David Leigh

Carnegie Hall to Celebrate 2024 Year of Czech Music with Performances in December
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Nov 26, 2024

Over six days in early December, Carnegie Hall will join music lovers around the world in commemorating the 2024 Year of Czech Music, a decennial celebration that highlights legendary Czech composers. Learn more!

YELLOW FACE Starring Daniel Dae Kim to Premiere on PBS
by Josh Sharpe - Nov 21, 2024

Great Performances has announced it will capture Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face for premiere on PBS. The Great Performances premiere on PBS will be announced at a later date. 

Review: FIDELIO at Kennedy Center
by David Friscic - Oct 28, 2024

The Washington National Opera’s production of Beethoven’s Fidelio is a triumph of elegant, efficient style and directorial finesse. Director Francesca Zambello re-invigorates the somewhat uninspired libretto by Joesph Von Sonnleithner with a vigor and intelligence that envelops this tale of valor, commitment, courage, and conscience.

Video: Get A First Look at Mozart's DON GIOVANNI at the Canadian Opera Company
by Joshua Wright - Feb 2, 2024

Enjoy a first look at the 'mind-bending' new production of Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI, on now at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts!​​​​​​​

Experience DON GIOVANNI at Canadian Opera Company This Winter
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Dec 5, 2023

Experience Don Giovanni as never before with a breathtaking new production. Discover the thrilling tale of love, lust, and revenge in this iconic opera.

Interview: Peter Knell and Stephanie Fleischmann on Their New Opera ARKHIPOV at the Kirk Douglas Theatre
by Shari Barrett - Oct 19, 2022

Even though I was very young, I still remember the tension in the air at school and at home during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. And just today, news of the current Cold War going on between Russia and the rest of the world regarding Ukraine, with even Elon Musk warning the world about possible nuclear war breaking out. So it seems very fortuitous that Peter Knell and Stephanie Fleischmann have created a heart-stopping experience set in a submarine during the crisis of 1962. Their new opera ARKHIPOV is based on the true story of the man who saved humanity from nuclear annihilation during a tipping point between Russia and the United States in the Cuban Missile Crisis. But what motivated them to create an opera about such a terrifying moment in world history? I decide to speak with them and find out.

The New Vocal Club Artwork Weaves A Sonic Tapestry Of Voices From Across Perthshire
by Stephi Wild - Oct 7, 2022

Part film installation, part oral history documentary, and part found-sound collage, The New Vocal Club is based on interviews and film recorded between 2021 and 2022 with local groups and communities including PKAVS, St Johnstone FC and local choirs. The resulting collage of film, free jazz, Gaelic song and textiles creates a sonic tapestry of voices.

BWW Review: THE MAGIC FLUTE makes a triumphant return to Toronto
by Isabella Perrone - May 10, 2022

If you’ve ever wanted to experience Mozart’s work live, there’s no time like the present to do so in Toronto. The Canadian Opera Company has brought their acclaimed production of THE MAGIC FLUTE back - delayed after a few years of theatre shut-downs, but better late than never in the case of this fantastical, funny, and thought-provoking story.

Cast Announced for Canadian Opera Company's THE MAGIC FLUTE
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Mar 31, 2022

The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will return to Toronto this May, celebrating 70 years of delighting audiences at the Canadian Opera Company. The fantastical opera centres on the timeless search for wisdom, truth, and love, following Tamino as he sets out with hilarious bird-catcher Papageno to rescue the kidnapped Princess Pamina.

BWW Feature: ONLINE VIRTUAL OPERA TOUR at Home Computer Screens
by Maria Nockin - Aug 14, 2021

Raehann Bryce-Davis’s Brown Sounds is a joyous celebration of  Black art, Black bodies, and Black consciousness that we watch on our way to the Bay Area. Bryce-Davis is currently singing Verdi and Wagner at Glimmerglass.

BWW Feature: Virtual Opera Streaming 21-28 at Home Computer Screens
by Maria Nockin - Apr 23, 2021

On Wednesday, April 21, We begin this week’s tour with one of the Los Angeles Opera website’s most popular “Living Room Recitals.” Soprano, Latonia Moore sings with pianist Roberto Berrocal. After the recital, we leave for NYC. On arrival, we go to Shut Up and Eat, a most generous Toms River restaurant that offers a discount to patrons in pajamas. 

The Canadian Opera Company Announces 2020/2021 Season!
by A.A. Cristi - Feb 11, 2020

For the first time in decades, a fully staged production of Richard Wagner's Parsifal will be presented in Canada, opening the Canadian Opera Company's monumental 2020/2021 season with a company premiere at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Cast with more than 100 singers, an orchestra of 110 musicians, and a nearly six-hour run-time, this journey of one knight's quest for the Holy Grail offers Canadian audiences a rare opportunity to experience Wagner's thrilling final masterpiece in Toronto, in a celebrated COC co-production directed by François Girard.

Washington National Opera Has Announced its 2020�"2021 Season
by Chloe Rabinowitz - Feb 10, 2020

Washington National Opera's (WNO) 2020-2021 season offers an ambitious mix of sweeping political epics and intimate stories of interpersonal relationships, centered on human pursuits of justice, power, and love. Led by General Director Timothy O'Leary and Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, WNO announces the six mainstage titles in the 2020-2021 season: Fidelio, Nixon in China, Boris Godunov, Rigoletto, Così fan tutte, and La bohème.

Seattle Opera Presents Eugene Onegin
by A.A. Cristi - Nov 19, 2019

Leave everyday life in Puget Sound behind this January and step into the splendor of 1800s Russia. Seattle Opera's Eugene Onegin will offer audiences lush orchestrations by Tchaikovsky, elegant ballroom dances, grand sets, and period costumes worthy of The Last Czars on Netflix. 

TURANDOT Brings Fire And Ice To The Canadian Opera Company
by Stephi Wild - Aug 26, 2019

After a 15-year wait for music lovers, Puccini's Turandot returns to the Canadian Opera Company in a striking new production from visionary director Robert Wilson at the Four Season Centre for the Performing Arts. Princess Turandot has a fierce reputation that precedes her royal name thanks to a high-stakes challenge she has issued: answer her three riddles correctly and win her hand in marriage. Answer incorrectly and pay dearly a?" with your life. As a steady stream of admirers land face-to-face with the executioner, Prince Calaf takes on the deadly game and has a mystery of his own for Turandot to solve. Turandot runs for nine performances on September 28, October 4, 9, 15, 17, 19, 23, 25, 27, 2019.

BWW Review: THE THIRTEENTH CHILD at Santa Fe Opera
by Maria Nockin - Jul 28, 2019

On July 27, 2019, Santa Fe Opera added a new work to the operatic canon with its world premiere of THE THIRTEENTH CHILD by Danish composer Poul Ruders and American librettists Becky and David Starobin. The production was  co-commissioned and co-produced by Santa Fe Opera and the Odense Symphony Orchestra.

Photo Flash: First Look at San Francisco Opera's CARMEN
by Stephi Wild - Jun 5, 2019

San Francisco Opera's 2019 Summer Season opens with Georges Bizet'sCarmen June 5-29 at the War Memorial Opera House. Presented in American director Francesca Zambello's acclaimed staging, which has been mounted by Opera Australia, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and Norwegian National Opera, the opera features American mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges in her first professional performances of the title role and American tenor Matthew Polenzani assuming the role of Don Jose for the first time. Romanian soprano Anita Hartig makes her San Francisco Opera debut as Micaela and American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen is the bullfighter, Escamillo. In his first opera engagement with the Company, conductor James Gaffigan leads the cast and San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

BWW Feature: Santa Fe Opera Announces 2020 Season
by Zoe Burke - May 8, 2019

The Santa Fe Opera's General Director Robert K. Meya today announced repertory and casting for the company's exciting 64th Season in 2020. On the panel joining Meya for the announcement were the President of the Board of Directors Susan G. Marineau, Andrea Fellows Walters, Director of Community Engagement, and Cori Ellison, the company's first, recently appointed Dramaturg.

San Francisco Opera Presents Georges Bizet's CARMEN At War Memorial Opera House
by A.A. Cristi - May 2, 2019

San Francisco Opera's 2019 Summer Season opens with Georges Bizet's Carmen June 5 29 at the War Memorial Opera House. Presented in American director Francesca Zambello's acclaimed staging, which has been mounted by Opera Australia, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and Norwegian National Opera, the opera features American mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges in her first professional performances of the title role and American tenor Matthew Polenzani assuming the role of Don Jos for the first time. Romanian soprano Anita Hartig makes her San Francisco Opera debut as Mica la and American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen is the bullfighter, Escamillo. In his first opera engagement with the Company, conductor James Gaffigan leads the cast and San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

San Francisco Opera Announces Casting Updates for 2019 Summer Season
by A.A. Cristi - Feb 7, 2019

Beginning June 5 and continuing through the 29th, San Francisco Opera presents a trio of extraordinary lyric works Georges Bizet's Carmen, George Frideric Handel's Orlando and Anton n Dvo k's Rusalka featuring powerful leading women in the title roles. Spanning three centuries and sung in French, Italian and Czech, the 2019 Summer Season repertory will occasion the Company debuts of four conductors, including two women, in productions that are new to the War Memorial Opera House stage. Some casting updates for the repertory were announced today and additional casting of supporting roles will be released at a future date.