By Francisco Salazar
The International Singing Competition Neue Stimmen has announced the winners of the 2022 edition.
Italian Soprano Francesca Pia Vitale and Spanish baritone Carles Pachon went home with the top prize of 15.000 €. Vitale also won the audience award.
Second prize went to French Mezzo-Soprano Eugénie Joneau and South African bartione Sakhiwe Mkosana. Both took home a cash prize of 10.000 €.
Finally, the third prize was awarded to Korean soprano Yewon Han and tenor Dumitru Mitu. The prize consisted of 5.000 €.
The finalists were accompanied by the Duisburg Philharmonic and conducted by Jonathan Darlington. The finals concert was streamed on Youtube and on Facebook.
By Francisco Salazar
Bard SummerScape is set to present Richard Strauss’s “The Silent Woman (Die Schweigsame Frau),” one of the composer’s rarely performed works.
The production is set to be directed by German director Christian Räth.
The work which is based on the on Epicoene, a comedy by Shakespeare’s contemporary Ben Jonson, represents the first and only fruit of Strauss’s collaboration with the celebrated Austrian-Jewish novelist Stefan Zweig.
The librettist’s Judaism strained Strauss’s already-complicated relationship with the Third Reich and while striving to protect his Jewish daughter-in-law and grandchildren, the composer accepted the presidency of Goebbels’s State Music Bureau, and he consistently prioritized the advancement of his own career.
“The Silent Woman” received its Dresden world premiere only after Hitler himself had interceded, but it was still banned after its fourth performance.
In a statement by Räth, he said, “[The creators] make us experience the ways that joy and melancholy, the prosaic and the extraordinary, and the ephemeral and the eternal are all inextricably intertwined – in life as well as on the stage.”
Leon Botstein conducts the American Symphony Orchestra with a cast that includes Harold Wilson, Jana McIntyre, David Portillo, Edward Nelson, Ariana Lucas, Matthew Anchel, Chrystal E Williams, Anya Matanovic, Federico DeMichelis, and Jorell Williams.
The opera will is set to be presented from July 22 through 31, 2022, and will be performed five times. The opening night performance will be live-streamed and rebroadcast on July 30.
By Francisco Salazar
GoDirect Artist Management has announced that bass Luiz-Ottavio Faria has joined its roster.
Faria studied at the Juilliard School of Music and has gone on to perform at the Teatro Real, Royal Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Teatro alla Scala, and Teatro Massimo di Palermo.
He made his operatic debut with the legendary tenor Carlo Bergonzi at Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro and the Theatro Municipal de Sao Paulo. He has won several important national and international singing competitions and musical Foundation awards, such as the 23rd national Carmen Gomes Competition (1988), prize Bass Guilherme Damiano, The Juilliard School Scholarship (1989), William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Die Meistersinger, (Aims), Austria (1994), Opera Index, YWCA Vocal Competition and The Great Buffalo Opera Competition (1995), The New Jersey State Opera Vocal Singing Competition, Lola Hayes Vocal Competition (1996). He is also the recipient of the (1997) William Matthews Sullivan Foundation.
Faria is set to perform this season in La Coruna in a concert performance of “La Forza del Destino” as well as at a gala.
By David Salazar
West Australian Opera is set to present Puccini’s “Tosca” this July.
The production, which opens on July 14 and runs through the 23rd at His Majesty’s Theatre for a total of five performances, will be staged by Patrick Nolan.
The opera will star soprano Maija Kovalevska in the title role, also making her West Australian debut. She will be joined by tenor Paul O’Neill in the role of Cavaradossi and baritone Warwick Fyfe as Scarpia. The cast will also star Jake Bigwood, Callen Dellar, Matthew Lester, Lachlann Lawton, Jillian Halleron, Mark Alderson, and Steve Sherwood.
Rebecca Lang, the Director of Music at Leuphana University, will conduct the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
“This is lyric opera at its finest: outstanding singing from a world class cast, a gripping production new to Perth, and the full force of the WAO Chorus and WA Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Rebecca Lang. This is a night in the theatre that people will talk about for years,” said Artistic Director Chris van Tuinen in an official press statement.
By David Salazar
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has announced that Canadian composer Alison Yun-Fei Jiang will be the organization’s “RBC Affiliate Composer.”
Jiang is a composer whose inspirations derive from a wide-range of artistic forms and sources including East Asian aesthetics, Chinese opera, natural landscapes, Buddhism, art, film music, popular music, and literature, among others. She has collaborated with such organizations as the Esprit Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, JACK Quartet, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Imani Winds, and Molinari Quartet, to name a few.
“Alison’s music is full of originality and colour, and she has an important voice to share with our orchestra and audiences,” said Music Director Gustavo Gimeno in an official press statement. “We were impressed by Alison’s blending of cultures and genres into exciting melodies and textures and look forward to the works that she will write in the seasons ahead.”
During the two-year term, Jiang will create two works for orchestra with the first set to premiere in May of 2023. She will also engage in educational work with young audiences and also help develop the NextGen Composer Initiative.
“I am looking forward to learning from and working with the TSO Music Director Gustavo Gimeno, Composer Advisor Gary Kulesha, and the artistic staff at the TSO,” Jiang said in an official press statement. “And I’m really excited to be joining and serving the TSO community with my music.”
Jiang succeeds Emile LeBel, who held the position between 2018 – 2022.
By Francisco Salazar
The Dutch National Opera has announced it will make two of its operas available all summer online and for free.
The first production that the company will showcase online is a production of Puccini’s “Tosca.” The opera is staged in a new production by Barrie Kosky with Lorenzo Viotti conducting the Netherlands Philharmonic. The cast includes superstar soprano Malin Byström in the title role alongside Joshua Guerrero and Gevorg Hakobyan.
You can watch the opera here.
The second work that will be offered is Weber’s “Der Freischütz” in a production by director Kirill Serebrennikov. Patrick Hahn conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with a cast that includes Johanni van Oostrum, Ying Fang, Benjamin Bruns, Günther Groissböck and Odin Lund Biron as “The Red One.”
Audiences can watch the opera here.
By Francisco Salazar
The Royal Opera House has announced the appointment of a new Chair of the Board of Trustees.
The government approved the appointment of Sir Lloyd Dorfman as the new Chair which will begin immediately.
Dorfman is a foreign exchange trader and previously served as an inspirational chair of the National Theatre where he slashed ticket prices for young attenders.
In a statement, Dorfman said, “I am delighted to accept this position as Chair of one of the world’s best-loved and most-visited theatres in the heart of London’s West End. As a passionate and long-standing supporter of the arts, I look forward to continuing the fantastic work of my predecessors, ensuring that the Royal Opera House continues to engage with new and diverse audiences in its beautiful Covent Garden home, in cinemas up and down the UK, through new digital channels, or through any one of its dedicated learning and participation programmes that have seen dance and singing embedded in schools the length and breadth of the country.”
The Royal Opera is currently presenting a production of “Madama Butterfly,” and is set to open productions of “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci” and “Otello” this month.
By Francisco Salazar
The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and southern Delaware has announced its 2022-23 season which will mark its 25th anniversary.
The season will mark the first under newly appointed Music Director and conductor Michael Repper. Here is a look at the vocal highlights.
The orchestra will celebrate the holiday season with its annual “Holiday Joy” concert featuring soprano Rochelle Bard.
Performance Dates: Dec 1, 2022 in Wye Mills, MD, Dec 3, 2022 in Lewes, DE & Dec 4, 2022 in Ocean City, MD
The ensemble will ring in the New Year with a concert featuring Irish star Anna Kelly and Metropolitan Opera Laffont finalist Rachel Blaustein.
Performance Date: Dec 31, 2022 in Easton MD
The season will also include a Concerto Competition winner, cellist Dominique de Williencourt, and violinist Igor Yuzefovich.
By Afton Wooten
The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) welcomes John K. Painting as the Director of the Electronic Media Services Division (EMSD) and Assistant to the President.
International President Ray Hair appointed Painting to this position following the unexpected passing of former EMSD Director Pat Varriale in May 2022.
Painting has worked with AFM since 2019. Initially, he worked as EMSD Assistant Director, working under Varriale. Painting has served on the bargaining team for EMSD contract negotiations, and worked on projects with Organizing & Education Department and the National Public Television Agreement. He is recognized for his contributions to helping with internet and streaming services during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Upon starting this position on June 23, Painting stated in an official press release that “I look forward to using the skills and relationships I have developed in the past dozen years working in electronic media to help protect the services of and enrich the lives of musicians.”
By Francisco Salazar
The Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid has announced its 2022-23 Season. Here is a look at the vocal performances.
Marzena Diakun leads the chorus and orchestra in a program of Ravel, Brahms, Clyne, and Rachmaninoff.
Performance Date: Sept. 14, 2022
Marzena Diakun leads the chorus and orchestra in a program of Dvorak, Brahms, and Rautavaara.
Performance Date: Nov. 8, 2022
Karen Kamensek leads Roberto Sierra’s Missa Latina.
Performance Date: Dec. 23, 2022
Marzena Diakun leads the chorus and orchestra in a program of Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Szymanowski.
Performance Date: March 22, 2023
Marzena Diakun leads the chorus and orchestra in Krzysztof Penderecki’s Saint Luke’s Passion.
Performance Date: April 4, 2023
Marzena Diakun conducts Brahms and Bruckner with the the chorus and orchestra.
Performance Date: May 9, 2023
Marta Matheu, Gema Comma, David Alegret, and Josep Miguel Ramon lead Mozart’s Requiem with Salvador Mas conducting. The program also includes music by Hindemith.
Performance Date: May 25, 2023
Brahms and Mahler will be conducted by Marzena Diakun.
Performance Dates: June 6, 2023
Mayte Martin performs her own composition alongside Marzena Diakun. The program also features work by De Falla and Debussy.
Performance Date: July 5, 2023
