Opera Saratoga Presents SKY ON SWINGS
Opera Saratoga announces updated casting and ticket information for its innovative new festival model that embraces partnerships with multiple venues across the region. The 2022 Summer Festival continues with:
BWW Review: SKY ON SWINGS at Home Computer Screens
On May 22, 2020, Opera Philadelphia presented the digital world premiere of composer Lembit Beecher and librettist Hannah Moscovitch's opera Sky on Swings. The company gave the opera's world premiere on Sept. 20, 2018, during its Festival O.
Opera Philadelphia Launches Digital Streaming Festival
Over the past five years, Opera Philadelphia has presented no fewer than nine world premieres, scoring multiple awards and winning international audience and critical recognition. Now that the 2019-20 season has been cut short by the need for social distancing, the company is extending its season online with Digital Festival O.
BWW Overview: A Look-Back at Opera's Many-Colored Dream Coat of Performance Highs in 2018
Well, it's that time of the year again--time for a look-back on what was worth making note of during the calendar year that's about to come to an end. It's from a totally personal, subjective point of view, of course, but frankly that's the way opera-lovers always seem to like it, n'est-ce pas? The productions worth noting come from places big, small and in-between, from composers old as the hills to freshly minted or somewhere in between (likewise the performers), from traditional or boldly modern to simply stand up and sing.
BWW Review: 'Losing Your Mind' Three Ways in a Weekend at Opera Philadelphia's Festival O18
Whether from disease, 19th century #MeToo-style abuse, or unrequited love, Opera Philadelphia's (OP) Festival O18 opening weekend showed us three ways that central female characters lost their grip on reality. While I considered only one of them a total success, audience openness to sometimes-demanding material made it clear that the company has found a formula that strikes at the hearts of opera-goers, new and old.
BWW Interview: Lembit Beecher SWINGS at Opera Philadelphia Festival
“I was, like many composers, not someone who was immediately in love with the human voice, the operatic voice, in new music,” says Lembit Beecher, whose opinion has definitely changed. He has become a powerful new force in the medium, with his new opera, SKY ON SWINGS, written with librettist Hannah Moskovitch and directed by Joanna Settle, opening the second year of Opera Philadelphia's Festival, O18, on September 20. It stars two formidable mezzos, Frederica von Stade and Marietta Simpson.
NE QUITTEZ PAS Comes to O18 Festival
Lauded as “one of the most creative and ambitious companies in this country” (New York Times), Opera Philadelphia justified that reputation once again when it launched its inaugural Festival O last season; the Washington Post found it “one of the most enjoyable additions to the fall calendar in years,” and the Philadelphia Inquirer noted the festival's ambition “not to follow taste but to lead it.”
Opera Philadelphia Presents World Premiere Of GLASS HANDEL
Glass Handel is one of two innovative and thought-provoking world premiere productions that highlight O18, the second edition of Opera Philadelphia's annual season-opening festival. Staged on September 22, 23 and 30 in the expansive Annenberg Court of Philadelphia's Barnes Foundation, home to O17's The Wake World, the new work is an immersive, multidisciplinary operatic installation headlined and created by American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo – “a bona-fide star” (New Yorker) – in collaboration with producer Cath Brittan and avant-garde fashion/art company Visionaire. Under their curation, music by Baroque master George Frederic Handel and living legend Philip Glass meets the worlds of art, fashion, dance, and film through collaboration with a host of luminaries: fine artist George Condo; designer Raf Simons from fashion house Calvin Klein; choreographer Justin Peck; ballet dancers David Hallberg and Patricia Delgado; performance artist Ryan McNamara; and filmmakers including James Ivory, Maurizio Cattelan, Mickalene Thomas and Mark Romanek. Opera Philadelphia's world premiere production also marks the official launch of ARC, Costanzo's solo album debut, a collection of Glass and Handel arias due for September 21 release on Decca Gold.
George London Foundation For Singers Announces 2018-19 Season
The George London Foundation for Singers has been honoring, supporting, and presenting the finest young opera singers in the U.S. and Canada since 1971. The foundation and the George London Awards (the prize of the foundation's annual competition) are named for the legendary Canadian-American bass-baritone, one of the greatest opera singers of 20th century, who devoted much of his time and energy in his later years to the support and nurturing of young opera singers.
George London Foundation Announces Singers for 2018-19 Season
The George London Foundation for Singers has been honoring, supporting, and presenting the finest young opera singers in the U.S. and Canada since 1971. The foundation and the George London Awards (the prize of the foundation's annual competition) are named for the legendary Canadian-American bass-baritone, one of the greatest opera singers of 20th century, who devoted much of his time and energy in his later years to the support and nurturing of young opera singers.
Opera Philadelphia Announces 2018-2019 Season
When Opera Philadelphia's inaugural Festival O launched the present season, the opera world responded with a standing ovation, welcoming it as 'one of the most enjoyable additions to the fall calendar in years'