Lisette Oropesa News

The Met has announced the Week 4 schedule for its Nightly Met Opera Streams, a free series of encore Live in HD presentations streamed on the company website during the coronavirus closure. The week begins with Verdi's Aida, starring Anna Netrebko in the title role.

The Met's Live in HD season continues with Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), which comes to cinemas for the first time on March 14.

When I recently interviewed Lisette Ororpesa, just before her first Violetta at the Met, she told me that people are always asking her “Isn't TRAVIATA an opera for three different sopranos? One soprano per act?” and her answer is: “Yeah, if you want to look at it that way...' She proved that she didn't need any help from a doppelganger in pulling off all the varied aspects of Verdi's courtesan, with a stellar performance.

Saturday night, I heard soprano Lisette Oropesa deliver an alternatingly delicious and desperately dramatic Violetta in Verdi's LA TRAVIATA at the Met. Less than a day later, she was the emcee at the GRAND FINALS CONCERT of the Met's National Council Auditions--where she was a winner herself in 2005 and “it changed my life,” she recalled--delivering the latest batch of opera babies into the big time.

After a months-long series of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, a panel of expert judges named five singers as the winners of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Each winner receives a $20,000 cash prizea?"up from $15,000, the first increase since 1998a?"and the prestige and exposure that come with winning the competition that launched the careers of many of opera's biggest stars.

The Metropolitan Opera will present a new production of Wagner's early masterpiece Der Fliegende Holländer on March 2, 2020, with performances continuing through March 27. Valery Gergiev conducts the new staging from director François Girard, whose interpretation is centered on the young woman Senta's obsession with a portrait of the Dutchman.

Following yesterday's semi-final competition, nine young singers have advanced to the final round of the Metropolitan Opera's 2020 National Council Auditions. In the public concert, finalists perform on the Met stage Sunday, March 1 at 3 p.m., for an audience of judges, agents, industry leaders, and the general public (in the auditorium and live on the radio). The finalists, chosen by a panel of opera administrators from the Met and other companies, each perform two arias with the Met Orchestra conducted by Bertrand de Billy. Prize money will increase for the first time in 20 years, with the winners receiving individual cash prizes of $20,000 (previously $15,000), and the prestigious and potentially career-launching title of National Council Auditions Winner. The remaining finalists receive $10,000 (previously $7,500).

It's been a big year for soprano Lisette Oropesa, with starring roles at major European houses. But in this country, it's something else entirely: She won the Richard Tucker Award and the Met's Beverly Sills Award. That was followed by a pair of name-above-the-title roles, her first at the Met: her role debut in Massenet's MANON and, this week, her house role debut as Verdi's Violetta in LA TRAVIATA.

Celebrated soprano Lisette Oropesa, in the midst of her highly anticipated run as Violetta Valéry in The Met's La Traviata, will share an exclusive house concert on Monday, March 2, 2020, in a stunning TriBeCa loft as part of the 2020 Hamlen-Palm Series.

The 23 young opera singers who have won regional auditions around the United States will compete in the semifinal round of the country's leading vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, on Monday, February 24. The closed semifinal competition, held on the Met stage before a panel of judges, will determine the select group of finalists who will advance to the final round of the competition-the Grand Finals, which is open to the public and will be held on the Met stage on Sunday, March 1.

Today, the Metropolitan Opera announced its 2020-21 season, the first in which Yannick Nézet-Séguin assumes his full breadth of musical duties as the company's Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director, conducting six productions. His schedule includes the Met premiere of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, the first contemporary opera conducted by the maestro on the Met stage, as part of his ongoing commitment to opera of our time at the Met, which will expand in the seasons to come.

The 86th year of the U.K.'s internationally renowned Glyndebourne Festival will offer six major opera productions from May 21 through August 30, including compelling new productions, rising stars and debuts, and the return of treasured Festival favorites, as well as an exceptional international roster of artists from more than 14 different countries from the United States, Australia and Russia to Finland and Croatia.

The International Opera Awards today announced the finalists for its 2020 Awards [Wednesday 5 February 2020]. The annual red-carpet event - which celebrates achievement in opera around the globe over the 2019 calendar year - recognises excellence in a wide range of categories that cover performance, design and direction as well as education and outreach.

I admit this is an absolutely personal, totally one-sided view of what gave one man opera thrills last year and what I will look back on with delight. Some are old works, some are new, some are individual performers, some are ensembles, some are complete productions, some are merely the highlight of an evening, most are domestic, a few are foreign. In any case, as the new decade begins, I recall that these are the vocal highlights that made my heart beat a little faster and made me look forward to the year ahead.

New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns, a guest performer in this season's revival of a?oeLa Traviata,a?? rehearses on the Met stage. Production: Michael Mayer. 2019a?"20 season. Videography by Pete Scalzitti / Met Opera

Be mere feet away from some of the world's most innovative classical music artists when the 2020 edition of the Hamlen-Palm Series welcomes three acclaimed performances in one intimate space: JACK Quartet, soprano Lisette Oropesa and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo. The house concerts are produced by and benefit Classical Action, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

This Sunday at 12 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), season 14 of Great Performances at the Met premieres with Massenet's French tale, Manon. Soprano Lisette Oropesa stars as Manon, alongside tenor Michael Fabiano as Chevalier des Grieux, and Artur Ruciński (Lescaut), Brett Polegato (de Brétigny), Kwangchul Youn (Comte des Grieux) and Carlo Bosi (Guillot de Morfontaine). Maurizio Benini conducts.

The Metropolitan Opera today announces two cast changes for its forthcoming production of Verdi's La Traviata, opening January 10, 2020. Piero Pretti sings the role of Alfredo Germont at the performances on February 26, 29, March 5, 9, 13, and 19, 2020, replacing Vittorio Grigolo. Additionally, New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns joins the cast as the female solo dancer for the performances on January 10, 14, 18, 23, 26, February 3, March 5, 9, and 13, 2020.

As his tenure as Artistic Director comes to a close, David Agler took his final bow on stage last night in the National Opera House after the closing performance of the 68th Festival. David thanked both the company and the audience for their loyal support throughout the years, before formally handing over to the incoming Artistic Director Rosetta Cucchi, the Festival's eighth Artistic Director in its sixty-eight year history.

It's hard to imagine the logistics in putting together a complex program like the one that the audience at Carnegie Hall was treated to on Sunday evening for the 2019 RICHARD TUCKER GALA. But New York-born conductor James Gaffigan pulled it off wonderfully with the help of members of the Met Orchestra and the New York Choral Society--and a gaggle of amazing singers, beginning with this year's winner of the Tucker Award, Lisette Oropesa.