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Browsing: Vocal

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s first appearances as Met Music Director

By Newswire on 7 November 2018 Newswire, Opera

Yannick Nézet-Séguin makes his first appearances as Met Music Director with a new production of La Traviata Diana Damrau sings Violetta, opposite Juan Diego Flórez as Alfredo and Quinn Kelsey as Germont Michael Mayer’s new production will be seen around the world as a part of the Met’s Live in HD series New York, NY (November 7, 2018)—The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of La Traviata, opening December 4, will be the first opera conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin as the Met’sJeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director. Soprano Diana Damrau, who made her acclaimed role debut as Violetta at the Met during the 2012–2013 season (with Maestro Nézet-Séguin on the podium),…

Soprano Hyunah Yu in the middle, flanked by players from Piffaro and Prism, at the premiere of “The Anchoress” at the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia); photo by Pete Checchia/Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

“The Anchoress” – Songs of a Soul in Solitude

By Charles Geyer on 4 November 2018 Art Song, Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Experimental Jazz, Interviews, La Scena Online, Music Competition, Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre, Vocal, World Music

REVIEW: of The Anchoress, a world premiere of a new musical monodrama/song cycle composed by David Serkin Ludwig with text by Katie Ford, performed by soprano Hyunah Yu, accompanied by saxophone quartet PRISM and ancient-instrument ensemble Piffaro; on Wednesday, October 17, at the Perelman Theatre of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and on Thursday, October 18, at New York City’s DiMenna Center for Classical Music (the latter performance reviewed here); and INTERVIEWS: with composer David Ludwig and poet Katie Ford. The impulse to retreat from the world in search of spiritual insight or purity has manifested throughout human history. Twenty-one centuries of Christianity…

0022 – (l-r) Ensemble Studio Competition Second Prize winner Vartan Gabrielian, Third Prize winner Jamie Groote, Audience Choice Award and CBC Music Young Artist Development Prize winner Andrea Lett, and First Prize and CBC Music Young Artist Development Prize winner Matthew Cairns, Centre Stage 2018. Photo: Michael Cooper

Matthew Cairns Wins First Prize at COC’s 2018 Ensemble Studio Competition

By Newswire on 2 November 2018 Music Competition, Newswire, Opera

Toronto – Matthew Cairns of St. Catharines, ON took home First Prize at the Canadian Opera Company’s annual Ensemble Studio Competitionon November 1, 2018 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The competition is the feature event of the COC gala fundraiser Centre Stage, an annual celebration of Canada’s best young opera artists. Cairns was selected from eight finalists to receive the $5,000 award, supported by the Chair of the COC’s Board of Directors, as well as a performance opportunity at Ontario’s Elora Festival. Vartan Gabrielian of Toronto won the Second Prize of $3,000, and Jamie Groote of Toronto was awarded the Third Prize of $1,500. Andrea Lett of Prince Albert, SK took home the Audience Choice Award, worth $1,500. In…

The Monster (baritone Joshua Jeremiah) from Gregg Kallor's Frankenstein Suite; presented by The Angel's Share; photo by Kevin Condon

New York City October Surprises: Lang on the High Line, Kallor in the Catacombs

By Charles Geyer on 31 October 2018 Arts Industry, Chamber Music, Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Contemporary, Education, Experimental Jazz, La Scena Online, Musical Theatre, Opera, Orchestral, Piano, Popular Music, Scena Arts, Technology, Theatre, Vocal

REVIEW: of works by composers David Lang and Gregg Kallor – The Mile-Long Opera by Lang, performed on the High Line; and sketches from The Frankenstein Suite, plus the monodrama “The Telltale Heart,” by Kallor, performed in the Catacombs of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Some uncanny musical surprises graced unusual locations both above and below New York City street-level during the early part of Halloween month. Here’s a diary retrospective. Going the Extra Mile Beginning at twilight on six consecutive evenings (October 3 through 8; viewed October 7), Pulitzer-Prize-winning composer David Lang and a host of collaborators presented a unique choral…

Photo: Marco Borggreve

Julian Prégardien – Tenor and Teacher Takes On Another Role

By Arthur Kaptainis on 30 October 2018 Art Song, Baroque and Early, Choral, Opera, Vocal

Like father, like son. Both Christoph Prégardien, the father, and Julian Prégardien, his son, are noted for baroque and classical opera and oratorio as well as 19th-century Lieder. Both have made highly-regarded recordings of Bach. Julian, however, is taking a step farther than his father – and most singers this side of Barbara Hannigan – by conducting the St. John Passion while singing the role of the Evangelist on Nov. 22 for the Montreal Bach Festival at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul. (There will be a repeat performance on Nov. 25 at the Saint-Benoît-du-Lac Abbey in the…

The audience playing the part of “The Water” at Festival O18’s Queens of the Night: Dito and Aeneas at the Theatre of Living Arts; photo by Steven Pisano

Opera Philadelphia’s Festival O18: The Whirlwind That Was

By Charles Geyer on 29 October 2018 Baroque and Early, Choral, Classical, Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, La Scena Spotlight, Multimedia, Musical Theatre, Opera, Orchestral, Theatre, Visual Arts

REVIEW: of Opera Philadelphia’s “Festival O18” (September 20-30, 2018) – a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, composed by Gaetano Donizetti with libretto by Salvadore Cammarano; the world premiere of Sky on Swings, composed by Lembit Beecher with libretto by Hannah Moscovitch; the premiere of Ne quittez pas (a “reimagined” La voix humaine of Francis Poulenc, with a new prologue featuring numerous of the composer’s art songs); the premiere of Glass Handel, an immersive concert experience featuring countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo performing music by George Frideric Handel and Philip Glass; and Queens of the Night: Blythely After Hours, an opera/rock…

Photo: Louise Leblanc

Werther: Riveting Emotion from Start to Finish

By Dwain Richardson on 26 October 2018 Concert Reviews, Opera

The Opéra de Québec opened its 35th season with Werther, a dramatic French opera written by Romantic French composer Jules Massenet at Salle Louis-Fréchette in the Grand Théâtre de Québec. The four-act opera mostly centres on two characters: Werther, a young poet, sung by tenor Antoine Bélanger, and Charlotte, Bailli’s older daughter, sung by mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne. During the two-hour-and-forty-five-minute performance, we discover how Werther has feelings for Charlotte, though later in the first act, we learn that Charlotte has already vowed to marry Albert (sung by baritone Hugo Laporte). Does Charlotte remain faithful to Albert, or does she fall…

Photo : Patrick Beaudry

Review: Andrea Bocelli at Bell Center, An Expected Return

By Adrian Rodriguez on 22 October 2018 Concert Reviews, Opera, Vocal

Last Sunday, after 20 years of absence, a jam-packed Bell Centre welcomed the return of international star Andrea Bocelli. His passage through Montreal is part of his 2018-19 world tour to promote his new album “Si.” This new recording is the first in 14 years with all–new original compositions and will feature collaborations with Josh Groban, Ed Sheeran, soprano Aida Garifullina and his son Matteo Bocelli. The Show was conceived in two parts: the first part of the concert consisted of opera arias and choruses as well as a duet with guest soprano Larisa Martinez. Just like Tuscany’s wine, the…

(l-r) Thomas Hampson as Hadrian and Isaiah Bell as Antinous. Photo: Michael Cooper

Hadrian: A Night to Remember

By Denise Lai on 14 October 2018 Contemporary, Opera

Commissioned by the COC in 2013, Hadrian is composed by acclaimed Canadian-American singer, songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright, with a libretto by award-winning Canadian actor, director and playwright Daniel MacIvor, and staged by Canadian Peter Hinton. The story follows the final days of the gravely ill Roman Emperor Hadrian, consumed by grief and desperate for the truth of the mysterious drowning death of his lover Antinous. On his deathbed, he is visited by two sybils, the late Emperor Trajan and his wife Plotina. Plotina offers him two visions of the past, his first and last nights with Antinous, in exchange…

Gordon Bintner as Eugene Onegin and Joyce El-Khoury as Tatyana in the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Eugene Onegin, 2018. Conductor Johannes Debus, director Robert Carsen, set and costume designer Michael Levine, original lighting designer Jean Kalman and revival lighting designer Christine Binder. Photo: Michael Cooper

Canadian Opera Company’s Eugene Onegin Showcases Canadian Talent

By Denise Lai on 5 October 2018 Concert Reviews, Opera

The Canadian Opera Company opened its 2018-19 season with a new production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, originally premiered by the Metropolitan Opera. It has been 10 years since COC last staged Eugene Onegin, and the strength of this production lies in the cast and production team with a strong Canadian presence. The opera which is based on the classic Russian novel-in-verse by Alexander Pushkin tells the story of Onegin, a cynical and jaded urbanite, who rejects the love of the young Tatyana. After killing his friend Lensky, the fiancé of Tatyana’s sister Olga, in a duel that stemmed…

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