The audience was there to be thrilled on Tuesday, when the Met's new Music Director, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, took on Wagner's DER FLIEGENDE HOLLANDER (THE FLYING DUTCHMAN) and they weren't disappointed. It was a musically glorious performance with the Met orchestra in peak form under its new maestro, the company's great chorus both charming and energetic, and the cast of principals marvelous, led by baritone Michael Volle in the title role and soprano Amber Wagner as Senta.

As part of its 2017 season, The Glimmerglass Festival will present the world-premiere hip-hop opera Stomping Grounds, a show written entirely in verse blending hip-hop, spoken word and opera. In May, the production will travel to 11 regional community venues throughout New York State and three in New York City, in performance workshops and discussions hosted by librettist, director and choreographer Paige Hernandez, an acclaimed performer, director, and playwright known for her effective fusion of theater, hip-hop, dance and education. 

The Met Opera opened Richard Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer on April 25th.  New Met star Michael Volle sings the title role of the ghostly sailor damned to wander the seas in search of the love that will set him free, under the baton of the exciting Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Amber Wagner is Senta, whose love he seeks. The powerhouse cast also includes Dolora Zajick, Ben Bliss, Franz-Josef Selig, and AJ Glueckert as Erik.

For a new production that was supposed to mark a farewell for soprano Renee Fleming to a role (the Marschallin) if not to staged opera performance in general, Robert Carsen's version of Richard Strauss's DER ROSENKAVALIER at the Met seemed more of a farce and less a tale of regret about passing time than usual. And the “star” role seemed more of an aside than the center of it all.

Last year's premiere of JFK by David T. Little and Royce Vavrek at the Fort Worth Opera caused some big-time foot-stomping in the Lone Star State. New Yorkers will have a taste of the work--which will have its next full-scale production at the Opera de Montreal next January--on April 23 at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan.

AJ Glueckert will make his Met debut as Erik in Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer and will sing the role in the first four performances of the opera at the Met this season on April 25, 29matinee, May 4, and 8. The American tenor replaces the originally announced Jay Hunter Morris, who has withdrawn from his scheduled performances for personal reasons.

Richard Tucker Music Foundation named soprano Nadine Sierra as winner of 2017 Richard Tucker Award; simultanously, it announced its roster of study and career grant recipients.

It's getting near the end of the season at the Met in New York and it's nice to see that they're still bringing out their “A” game, with a splendidly cast run of Tchaikovsky's EUGENE ONEGIN, with the wonderful Met orchestra under the sensitive baton of Robin Ticciati, music director at the Glyndebourne Festival. The Met's chorus, under Donald Palumbo, was also in fine fettle.

The dream cast of Renée Fleming as the Marschallin and El?na Garan?a as Octavian star in Strauss's grandest opera, Der Rosenkavalier, which opened at the Met on April 13th. In his new production, Robert Carsen, the director behind the Met's recent Falstaff, places the action at the end of the Habsburg Empire, underscoring the opera's subtext of class and conflict against a rich backdrop of gilt and red damask, in a staging that also stars Günther Groissböck as Baron Ochs. Sebastian Weigle conducts the sparklingly perfect score.

Roberto Alagna adds a new role to his extensive Met repertory with his first performances as the title character in Cyrano de Bergerac, opening May 2. Marco Armiliato conducts the revival of Alfano's rarely performed opera, which will be staged for four performances through Saturday, May 13. American soprano Jennifer Rowley makes her role debut as Roxane, Cyrano's secret love, in a cast that also features Atalla Ayan as Christian and Juan Jesús Rodríguez as de Guiche.

New Opera NYC presents a new production of Golden Cockerel by N. Rimsky-Korsakov from May 18-21, 2017 at the Loreto Theater, Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, 18 Bleecker Street, NYC. 

Future Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts his first Wagner opera with the company, Der Fliegende Holländer, beginning April 25. The opera, which has not been seen at the Met since 2010, featuresMichael Volle as the Dutchman, the ghostly sailor damned to sail the seas in search of the love that will set him free. Amber Wagner sings the role of Senta, opposite Jay Hunter Morris as the huntsman Erik. The cast also features Dolora Zajick as Senta's nurse Mary with Ben Bliss as the Steersman and Franz-Josef Selig as Senta's father Daland. 

American Opera Projects and Nashville Opera are excited to announce the New York premiere of the comic opera triptych Three Way, a playful three-act performance that explores the future of love, sex, and need with a clever balance of humor and drama.

Two experts known for their clear, concise commentary on opera will be in Wilmington during the weekends of Apr. 29 and May 6 to provide audiences with the full inside scoop on OPERADELAWARE's Spring 2017 Festival presentations of Rossini's Semiramide and La Cenerentola (Cinderella). 

Last June, New York City Opera inaugurated its Opera en Español series with the long-awaited New York premiere of Daniel Catàn's Florencia en el Amazonas. This May, following the critical success of the company's modern day revival of Respighi's rarely heard La Campana Sommersa, New York City Opera will present the second installment in its Opera en Español series with the American premiere of Antonio Literes's circa 1713 Spanish Baroque opera, Los Elementos. Richard Stafford will direct and choreograph the compact, one-hour work with sets by John Farrell, costumes by Janet O'Neill, lighting by Susan Roth and hair and makeup by Georgianna Eberhard. Sopranos Samarie Alicea and Chelsea Bonagura and mezzo-sopranos Melanie Ashkar and Kelsey Robertson will make their City Opera debuts as the four elements: Air (El Ayre), Water (El Agua), Earth (La Tierra), and Fire (El Fuego). City Opera veteran baritone Marco Nisticó returns to portray Time (El Tiempo) and mezzo-soprano Magda Gartner is featured as the Dawn (La Aurora). Pacien Mazzagatti, New York City Opera's Principal Conductor, will lead the New York City Opera Orchestra in Literes's evocative and atmospheric score.

Olga Peretyatko will make her Met role debut as Violetta in tonight's performance of Verdi's La Traviata, replacing Carmen Giannattasio, who is ill.

Liudmyla Monastyrska is Abigaille, the warrior woman determined to rule empires, and Jamie Bartonis the heroic Fenena. Russell Thomas is Ismaele, nephew to the King of Jerusalem and Dmitry Belosselskiy is the stentorian voice of the oppressed Hebrew people.

The tenor Joshua Blue is the First Place winner of the Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY)'s 2017 Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition. The award was presented following a performance by eight finalists in Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall on Saturday, April 8. The Oratorio-Solo Competition, the only competition to focus exclusively on oratorio singing and now in its 40th year. The full list of finalists and prizes is:

ANGEL'S BONE, by Du Yun with a libretto by Royce Vavrek was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music. The opera--a bold work that that integrates vocal and instrumental elements and a wide range of styles into a harrowing allegory for human trafficking in the modern world--debuted on January 6, 2016 at the Prototype Festival, 3LD Arts and Technology Center in New York.

The 2017 Metropolitan Summer Recital Series will once again bring free outdoor recitals featuring rising young stars of the opera world to New Yorkers in all five boroughs.  The series, now in its ninth year, is presented in collaboration with City Parks Foundation's SummerStage Festival and will feature six free concerts between June 12 and June 24.

More than 400 opera aficionados and performers - including opera stars Harolyn Blackwell, Lauren Flanigan, Ailyn Perez, Diana Soviero, Teresa Stratas and surprise presenter Renee Fleming, were among those who attended the 12th Annual OPERA NEWS Awards at The Plaza Hotel last night.

More than 400 opera aficionados and performers - including opera stars Harolyn Blackwell, Lauren Flanigan, Ailyn Perez, Diana Soviero, Teresa Stratas and surprise presenter Renee Fleming, were among those who attended the 12th Annual OPERA NEWS Awards at The Plaza Hotel last night.

According to an article published in the New York Times, they reported that 'Renee Fleming has announced that she will be retiring from the opera stage,' stating that her final performance will be of 'Der Rosenkavalier' at the Metropolitan Opera on May 13th.  However, the NPR now reveals new information that the diva is not quitting just yet.

Renee Fleming sings her final performances of one of her signature roles as the Marschallin in the Met's new production of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, opening April 13. Robert Carsen directs the new production-the company's first new staging of the piece since 1969-with Sebastian Weigle conducting all performances. The starry cast includes El?na Garan?a in her company role debut as the Marschallin's young lover, Octavian, opposite Erin Morley as Sophie, the innocent young woman who comes between Marschallin and Octavian; Gunther Groissbock as Baron Ochs, the Marschallin's oafish cousin; Marcus Bruck in his Met debut as Sophie's father Faninal; and Matthew Polenzani as the Italian Singer. Kathleen Kim sings Sophie in the April 28 and May 1 performances.  

After a wildly successful Halloween Drag Extravaganza at National Sawdust and a sold-out performance on The High Line, HEARTBEAT OPERA presents its third annual Spring Festival, this year at Baruch Performing Arts Center from May 20–28, 2017. Heartbeat will premiere 90-minute versions of two operatic masterpieces, both radically staged and re-orchestrated: Puccini's BUTTERFLY and Bizet's CARMEN.