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Art News

Palm Beach Opera Announces Programs with The Lord’s Place

Palm Beach Opera is proud to announce a new collaboration with The Lord’s Place, a local leader aimed at eradicating homelessness in Palm Beach County. Palm Beach Opera will bring both its ANIMA program and Story Time Series to The Lord’s Place family campus in West Palm Beach this fall.

Story Time Series makes opera masterpieces come alive for children ages PreK – 5, as they are brought into the pages …more…

Nico Muhly Has Written An Opera About the Sister-Wives

(Opera, Philadelphia) Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, the channel now known as TLC was still known as TLC, but back then it was an actual acronym, imagine that, for The Learning Channel. ...more...

Adamo’s ‘Lysistrata’ Amps Up Fort Worth Opera

(Opera, Dallas/Ft. Worth) Here’s the thing about war: It’s bad. Controversial, I know. Generally speaking, even those wars fought for absolutely noble ends are, in the end, ehhh not so much fun. ...more...

1962 Griffith-Paret Fight Will Become a Terence Blanchard Opera

(Opera, National) Just the thought of it is enough to suck the wind out of you, considering how stark the circumstances were: on a March night in 1962, in a boxing ring in Madison Square Garden, Emile Griffith beat Benny “Kid” Paret to death. ...more...

Emma Goldman is Reborn in New Rock Opera at the Armory

(Theater, Opera, Santa Fe) There isn’t much discussion of Emma Goldman these days, and there are probably a lot of reasons why that’s the case; regardless of political climate or the tone of the national conversation (more accurately deemed a shouting match, currently, but we digress), there isn’t a lot of excitement to be had right now in discussing the life and politics of a Lithuanian anarchist who’s been dead more than 70 years, and probably lots of people won’t know what you’re going on about anyway. ...more...

L.A’s New Sort-of Opera Company the Industry Debuts with ‘Crescent City’

(Opera, Los Angeles) We should maybe clarify here, a bit: the Industry is not sort of a company, it is most definitely a company, run by the ex-head of the NYC Opera’s VOX Series and a former professional opera singer. ...more...

Classic Staging of Brittan’s ‘Billy Budd’ Is At the Met, Briefly

(Opera, New York) This particular staging is the John Dexter version, which was first at the Met in 1978 and has not been seen since, and is presumably unchanged since then, owing to the fact that Dexter died in 1990. ...more...

WQXR Publishes Blog Critical of Met’s ‘Ring’ Cycle, Then Pulls It

(Opera, New York) The big hook for the Metropolitan Opera’s 2011-12 season has been, and is still, with one performance remaining, the new staging of Wagner’s entire Ring des Nibelungen cycle, the first in two decades. This staging has been an all-stops-out affair, and the Met’s got a lot riding on it; their own promotional materials claim that “this is the most ambitious production the Met has ever attempted.” ...more...

Opera Company of Philadelphia Sings Verdi at Geno’s

(Opera, Philadelphia) Looks like you’ve got to watch your back a little in Philly these days; at any point, you might be caught up in an operatic maelstrom. They are singing in the streets these days in Philadelphia, at random, and it doesn’t matter where you go, the Opera Company of Philadelphia will eventually find you. ...more...

Dallas Opera’s ‘Magic Flute’ Simulcast Draws 15K to Cowboys Stadium

(Opera, Dallas) Okay, The Magic Flute is no one’s idea of challenging opera. Granted. It’s not Norma or Die Walküre, fine. ...more...

More Thoughts about the ‘Met in HD’ and What it Means

(Opera, Film, National) You can now, very easily, go to a movie theater and see Anna Netrebko sing ‘Manon’, or Renee Fleming sing ‘Rodelinda’, or any number of operatic eminences singing on live simulcast from the Metropolitan Opera. On balance, this is largely a positive development… ...more...

Two Operas, One Stage, One Price in New Orleans

(Opera, New Orleans) First, Pagliacci by Leoncavallo; then, a Carmina Burana with dancers and a chorus and “magical pictures”, whatever those might be in Carl Orff’s mind. ...more...

Farewell, San Antonio Opera

(Opera, San Antonio) After some months of speculation, the San Antonio Opera confirmed yesterday that it intends to file for liquidation bankruptcy in the near future. ...more...

Michigan Opera Theatre Goes Back to the ‘Pearl Fishers’

(Opera, Detroit) Bizet’s 1863 opera kicks off the MOT’s spring season at 7:30 Saturday evening. ...more...

Seattle Opera’s “Butterfly” Will Fly Free, In HD, At KeyArena

(Opera, Seattle) May 5. 7:30 P.M. KeyArena. “Madame Butterfly”. Seattle Opera. Simulcast. HD. That should do, yes? ...more...

Antonacci Makes Rare Stop at Alice Tully Hall

(Opera, New York) Highly touted but seldom-seen in America, Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci stops into Alice Tully Hall this Sunday at 5 for a rare recital performance. ...more...

Met Plans to Bring Entire ‘Ring’ Cycle to Movie Theaters

(Opera, Film, National) The first opera, “Das Rheingold”, screens May 9 nationwide. ...more...

San Francisco Lyric Opera Chugs Back to Life

(Opera, San Francisco) The opera’s been on hiatus since early 2009, but it will live again beginning March 23, when it presents David Lang’s little match girl passion at the ODC Theater. ...more...

Henze’s “Young Lovers” Gets Rare Airing in Philadelphia

(Opera, Philadelphia) Hans Werner Henze’s little-played masterwork gets going tomorrow night at the Perelman Theater. ...more...

Lyric Opera to present world premiere ‘Bel Canto’ in 2015-16

(Opera, Chicago) Renee Fleming continues to exert her considerable influence. The international star soprano, in her second year in her parallel career as creative consultant to Lyric Opera of Chicago, has moved a conservative institution ...more...

Mainstreaming Engagement

(Opera, Houston) In a (very) recent post (Shut Up and Listen) I alluded to the article that Sandra Bernhard has written about Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco for Building Communities Not Audiences. ...more...

“Salome” Heads Down to the Crescent City

(Opera, New Orleans) The New Orleans Opera’s production of Strauss’ mad 1905 opera bows tonight at 8 with Mlada Khudoley in the lead. ...more...

L.A. Opera tries new pricing scheme for ‘Albert Herring’

(Opera, Los Angeles) Special discounted prices are being offered for the Opera’s upcoming rendition of Brittan’s “Albert Herring”, which opens February 25. ...more...

Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts Remains Stalwart

(Opera, Philadelphia) The American opera scene is fairly unsettled at the moment, but the AVA is still doing what it does best – turning talented amateurs into seasoned opera professionals. ...more...

L.A. Opera Unearths Verdi’s “I Due Foscari”

(Opera, Los Angeles) The seldom-seen opera goes up September 22. ...more...