By Francisco Salazar
On June 28, legendary soprano Nelly Miricioiu will celebrate her 70th birthday at Wigmore Hall.
The concert will also mark her farewell from the concert stage.
In a statement, the soprano said, “So far, my seventieth year has brought more than I could ever have imagined. I celebrated my birthday itself in Romania, with a spectacular gala event on the stage of the opera house in Bucharest, and where I said my goodbye to the Operatic stage. Now, I step on the London stage, to salute the country that so generously embraced me and helped me to blossom, where I had some of my most beautiful artistic memories, and where I found the love of my life and my husband of 31 years – Barry, my Yorkshire man. Wigmore Hall is a shrine for singers, and one of the most sought after recital venues. I am honoured that they have given me the opportunity to say my goodbye to the recital platform, amidst my family, closest friend and loyal supporters. It is a programme of repertoire that means so much to me, and that have had a vital importance through each stage of my life and career, and I am delighted to be able to share it with you all.”
She added, “The following day will bring yet more joy, as I work with young artists and carry on the tradition of Bel canto in my Wigmore Hall masterclass. It would be a delight to have you all with me.”
The concert will showcase Miricoiu in works by Emil Montia, Tiberiu Brediceanu, Pauline Viardot, George Hall, Lennox Berkeley, Ernest Chausson, Giacomo Puccini, Amilcare Ponchielli, Gioachino Rossini, and Giuseppe Verdi. David Gowland accompanies her on piano.
By Francisco Salazar
The San Antonio Symphony has announced it will be dissolved.
In a statement, the board of directors said, “with deep regret, the Board of Directors of the Symphony Society of San Antonio announces the dissolution of the San Antonio Symphony. By unanimous vote, the Board has initiated the requisite steps to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The assets of the Symphony now lie in the hands of a Trustee who will liquidate them, pay what creditors remain, and close the doors.”
The statement added, “labor negotiations for what would have been the 2021-22 season began in January of 2021. The last bargaining session between the Symphony Society and the Musicians’ Union took place on March 8, 2022 after which the Union declined to return to the bargaining table, despite efforts of federal mediators and the Symphony. The Musicians’ Union has made it clear there is no prospect of the resumption of negotiations, absent the Board agreeing to a budget that is millions of dollars in excess of what the Symphony can afford. The absence of a labor contract has effectively forced the Symphony to shutter its operations. We want to thank the hundreds of talented musicians and administrative staff who have served our organization since its founding. Without your tireless dedication, we would not have had an organization to deliver great symphonic music for these past eighty years.”
The Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1939 and performed with the San Antonio Mastersingers, the 140-voice Official Chorus of the San Antonio Symphony, which was founded in 1943. The San Antonio Symphony League helped make the Young People’s Concerts possible and were eventually attended by more than 45,000 elementary school children each year.
In 1973, the Symphony League’s Belle Ball was conceived and inaugurated by civic leader Margaret King Stanley. The orchestra also enjoyed strong relationships with the city’s educational institutions such as Trinity University, the University of Texas at San Antonio, all of the Alamo Community College District campuses, and the San Antonio Independent School District.
By Francisco Salazar
The Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria has named Leonard Slatkin its Principal Guest Conductor and has extended its Principal Conductor Karel Mark Chichon’s contract.
The President of the Cabildo Government of Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales announced that Karel Mark Chichon’s contract as Chief Conductor & Artistic Director was extended for a further two more seasons until July 2025.
Per the press release, “the orchestra and the British conductor have had a successful artistic partnership.”
It was also announced that Leonard Slatkin will serve as the orchestra’s new Principal Guest Conductor and will go hand in hand with Chichon’s own mandate, both of which will end in July 2025.
The orchestra recently announced its new season which will open with excerpts of “Aida.”
By Afton Wooten
Composer and conductor Michael Glasgow will take the podium at Carnegie Hall to make the world premiere of his new “Gloria” on June 20.
The 82-voice chorus and soloists soprano Haley Sicking and baritone Erik Earl Larson will be joined by the New England Symphonic Ensemble.
Glasgow’s 26-minute, three-movement “Gloria” was composed primarily during quarantine. The composer notes that “I’ve taken care to ensure that this Gloria actually sounds like what it says: the first movement is one of jubilant praise and faith; the second movement is a quiet prayer…and the final movement is an explosive celebration of mixed meter, syncopation and cross-rhythms, culminating in ecstatic Amens that I envisioned as ‘an amazing party that you don’t want to leave.”
The evening will also include another world premiere by Alexis Ward. Mindy J. Forehand will conduct Ward’s “Nos Non Solum.” Diane Retallack will lead Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem and Ola Gjeilo’s Dreamweaver.
By Francisco Salazar
The Opéra National de Bordeaux has announced its 2022-23 season featuring opera, ballet, concert, and great voices.
Opera
Paul Daniel conducts Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” with Yoshi Oïda directing. Karah Son, Virginie Verrez, Riccardo Massi, and André Heyboer.
Performance Dates: Nov. 10-21, 2022
Roberto González-Monjas conducts Mozart’s Requiem in a production by Stéphane Braunschweig. The cast includes Hélène Carpentier, Fleur Barron, Oleksiy Palchykov, and Thomas Dear.
Performance Dates: Jan. 20-28, 2023
The Academy of the Opera de Bordeaux will perform “Didon et Enee revisited.”
Performance Dates: Feb. 4-6, 2023
Marc Minkowski conducts Handel’s “Alcina” with Magdalena Kožená, Erin Morley, Elizabeth DeShong, Anna Bonitatibus, Valerio Contaldo, and Alex Rosen.
Performance Dates: Feb. 9, 2023
Paolo Olmi conducts Donizetti’s “La Favorite” with Valentina Carrasco directing. Varduhi Abrahamyan stars in the title role alongside Pene Pati, Florian Sempey, and Sébastien Droy.
Performance Dates: March 4-14, 2023
Joanna Natalia Ślusarczyk conducts “La Cenerentola” with Daniele Menghini directing. The cast includes Juliette Mey, Anne-Sophie Vincent, Sergio Villegas-Galvain, Nicolas Brooymans, Antoine Foulon, and Benoit Joseph Meier.
Performance Dates: March 19, 2023
Robert Wilson directs “Jungle Book” with music by CocoRosie.
Performance Dates: March 28-April 1, 2023
Poulenc’s “Dialogues des Carmélites” will be conducted by Emmanuel Villaume and directed by Mireille Delunsch. Frédéric Caton, Thomas Bettinger, Anne-Catherine Gillet, Mireille Delunsch, Lucie Roche, Lila Dufy, Marie-Andrée Bouchard-Lesieur, Patrizia Ciofi, Sébastien Droy, and Timothée Varon star.
Performance Dates: June 2-11, 2023
Salvatore Caputo conducts Emmanuelle Bastet’s production of Gerswhin’s “Porgy and Bess.” Timothée Varon and Marie-Laure Garnier star.
Performance Dates: July 6-8, 2023
Grandes Voix
Emmanuel Villaume and Benjamin Bernheim perform alongside the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine in a program of Hector Berlioz, Luigi Cherubini, and Gaetano Donizetti.
Performance Date: Sept. 15, 2022
Véronique Gens joins the Ensemble Les Surprises and Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas for a concert.
Performance Date: Sept. 26, 2022
Sabine Devieilhe and Mathieu Pordoy perform in recital with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Strauss, Hugo Wolf, and Alban Berg.
Performance Date: Oct. 18, 2022
Marie Lombard and Jean-Marc Fontana perform in recital in music by Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini, Messager, and Delibes.
Performance Date: Oct. 21, 2022
Keri-Lynn Wilson and Ekaterina Semenchuk perform in concert music by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Glinka, and Tchaikovsky.
Performance Date: Oct. 27, 2022
Lea Desandre and Ensemble Jupiter perform music by Francesco Provenzale, Francesco Cavalli, Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani, Georg Caspar Schürmann, Carlo Pallavicino, François-André Danican Philidor, Louis Couperin, André-Cardinal Destouches, Marin Marais, François Couperin, Antonio Vivaldi, and Giuseppe De Bottis. Thomas Dunford conducts.
Performance Date: Nov. 9, 2022
Kristel Barriaux, Sima Ouahman, Marcos Alvarez, Adrien Mathonat, and Martine Marcuz perform a vocal recital.
Performance Date: Nov. 17, 2022
Natalie Dessay leads a recital with Pierre Fouchenneret and Shani Diluka of music by Debussy, Wagner, Hahn, and Gluck, among others.
Performance Date: Jan. 8, 2023
Irina Sherazadishvili and Jean-Marc Fontana perform music by Gaetano Donizetti, Pietro Mascagni, Georges Bizet, Charles Gounod, Giuseppe Verdi, Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski, and Jules Massenet.
Performance Date: Jan. 27, 2023
Thomas Dolié and Martine Marcuz perform a recital of music by Wagner, David, and Berlioz.
Performance Date: March 10, 2023
Matthias Goerne and Alexandre Kantorow perform in recital.
Performance Date: April 25, 2023
Olga Maslova performs arias by Verdi with pianist Jean-Marc Fontana.
Performance Date: April 28, 2023
The Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine performs a program of music by Chausson, Tüür,and Dvořák with Anu Tali and Marie-Nicole Lemieux.
Performance Dates: March 11 & 12 2023
In-ho Jeong performs arias by Rossini and Verdi with Jean-Marc Fontana.
Performance Date: May 26, 2023
Concerts
Ariane Matiakh conducts a program of Verdi, Bizet, and Puccini with Marie-Laure Garnier and Andreï Kimach.
Performance Dates: Sept. 10 & 11, 2022
Simone Menezes and Camila Titinger perform Philip Glass’ Aguas da Amazonia and Heitor Villa-Lobos’ A Floresta do Amazonas.
Performance Dates: April 7 & 8, 2023
Choral Programs
Salvatore Caputo conducts Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem.
Performance Date: Sept. 23, 2022
Josep Vila i Jover conducts the Veus – Cor Infantil Amics de la Unió in music by Ola Gjeilo, Susan LaBarr, Francis Poulenc, Maurice Duruflé, Susanna Lindmark, and Tracy Wong.
Performance Date: Oct. 1, 2022
Salvatore Caputo conducts Julius Reubke’s Sonate en do mineur « psaume 94 » and Robert Schumann’s Missa sacra op. 147.
Performance Date: Oct 16 , 2022
Salvatore Caputo conducts choruses based on Shakspeare from Ambroise Thomas (Hamlet), Giuseppe Verdi (Otello, Macbeth), and Charles Gounod (Roméo et Juliette).
Performance Date: Dec. 3, 2022
Ariel Ramirez’s Missa criolla will be conducted by Salvatore Caputo and star Mara Szachniuk.
Performance Date: Dec. 22, 2022
Salvatore Caputo will conduct Gounod’s Requiem.
Performance Date: Feb. 7, 2023
Salvatore Caputo conducts Gioachino Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle with Marianne Croux, Lauriane Trégan, Léo Vermot Desroches, and Thomas Dear.
Performance Date: March 18, 2023
Salvatore Caputo conducts a program inspired by Lili Boulanger.
Performance Date: March 28, 2023
Salvatore Caputo conducts a vocal concert.
Performance Date: June 16, 2023
By Afton Wooten
Baritone Daniel Rich, soprano Angeli Ferrette, soprano Amber Cierra Merritt, and mezzo-soprano Ikpemesi O were named the winners of the 2022 Black Brilliance Competition.
Rich came in first place for his performance of “The Glory of the Day Was in Her Face” by Florence Price. Second place was given to Ferrette for “Don’t Feel No-Ways Tired” arranged by Jacqueline Hairston. Merritt came in third with “Winter Twilight” by Rospehanye Powell and honorable mention was given to O for her poem poem “Love, Identity, and Purpose.”
The Black Brilliance Competition was created in 2021 by Jhané Perdue, who serves as the Artistic Projects Coordinator at The Pleiades Project. The competition’s mission is “to celebrate Black artists, especially musicians, composers, poets, and other creators.”
This year the Black Brilliance Competition received generous support from partners Pleiades Project and Toledo Opera. Amber Cierra Merrit and Ikpemsi O will perform at Toledo Opera’s Juneteenth celebration.
By Logan Martell
On June 8, 2022, English conductor David Lloyd-Jones passed away at the age of 87.
Born on November 19, 1934, Lloyd-Jones’ family moved from their native London to a farm in West Wales shortly before World War II. After being introduced to Mozart in school, he soon developed a loved for classical music after his father brought him to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
He began his career with the Royal Opera House in 1959, and made his professional debut two years later, conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
He conducted the New Opera Company from 1961-64 in addition to freelance engagement for orchestral and choral concerts. In 1972, he was named the Assistant Music Director for Sadlers Wells Opera, today known as English National Opera. A leading proponent and interpreter of Russian works in the U.K., Lloyd-Jones conducted the first British staging of Prokofiev’s “War and Peace.” In 1978, he founded the English National Opera North company, now known simply as Opera North, where he would conduct over 50 productions over the next twelve years before stepping down in 1990.
Among the companies he worked with are Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, and the Wexford, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, and Leeds Festivals. For his achievements, he was given an honorary doctorate in music at the University of Leeds in 1986, and in 2007 was given honorary membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society.
By Francisco Salazar
The Kentucky Opera has announced its 2022-23 season featuring three mainstage operas and one chamber opera.
Mainstage Opera
The season opens with the timeless classic Puccini’s “La Bohème.”
Performance Dates: Sept. 23-Oct. 2, 2022
Piazolla’s “Maria de Buenos Aires” is the second mainstage production of the season.
Performance Dates: Nov. 11 & 13 2022
The final opera of the season will be Rossini’s comic gem “Cinderella.”
Performance Date: Feb. 24 & 26, 2023
All mainstage productions will be performed at the Brown Theatre.
Season Add On
David Conte and Nicholas Giardini’s “The Gift of the Magi” will be performed in time for the holiday season at the opera center.
Performance Dates: Dec. 15-22, 2022
By David Salazar
(Photo by Devon Cass)
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has announced that the BSO concert streaming platform, entitled “BSO NOW,” will broadcast numerous performances throughout its 2022 season.
For the purposes of this article, our focus will be solely on vocal performances.
First up will be a concert starring Nicole Cabell as she takes on Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” alongside conductor Andris Nelsons. The program also features “An American in Paris” with pianist Aaron Diehl and a new work by Carlos Simon entitled “Motherboxx Connection.”
Streaming Dates: July 21 – Sept. 30, 2022
Christine Goerke teams up with Andris Nelsons for music by Berlioz. The concert also includes Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.
Streaming Dates:. August 4 – Sept. 30, 2022
Finally, audiences will be able to check out an archival performance from August 26, 1962 featuring Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Among the soloists is soprano Adele Addison.
Streaming Dates: August 8 – Sept. 30, 2022
By Afton Wooten
(Credit: Guildhall)
The Guildhall Summer School is offering vocal courses for classical singers ages 16-21 this summer.
The program is a one-week-long, in-person course, with housing provided. The sessions will last from July 18 until July 22.
Led by Marilyn Rees and Theresa Goble, students will receive one-on-one training preparing them for conservatory study. Students will focus on breathing and body awareness, take drama workshops, and dive into text study. There will be masterclasses for both English and Italian repertoire. The program will conclude with an informal performance.
To participate, singers must submit a recording of two pieces, one in English, and one in Italian, as well as one piece of prose. The deadline for applications is at 9 am on Monday 20 June 2022.
