By David Salazar
The Malmö Opera has announced its 2022-23 season.
The first opera of the season will be Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” which will be directed by Amy Lane and conducted by Patrik Ringborg. The opera stars Kseniia Proshina and Sehoon Moon in the title roles. Alexander Roslavets, Orhan Yildiz, Mark Stone, and Thomas Volle round out the cast.
Performance Dates: Nov. 5 – Dec. 18, 2022
Magnus Fryklund conducts “Le Nozze di Figaro” in a production directed by Peter Stein. The cast will star Henning von Schulman, Maria Chabounia, Kartal Karagedik, Verity Wingate, and Adrian Angelico.
Performance Dates: Dec. 10, 2022 – Feb. 10, 2023
Agneta Eichenholz, Magnus Vigilius, Rodion Pogossov, Hanna Husáhr, and Thomas Volle star in “The Makropulos Case.” Elisabeth Linton directs and Patrik Ringborg conducts.
Performance Dates: April 1 – May 3, 2023
Louise Alenius’ new work “Silent Zone,” which focuses on incest, will be directed by Tue Biering. The opera will star Daniel Carlsson and Inger Dam-Jensen.
Performance Dates: April 12 – 30, 2023
On Tour
The company will take “La Bohème” on tour in a production by Sara Cronberg.” The opera will star Magnus Lindegård, David Risberg, Ella Morin, Elin Eriksson, Sebastian Durán, and Tigran Hakobyan.
Performance Dates: Sept. 17 – Dec. 4, 2022
The company will present “Marguerite,” an opera based on Goethe’s “Faust” with music by numerous female composers. The opera will be directed by Melker Sörensen and will star Adrian Angelico, Sibylle Glosted, John Löfgren, and Sofia Mustaniemi.
Performance Dates: Feb. 18 – April 23, 2023
Family & Children Works
Next up is “Väntarna (The Waiting Ones) by Lars Johan Werle and Werner Aspenström. The opera about the need to be loved will be directed by Hillevi Björnsson.
Performance Dates: Sept. 17 – Oct. 15, 2022
“Snösystern (The Snow Sister)” by Magnus Johannson and Anna Berg will be directed by Linda Mallik.
Performance Dates: Dec. 3, 2022 – Jan. 28, 2023
By Francisco Salazar
The Teatro Real de Madrid is set to broadcast Verdi’s “Nabucco” on July 15.
The company will showcase the production by Andreas Homoki around the world. Nicola Luisotti conducts the opera with a cast that includes George Gagnidze, Michael Fabiano, Roberto Tagliavini, Saioa Hernández, Elena Maximova, Simon Lim, Fabián Lara, and Maribel Ortega.
The opera is part of the company’s opera week celebration and continues the Teatro Real’s summer broadcast.
The company has broadcast such works as “Il Trovatore” starring Francesco Meli, “I Puritani” with Diana Damrau, Verdi’s “La Traviata” with Marina Rebeka, and Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.”
“Nabucco” opens on July 5 and will run through July 22. The production also stars Luca Salsi, Gabriele Viviani, Luis Cansino, Eduardo Aladrén, Dmitry Belosselsky, Alexander Vinogradov, Anna Pirozzi, and Oksana Dyka.
By Francisco Salazar
The Berkshire Opera Festival is set to open its 2022 summer season with a new production of Jake Heggie’s “Three Decembers.”
The production will be performed on July 21 and 23 at PS21 in Chatham, NY and will be conducted by Christopher James Ray. Beth Greenberg, who will direct the production, says, “Buried secrets…dark whispers…love, and devastating loss…all collide and burst forth in Three Decembers. With its skillful balance of drama and èlan, the work probes the fraught relationships between a successful actress-mother and her two children—a daughter coping with a failing marriage, and her young, gay son at the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic.”
The production will star mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala as the lead role of Madeline Mitchell, soprano Monica Dewey, a LGBTQ+ advocate, as Beatrice, and baritone Theo Hoffman as Charlie.
PS21’s Black Box/open-air Pavilion configuration is conceived as a home for intimate-scaled productions. BOF and PS21 are aligned in their values of supporting the future of opera by presenting new and contemporary performances with world-class artists, and making them accessible to everyone in the region.
By Francisco Salazar
Tenor Matthias Wohlbrecht has been named Kammersänger of Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.
Wohlbrecht was given the honor for his artistic merit at the theater by the state of Baden-Württemberg.
The tenor has been a member of the opera company since 2004 and has performed in such productions as “Ariadne auf Naxos,” “Fidelio,” “Die Frau ohne Schatten,” “Manon Lescaut,” “Tannhäuser,” “The Passenger,” “Wallenberg,” “Hansel and Gretel,” “The Magic Flute,” “Die Fledermaus,” “Boris Godunov,” “The Prophet” and “Tristan und Isolde.”
Throughout his career, his repertoire has ranged from the operetta to German, Italian, French, and Slavic works from all eras.
This season he performed in the company’s productions of “Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe,” “Vorspiel zu Ariadne auf Naxos,” and “Salome.”
By Francisco Salazar
On July 20, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert at Alice Tully Hall.
Maestra Xian Zhang, Music Director of the Orchestra will feature soloists Shanghai Isaac Stern-winning violinist Nancy Zhou, Chopin-competition prize-winner pianist Chelsea Guo, soprano Esther Maureen Kelly, and tenor Yongzhao Yu.
The program, titled “East/West: A Symphonic Celebration,” will feature Chinese-French composer Qigang Chen’s “Er Huang” Piano Concerto, Copland’s “Appalachian Spring”, Jiping Zhao’s Violin Concerto and works by Sida Guo and Zhang Qu that feature traditional Chinese instruments (guzheng, pipa, flute, Xiao) alongside the symphony orchestra. Kelly and Yu will close the program with “The Song of the Yangtze River,” a traditional Chinese song by Wang Shiguang.
The New Jersey Symphony is currently performing park concerts.
By Afton Wooten
Laura Bowler and Laura Lomas’ new opera “Blue Woman” will be performed at the Royal Opera House as the featured work in its 2022 Engender Festival.
“Blue Woman” changes the narrative of sexual assault in opera to the perspective of the woman and the aftermath of violence.
In a press statement, Lomas noted that “Throughout the process, Laura and I maintained an open dialogue, sharing research and ideas as well as early sections of text and composition. This felt necessary to ensure that the conceptual ideas of the work were held by both the libretto and the music.”
Bowler’s score includes four cellos that double the four vocalists. There are also elements of electronic music to reiterate distress, anger, and resilience. Jamie Man conducts along with musical director Jessica Cottis. Katie Mitchell directs soprano Gweneth-Ann Rand, mezzo-sopranos Rosie Middleton and Lucy Schaufer, and contralto Elaine Mitchener.
This production will take place during the Engender Festival running July 6- 11. There will be resources provided for sexual assault victims through the support of Rape Crisis.
The Royal Opera House’s networking program Engender connects women and non-binary people in all roles of opera through educational events and professional development.
By Francisco Salazar
Merola Opera Program is set to present an evening of Latin American and Spanish composers in the Schwabacher Summer Concert.
The concerts will be presented on July 14 and 16 and will see operatic scenes by composers Daniel Catán, Manuel de Falla, Osvaldo Golijov, and Amadeo Vives. Featuring a full orchestra, the Schwabacher Summer Concert will be conducted by Jorge Parodi, General and Artistic Director of Opera Hispánica.
There will be selections from Manuel de Falla’s “La vida breve” and scenes from Act two of Daniel Catán’s “Florencia en el Amazonas,” the first Spanish-language opera commissioned by a major American opera company.
The evening will also see selections from Amadeo Vives’s “Doña Francisquita,” which is considered a classic of the zarzuela genre. Rounding out the program are selections from “Ainadamar (Fountain of Tears),” the first opera by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov, with libretto by American playwright David Henry Hwang.
By David Salazar
The Northern Ireland Opera is set to present Verdi’s “La Traviata” starting in September 2022.
The production will be headlined by soprano Siobhann Stagg, tenor Noah Stewart, and baritone Yuriy Yurchuk. Other cast members include Ellen Mawhinney, Owen Lucas, Margaret Bridge, and Graeme Danby. The Verdi classic will be directed by Cameron Menzies and conductor Rebecca Lang with choreography by Isabel Baquero.
“La Traviata sees the welcome return of opera to the Grand Opera House, Belfast and the first collaboration with our esteemed colleagues at the Ulster Orchestra since before the pandemic. Northern Ireland Opera are extremely proud to be showcasing some of our best local operatic talent and to welcome our international guests to the world premiere of this new production,” said Menzies, whose previous work with the company includes productions of “La Bohème,” “Into the Woods,” and “Old Friends And Other Days.” “It is such a wonderful privilege to be able to create opera at its very highest level with our exciting collaborators.”
Performances kick off on Sept. 10 and run through the 17th, 2022 at the Grand Opera House in Belfast.
“I am delighted to welcome back Northern Ireland Opera for the first time since the Grand Opera House was restored, with one of the most sumptuous and beautiful operas ever written. Opera has been a key part of the programme here for more than 125 years, and we are looking forward to seeing Siobhan and the other cast members follow in the footsteps of Luciano Pavarotti, Nellie Melba and many other great singers who have performed on the Grand Opera House stage,” added Ian Wilson, Grand Opera House Chief Executive.
By Logan Martell
Seattle Opera has announced that Dennis Robinson Jr. has been appointed as its next Director of Programs and Partnerships, effective June 20, 2022.
An alumnus of Carnegie Melon University, where he studied Opera Directing, Robinson has served has served such administrative roles as Manager of Artistic Administration at Palm Beach Opera, Director of Education and Accessibility at City Theatre Company, and Manager of Community Programs and Accessibility and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.
As a director, he has worked with companies such as Boston lyric Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Pittsburgh Opera, and more.
“I am overjoyed to be joining the talented, dedicated, and resilient team of individuals that makes Seattle Opera one of the country’s leading opera companies,” Robinson said in an official press statement. “I look forward to living in the Puget Sound region and to strengthening and expanding the organization’s community relationships.”
By Chris Ruel
(Photo: Zane Gan)
San Francisco Opera has released “In Song: Meigui Zhang,” the latest installment of its Webby Award-winning “In Song” series. The series presents portraits of artists through song and stories, with past episodes presenting a cross-section of genres—from opera to mariachi.
Among the works spotlighted by the fast-rising Zhang, is the Kazakh folk song “A Lovely Rose.” Virtuoso musician Zhou Yi adapted the piece for voice and pipa—a traditional Chinese string instrument played by Yi.
The duet anticipated the collaboration of the two artists in Bright Sheng’s “Dream of the Red Chamber,” running June 14 through July 3, 2022 at the War Memorial Opera House. Zhang, making her company debut, plays the beloved character of Dai Yu in the opera based on one of China’s four great classical novels, while Yi joins the SFO Orchestra as qin soloist.
“In Song: Meigui Zhang” also presents “Villanelle” by Eva Dell’Acqua with text by Frédéric van der Elst; and “Das Veilchen” (“The Violet”) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, set to poetry by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Pianist Ken Noda accompanies the Zhang.
The 19-minute film, shot in New York and China, includes footage of Zhang reconnecting with family in her hometown of Chengdu.
After participating in the Merola Opera Program in 2018, Zhang was selected to join the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program. She has since performed in several Met productions, including Verdi’s “Macbeth,” Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro,” and in the company’s new production of the French version of Verdi’s “Don Carlos.”
“In Song: Meigui Zhang” is free for viewing on the San Francisco Opera website, YouTube, YouTube (Mandarin subtitles), Facebook, and Instagram.
