By Francisco Salazar
The French-Cypriot soprano Sarah Aristidou has received the Belmont Prize for Contemporary Music.
The soprano will receive €20,000 from the Forberg-Schneider-Stiftung.
The Prize is a music award named after the place of destiny in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” The Munich-based Forberg Schneider Foundation seeks to promote outstanding achievements in the field of contemporary music and biennially-awards prizes endowed with €20,000 and is one of Europe’s highest endowed awards for artistic creation.
Past winners include Jörg Widmann, Florent Boffard, Carolin Widmann, Quatuor Ébène, Alex Ross, and Florian Weber, among others.
Aristidou has performed at the Staatsoper unter den Linden, Oper Frankfurt, The Royal Danish Opera and Malmo Opera, among others. She was most recently awarded the Luitpold Prize for outstanding performance of a newcomer at the Kissinger Sommer Festival.
By Francisco Salazar
The Gran Teatre del Liceu is set to open its 2022-23 season with Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.”
Maestro Riccardo Frizza will lead the opera for 10 performances with two different casts and will mark his latest foray into Verdian repertory since the Festival Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra.”
In an official statement, Frizza said, “Taking a look back over this year, it has been very much ‘colored’ by Verdi. I’ve just been conducting the first 1857 version of ‘Simon Boccanegra’ at the Parma Festival Verdi and in December will take on ‘La Traviata’ at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, working in between, as I love and am obliged by festival schedules to do, on my beloved Donizetti. Now, I’m about to conduct ten performances of the opera ‘Il Trovatore’ at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. The Barcelona Opera is reviving this production by Àlex Ollé, which was created for the Opéra de Paris and inspired by the First World War, into which fraternal conflict dictated by hatred and revenge explodes, all the more agonizing.
“‘Il Trovatore’ is perhaps the most emblematic of Verdi’s artistic output from his most romantic period, that of the popular trilogy composed between 1851 and 1853. Verdi drew inspiration from ‘El trovador’ by García Gutiérrez, a drama caballeresco staged in Madrid in 1836. Spain is a favorite setting for opera composers. It was for Mozart, and later for Bizet. In between came Verdi and the power of operas such as Ernani, ‘La Forza del Destino,’ ‘Don Carlos’ and, of course, ‘Il Trovatore.'”
The opera will star Juan Jesús Rodríguez, Àngel Òdena, Saioa Hernández, Hibla Gerzmava, Ksenia Dudnikova, Judit Kutasi, Vittorio Grigolo, Yonghoon Lee, Gianluca Buratto, Krzysztof Baczyk, Maria Zapata, and Antoni Lliteres.
“Il Trovatore” is set to be performed between Oct. 27 and Nov. 8, 2022.
By David Salazar
The Atlanta Opera will present “The Anonymous Lover” as part of its Discoveries Series this March.
The production of the Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges work, will be showcased in partnership with Morehouse College. This represents the first-ever production of an opera by a Black composer by The Atlanta Opera. Performances open on March 31 at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center with additional showcases scheduled for April 1 and 2, 2022.
The opera will be directed by Maria Todaro and will be filmed by Felipe Barral for The Atlanta Opera’s Spotlight Media streaming platform. There will also be a livestream of one of the performances.
“The music is beautiful, and the production is charming, but what intrigues me the most is the work’s creator,” said Tomer Zvulun, The Atlanta Opera’s Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. General and Artistic Director, in an official press statement. “As we perform our first Discoveries series opera at this iconic historically Black college, it seems fitting to pair this groundbreaking composer with this Atlanta institution.”
The company originally planned to present “The Snowy Date,” but the production was postponed due to circumstances related to the pandemic. It will be showcased during a future season.
By David Salazar
Houston Early Music will present The Orlando Consort in a multimedia event on Nov. 10, 2022.
The showcase, which will take place at Matchbox 2, Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston, will be entitled “Listening to Pictures: Art and Music in the Early Renaissance.” The program will feature images by Gentile da Fabriano, Fra Angelico, Luca della Robbia, Carlo Crivelli, Zanobi Strozzi, and Marcantonio Raimondi as well as music by John Dunstaple, Guillaume Dufay, Heinrich Isaac, Josquin Desprez, Antoine Brumel, and Adrian Willaert.
The Orlando Consort has performed all around the world, including the UK, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg, Canada, and the U.S.
“We are delighted to bring this brilliant multimedia experience to Texas audiences,” HEM Artistic and Executive Director Deborah Dunham said in an official press statement. “Houston Early Music is also honored to present the musicians of the Orlando Consort in their final tour. They are well known for their superb vocal abilities, fresh insights and compelling performances. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to hear them in this live performance.”
By Francisco Salazar
Opera Naples has announced that due to the devastating hurricane damage that impacted the Wang Opera Center, “¡Olé! A Celebration of Spanish Song” will be held as a special fundraising event.
The performance, which will be held on Nov. 7 at the Tobye Studio & Lobby of The Naples Players, will help support the Opera Naples Rebuilding Fund. The evening will celebrate Spanish opera that will harken back the sounds and songs of the old country.
The showcase will feature Puerto Rican Tenor Ray Gonzalez and soprano Jeanette Donatti with Robin Frank accompanying on piano.
While enjoying the music, guests will be invited to explore Spanish wines and tapas. Laura Burns, executive director, will host the evening and a special video recorded by Music and Artistic Director Ramón Tebar will give patrons an insider’s look.
By Francisco Salazar
(Credit: Rosie Hardie)
American soprano Lise Lindström has signed with Artist Management Zurich for General Management.
The soprano announced the news via social media and said, “I’m completely honored and excited to join the team at Artists Management Zürich for world-wide General Management! It was a happy circumstance that I was able to kick off this new partnership with my house debut at operhaus zuerich. Here’s to many exciting projects together!!”
This season Lindström will perform the role of Brünnhilde in the Ring Cycle at Semperoper Dresden with Christian Thielemann. She is also set to perform with the Australian Opera and with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
The soprano is known for her interpretations of “Turandot,” “Elektra,” and “Brünnhilde,” and has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and Teatro alla Scala.
By David Salazar
Theater Basel is set to preview its upcoming production of “Der Ring des Nibelungen” on Oct. 31, 2022.
The organization announced that artistic director Benedikt von Peter and his team will present ideas for the first Ring cycle to grace the company’s stage in over 40 years. Von Peter will direct the cycle alongside co-director Caterina Cianfarini.
The production team will also feature Monika Gintersdorfer, Knut Klaassen, Ted Gaier, Regine Dura, Hans-Werner Kroesinger, Matthew Herbert and Imogen Knight.
Theater Basel opened its new season in September with a production of “Der Freischütz” and “Salome.” It is also presenting such works as “Resist,” “Lady in the Dark,” and “Rigoletto” in upcoming weeks and months.
By David Salazar
The Teatro Julio Mario Santo Domingo in Bogotá, Colombia is set to present Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore” starting on Oct. 26, 2022.
The showcase, which is presented in co-production with Ópera de Colombia, will feature performances on the 26th, 28th, and 30th of October. It will be conducted by Manuel López-Gómez and directed by Sergio Cabrera. This is the first opera production by the famed Colombian filmmaker behind such works as “La Estrategia del caracol” and “Aguilas no cazan moscas.”
The opera will star tenor Julián Henoa, soprano Sara Bañeras, soprano Alejandra Ballestas, baritone Gianni Giuga, and bass Hyalmar Mitrotti. Luis Díaz Herodier will conduct.
This production will follow the company’s celebration of World Opera Day which will include the streaming of four opera productions including “Aida,” “Tosca,” “Il Trovatore,” and “Gianni Schicchi.”
By Francisco Salazar
The Dutch National Opera is set to present “Turandot.”
The work, which is part of a Puccini cycle, will be conducted by chief-conductor Lorenzo Viotti and staged by director Barrie Kosky.
For his new production, Barrie Kosky has decided to steer clear of the orientalism of the early 20th century. He neither zooms in on the psychological aspects of the characters, but presents an abstract city in a state of emergency. The people are the audience.
Kosky stages his Turandot in a hallucinatory, dystopian dreamscape that is characterized by lust, desire, and obsession.
The opera will star Tamara Wilson, Marcel Reijans, Liang Li, Alexei Kulagin, Najmiddin Mavlyanov, Martin Muehle, Kristina Mkhitaryan, and Juliana Grigoryan.
“Turandot” is set to be performed on Dec. 2 through 30, 2022.
By David Salazar
Wet Ink Ensemble will present a concert full of premieres on Nov. 19, 2022 at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music’s Benzaquen Hall in New York City.
The showcase will feature the world premiere of a new work by Mariel Roberts as well as the NYC premiere of Alex Mincek’s “So Many Ways” and Sam Pluta’s “Star Taker.” Rounding out the program will be Rick Burkhardt’s “Prologue.”
Composer and singer Kate Soper will lead the ensemble.
“Our hope is that, in this program of works written for and tailored to the distinctive voices of Wet Ink’s core octet, the audience will come away with a view into the ensemble’s collaborative ethos, and a vivid listening experience borne out of Wet Ink’s unique performance practice,” Josh Modney, Wet Ink Executive Director, said in an official press statement.
