested in when I put together this season's Ionarts Opera Preview was a new opera by French composer Pascal Dusapin, Faustus, the Last Night. I had learned about it from the promotional information from the Opéra national de Lyon, where it will be produced in March, followed by the Théâtre du Châtelet in November. As it turns out, that is actually not the world premiere, as I had originally listed it. The opera had its world premiere on January 21, at the Berlin Staatsoper unter den Linden. If you can wrap your mind around the linguistic layers, that's an English libretto set by a French composer and premiered in Germany.
— Read more at Ionarts

"Never underestimate a tenor," said Frank Aiello referring to his student of two years: tenor Scott Piper. When Piper comes home to Vermillion he focuses on being a dad and husband. But when he's in New York City, or traveling the world, he's a tenor who lures the audience into the warmth and spirit of his voice.
— Read more at volanteonline.com

The East Coast premiere of this [Margaret Garner] ambitious undertaking certainly has the most buzz of any opera production this season. The talent assembled, starting with the team of Danielpour, a composer capable of music that is both highly expressive and accessible, and noble laureate Morrison, carries considerable potential. The plot is based on a true story of a slave family who escaped from Kentucky, in 1856, only to be recaptured with tragic results.
— Read more at citypaper.net

The first real news at the Mozart Week came on Tuesday, with the departure of the American soprano Renée Fleming. Ms. Fleming, who had been scheduled to join another American, the baritone Thomas Hampson, in the centerpiece concert with Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic on Friday evening, withdrew under circumstances that remain mysterious.
— Read more at New York Times [Related news items]

World renowned opera singer and Lebanon resident Christine Brewer has performed with New York's Metropolitan Opera and the London Symphony Orchestra. She's played Donna Anna in Scotland and Isolde in San Francisco. And she's sung the works of Beethoven, Bach and Strauss in cities like Tokyo, Athens and Rome.
— Read more at Belleville News-Democrat

On the first true wintry day in months, its hard to imagine that opera season is just around the corner. But we received our 2006 Santa Fe Opera winter publication yesterday, and just a few days ago 75 New Mexico kids showed up to audition for parts in the Magic Flute and Carmen.
— Read more at New West Network

It was the stuff that dreams are made of and soprano Steffanie Pearce, founding director of Opera Naples, finally caught her breath from the thrill of it all. But Pearce is no mere dreamer. She is a visionary, committed to turning herculean ideas (emphasis on the "her") into reality. The New Year's Eve Opera Ball at the Community School of Naples, with all its pomp, panoply and processional, was a case in point.
— Read more at Naples Sun Times

Osvaldo Golijov is a composer who works down to the wire, and the ink was hardly dry on the score of his first opera, "Ainadamar" ("Fountain of Tears"), when it was premiered at Tanglewood in 2003.
— Read more at The Boston Globe See also: nj.com courant.com

To his many fans, Osvaldo Golijov, the 45-year-old Argentine-Israeli-American composer, is a Schoenberg for the new millennium: at once a conservative carrier of tradition and a radical reformer who invented a new type of composition. He is also a man who enjoys entertaining an audience, as his one-act opera "Ainadamar" ("Fountain of Tears"), which began its three-performance run at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater on Sunday afternoon, proved once more.
— Read more at nynewsday.com

Sweden's king and queen have dropped plans to attend next month's premiere of a modernized version of Giuseppe Verdi opera, the palace said _ reportedly after learning it alludes to the 1986 murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme. King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia had initially accepted the invitation to the Feb. 11 opening of the new take on Verdi's "A Masked Ball," but changed plans about two weeks ago, Lars Tibell, artistic director of the Malmo opera house, said Monday.
— Read more at washingtonpost.com

The Bronx Opera Company has always been a model of what can be done with modest resources. Its latest offering, which ended its brief run on Sunday afternoon at the Heckscher Theater at El Museo del Barrio, was an odd but appealing double bill, with Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" followed by a Chabrier comedy, "An Incomplete Education," to sweep away the tragic spirit.
— Read more at New York Times

Opera Pacific may be back from the brink, or at least a step further away from it. The company's 2006-07 season, announced today, shows an upturn in the fortunes of the Santa Ana-based organization, financially beleaguered in recent years and close to dissolution. Though the developments are small in themselves, they both enhance the local visibility of the organization and lay groundwork for future growth.
— Read more at ocregister.com

The Treasure Coast Opera Society had a successful opening night on Saturday with a performance of Verdi's Rigoletto in Fort Pierce. "It was just wonderful, and the house was so beautiful," said Anne Abood, assistant to the opera society's general director, Carlos Barrena.
— Read more at palmbeachpost.com

When the history of Osvaldo Golijov's "Ainadamar" is written, the opera's 2003 premiere at the Tanglewood Music Center may be considered just a workshop along the way. At the time Mr. Golijov admitted to having rushed to finish the score at the last minute. Though his memory play of an opera had haunting aspects to it, whole stretches of the music seemed padded, lacking in urgency.
— Read more at New York Times

[Puccini's opera had an inauspicious start, but for a century, audiences have embraced the tragic tale]
History's most famous and popular opera began its artistic existence as a flop. In fact, when Madama Butterfly premiered at Milan's Teatro alla Scala on Feb. 17, 1904, it was met with catcalls, booing, even cow-like mooing. The composer was shocked. Already a big success (his previous hits included La bohème and Tosca), Giacomo Puccini arrived at La Scala confident that Butterfly was his best opera yet. Certainly, the production had a lot going for it. The singers were fantastic; the sets and costumes were gorgeous; and the orchestra had been rehearsed to a fine polish. So what went wrong?
— Read more at Democrat & Chronicle

[Seductive soprano Karita Mattila makes opera goers salivate]
Karita Mattila, the sensational Finnish soprano returning to Houston after a 15-year absence, woos critics and audiences worldwide with portrayals of rebellious teens and maturing young women.
— Read more at Chron.com [Related news items]

The characters of Sheherazade and Medea will be brought to life in the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel and Barber at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Oregon Symphony Classical series concert in Salem. The concert will be led by guest conductor Michael Stern, who recently was named music director of the Kansas City Symphony. Stern has made several appearances with the symphony in recent seasons.
— Read more at StatesmanJournal.com

Seattle Chamber Players broke with traditional recital rules last spring to stage two first-rate theatrical presentations: Piazzolla's earthy "tango opera" Maria de Buenos Aires and (in its premiere) Paul Dresher's Kafkaesque one-singer fable, The Tyrant. This April, Seattle composer Tom Baker will present a new work, The Gospel of the Red-Hot Stars, an "operatorio" based on texts by Cotton Mather and Margaret Atwood.
— Read more at Seattle Weekly

Birgit Nilsson will be honored at a memorial tribute presented by the Metropolitan Opera Guild at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall on May 23.
— Read more at seattlepi.nwsource.com

[L.A. Opera's restaging of Wilson's glowing production loses some luster without his hand.]
A decade ago, Los Angeles Opera had a Puccini problem: The composer's most popular works, and particularly "Madame Butterfly," were staged so routinely that they had become stale. But in 2004, a several-year break from "Butterfly" - and then its reemergence as a, well, beautiful butterfly in Robert Wilson's glowing, elegant production, conducted with exceptional lyricism by Kent Nagano - pretty much restored Puccini's theatrical and musical credibility.
— Read more at calendarlive.com

When the curtain rises on the Arizona Opera's latest production, you don't typically think about the hammers, saws and teams of construction workers involved in creating the sets. That's because JoAnne Knoebel, 52, technical director of the Arizona Opera for the past five years, does such a deft job of building the scenery and everything that supports it.
— Read more at azcentral.com

Placido Domingo, Denyce Graves, Paul Groves, and Nathan Gunn will perform in a gala benefit presented by New Orleans Opera on March 4. They will be accompanied by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Robert Lyall. Ensemble members will be paid for the performance; the soloists are volunteering.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

Edmonton Opera will present Robert Lepage's haunting and unforgettable production of Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung on Saturday February 4th, Tuesday February 7th and Thursday February 9th.
— Read more at edmontonopera.com

Late one night a few weeks ago, Jesús Montoya, a Seville-born flamenco singer dressed in a velour track suit, stood resolutely on the stage of a darkened concert hall and, without warning, unleashed a riot of sound. His voice was raw and exhilarating as he swooped up and down Eastern-inflected scales, spinning endless improvisations. The words he sang spoke of 1930's Spain, but the sound felt like a primal wail from a more distant past, an ancient coloratura of longing.

The music filled the large, empty hall and poured into a recording booth at spine-tingling volume. Inside, an astonished German recording team from Deutsche Grammophon started fumbling with the consoles. But Osvaldo Golijov, the composer who had flown Mr. Montoya in to record this small but memorable part in his opera, "Ainadamar," sat calmly, smiling and nodding to himself. "Very good," he said.
— Read more at New York Times See also: Golijov Festival Opens at Lincoln Center

Barbara Cook is not just a casual opera buff, but an informed devotee. She can frequently be spotted in the audience at the Metropolitan Opera, not only for crowd-pleasers like "Madama Butterfly" but also for heavy-duty fare like "Parsifal."
— Read more at New York Times

There is opera and there is Baroque opera. It's hard to believe, but until now, Arizona Opera has never tackled a Baroque opera. Their production of Handel's Semele opens at Symphony Hall on Thursday.
— Read more at azcentral.com

William Murray, author of Fortissimo: Backstage at the Opera With Sacred Monsters and Young Singers, attended the Lyric Opera of Chicago several times during the 2003-2004 season to observe an opera company's young artists' program. Companies including the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera have such programs for young singers who have finished college or conservatory training but still need coaching and polishing before they attempt to launch operatic careers.
— Read more at canada.com

After a tortuous three-year search for a new general manager, the Berlin Philharmonic made an unexpected choice in July. Pamela Rosenberg, 60, will be the first woman and the first American to administer what is arguably the world's most revered orchestra. Even more surprising, Ms. Rosenberg has never worked for a symphony orchestra; her entire professional career has been in opera, culminating in the position of general director of the San Francisco Opera.
— Read more at New York Times

When the San Diego Opera opens its 41st annual season Saturday with a revival of "The Barber of Seville," the San Diego Symphony will once again be in the pit. Last January, the opera company began hiring its musicians from the ranks of the symphony orchestra. Between 1965 and 2004, the opera had multi-year contracts it negotiated with its own musicians.
— Read more at SignOnSanDiego.com

When David Gockley made his first local appearance in February after being named the new general director of the San Francisco Opera, he showed up for a news conference at the War Memorial Opera House wearing a San Francisco Giants cap. It was a lark, an offhand joke -- but it was also a compact little symbol of everything San Franciscans needed to know about the new guy in town.
— Read more at sfgate.com [Related news items]

The annals of contemporary opera are strewn with premieres that glittered for an instant and were just as quickly relegated to the scrap heap of dashed expectations. But there are happy exceptions, perhaps none so encouraging as Mark Adamo's "Little Women." His adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's celebrated 1869 novel had its first performance in 1998 at the Houston Grand Opera's Opera Studio. It has since been staged widely in the United States and abroad. Even the Japanese have taken the piece to heart.
— Read more at courier-journal.com [Related news items]

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present Helikon Opera in "Die Fledermaus," at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 24 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.
— Read more at buffalo.edu

UConn Opera is starting the spring semester hosting a group of visiting international musicians. Whirlwind preparations are under way for a joint performance at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, Jan. 28. The visit, part of UConn Opera's first formal international exchange program, began Jan. 21, when seven student opera singers and three faculty members from Opera Studio Ireland arrived on campus. Opera Studio Ireland is part of the Conservatory of Music and Drama at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).
— Read more at UConn Advance

Seattle Opera will present two operas new to the company's repertoire as part of its five-opera 2006-07 season at McCaw Hall. Rossini's "Italiana in Algeri" ("The Italian Girl in Algiers) and Handel's "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" ("Julius Caesar") will be performed for the first time here. These works join three operas familiar to Seattle Opera's audiences: Richard Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier," Mozart's "Don Giovanni" (in a new production) and Puccini's "La Boheme."
— Read more at HeraldNet.com

A planned strike by English National Opera staff has been suspended, according to the company. Staff members voted overwhelmingly last month to take strike action after the company failed to meet its salary demands. The action has now been put on hold while a new offer put forward by ENO management is considered by the workers, who include technical, managerial, administration, and support staff. They are represented by the union BECTU. The proposed three-year pay deal offered by management includes pay raises in excess of inflation, and an increased employer contribution to staff pension plans.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

[Rise still like the morning sun; Voigt's versatility grows]
As a child, my image of an opera singer was forged by television viewings in Hawaii of two films, "Going My Way" and "The Chocolate Soldier," both featuring glamorous, claret-voiced mezzo-soprano Rise Stevens. Stevens was a 1990 Kennedy Center honoree for bringing opera to the American public her entire career, and saving the Met 1961-62 season. The company had cancelled performances due to stalled labor negotiations, but a telegram from Stevens to President John F. Kennedy resulted in his ordering the secretary of labor to arbitrate, and the season was reinstated on schedule.
— Read more at gaycitynews.com

In the Arizona Opera Company's version of Handel's Baroque opera "Semele," the title character wears fishnet stockings with a hole in the knee, a miniskirt and poofy hair. She's Madonna circa "Material Girl"; you half expect her to smack bubblegum and belt out "Uh, oh my gawd."
— Read more at azstarnet.com

Wichita Grand Opera turned in an admirable performance of Donizetti's gloriously gloomy "Lucia di Lammermoor" on Saturday night at Century II Concert Hall. The piece sits at the pinnacle of the "bel canto" repertoire, an early 19th century Italian style that is tuneful and florid and makes startling demands on the voice. The singers in "Lucia" must sing beautifully and add supple embellishments to the melodies, all the while evoking strong passions of joy and despair, anger and madness.
— Read more at kansas.com

Heads up, folks. The most compelling musical attraction of the season is at hand.

What makes soprano Renee Fleming so special? Well, let's get past the obvious right away. She looks great; she has terrific stage presence; the CD shelves at Borders are loaded with her recordings.

Oh, by the way, many think she's one fantastic singer, including composer/conductor Andre Previn, who called her "the best soprano in the world." And now she's slated for the Phillips Center on Friday night.
— Read more at Gainesville.com [Related news items]

Madison's arts presenters seem to have a knack for catching young and talented performers on the rise, when they are still affordable to a city this size. The Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra have proved that many times, and so have the Wisconsin Union Theater and the Madison Opera. The latter will do so again on Sunday when it presents a recital, at 4 p.m. in the Masonic Temple, 301 Wisconsin Ave., by the soprano Nicole Cabell.
— Read more at The Capital Times

35-year-old American baritone Nathan Gunn has been selected as the first ever winner of the Metropolitan Opera's Beverly Sills Artist Award, which carries a US$50,000 prize.
— Read more at Gramophone

English National Opera, the cash-strapped London institution that has lost two top bosses in the past two months, is striving to get its house in order. Located in the U.K. capital's largest theater -- the 2,364-seat Coliseum -- and founded 75 years ago to offer opera in English to a wide audience, ENO has required two government bailouts since 1998.
— Read more at Bloomberg.com [Related news items]

Legendary mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne has been diagnosed with localized pancreatic cancer, her manager confirmed.
Denise Pineau, Horne's manager at Columbia Artists Management, said the 72-year-old singer was diagnosed in mid-December and is currently being treated. Pineau told PlaybillArts that she is optimistic about Horne's prognosis, adding, "There is no reason to anticipate any changes in her schedule."
— Read more at PlaybillArts [Related news items]

Ever since he cast the Lyric Opera of San Antonio production of "The Magic Flute," Mark Richter has been eager to see the finished product. "I've been waiting and waiting for this opera," says Richter, the company's artistic director. "When we cast it two years ago, I knew it would be great." With renowned performers in the lead roles, a vibrant Mozart score and an innovative stage setting, "The Magic Flute" ought to be, well, magical when it opens this weekend ? one week before the composer's 250th birthday. The company will present it tonight through Sunday, sung in English, at the Municipal Auditorium.
— Read more at mysanantonio.com

Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. will present a fully staged production of John Carbon's opera, Benjamin, on January 19, 20 and 21, 2006, as part of the national celebration to honor the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth. The opera was first staged (by the college) in 1987, and since then has been presented several times in concert version at University of Pennsylvania (1990), again at F&M (2000) and in a chamber music version at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City (2000). Libretto by Sarah White, produced by Matthew Mazuroski, directed by David Winitsky, roles presented by Stephen Kalm, Kristen Leich, Lorraine Ernest and Valerie Bernhardt. Performances at 8 PM in the Roschel Performing Arts Center at Franklin and Marshall College, in Lancaster, PA. Tickets may be purchased by calling 717-358-4TKT (4858).

On Sunday, January 29, 2005, New Jersey Opera Theater will present a vocal Masterclass conducted by Professor J.A. Kawarsky of Westminster Choir College. The Masterclass will be held at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, located on the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University. Admission is $3 (free for Rutgers students) and the program will begin at 2:00pm.

This Masterclass will feature performances from a variety of voice types, with the Singer Circle members performing musical theater numbers they have prepared in advance. Following each performance, Professor Kawarsky will offer these emerging artists advice on how to improve their performances. This advice may include guidance on technique; the history of the song, musical, composer or genre; acting; and movement. After working on these elements with Professor Kawarsky, the singers then have the opportunity to perform their pieces again, incorporating all they have learned. By the end of this process the audience will have seen the singers learn and grow before their very eyes.
— Learn more at www.NJOT.org

Michael MacLeod, the general director of Glimmerglass Opera, will add the duties of artistic director Paul Kellogg to his portfolio when Kellogg steps down this year, the company announced. Glimmerglass also announced that its 2007 summer season, the first under MacLeod's direction, will consist entirely of operas based on the Orpheus myth: Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, Philip Glass's Orphée, and Berlioz's version of Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice.
— Read more at PlaybillArts [Related news items]

Hit with low ticket sales for the staging of two little-known Gilbert and Sullivan operas, Rogue Opera has taken the unusual step of canceling its productions slated for the first two weekends in February. The company had good sales - but still lost money - in the past two seasons with Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore" and "The Pirates of Penzance" but fell flat with sales of less than a third of normal when it offered two one-act Gilbert and Sullivan operas, "Trial by Jury" and "The Zoo," said Rogue Opera Artistic Director David MacKenzie.
— Read more at mailtribune.com

Los Angeles Opera, in its first season under the tutelage of new music-director James Conlon, will feature seventy-five performances of ten operas - four of which are to be conducted by Conlon - that will run from September 9, 2006 until June 16, 2007, Plácido Domingo the company's general director announced on Sunday.
— Read more at Opera News

Nominations for the Olivier Awards, the UK's version of the Tonys presented by the Society of London Theatre - which honors excellence in theater, dance, musicals and opera - were announced today, with the beleaguered English National Opera likely to win both the "Best New Opera Production" award and the award for "Outstanding Achievement in Opera," having swept nine of the ten shortlist spots in both categories. The English National Opera's new Anthony Minghella production of Madam Butterfly, Neil Armfield's Billy Budd, David McVicar's La Clemenza di Tito and Jude Kelly's production of Bernstein's On the Town each received a nod in the best new opera production category.
— Read more at Opera News

WHAT WOULD Wagner think? That is the first question brought to mind by Long Beach Opera's production of the composer's operatic tetralogy "The Ring of the Nibelung." Well, first of all he would probably be furious. Wagner was as protective of his works as a mother bear is of her cubs, and the version of his cycle Long Beach Opera presented last week - four operas over two days - would make Wagner apoplectic. At a guess, about a third of the four-opera, 15-plus-hour score Wagner wrote has been cut, often huge sections of scenes, sometimes subtle repeats, to make the works shorter and more compact. The orchestra used is smaller (Wagner called for 110 pieces, L.B. Opera featured 27). There are three Valkyries instead of nine, a chorus of three instead of 30.
— Read more at Press-Telegram

A former finance director at Opera Carolina has been accused of stealing nearly $50,000 from the company, the Charlotte Observer reports. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police report filed January 17 didn't name the staffer it accused of misappropriating $48,000, but officials have confirmed that she is Mary Lopes, who resigned as finance chief last autumn.
— Read more at PlaybillArts: News

[ A 'Traviata' on shaky ground]
If Alfredo's love for Violetta is indeed "the heartbeat of the universe", as he so ardently proclaims in the very first scene of La traviata, then this revival is urgently in need of open-heart surgery. It has been a year since the last exhumation of Richard Eyre's tepid staging, since when the temperature has dropped significantly. No fear of the elaborate ice sculpture at Violetta's party melting prematurely now; but some concern that our heroine will actually make it to Act III. There are many ways of dying on the operatic stage and, for Ana Maria Martinez, it began to look as if consumption might not be one of them.
— Read more at Independent Online

An opening night featuring soprano Deborah Voigt in Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera," Finnish soprano Karita Mattila in the title role of Puccini's "Manon Lescaut," the return of baritone Nathan Gunn in Rossini's "The Barber of Seville," and an all-star cast headed by Susan Graham for Gluck's "Iphigenie en Tauride" are among the highlights of the San Francisco Opera's 2006-07 season, announced Wednesday.
— Read more at ContraCostaTimes.com Deborah Voigt

Baritone Nathan Gunn is the winner of the Metropolitan Opera's inaugural Beverly Sills Award for young singers, the Met announced. Gunn was selected by Sills, the great soprano and former chair of the Met; Nathan Leventhal, the former president of Lincoln Center; and Agnes Varis, the Met managing director who endowed the award.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

Students at Woodlawn Elementary are using opera to see a familiar story unfold -- a mermaid magically trades her singing voice for legs so she may live with her true love, the prince. But the real magic was keeping an auditorium full of elementary school students interested in opera for a 45 minute performance Thursday. Principal Kristin Arnold said the feat amazed her once again this year.
— Read more at Sapulpa Daily Herald

A rare performance of an opera that was written in the Theresienstadt ghetto in Terezin, Czech Republic during World War II is to be performed to students in the Hertfordshire area on Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27th.
The Emperor of Atlantis was composed by Viktor Ullman and is based on the horrors of Nazi concentration camps.
— Read more at somethingjewish.co.uk

Adjustments are being made to the new Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver to perfect its acoustics, the Denver Post reports. The Caulkins Opera House, which is constructed inside the shell of the Newton Auditorium at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, opened with much fanfare on September 10, 2005. But some observers grumbled that the acoustics were not as good as expected.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

Composer/librettist, Susan Stoderl, and her "splendidly talented cast" of 12 women once again sing out in "full operatic majesty," at the Brooklyn Lyceum Theater, 227 Fourth Avenue, (the corner of Fourth Avenue and President Street) Brooklyn, NY, beginning January 31, 2006.
For those new to opera and those dyed-in-the-wool opera lovers, now is the chance to go behind the scenes and experience music, staging, and tech rehearsals in six interesting classes, culminating in an all-access-pass to opening night of the newly revised two act version of A.F.R.A.I.D. The original one act version premiered this summer in The New York International Fringe Festival. Contrary to popular belief, opera can be in English, have catchy melodies & rhythms, and have no male singers whatsoever!
— Learn more at susanstoderl.net

A cluster of star singers will add luster to Los Angeles Opera's 2006-07 season, when James Conlon debuts as the company's music director. Renée Fleming, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko and company general director Plácido Domingo are among the high-powered talents set to appear at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 75 performances of 10 operas, with four of the productions to be conducted by Conlon.
— Read more at calendarlive.com

[Never one to rest on his laurels, tenor Placido Domingo's vast repertoire is astounding. As the great tenor talks to Stacey Kors about his 121st role - Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac - he reveals that number 122 is on the way.]
Despite months of preparation for the title role in Franco Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac, Placido Domingo still found himself adjusting to one crucial facet of Cyrano's character during performances.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

[Opera diva Renée Fleming, talks about her first calling as a jazz singer, her belief in nuanced operas and how understanding vocal technique heightens artistic appreciation]
She's just too good to be true. The world's reigning soprano (Grammy winner, natch). Jazz singer. Literacy advocate and author. Top couturiers vie to design for her. And she's lovely to look at -- can't take my eyes off you. Renée Fleming, who will perform Tuesday at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, released a jazz album last year, Haunted Heart, on Decca, but unlike other divas who stray into popular genres, this singer is the real item.
— Read more at MiamiHerald.com [Related news items]

Singers at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music swept the District and Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions recently in CCM's Corbett Auditorium. Winners in the district contest (Southern District of Ohio) were baritone Corey Crider, soprano Caitlin Lynch and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Pojanowski. All won $1,000 cash awards.
— Read more at The Cincinnati Post

Johann Strauss Jr.'s "Die Fledermaus" is supposed to be funny, but Helikon Opera's version Sunday at the Alabama Theatre was downright uproarious. Still near the beginning of its 52-performance U.S. tour, the Moscow-based company's performance of the three-act operetta was fresh, vibrant and overflowing with knee-slapping sight gags. With an orchestra of 38 and chorus of 16, this is already an ambitious project and the splendid cast of singers delivered Dmitry Bertman's over-the-top stage direction with energy and ebullience.
— Read more at al.com

All good things must end. So, after 12 years, 25 performances, and a total of more than 450 hours, it was curtains Sunday for a weathered production of Wagner's Ring Cycle at the Vienna State Opera. Sunday's final showing in its 1993 Adolf Dresen production of the cycle's last opera, Goetterdaemmerung - Twilight of the Gods - shone musically, but it was clear it had not aged well. The staging, scenery, directing and costumes were staid, if not uninspiring.
— Read more at miami.com

The Sydney Opera House has been officially nominated for the world heritage list as "a masterpiece of human creative genius." The dispatch of the official submission to Paris was announced on the Opera House steps Monday by Australian Government Minister for the Environment and Heritage Ian Campbell and officials of New South Wales state.
— Read more at People's Daily Online

Why was former Houston Grand Opera general director David Gockley happy to move to San Francisco? The name Francesca Zambello is all you need to hear. Last week, Gockley announced that the hot American director will be his new artistic adviser at San Francisco Opera. Zambello has been a Gockley favorite since she made her North American stage debut in Houston in 1984.
— Read more at Chron.com [Related news items]

Sudden departures, simmering discontent, behind-the-scenes plots. The real drama at the English National Opera is backstage. The company's woes are the latest melodrama to hit Britain's opera scene. The 300-year-old Royal Opera and the flagship Scottish Opera have faced recent financial and managerial troubles - caused partly by the failure of government support to keep pace with rising costs.
— Read more at baltimoresun.com

It is not often today that an opera singer captures pop culture's imagination. So the success of soprano Anna Netrebko, who is blessed with a lissome voice and looks to match, is that much sweeter. But the mercurial singer is not quite ready for the spotlight, as evidenced by her decision to cancel her March 2 solo debut recital at Carnegie Hall.
— Read more at Reuters.com

[Argentinean composer Osvaldo Golijov has arrived, with a festival of his music at Lincoln Center]
Maybe, on your travels, you've been stopped by the harrowing, melodious wail of a street-corner singer, or the tart twang of strings being plucked in an unfamiliar tuning. And maybe the music's very foreignness plumbed some tender region of your memory, provoking a wave of unfocused yearning, or wistfulness for experiences you never had. Strange music can release strong juices. Another culture's everyday soundtrack resonates with your inner world. Any resourceful musician knows how to pack allusions to several continents into a multicultural sachet: slap an African rhythm on a Christmas carol, add a sitar and voila. But only a composer with an exquisite ear can weave these scattered kinds of music together and provoke that intimate and novel shock. The bitter yawp and percussive guitars of flamenco run through Osvaldo Golijov's opera "Ainadamar," not just as an exotic spangle or a scenic stroke but as a touchstone of excitement.
— Read more at Newsday.com

Three's company: While Cincinnati Opera broke box office records last season, a power shift was taking place behind the scenes.
No sooner had former artistic director Nicholas Muni resigned than the company reorganized its management structure to make Patricia Beggs CEO and general manager. Beggs, who recently celebrated her 20th season with the company, was the original brains behind the glam, soap-opera-style marketing campaigns of the late '80s and '90s, resulting in an extraordinary turn-around in attendance.
— Read more at enquirer.com

The Lyric Opera of Chicago's 2006-07 season will include new productions of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, Strauss's Salome, and Verdi's Il trovatore, the company announced yesterday. The new Salome, directed by Francesca Zambello, will star soprano Deborah Voigt, making her much-anticipated first staged appearance in the title role. Lyric
— Read more at PlaybillArts [Related news items]

The Library of Congress in Washington, as you might imagine, does many things. But producing a concert tour?
True, it has long presented concerts in its Coolidge Auditorium, but this is something else. On Thursday, the American baritone Thomas Hampson arrives at Carnegie Hall, the next stop (after a performance Tuesday at the Ordway Theater in St. Paul) on his tour "Song of America." The tour, which began in November in this suburb of Kansas City, Kan., and is presented by the library, is meant to draw attention not only to the extraordinary collection of American music among its vast holdings but also to its flourishing Web site, which registered nearly four billion hits last year.
— Read more at New York Times

Philip Glass will compose an opera about Appomattox, the site of the surrender that ended the Civil War, that will be given its world premiere by the San Francisco Opera in autumn 2007. Christopher Hampton will write the libretto for the opera, said David Gockley, the company's new general director.
— Read more at miami.com

[After a more than 30-year absence, star tenor Placido Domingo will return to New Orleans for a benefit gala at New Orleans Arena]
Placido Domingo, the world's pre-eminent tenor, will headline a New Orleans Opera gala benefit concert March 4 at New Orleans Arena, the opera company announced Friday. Also featured at the concert, titled "A Night for New Orleans," will be three other well-known opera stars -- mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, tenor Paul Groves and baritone Nathan Gunn -- plus the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the New Orleans Opera Chorus. Robert Lyall will be the conductor.
— Read more at nola.com

When I started going to the Metropolitan Opera as a young adolescent, typically in the upper balconies or the standing-room sections, some opera goddess must have been looking out for me. I didn't really know what I was doing. Yet at my first "Bohème" the Mimi was Renata Tebaldi. My first Aida was Leontyne Price. And my first Turandot was Birgit Nilsson.
— Read more at New York Times See also: Charlotte Observer

[His operas are wonderful to sing, says Ian Bostridge. But why do the tenors always get such short shrift?]
All over the world, opera houses, concert halls and professional and amateur musicians are celebrating Mozart: this month marks 250 years since his birth. Particularly ambitious is the Salzburg festival's plan to perform every one of his operas over a single summer season. As a classical singer I am, inevitably, making my own modest contribution to the celebrations: singing Mozart arias in a recital in Hamburg, and appearing in a production of Don Giovanni at the Vienna State Opera. I don't perform a great deal of opera but, having the sort of tenor voice that suits Mozart rather than Verdi, the former figures largely in my career as a theatrical performer.
— Read more at Guardian Unlimited

[NEW DIRECTOR GOCKLEY PLANS TO BRING BACK THE LUSTER OF S.F. OPERA, AND HE'LL USE TECHNOLOGY TO DO IT]
David Gockley is so to the point: San Francisco Opera is no longer "a singer's house." It has taken a tumble and lost its luster, it seems. He intends to correct that. The company's new general director is bringing Wagner's "Ring" cycle to the War Memorial Opera House, starting in 2008. He is hammering out contracts with Reneé Fleming, Natalie Dessay and other superstar singers for future seasons. He has commissioned Philip Glass to compose a new opera for the fall of 2007 and is urging John Adams to compose yet another opera, following this season's "Doctor Atomic."
— Read more at MercuryNews.com

We went to the opera yesterday for the introduction of new SF Opera general director David Gockley, who officially succeeded Pamela Rosenberg on January 1st. Pamela Rosenberg was the director for the last five years, commissioned Dr Atomic and generally tried to shake things up a bit, so we were curious to see were Gockley stands.
— Read more at SFist.com See also: PlaybillArts MercuryNews.com sfgate.com

BARBARA COOK is seventy-eight, but she's still hitting career high points: on January 20, she becomes the first female pop singer to be presented in concert by the Metropolitan Opera. (JUDY GARLAND?s appearance was an outside presentation.) "I am fortunate," Cook says, "in that I do seem to have some fans at the Met. I'm very impressed with myself!"
— Read more at Opera News

With ticket sales running roughly 90 percent of capacity four months into the current season (the same as last year at this time), Lyric Opera of Chicago has good reason to greet the new year with optimism. Of late, no other leading U.S. opera company has matched those percentages. But the Lyric, like every other performing arts organization in classical music, is worried about the trend of declining audiences. The company, which routinely sold more than 100 percent of the Civic Opera House's 3,845 seats for well over a decade before 9/11, would love to see numbers like that again.
— Read more at Chicago Tribune

The sound of a saxophone is not something the audience typically expects to hear coming from the orchestra pit at an opera production. Of course, having the orchestra in pretty much full view of the audience isn't standard operating procedure, either. Opera Columbus' production of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera this weekend at Mershon Auditorium offers both. Rather than being what sets the show apart, however, both are merely indicative of the out-of-the-ordinary production.
— Read more at ThisWeek Newspapers

Even among the most inveterate opera buffs, few could claim to have had the opportunity to see and hear an Iceland opera. Thanks to New Music Concerts and funding agencies from Canada and Iceland, two performances of Grettir took place at the Betty Oliphant Theatre in Toronto Sunday. Originally written for the Bayreuth Young Artists Festival in 2004, this chamber work for five singers and eight musicians gives a typical blood-and-guts Nordic tale a fairytale ending suitable for audiences of all ages. For the afternoon performance I attended, the turnout in the intimate space was respectable, and I understand the evening performance played to a full house. Marking the occasion was the presence of Markus Örn Antonsson, the Icelandic Ambassador to Canada. Having composed works for flutist Robert Aitken, the composer Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson has a special connection to the Canadian music scene. New Music Concerts first performed his pieces during a European tour in 1976 and gave the premiere of Solstice at the Nordic Music Days Festival in Reykjavik.
— Read more at scena.org

One thinks of young opera singers in two ways: what they are or what they might be. Being and becoming alternated in the group marching on and off the Alice Tully Hall stage on Wednesday night. This was the so-called Rising Stars Concert put on by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. The foundation helps young talent while remembering the eminent American tenor who died in 1975.
— Read more at New York Times

David Gockley, the San Francisco Opera's new general director, has appointed Shane Gasberra the company's director of artistic and music administration and Drew Landmesser its production director, SFO announced today. With chief financial officer Keith Cerny, the two will make up Gockley's senior leadership team. Gockley, the longtime general director of Houston Grand Opera, replaced Pamela Rosenberg at SFO on January 1.
— Read more at PlaybillArts See Also: sfgate.com mercurynews.com

Wagner's "Ring" cycle is a story of the ancient Teutonic Gods. It is also a story about humans. The work is dauntingly large: Four operas, the growth and destruction of the world told in more than 15 hours of inspired and extraordinary music; plenty of costumes; and special effects that were, in their time, the equivalent of a technical blockbuster of the present day.
— Read more at Press-Telegram

Seattle Opera's 2006-07 season will include soprano Carol Vaness's first performance of the Marschallin in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Seattle Opera will also present its first-ever performances of Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri and Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto. As previously reported, the company will host the finals of its first International Wagner Competition on August 19.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

[Fort Worth Opera's general director brings to the stage another 20th-century work - and another gem.]
Since taking over as general director of the Fort Worth Opera a few years ago, Darren Woods has gone out of his way to program 20th-century works. Even though a lack of funds forced the company to scale back the number of operas per year from four to three, FWO continues to incorporate at least one new work into the schedule. Woods and company haven't attempted anything as challenging as Alban Berg's Wozzeck, but they have tackled Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw and Mark Adamo's Little Women. Some opening night attendees may not return after intermission, but ticket sales have remained steady, and the company has added a second bus to its transportation service for Dallas subscribers.
— Read more at FWWeekly.com

An updated production of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera classic The Mikado will return to play 12 performances at the English National Opera from February 3rd through March 3rd.
— Read more at BroadwayWorld.com

Birgit Nilsson, whose prodigious voice, unrivaled stamina and thrilling high notes made her the greatest Wagnerian soprano of the post-World War II era, has died. She was 87.
A funeral was held Wednesday at a church in her native town of Vastra Karup in southern Sweden with only her closest relatives attending, said Fredrik Westerlund, the church's vicar. He did not know when Nilsson died or the cause of death.
— Read more at seattlepi.nwsource.com See also: New York Times

The opera director Peter Sellars has revealed plans for a radical modern production of Mozart's unfinished work Zaide. Sellars is well known for his provocative interpretations of Mozart - he once cast Don Giovanni as a Harlem drug lord - and his Zaide will be no exception. "Of course I will make it completely contemporary, as did Mozart," he said.
— Read more at Guardian Unlimited

With a push and a shove The Bartered Bride can just about do duty as a holiday show. It mixes high spirits and plenty of dancing, throws in a visit to the circus, and leads to a feel-good ending - not another Die Fledermaus, the traditional New Year entertainment, but a reasonable substitute.
— Read more at FT.com

Mezzo-soprano Jill Grove opens the 24th season of the San Francisco Opera Center's Schwabacher Debut Recital series January 15. Grove will perform works including Haydn's Arianna a Naxos, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, de Falla's Siete Canciones Populares Españolas, and Barber's Three Poems of James Joyce, Op. 10. The concert will take place at Temple Emanu-El's Martin Meyer Sanctuary in San Francisco. Her accompanist will be John Churchwell.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

David Roth has been appointed general director of Kentucky Opera, the company announced yesterday. Roth was most recently the director of finance at Fort Worth Opera; previously, he served as director of production for the Texas company. He has directed productions for Minnesota Opera, Baltimore Opera, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and assisted Francesca Zambello, John Copley, and other directors.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

Opera lecturer Ann Thompson will present a program here Jan. 19 on "All About Opera, Or What Scares You About Opera?" Thompson's program, part of the Women's Leadership Forum, will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Blinn College Student Center banquet room.
— Read more at Brenham Banner-Press

[James Levine to opera's gossip mill: Things have never been better.]
"My list of Desdemonas is even longer," James Levine says brightly. We're playing a kind of opera-history parlor game, and the 62-year-old conductor has just gotten through the illustrious roster of singers he's led as Kundry in Parsifal. Now he's on to the heroine of Verdi's Otello. "Let's see, there's Renata Tebaldi, Renata Scotto, Mirella Freni, Kiri Te Kanawa, Ren?e Fleming, Teresa Stratas, Pilar Lorengar, Teresa Zylis-Gara, Katia Ricciarelli, Margaret Price, Gilda Cruz-Romo . . . It just amazes me. Is there anyone else on the planet with the good fortune to work with that many generations of great singers"?
— Read more at New York Magazine [Related news items]

A newly svelte Deborah Voigt told New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini about her dramatic weight loss and the challenges of choosing roles at a New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend event on February 6. Elegantly dressed in jeans and black heels, the soprano was adamant that the infamous little black dress incident, where she was dropped from a 2004 Covent Garden production of Ariadne auf Naxos due to her girth, didn't prompt her gastric bypass surgery.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

It may appear that when new young artists burst onto the international operatic scene that they have suddenly sprung, fully developed, from obscurity. David Pratt looks into where the Metropolitan Opera finds some of its emerging stars.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

Renee Fleming has put Tatyana in the closet for more than a decade, occasionally singing excerpts of Tchaikovsky's peasant girl turned princess during concerts but never performing the full role since well-received 1994 performances with the San Diego Opera.
She is to take up Tatyana again next season at the Metropolitan Opera, and on Sunday afternoon she gave a preview at Carnegie Hall when she sang in concert with the Met orchestra led by music director James Levine. Judging from the letter scene, which closed the opening half of the performance, it should be one of the highlights of her career.
— Read more at Forbes.com [Related news items]

The curtain goes up on Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti on Jan. 21, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. in Century II Concert Hall. Donizetti's poignant tale of love and life lost is one of the greatest and most difficult operas in the "bel canto" tradition. Lyrical, emotional and hauntingly beautiful, the voices are truly the focal point of this grand opera, exquisitely brought to life by WGO's production of distinguished stars and Resident Artists. Russian soprano Larisa Yudina makes her Wichita Grand Opera debut singing the title role of Lucia.
— Read more at El Dorado Times

Even by her peripatetic standard, Renée Fleming has been on a frenzied ride the past few months. After kicking off the season by reviving the title role in Massenet's Manon at the Met, she tackled a dizzying whistle-stop European tour in November and an eight-concert stateside Christmas tour last month. That's in addition to promoting the paperback edition of her autobiographical book, The Inner Voice, filming her recently aired PBS Sacred Songs special in Germany, and being awarded the Légion d'Honneur by the French government in November, following a recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.
— Read more at South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Katharina Wagner, the 27-year-old great granddaughter of composer Richard Wagner, was booed at the premiere of her new production of Giacomo Puccini's three one-act operas, "Il Trittico", in the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
— Read more at Yahoo! News

American composer Ned Rorem has accomplished what many of his predecessors could only dream of: the transformation of the classic play "Our Town" into an opera. On Feb. 24 -- almost 68 years to the day that Thornton Wilder's quintessential American drama debuted in Princeton, N.J. -- what legendary composer Aaron Copland and others once imagined will finally become a reality. On that day, Indiana University Opera Theater, the foremost collegiate opera program in the nation, will present the world premiere of Rorem's "Our Town," with libretto by renowned American poet and writer J.D. McClatchy.
— Read more at Newswise

By any measure, this is a breakout season for the American baritone Nathan Gunn at the Metropolitan Opera. On Dec. 28, he finished a demanding run of performances as Clyde Griffiths, the recklessly ambitious young protagonist in "An American Tragedy," by Tobias Picker. Winning the lead for this premiere of a major Met commission was an enviable achievement for a baritone whose largest roles at the house had been Guglielmo in Mozart's "Così Fan Tutte" (just two performances in 1997) and Demetrius, one of the four Athenian lovers in Britten's "Midsummer Night's Dream" (a short run in 2002).
— Read more at New York Times

A dispassionate listener might guess that an attraction of the Met Orchestra's Carnegie Hall concerts, for the musicians, is that the programs take them out of the pit, not only physically, but musically as well. Usually, James Levine uses these programs to explore purely symphonic repertory, including challenging contemporary works, that these superb musicians might otherwise not perform. And usually they play them dazzlingly, as if they are hungry for the challenges.
— Read more at New York Times

Colorado's Central City Opera has promoted longtime conductor John Baril to the newly created post of music director, the company announced. Baril joined Central City Opera as production coordinator and assistant conductor in 1992, was named associate conductor and music administrator in 1996, and became resident conductor in 2000. He has conducted many productions for the respected summertime company, including the regional premiere of Mark Adamo's Little Women in 2001 and a production of Madama Butterfly last year that marked soprano Catherine Malfitano's directorial debut.
— Read more at PlaybillArts

[With the City Facing a Cash Shortage, Its Three Major Companies Sing the Blues]
Kirsten Harms is in a fighting mood. Deutsche Oper Berlin, one of the city's three companies, was created to be an opera of the people, offering affordable seats for Germans. Her city has perhaps the richest opera scene in the world -- three major companies, something that's almost unheard of. But Harms, general manager of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, believes the Berlin state government is starving its opera houses.
— Read more at washingtonpost.com

Keith Williams Architects has been appointed to work on the design of a new opera house for the world famous Irish opera festival in Wexford in a far reaching $30 million rebuilding programme. The practice will work in association with the architectural team at the Office of Public Works in Dublin.
— Read more at Europaconcorsi.com

[Out on the Fringe Are Singers Worth Toasting]
Does opera have a chardonnay problem? Chardonnay, wine lovers will tell you, is a very pernicious wine, embodying all the evils of commercialization, globalization and the banality of contemporary taste. Its success in the United States is part of an ominous and homogenizing tendency toward a cloying, single, dominant idea of a good white wine. Chardonnay is everywhere, and everywhere it is oaky, creamy, smooth and undistinguished. "I'll have the chardonnay," we say when imagination utterly fails us.
— Read more at washingtonpost.com

Austria's "City of Music" is getting ready for its curtain call. Starting Jan. 27 and lasting until the final notes are played in December, Vienna will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth with one of the largest birthday bashes Europe has ever seen.
— Read more at The Globe and Mail

The Three Tenors and their monster concerts were legendary throughout the 1990s. Like triple-platinum rock stars, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carreras packed gigantic stadiums and public parks with teeming multitudes of frenzied pop and opera fans. However, even as the tenors' great wave was peaking, a new superstar, Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky was quietly building his own impressive base of loyal followers, attracted as much by his dashingly Romantic visage as they were by his dark and lustrous voice.
— Read more at The Washington Times

Sudden departures, simmering discontent, behind-the-scenes plots. The real drama at the English National Opera is backstage. The company's woes are the latest melodrama to hit Britain's opera scene. Both the 300-year-old Royal Opera and the flagship Scottish Opera have faced recent financial and managerial troubles - caused partly by the failure of government support to keep pace with rising costs.
— Read more at mercurynews.com

A Texas arts executive with a varied background as a singer, stage director and financial administrator is Kentucky Opera's new general director. David Roth, currently finance director for the Fort Worth Opera, was introduced last night to Kentucky Opera's board. The 46-year-old Wisconsin native replaces Deborah Sandler, who resigned in August after leading the company for six seasons.
— Read more at courier-journal.com

An East Texas opera buff has bequeathed a lifetime collection of music memorabilia, including vocal scores, recordings and reference books, to a local opera company. Directors of Opera East Texas, based in Longview, spent the past several days sorting through the collection of Harold Bailey Jr., of Henderson. Bailey died Dec. 30 of pulmonary disease at age 81.
— Read more at The Bryan-College Station Eagle

Saturday can be your day at the opera. The Iowa District Metropolitan National Auditions will begin at 1 p.m. in the Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall on the Iowa State University campus. Thirty-one singers with hopes held high will perform for three estimable judges.
— Read more at zwire.com

While the arts world shakes its head in disbelief at the coronation, without interview or proper process, of John Berry and Loretta Tomasi to run English National Opera, the Welsh National Opera has managed to recruit one of the most respected names in the business, currently at the Metropolitan in New York.
— Read more at Guardian Unlimited

THERE are very few guarantees in the arts world. Here's one: The Crucible, the Oakland-based nonprofit industrial and fine arts education center, will surely deliver a smoking-hot version of "The Seven Deadly Sins" next week. The production is the latest in the organization's ongoing "Fire Opera" series, which fuses opera with fire arts.
— Read more at Inside Bay Area

"The Little Prince" isn't your average children's tale at all, if it is in fact written for children. But the Rachel Portman opera, like the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry upon which it is based, is a delightful and surprisingly meaningful lesson for children of all ages. Opera Theatre of Weston will present three performances of the opera, including an abbreviated version for young children, Saturday and Sunday at the Weston Playhouse. Wednesday's dress rehearsal revealed a production, with its mix of professionals and community members that promises to be as delightful as it is imaginative.
— Read more at Times Argus

The Metropolitan Opera has received the largest individual gift in its history, a $25 million donation from the socialite Mercedes Bass and her husband, Sid R. Bass, that comes at a time of increasing financial troubles for the house.

The gift - not the more usual pledge, but money that is available now - is mostly unrestricted and will go immediately toward plugging any deficit this season, a figure that at the moment is expected to be several million dollars, Joseph Volpe, the Met's general manager, said yesterday in an interview. Additional fund-raising is under way that could plug the gap, he added.
— Read more at New York Times

If you're a follower of the hit television series "Desperate Housewives," you don't have to wait until Sunday to catch the next episode - or at least a close approximation of one.
You can see it this Saturday in Bass Concert Hall, when Austin Lyric Opera presents the first of four performances, sung in English, of Dmitri Shostakovich's 1934 opera, "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk."
— Read more at austin360.com

A gray-haired, regal looking man and a small woman decked out in a feather boa and purple sequins glide onto the stage. They move and gesture to the melodic strains of opera music. The odd couple are puppets, and the people controlling them are students in an opera appreciation class at Springfield's American International College.
— Read more at masslive.com

An era in Metropolitan Opera history will end this season, when Joseph Volpe steps down as the company's general manager after a sixteen-year run. BARRY SINGER gets the ultimate hands-on executive to open up about his successes - and some of his disappointments.
— Read more at Opera News

In a country never known for its sopranos, rising star Monica Yunus wants to bring a little opera to her homeland - and maybe take a little bit of Bangladesh back to the United States with her. Nearly three decades after leaving Bangladesh as a four-month-old, Yunus says she is eager to explore her Asian roots, "to learn about Bangla music and work with Bangladeshi musicians." Yunus, a soprano with New York's Metropolitan Opera, returned recently to Bangladesh for the first time since her infancy, a trip she called "life-changing" in an interview with The Associated Press.
— Read more at grandforks.com