03 Nov 2010
The small but perfectly formed Grosvenor Chapel in London’s exclusive Mayfair was the venue last Monday night for a programme of Handel vocal and instrumental music of considerable quality — if minimal quantity. »
03 Nov 2010
Composer Marcela Pavia was born and raised in Rosario, Argentina, and comes from a family of Italian immigrants. »
13 Oct 2010
I was sixteen and knew nothing about opera, had just seen my first
Traviata at the City Opera (Patricia Brooks, Placido Domingo), was
entranced by the melodies — especially the Brindisi and
“Sempre libera” — and wanted more. »
10 Oct 2010
The Oxford Lieder Festival is small, but is extremely important. It's quite an achievement, extremely well organized and comprehensive, a model for intelligently-presented festivals of any kind. »
24 Sep 2010
Composer Pierre Jalbert (b.1967), of French Canadian ancestry, was born and raised in northern New England, and studied composition at Oberlin Conservatory and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked with George Crumb. »
13 Sep 2010
This season Santa Fe Opera offered new productions that ranged from standard
repertoire (Madame Butterfly and The Magic Flute) to a world
premiere (Lewis Spratlan’s Life is a Dream) with The Tales
of Hoffmann and Albert Herring falling somewhere amidst. »
13 Sep 2010
Bruce Adolphe, born and raised in the New York area, a student of
composition at Juilliard in the sixties and seventies, has an impressive body
of work commissioned by artists known on every continent, and was chosen by the
Music Library Association to write a piece for brass (Triskelion)
marking the sixtieth anniversary of the Association, premiered by the American
Brass Quintet at the national meeting in Indianapolis in February, 1991. »
12 Sep 2010
As one of the most sought after composers of the young generation, Mohammed
Fairouz has many commissions and a substantial body of work, and maintains a
busy performance schedule. »
09 Sep 2010
Jacques Imbrailo sings Dr Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at the Royal Opera House, London »
24 Aug 2010
Robert Baksa is a name that is well-known to lovers of contemporary chamber music, with a hundred chamber works to his credit. »
07 Jul 2010
“You want to frame the voice in such a way that it shines.”— Daniel Catán »
01 Jul 2010
Baritone Austin Kness, an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera recently spoke with Opera Today critic Michael Milenski. »
28 Jun 2010
Jay Reise is one of the senior musical figures in Philadelphia, serving on
the composition faculty of the University of Pennsylvania since 1980. »
19 Jun 2010
On 7 June 2010, I spoke with Christine Brewer who was enjoying a relatively
free week at her home near St. Louis, Missouri, after long months of air travel
between concerts, recitals and operatic performances. »
17 Jun 2010
Opera stars are made as well as born. The Royal Opera House Jette Parker Young Artists Programme shapes the stars of the future. »
07 Jun 2010
‘Focussed and pure of tone’, ‘beautifully steady’,
‘pure clarity and note perfection’ — just some of the
accolades bestowed on the Lithuanian mezzo soprano Jurgita Adamonytė for
her recent performances of Mozart. »
04 Jun 2010
Aris Argiris makes his debut at Covent Garden as Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen. But this is unusually high-profile because it's a first, being filmed in 3D. »
03 Jun 2010
Olja Jelaska (b. 1967) is an important figure in the younger generation of
composers from Croatia. »
01 Jun 2010
Juan Trigos, composer and conductor, was born and raised in Mexico City,
where his father, also Juan Trigos, is a noted playwright and novelist. »
18 May 2010
Composer Robert Maggio is professor of composition at West Chester
University (in suburban Philadelphia). »
17 May 2010
According to her web site, Elena Ruehr has been called a “composer to
watch” by Opera News, and her music has been described as
“stunning...beautifully lighted by [a] canny instinct for knowing when
and how to vary key, timbre, and harmony” by The Boston Globe. »
03 May 2010
You don’t have to be Asian to sing Madama Butterfly, but if you’ve got a top soprano from that part of the world, it adds another dimension of reality to Puccini’s tear-drenched verismo. »
24 Apr 2010
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland
— College Park is presenting Shadowboxer, an opera based on the
life of Joe Louis, with music composed by Frank Proto to a libretto by John
Chenault. »
22 Apr 2010
Composer Stephen Jaffe is the Mary and James H. Semans Professor of Music
Composition at Duke University. We spoke in his office there in Durham NC on
June 25, 2007. »
22 Apr 2010
Micaela Carosi, the Verdi specialist, has created Aida many times, so she’s closely attuned to the role. The new production, at the Royal Opera House, London, though, is different. “It’s like singing Aida for the first time”, she says, her eyes sparkling. »
20 Apr 2010
Osmo Tapio Räihälä is a Finnish composer of contemporary music, and was the founder of Uusinta, a collaborative group of composers and musicians. »
10 Apr 2010
Composer Lance Hulme studied composition at the University of Minnesota,
Yale University, and the Eastman School of Music, and returned to the United
States recently, where he lives presently in Greensboro, North Carolina, after
two decades in Mitteleuropa, where he founded and directed the contemporary
music ensemble Ensemble Surprise. »
10 Apr 2010
Anna Weesner is an American composer who grew up in rocky New Hampshire, and
now teaches in historic Philadelphia. »
10 Apr 2010
Composer and pianist Timothy Andres is in his mid-twenties, with an impressive catalog of works to his credit, many of which can be heard at his website. »
03 Mar 2010
Composer Sophia Serghi is presently professor of music at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she has taught since 1998, with two years away in 2000-2002. »
28 Feb 2010
Kurt Streit is singing Bazajet in all performances of Handel’s Tamerlano at the Royal Opera House, London. Placido Domingo, who was to have sung five of the seven performances, pulled out suddenly due to illness. »
10 Feb 2010
Composer Gabriela Ortiz studied composition in Mexico City with Mario
Lavista at the National Conservatory of Music, at the Guildhall School with
Robert Saxton, and at the University of London with Simon Emmerson. »
25 Jan 2010
Kerry Andrew is a young British composer who seems to have her finger in an astounding number of pies, from modern sacred choral music to alt-folk, and including vocal chamber ensemble music and jazz. We talked via Skype on Jan. 12, 2010. »
18 Jan 2010
The thing you need in order to start an arts organization, even more than a
great deal of money, is a whirlwind – an individual with unstoppable
energy who can put it all together and keep it working through thin times and
thick. »
13 Jan 2010
AUSTIN, Texas — A major collection of Italian opera libretti is now
accessible through an online database at the Harry Ransom Center, a humanities
research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin. »
08 Jan 2010
American violinist Hilary Hahn has entered her fourth decade, having turned
thirty last year, and for her eleventh disc she takes on a collaborative role,
as obbligatist in a program of Bach cantata arias with soprano Christine
Schäfer and baritone Matthias Goerne, accompanied by the Münchener
Kammerorchester under the direction of Alexander Liebreich. »
07 Jan 2010
Composer Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon is presently on the faculty of the Eastman
School of Music in Rochester, New York. He grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico,
where he and colleague Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez played in a rock and roll band
together. »
25 Dec 2009
Composer William Price was born in Missouri (1971) and raised in Alabama, where he is presently professor of music theory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. »
17 Dec 2009
John Fitz Rogers is presently an associate professor of composition at the University of South Carolina School of Music. »
04 Nov 2009
Rio de Janeiro, which has had a string of winning luck in recent days — not only will it host the 2014 World Cup of soccer, but also the 2016 Olympic Games — continues a laudable and venerable tradition in the arts — the Biannual Festival of Contemporary Brazilian Music, now in its 18th edition. »
26 Oct 2009
An Interview with Ileana Perez-VelazquezBy Tom Moore
»
11 Oct 2009
In the autumn, Oxford is especially beautiful. The ancient colleges are swathed in scarlet vines, and the mellow evening light creates great atmosphere. For those who love art song, though, the best reason for visiting Oxford at this time of year is the Oxford Lieder Festival, which starts October 16th 2009. »
06 Oct 2009
This wasn't an ordinary concert but something very special. The Wigmore Hall was honouring Imogen Cooper on her 60th birthday. She is greatly loved here, both as soloist and as partner in song recitals. The atmosphere was electric. The house was packed, with many famous pianists and singers in the audience. It was a historic occasion, but it felt like a party among friends. »
06 Sep 2009
“Opera has so much to give” says Christof Loy, whose new production of Tristan und Isoldeopens at the Royal Opera House on 29th September. This opera is so familiar that everyone assumes they know it. But Loy’s approach involves going straight back to the score, and to the inherent drama in the music. “I don’t like superficial distractions". »
![Michele Mariotti [Photo by Amati Bacciardi (Pesaro) courtesy of Columbia Artists Music]](http://www.operatoday.com/Mariotti_MG_4200.gif)