By Nicolas Quiroga
José Luis Basso has been appointed as the new director of the Choir of the Teatro Real de Madrid, Spain.
His new tenure kicks off during the 2023-2024 season as the Argentine will replace Andrés Máspero, who has been in that position since 2010.
Basso’s musical training began in Buenos Aires, where he studied piano as well as choral and orchestral conducting. From there, he made his debut as choir director at the Teatro Argentino de La Plata with opera productions and choral symphonic concerts, and in 1989 he began working at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; he also simultaneously directed the Choir of the Wagnerian Association.
In 1990, Romano Gandolfi, the famed director of the Scala in Milan, hired him as his assistant at the Liceu in Barcelona and in 1994 he was appointed director of the Choir of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. Starting in 1996 he was hired by the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and in 2000, he was awarded the Ina Assitalia award for his outstanding work.
From 2004 to 2014 he served as Director of the Choir of the Opéra National de Paris, having an overwhelming success in the following seven seasons. In 2021. he began directing the Choir of the Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli.
By David Salazar
The New England Conservatory has announced its fall concert slate.
For the purposes of this article, our focus will be solely on vocal performances.
Mezzo-soprano MaryAnn McCormick and pianist JJ Penna will perform a faculty recital.
Performance Date: Oct. 13, 2022
The NEC Lieberabend will feature songs in a variety of languages.
Performance Date: Oct. 19, 2022
The NEC Chamber Singers will showcase a program of music by such composers as Ligeti, Cecilia McDowall, Marie-Claire Saindon, Barber, Brahms, and Whitacre, among others. Erica Washburn conducts.
Performance Date: Oct. 25, 2022
Perkin Opera Scenes will feature scenes from the Yiddish operetta “Di Goldene Kale.”
Performance Date: Oct. 26 – 28, 2022
The NEC Symphonic Choir will team up with the Symphonic Winds for a program that honors U.S. veterans.
Performance Date: Nov. 17, 2022
NEC Opera will present “The Turn of the Screw.”
Performance Date: Nov. 17 – 20, 2022
There will be a series of performances of Opera Scenes by the undergraduate opera program.
Performance Date: Dec. 2 & 3, 2022
The “First Monday” showcase will feature mezzo-soprano Mary McCormick in Ravel’s “Chansons madécasses.” The program will also feature chamber music by Fauré and Dutilleux.
Performance Date: Dec. 5, 2022
There will be another Lieberabend.
Performance Date: Dec. 7, 2022
The NEC Chamber singers will perform alongside the Symphony Windos and Navy Band NE in a program entitled “Into the Holidays.”
Performance Date: Dec. 12, 2022
Graduate students will put on a program of Händel arias and Shakespeare Monologues.
Performance Date: Dec. 13, 2022
By Operawire Staff
Photo: Chris Winter
Wembley Park and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will present the 2nd edition of Wemba’s Dream, “Wemba’s Dream: Join the Journey,” on Sept. 10, 2022, at Green Parking at Wembley Park.
The site-specific performances in the car park combines over 50 RPO musicians, spoken word, contemporary music, and dance.
“Wemba’s Dream: Join the Journey’s” theme centers on murmurations, the phenomenon in which masses of starlings create living, ever-changing clouds as they swoop and swirl about the evening sky during migration. The second edition is a follow-on to the 2021 Wemba’s Dream project inspired by an Anglo-Saxon traveler who settled in the area later known as “Wemba Lea” and then Wembley Park. The theme of migration is fitting for the RPO, as they will move their headquarters to Wembley Park in 2024. Ultimately, the goal of the RPO and Wembley Park collaboration is the creation of a cultural hub in the neighborhood.
“This is an incredibly special way to mark the long-term creative partnership between Wembley Park and RPO, which aims to unify local community groups and showcase the best of Brent talent whilst presenting orchestral music in new, thought-provoking forms and environments,” stated Josh McNorton, Cultural Director at Wembley Park. “Not only does the project celebrate the RPO moving its headquarters to the area in 2024, but Wemba’s Dream will keep being an annual event that we hope will provide the rich creative talent of Brent with a global platform to showcase their brilliant work.”
The performances feature brand-new music from British contemporary classical composer Dani Howard, who has been working collaboratively with RPO musicians and Brent-based performers to create new scores and reimagined arrangements, all inspired by the powerful migration of birds. Howard was nominated for The Times Breakthrough Artist of the Year and the Classical Music Category for the 2022 South Bank Sky Arts Awards.
Performers include Brent-based Mahogany Carnival Arts, spoken word collective WordUp, the Sujata Banerjee Dance Company, and singer-harpist and Wembley Park Live Academy graduate Aoife O’Dea. There will also be a performance of Lord Kitchener’s “Sugar Bum-Bum,” to mark the centenary of the Calypsonian’s birth.
Attendance is free and open to all ages.
By David Salazar
The German Minister of State for Culture has called on the Bayreuth Festival to reform.
Per BR Klassik, Claudia Roth, who holds the position, did not specify what she meant when she called for reform but did note that festival management had to “design the general conditions of the festival in such a way that artistic excellence can be achieved.”
She noted that more had to be done to attract audiences in coming years and was not a reflection of “our diverse, colorful society.”
The festival was filled with controversy in 2022 from the outset. There were sexual harassment allegations in late July. Then its centerpiece production of Wagner’s Ring was booed and jeered. OperaWire’s reviews of the four operas noted that director Valentin Schwarz increasingly moved away from the original libretto, making the piece more and more incoherent. That all escalated into a confrontation between soprano Irene Theorin and a disapproving audience during the curtain calls for “Götterdämmerung.”
The festival did make some positive announcements including the return of two famed conductors (one who was also involved in controversy a few years back) and the extension of a recording contract with a major company.
By Afton Wooten
Credit: New Opera Festival NODO
In part of its 33rd season and Interpretations Concert Series, the S.E.M Ensemble will present “Many Many Women.”
Together stage director and designer Jo Fabian and composer Petr Kotik combined Gertrude Stein texts to create “Many Many Women,” a six-hour long continuous opera.
The work was performed earlier this year at the New Opera Festival NODO in a concert setting. After this performance, Kotik was inspired to create a staged version.
The twelve musicians including sopranos Zen Wu and Ana Caseiro, countertenor Padraic Costello, tenor Nathan Fletcher bass-baritone James Gregory, bass Nicholas Hay and six instrumentalists will perform without stopping for a total of six hours. The work will conclude when “every word of Stein’s novella has been used.” “Many Many Women” contains 173 sections and 378 pages.
Kotik’s score follows traditional annotations but allows for performers to improvise on things like entrances, layering of sections, and musical flow. Kotik says the work represents a “variable situation” as there is no hard-and-fast plot or dramatic characters to follow.
“Many Many Women” will take place at Roulette Intermedium’s Willow Place Auditorium. on Sept 23rd. The performance begins at 5 p.m., but audience members are encouraged to come and go as they please.
By Nicolas Quiroga
Audi will remain one of the main sponsors of the Salzburg Festival until 2027, continuing a partnership that goes back as far as 1995.
“Both partners are delighted that our cooperation agreement has been extended today through 2027. Sponsors such as Audi guarantee diverse and high-carat program at the Salzburg Festival, as they ensure that the Festival has the necessary financial stability,” said the Directorate of the Salzburg Festival in an official statement.
Meanwhile, Markus Duesnann, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Audi AG, added that, “supporting the arts in diverse ways is part of our social responsibility as a company. With its unique mixture of tradition and innovation, artistic excellence and creativity, the Salzburg Festival occupies an outstanding position.”
Audi and the Salzburg Festival have formed an innovative partnership for the past 27 years, producing innovative projects together including offering visitors of the festival a tour of Salzburg via VR. Since 2020, the festival has also employed electric vehicles supported by Audi. Furthermore, Audi has been a major sponsor of international program presentations and the Salzburg Festival has offered its only guest appearance at Audi’s Summer Concerts festival in Ingolstadt.
By David Salazar
Jennifer Koh and Davóne Tines are set to reunite for the New York Premiere of “Everything Rises” at BAM Next Wave 2022.
The showcase, which kicks off on Oct. 12 and runs through the 15th, will feature the two artists telling their stories, artistic journeys, and family histories as they “reclaim the narratives about who they are and how they got to where they are today.” The show will be directed by Alexander Gedeon and features music by Ken Ueno.
Koh and Tines previously appeared together in the virtual project “Strange Fruit,” which was shown at Carnegie Hall in 2021.
The work was co-commissioned by ARCO Collaborative and the UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures. It has its world premiere this April in Los Angeles at UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall and UCLA’s Royce Hall.
“Violin and voice speak with an eloquence and power worth knowing about. … Koh and Tines’ stories have made them what they are, but their art needs to be—and is—great enough to tell us who they are,” said the Los Angeles Times review of the April premiere.
By Chris Ruel
The Opera People will present the Singapore premiere of Benjamin Britten’s “The Rape of Lucretia” on Oct. 14 and 16, 2022, at The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theater at Wild Rice, Funan.
In this story about ancient Rome, the tyrant Tarquinius has camped with his army outside the city. After conversing with Junius and Collatinus about the fickleness of women, Tarquinius is provoked to conquer what has remained out of his grasp: Lucretia, a woman of the highest virtue and wife of Collatinus. As Lucretia awaits her husband’s return, Tarquinius races to her home and deviously asks for a bed for the night, which he is granted. Tragedy follows when he attacks Lucretia during the night, an act that shames her to the point of suicide, though Collatinus loves her no less than before.
Mezzo-soprano Eugenia Forteza stars in the title role of this powerful story directed by Stefanos Rassios. Sharing the stage is a cast comprising Singapore’s star singers and international vocalists, including Teng Xiang Ting as Female Chorus, David Charles Tay as Male Chorus, Cindy Honanta as Bianca, Renata Hann Sungwon as Lucia, Igor Mostovoi as Tarquinius, Martin Ng as Junius, and David Tao Chen Ming as Collatinus. Conductor Lien Boon Hua will lead Wayfarer Sinfonietta in Britten’s exploration of power, gender, and morality.
Audience members must provide proof of vaccination and be at least 13 years old for admittance.
By David Salazar
Glyndebourne has released its recent production of Händel’s “Alcina” on its streaming platform Glyndebourne Encore.
“Alcina” stars soprano Jane Archibald stars in the title role, with Soraya Mafi as Morgana and Samantha Hankey as Ruggerio. Jonathan Cohen conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
“Alcina” was directed by Francesco Micheli.
The company also unveiled that its other productions would be released on the platform. “The Wreckers” was made available on August 1, 2022 while the Poulenc Double Bill will start streaming this October. “La Bohème” will join the digital slate strategy this November.
The Glyndebourne Encore platform currently features a wide selection of past productions including “Béatrice et Bénédict,” “Billy Budd,” “Don Giovanni,” “Così fan tutte,” “”L’Elisir d’Amore,” “Poliuto,” “Rinaldo,” “Rusalka,” “The Fairy Queen,” “Saul,” “The Rake’s Progress,” and “Vanessa,” among many others.
By Francisco Salazar
On Sept 7, 2022, the estate of Edita Gruberová will be auctioned at Dorotheum.
The Slovak soprano, who passed away in 2021, was considered the “queen of bel canto” and celebrated her international breakthrough at the Vienna State Opera in the 1970s. She went on to perform at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Bayerische Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera.
Gruberová was also a passionate collector of sheet music and photographs, autographs, and paintings. She collected a wide variety of objects, which she also liked to exhibit in her home. Mementos to which she had a personal connection were particularly valuable to Gruberová, such as the songbook of Richard Strauss, whom she greatly admired.
Her estate also includes numerous stage costumes and an unusual necklace that the soprano wore exclusively during performances as well as many of her great gowns.
Gruberová had a special fondness for works by the Viennese painter Ernst Fuchs, whom she knew well and for whom she also sat as a model.
