Ken Howard News

Mozart’s Don Giovanni: A Rock Opera at NYC’s iconic Cutting Room will take a brief hiatus as New York’s summer heat intensifies. Learn more about the production here.

This summer, the curtain rises—and the volume cranks—on a whole new Don Giovanni at New York City’s famed Cutting Room. Get a first look at photos here! 

Today’s subject Francesca Zambello is currently living her theatre life as the Artistic Director of Washington National Opera (WNO). She has been in the position since 2012. Her production of Porgy and Bess begins performances this evening in the Opera House at Kennedy Center where it will play through May 31st.

Today’s subject S. Katy Tucker is currently living her theatre life as the projection designer for Washington National Opera’s (WNO) production of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. The production runs May 2nd through 10th in the Opera House at Kennedy Center.

I must admit that the Met’s current revival of IL TROVATORE--with RIGOLETTO and TRAVIATA, considered the great creations of Verdi’s middle period--made me think of another masterwork, “A Night at the Opera,” my favorite of the movies by those champions of silliness, the Marx Brothers.

The Metropolitan Opera’s 2024–25 Live in HD season will continue with two-time Tony Award–winning composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist George Brant’s new opera, Grounded. Learn more about the opera and see how to watch!

A match made in heaven? Girl meets boy. Girl meets baby. Girl meets drone. Girl meets court-martial.

Jeanine Tesori and Director Michael Mayer's production of Grounded, based on librettist George Brant’s acclaimed play, is now on stage at the Met Opera. Check out all the reviews.

Soprano Lise Davidsen will sing her first Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera, opposite tenor Freddie De Tommaso, who will make his Met debut, as David McVicar’s production of Puccini’s Tosca returns to the Met. Learn how to purchase tickets.

Considering all the productions in the Met’s repertoire that have been conceived (or, perhaps more justly, concocted) by directors from other media who don’t seem to understand or like opera, Mark Morris is a gem. So is his concept for Gluck’s ORFEO ED EURIDICE, the myth of a man who is permitted to go to the land of the dead to retrieve his beloved wife, which was seen in a revival that opened the other night with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and soprano Ying Fang in the title roles.

Puccini’s passionate love story La Rondine will make a rare Met appearance. Learn how to purchase tickets!

Seattle Opera has unveiled its 2024/25 season. Learn about the productions and see how to purchase tickets!

Sometimes you hear a singer who embodies a role so completely that it’s hard to imagine her in anything else. That’s how I felt about the wonderful mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina, who’s singing the title role in the Met’s new production of Bizet’s CARMEN, which I saw at its second performance. Her portrayal was as full-bodied as her voice and she sizzled, filling up the stage as much as one can imagine. It’s little surprise that she’s considered the Carmen of the moment, having appeared in seven other productions (with two to come).

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly will return to the Met stage for 16 performances, starting January 11.

Get a first look at The Met Opera's highly anticipated new production of Carmen. For the winter run of performances through January 27, young mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina stars in the complex and volatile title role.

What did critics think of The Met's new production of Carmen? In her highly anticipated Met debut, Cracknell reinvigorates the classic story of deadly passion with a staging that moves the action to modern day and explores themes that could not be more relevant today: gendered violence, abusive labor structures, and the desire to break through societal boundaries.

Don't miss the live transmission of Daniel Catán's 1996 opera Florencia en el Amazonas, the first Spanish-language opera at the Met in nearly a century. Join in for this historic cultural and artistic moment as a majority Latinx cast brings this magical realism-inspired production to life.

Just as the Met’s debut of Mexican composer Daniel Catan’s FLORENCIA EN EL AMAZONAS (FLORENCE IN THE AMAZON) began the other day, a member of the audience yelled out “Viva la ópera en español!” (“Long live opera in Spanish!”). And that was before a single note of the composer’s lyric, highly accessible and heavy-on-the-Puccini score was played.

Now being performed at the Kauffman Center and concluding this weekend is a wonderful rendition by the Lyric Opera of Kansas City of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s final composition together, “The Sound of Music”  This production is as good as it gets. Framed by massive settings by Peter J. Davison and glorious costumes by Alex Valasek, “Sound of Music” is the incredible, mostly true tale of the Von Trapp family singers and their escape from the Nazis taken from the Matriarch Maria Von Trapp’s 1949 memoir.

One of the troubles of being a major institution like the Met is that when they produce a new production of a major opera--and Verdi’s UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, which opened in revival the other night, certainly falls into that category--it’s an expensive undertaking. It's true that sometimes a production can be pulled out of its death tumble, with a new cast or simply time making the absolutely awful suddenly make sense. In the case of the current run of the opera, with Angela Meade, Charles Castronovo and Quinn Kelsey heading the cast, even good and sometimes inspired singing can’t save the day. Alden’s take is simply too laden with concept for it to breathe.