Tag Archives: opera

Deadline reports: The composer and lyricist of Fellow Travelers, an opera based on Thomas Mallon’s 2007 novel about the anti-gay lavender scare of the 1950s, have withdrawn the work from the 2025-26 season of the Washington National Opera at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., citing concern over Donald Trump’s takeover of the institution’s leadership. In a letter to the …

NPR reports: A listener-supported radio station in North Carolina, WCPE, is planning to withhold the broadcast of six contemporary operas this season from New York’s Metropolitan Opera, because of the station management’s objections to the operas’ content. It is a classical music controversy that echoes larger, nationwide culture war debates. WCPE’s protest comes at a time when the Metropolitan Opera …

The Post & Courier reports: “Omar,” the opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels commissioned by Spoleto Festival USA, has won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for music. The opera premiered at the Sottile Theatre on May 27, 2022, after years of development and then delay because of the COVID pandemic. It is the first opera written by Giddens, who is …

The New York Observer reports: The New York Metropolitan Opera’s March 17 performance of the German opera Ariadne auf Naxos was cruising through its second act when it happened: an attendee sitting in the upper balconies screamed “You have no technique” as soprano Brenda Rae [photo] concluded an aria, temporarily setting the theater abuzz with horrified whispers. It was a …

The Associated Press reports: Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo said Sunday that he’s infected with the coronavirus. The 79-year-old Domingo said in a post on his personal Facebook account Sunday that “I feel it is my moral duty to announce to you that I have tested positive.” Domingo, one of the world’s top opera stars, has recently been accused by …

NPR reports: Opera singer Jessye Norman died Monday morning at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital in New York. The official cause of death was septic shock and multi-organ failure secondary to complications of a spinal cord injury she had sustained in 2015. She was 74. Her death was confirmed to NPR by a spokesperson for her family, Gwendolyn Quinn, as …

This needs to go wildly viral. I won’t spoil any of the jokes, just watch below as Operatico Politico’s Rebecca Nelson and Eric Stoklassa brilliantly skewer the entire Trump family and administration to the tune of Rossini’s Barber Of Seville. And definitely stick around for the big finish.

Last weekend two performances of the Metropolitan Opera were canceled when a counter-terrorism response team evacuated Lincoln Center after a man scattered the ashes of his “opera mentor” into the orchestra pit. Yesterday the NYPD announced that the man will not be charged with any crime, even though his act cost the Met an estimated $500,000. The New York Times …

Gothamist reports: The suspicious substance that led to last night’s evacuation of the Metropolitan Opera House may have been a man’s ashes, police said yesterday. Saturday afternoon around 4:30 p.m., members of the Met’s orchestra noticed a man in a suit who began sprinkling a powdery substance in the orchestra pit during the second intermission of “Guillaume Tell.” Shortly afterwards, …

The New York Daily News reports: Here comes the judge — in an opera. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg slips out of her robe into something befitting royalty for her one-night-only performance in the Washington National Opera’s production of Donizetti’s “The Daughter of the Regiment” on Nov. 12. The role in this 1840s opera comes as Ginsburg has been …

From the Telegraph: Meryl Streep has often been celebrated for her extraordinary vocal talents. But in director Stephen Frears’s new film, the three-time Oscar winner takes on the voice of Florence Foster Jenkins, a soprano who has been dubbed the worst vocalist of all time. Born in 1868, Jenkins was a child prodigy as a pianist who performed at the …

Hundreds of protesters swarmed Lincoln Center on Monday night to rage against the Metropolitan Opera’s debut of The Death Of Klinghoffer, which is based on the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro and which detractors say is anti-Semitic and glorifies terrorism. Opposition to the show was spurred by right wing sites with Ben Shapiro’s Truth Revolt leading the …

Clip recap: Marc Martel. A duet of two of my favorite musical influences, Freddie Mercury and Luciano Pavarotti. This is one continuous performance from start to finish, shot in one take, using two cameras. No audio has been cut or replaced. (I added the “Pavarotti” harmony for “Vincero, Vincero!” afterwards, since I have yet to master singing in both voices …

My buddy Tom came across this sign in Jackson Heights.

Accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Singers, last night Pet Shop Boys performed the world premier of their Alan Turing opera, A Man From The Future, at Britain’s Proms event at Royal Albert Hall. The Independent has posted a review: Tennant stands by the choir for A Man From the Future, with fellow Boy Chris Lowe behind …

Tomorrow night at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Pet Shop Boys will perform with the BBC Concert Orchestra in the world premiere of their Alan Turing opera, A Man From The Future. Via the Guardian: “For one night only, I’m one of the BBC singers!” marvels Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant – he is adding his voice to the 18-strong …

Opera Australia has fired Georgian soprano Tamar Iveri after days of controversy over anti-gay comments she made about a pride parade in her home country. In a statement released on Monday, the company said Iveri would not be performing in its Sydney production of Otello in July and August. “Opera Australia has agreed with Tamar Iveri, to immediately release her …

The New York City Opera’s now-running production of Anna Nicole may be its last. After the curtain falls following the last performance of “Anna Nicole” – an audacious chronicle of tabloid diva Anna Nicole Smith that opened the company’s 2013-14 season – the “People’s Opera” will have only a few days to raise millions of dollars. The 70-year-old company, which …

Singing the “top ten opera lyrics.” Mandatory viewing.

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