httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRn8FZA-Pa4 Happy 66th birthday opera director Peter Sellars Birthday anniversaries of composers Cyril Scott (1879) and Vincent Youmans (1898) and musicologist Philip Gossett (1941) Happy 83rd birthday soprano Josephine Barstow Happy 72nd birthday tenor Peter Dvorsky Happy 71st birthday tenor Chris Merritt
Yannick Nézet-Seguin conducts Ryan McKinny, Joyce DiDonato, Latonia Moore, and Susan Graham in the season opening night and Metropolitan Opera Premiere of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking.
The days are getting shorter, but you can keep the prattle going this fall’s Talk of the Town! You will, you can, you must join in the discussion about: Great mezzo soprano performances (October),
Gained in translation (November), Teleport me back to… (December).
German opera-director Claus Guth has reimagined Schwanengesang as a series of scarred soldier’s visions in Doppelgänger, showing this week in at the Park Avenue Armory.
Born on this day in 1930 tenor Fritz Wunderlich
In sum: not a perfect Simon Boccanegra—is there such a thing?—but a grand and often great one.
David Devan may be leaving the company, but there can be no better living tribute to him than this extraordinary work, which in 90 minutes gives us everything we could want from a new opera
Happy 82nd birthday soprano Anna Tomowa-Sintow.
Phil Chan described his point of departure for reimagining Orientalist works as the question, “what else could this be?”
On this day in 1968 mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Carmen.
San Francisco Opera’s first livestream (with a 48-hour on-demand viewing window) of the new season.
Power struggles, prejudice, feuds and revenge abound in San Francisco at the moment.
Happy 88th birthday actress Sophia Loren.
Happy 74th birthday to supermodel, actress and singer Twiggy.
Shaggy weltstar tenor murmurs the haunting love theme from Gladiator.
Happy 52nd birthday soprano Anna Netrebko.
Born on this day in 1925 actress and songstress Dorothy Loudon.
From the Royal Opera House, London, starring soprano Lise Davidsen, tenor Brian Jagde and bass John Relyea, conducted by Bertrand de Billy.
The great archetypal image of an opera singer is a towering Wagnerian soprano who shatters entire panes of glass the moment she opens her mouth.
Left this world on this day 46 years ago in Paris.
Born on this day in 1945 soprano Jessye Norman.
The Norwegian soprano sings a program of music by Wagner, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Strauss, Sibelius and Grieg.
Happy 79th birthday to triple threat Joey Heatherton.
Lisette Oropesa has announced she will sing Norma “in the future.”
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