By Chris Ruel
Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod has announced the 2023 lineup for the first Eisteddfod since the pandemic. The event runs July 4-9, 2023.
“We enjoyed tremendous celebrations for the Eisteddfod’s 75th anniversary in July, and although we all face many challenges in the current climate, for 2023 we’ve brought together a festival program of real ambition, scope and most importantly fun for everyone! Music, dance, culture, has the power to help us understand the world around us, and to lift our spirits, bringing people together in the joy of performance. This is what Llangollen was founded for, and what we strive to continue to do, 76 years later,” Camilla King, Llangollen’s Executive Producer, stated in the official press release.
For this article, we have listed vocal performances only.
Tenor Alfie Boe kicks things off with a special, one-night-only performance of show tunes programmed specifically for Llangollen. Boe joins musical forces with the musical theater group Welsh of the West End.
Performance Date: July 4, 2023
“The White Flower: Into the Light” remembers the fallen of Sarajevo and Ukraine as chorus and orchestra come together under the banner of music to unite people in peace and hope.
Performance Date: July 5, 2023
Choir of the World, Dance Champions & Voice of the Future 2023 will showcase choral finalists competing to win the prestigious Choir of the World title and Pavarotti Trophy.
Performance Date: July 8, 2023
Closing out the Eisteddfod, Stars of Tomorrow presents the Voice of Musical Theater, one of the Festival’s most popular audience events in 2022.
Performance Date: July 9, 2023
By Francisco Salazar
The Canadian Opera Company is set to present “The Marriage of Figaro.”
The Mozart masterpiece will be performed eight times at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts between Jan. 27 and Feb. 18, 2023.
The acclaimed Claus Guth production will be revived by Marcelo Buscaino of Brazil; the production had a previous run in 2016 and has also been presented at the Salzburg Festival and the Teatro Real de Madrid,
Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni returns to Toronto as Figaro alongside American soprano Andrea Carroll as Susanna, and Australian soprano Lauren Fagan as the Countess. Canadian bass-baritone and Ensemble alumnus Gordon Bintner will perform the Count, while American mezzo-soprano Emily Fons will take on Cherubino.
Robert Pomokov, Helene Schneiderman, Michael Colvin, Doug MacNaughton, and Mireille Assselin round out the list of vocalists. British conductor Harry Bicket leads the COC Orchestra.
Following “Le Nozze di Figaro,” the company is also set to present productions of “Salome,” “Macbeth,” “Tosca,” and “Pomengranate.”
By Afton Wooten
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will return to the stage for the second part of her international “EDEN” tour at the Conrad in La Jolla.
DiDonato’s concept album “EDEN” is a 2023 GRAMMY™ Nominee for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. It fuses four centuries of music including a new piece by Academy Award-Winning composer Rachel Portman, movement, and theater. EDEN explores the experience of hope, connection, and the mysteries of nature.
Special to this performance, DiDonato will be joined by the Challenger Middle School Choir under the direction of Marielena Teng in part of the ProtoStar Innovative Series.
The performance presented by La Jolla Music Society will take place on Jan. 18, 2023 at The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in Baker-Baum Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m.
By Nicolas Quiroga
The Canada Council of Arts awarded the Virginia Parker Award to conductor and pianist Naomi Woo.
The Council gives the annual award to a classical vocalist, instrumentalist, or conductor who has contributed to artistic life in Canada and internationally. Recipients must be younger than 32-years-old and show exceptional talent, artistic excellence, and musical mastery receive a $25,000 prize.
This year’s winner, Woo, has a Ph.D. from Cambridge University and has studied mathematics, philosophy, and music at Yale School of Music and the University of Montreal. Woo is considered a rising star within Canada’s classical music scene.
Woo currently serves as the Assistant Conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and is a member of Tapestry Opera’s Women in Music Leadership program at Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain’s inaugural Conducting Academy. Woo is the first female conductor to receive the award since the award’s inception in 1984,
By David Salazar
The Dutch National Opera & Ballet is set to present “Giulio Cesare” starting on Dec. 16, 2022.
The opera, which will run through Feb. 5, 2023 (a total of eight performances), will be directed by Calixto Bieito and will be conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm as she leads Le Concert d’Astrée in its company debut.
In the title role, audiences will see Christophe Dumaux with Julie Fuchs, in her Dutch National Opera debut, as Cleopatra. Other cast members include Teresa Iervolino as Cornelia, Cecilia Molinari as Sesto, Cameron Shahbazi as Tolomeo, Frederik Bergman as Achilla, and Jake Ingbar as Nireno.
This version of “Giulio Cesare” is presented in co-production with the Gran Teatre del Liceu.
By David Salazar
The National Moravian-Silesian Theater is set to present Smetana’s famed “The Bartered Bride” starting on Dec. 15, 2022.
Marek Šedivý conducts with Jiří Nekvasil directs the production. The opera will star Soňa Godarská and Veronika Rovná as Mařenka, Canadian tenor Philippe Castagner as Jeník, and František Zahradníček as Kecal.
“The Bartered Bride has been considered the Czech national opera for several generations. But Smetana never, with one exception, quotes a folk song in his entire operatic oeuvre. He achieves the character of Czechness by using the rhythms of Czech dances (polka, furiant, skočná). All the opera’s 24 numbers are a torrent of unceasing musical invention that would be enough for a dozen musicals—the better ones—by today’s musical authors. One could say that each musical number of The Bartered Bride is a hit! To sum it up, theatricality, playfulness, changeability, movement, colour, humour, poetry, irony, and kindness are the basic starting points and hallmarks of our production, letting it be obvious from the overture. Accompanying the stage action, the overture exposes the manner of our theatrical narrative: everything that happens hereafter will be created and transformed before the eyes of the audience,” said Nekvasil in an official press statement.
There will be an additional performance scheduled for Dec. 17, 2022. Both performances will take place at the Antonín Dvořák Theatre in Ostrava.
By David Salazar
Editor Note: In a previous version of this article, it was reported that the event in question was a concert with the orchestra featuring pianist Yeol Eum Son and conductor Jonathan Heyward. However, OperaWire was contacted by the Detroit Symphony to clarify that this was not the event in question. A revised version of the story follows.
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has issued a statement on social media regarding an incident following a performance on Friday, Dec. 9, 2022.
Per The Detroit News, an audience member interrupted the performance by shouting a racial slur. The event in question was a jazz concert by Cyrus Chesnut and Friends entitled “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
“The DSO is deeply disappointed by an incident that took place towards the end of Friday night’s concert when an audience member shouted a racial slur. Racism and bigotry have no place in Orchestra Hall, and behavior like this is unacceptable. We are currently investigating and will enact a permanent ban once we identify the ticketholder,” the company said via social media. “Live music is a profoundly human experience that taps into our emotions and provides us all with a sacred space for listening. We apologize that this space was violated. We appreciate our audiences so much and hope to see you back at Orchestra Hall soon.”
By David Salazar
The Los Angeles Opera has announced that it will present a concert showcase of Benjamin Britten’s “The Rape of Lucretia” on Jan. 20, 2023.
The opera will be conducted by Resident Conductor Lina González-Granados who will lead a performance headlined by singers from the company’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program.
Mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino will take on the lead role with baritone Ryan Wolfe as Tarquinius. Tenor Anthony Leéon will take on the male chorus with Alaysha Fox as the female chorus. Mezzo Madeleine Lyon and soprano Tiffany Townsend will interpret the roles of Bianca and Lucia while bass-baritone Alan Williams will appear as Collatinus. Rounding out the cast is bass Cedric Berry as Junius.
The performance will take place at the Colburn School’s Zipper Concert Hall.
By Francisco Salazar
The Canadian Opera Company is set to present R. Strauss’ “Salome.”
The opera will be performed by Canadian soprano Ambur Braid and will also include Karita Mattila, who once was a great Salome, in the role of Herodias, tenor Michael Schade as King Herod, baritone Michael Kupfer-Radecky in his COC and North American debut as Jochanaan, and, in a role debut, French Canadian tenor Frédéric Antoun performs as Narraboth.
The COC will present a production by Atom Egoyan who shifts teh storyline from a first-century palace to an abstract and foreboding set by Derek McLane, drawing focus from the characters’ affluence and status to their inner machinations and motivations.
The costumes will be designed by Catherine Zuber with lighting from Davida Tkach. Projections will be by Phillip Barker and shadow puppetry is designed by Clea Minaker.
COC Music Director Johannes Debus conducts the COC Orchestra in seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on February 3, 5, 9, 11, 17, 19, and 24, 2023.
By Francisco Salazar
The Metropolitan Opera has announced a ticket update while it is under cyberattack.
The company took to social media and said, “while the cyberattack against the Met continues to impact our website and ticketing systems, we are grateful to our friends at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, who have allowed us to offer tickets to select performances through their website.”
The Met added, “general-admission tickets to the December 11 and 14 performances of Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto,’ as well as the December 13 performance of Verdi’s ‘Aida,’ can now be purchased online and at the Welcome Center box office at David Geffen Hall for just $50.
“Seating will be in the Orchestra section of the opera house, and locations will be assigned by Met ushers on a first-come, first-served basis immediately prior to curtain. Tickets will be issued as e-tickets from Lincoln Center or can be picked up at the Met box office starting one hour before the performance.”
The news comes after the Met suffered a cyberattack and has seen the company unable to sell tickets for the past week.
