Diana Damrau News

The Metropolitan Opera will present its first-ever performances of Rossini's final comic opera, Le Comte Ory, in a production by Bartlett Sher premiering March 24.

The Metropolitan Opera will present its first-ever performances of Rossini's final comic opera, Le Comte Ory, in a production by Bartlett Sher premiering March 24.

A singer could scarcely be hotter than Joyce DiDonato right now: recently named Artist of the Year by Gramophone magazine, the mezzo-soprano has a new Virgin/EMI album just out (Diva, Divo, released Jan 25); is currently starring in the lead role of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking at Houston Grand Opera; and soon embarks on an eight-city U.S. recital tour (Feb 8 - March 6), capping it with her main-stage Carnegie Hall recital debut.

Earlier this season at the Metropolitan Opera, Joseph Calleja's performance as Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème prompted the Associated Press to admire his 'voice unlike anyone else on the operatic scene today.' As the review continued: 'A rapid vibrato gives his sound an alluring sweetness, and in recent years he has refined his technique so that the quality is consistent throughout his range, up to high C.' Now, following performances earlier this season as Rodolfo and as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's Rigoletto, the Maltese tenor returns to New York to take on his third Italian role of the Met season. From February 24 through March 19, he sings Edgardo opposite Natalie Dessay in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. The March 19 performance will be transmitted live to movie theaters around the world, as part of the 'Met: Live in HD' series. In addition, Joseph Calleja's exclusive record label, the newly re-launched Decca Classics, has announced plans to release the tenor's next solo album, titled The Maltese Tenor, later this year.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2011-12 season will feature the world's leading singers, conductors, and stage directors in seven new productions, including a world premiere, a Met premiere, and the first complete performances of a new Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle conducted by Music Director James Levine and directed by Robert Lepage.

Artist Francesco Vezzoli has created a unique work inspired by Rossini's comic opera Le Comte Ory that will be displayed inside and outside the Metropolitan Opera in the weeks leading up to the opera's Met premiere. Vezzoli's piece, entitled La Comtesse Ory (After Velázquez), incorporates several of the artist's signatures: needlepoint, Renaissance imagery, stylized tears, and religious iconography. The original work, currently on view on the Grand Tier level of the Met, will be reproduced as a banner and displayed on the façade of the opera house beginning February 8.

A singer could scarcely be hotter than Joyce DiDonato right now: recently named Artist of the Year by Gramophone magazine, the mezzo-soprano has a new Virgin/EMI album just out (Diva, Divo, released Jan 25); is currently starring in the lead role of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking at Houston Grand Opera; and soon embarks on an eight-city U.S. recital tour (Feb 8 - March 6), capping it with her main-stage Carnegie Hall recital debut.

Hot on the heels of winning Gramophone magazine's 2010 Artist of the Year award, the vibrant mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will release her third Virgin/EMI solo album - Diva, Divo - on January 25.

Joseph Calleja, who made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2006 as Verdi's Duke of Mantua, returns to the role at the Met in a January 11-27 run of Rigoletto.

Joseph Calleja, who made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2006 as Verdi's Duke of Mantua, returns to the role at the Met in a January 11-27 run of Rigoletto.

Hot on the heels of winning Gramophone magazine's 2010 Artist of the Year award, the vibrant mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will release her third Virgin/EMI solo album - Diva, Divo - on January 25.

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 80th season of Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts-the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history-with a 22-week season featuring many of the world's greatest operatic artists, beginning December 18.

It's already been a red-letter autumn for the American mezzo-soprano, with DiDonato winning two prestigious 2010 Gramophone Awards - 'Artist of the Year' and 'Recital of the Year', as well as Germany's 2010 Echo Klassic 'Singer of the Year' Award. She continues her illustrious 2010-11 season with a December full of performances in another of her key roles, that of Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, at Madrid's Teatro Real. On her debut as Octavian in 2007 at San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Chronicle extolled her vocal art and dramatic verity: 'The evening's signal triumph belonged to Joyce DiDonato, undertaking Octavian for the first time and turning the role into something tender and strong. Her singing was robust and full of feeling, and she brought the technical precision and alertness of her finest Rossini and Handel performances to this very different stylistic strain. . . The result was a performance that seemed to breathe, displaying all the headstrong charm and mutability of this 17-year-old aristocrat still finding his way through the worlds of love and honor in 18th-century Vienna.'

It's already been a red-letter autumn for the American mezzo-soprano, with DiDonato winning two prestigious 2010 Gramophone Awards - 'Artist of the Year' and 'Recital of the Year', as well as Germany's 2010 Echo Klassic 'Singer of the Year' Award. She continues her illustrious 2010-11 season with a December full of performances in another of her key roles, that of Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, at Madrid's Teatro Real. On her debut as Octavian in 2007 at San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Chronicle extolled her vocal art and dramatic verity: 'The evening's signal triumph belonged to Joyce DiDonato, undertaking Octavian for the first time and turning the role into something tender and strong. Her singing was robust and full of feeling, and she brought the technical precision and alertness of her finest Rossini and Handel performances to this very different stylistic strain. . . The result was a performance that seemed to breathe, displaying all the headstrong charm and mutability of this 17-year-old aristocrat still finding his way through the worlds of love and honor in 18th-century Vienna.'

The Metropolitan Opera celebrates its 80th season of Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts-the longest-running classical music series in American broadcast history-with a 22-week season featuring many of the world's greatest operatic artists, beginning December 18.

On the heels of his success this summer at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where, almost 'steal[ing] the show' (Independent), he proved himself a 'thrilling Adorno' (Financial Times) opposite Plácido Domingo in Simon Boccanegra, Joseph Calleja begins the 2010-11 season with his Houston Grand Opera debut in a new, opening-night production of Madama Butterfly. Calleja sings B.F. Pinkerton opposite soprano Ana Maria Martinez, who makes her role debut as the tragic Cio-Cio-San. The production team will be led by the renowned British director Michael Grandage, who received the 2010 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play for Red, and who is celebrated by theater audiences for his productions of Hamlet and Frost/Nixon. The cast of Madama Butterfly will work under HGO Music Director Patrick Summers. The first performance on October 22 marks the opening night of the company's 2010-11 season, and the production runs through November 5.

On the heels of his success this summer at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where, almost 'steal[ing] the show' (Independent), he proved himself a 'thrilling Adorno' (Financial Times) opposite Plácido Domingo in Simon Boccanegra, Joseph Calleja begins the 2010-11 season with his Houston Grand Opera debut in a new, opening-night production of Madama Butterfly. Calleja sings B.F. Pinkerton opposite soprano Ana Maria Martinez, who makes her role debut as the tragic Cio-Cio-San. The production team will be led by the renowned British director Michael Grandage, who received the 2010 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play for Red, and who is celebrated by theater audiences for his productions of Hamlet and Frost/Nixon. The cast of Madama Butterfly will work under HGO Music Director Patrick Summers. The first performance on October 22 marks the opening night of the company's 2010-11 season, and the production runs through November 5.

he Metropolitan Opera's fifth season of free open dress rehearsals begins on October 8 with the company's new production of Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, starring bass Rene Pape in the title role. Valery Gergiev conducts the production, which is directed by Stephen Wadsworth.

he Metropolitan Opera's fifth season of free open dress rehearsals begins on October 8 with the company's new production of Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, starring bass Rene Pape in the title role. Valery Gergiev conducts the production, which is directed by Stephen Wadsworth.

Giuseppe Verdi's popular masterpiece Rigoletto returns to the Met this season featuring five artists in their Met debuts and four performers singing major roles for the first time with the company. On September 29, Lado Ataneli sings the hunchback court jester and Christine Schäfer is his daughter Gilda, both adding new roles to their Met repertory. Conductor Paolo Arrivabeni makes his Met debut, as does Francesco Meli as the Duke of Mantua, Nino Surguladze as Maddalena, and Andrea Silvestrelli as Sparafucile. On October 5, George Gagnidze returns to the role of Rigoletto which he sang at the Met in 2009.