By Tano Factotum
The Gran Teatro Nacional del Perú has announced its 2023 season.
For the purposes of this article, our focus will be solely on vocal and operatic performances.
Peruvian tenor Iván Ayón-Rivas will return to the Gran Teatro Nacional as part of the Radio Filarmonía’s annual concert. He will perform with the Bicentennial National Youth Symphony Orchestra under the baton of its director, Peruvian conductor Pablo Sabat Mindreau.
Performance Date: April 14, 2023
The Festival Granda will return with its 14th edition. This year the opera will be Puccini’s “Turandot.”
Performance Dates: May 24, 26, 28, 30, 2024
Radio Filarmonía Singing Contest will return with its 11th edition. Former winners include Peruvian tenors Dempsey Rivera (RIP) and Iván Ayón-Rivas and Mexican baritone Carlos Arámbula.
Performance Dates: October 2023
The Gran Teatro Nacional will present a new opera. Former company’s productions include Verdi’s “Alzira” in an Award-winning production by Peruvian Jean Pierre Gamarra; and Gounod’s “Faust.”
Performance Dates: TBA
The multipurpose theater has renewed its technology and software, also has purchased five vibrating vests for deaf audience members.
By Francisco Salazar
Zachary James is set to team up with voices from the West End, Broadway, and the English National Opera for a limited one-night-only event to benefit Soup Kitchen London and Maestra UK.
The evening set to be performed on March 5, 2023 at Wonderville is entitled “Some Enchanted Evening” and will feature Kelly Glyptis and Telly Leung alongside James. Laura Bergquist and Malcolm Forbes-Peckham join them.
Soup Kitchen London has served the heart of London since 1986 and provides critical support to an extraordinary number of homeless and vulnerable people. The organization has built a significant enterprise that provides healthy and nutritious food, unprecedented mental health support, clothing, and friendship for the homeless, elderly, lonely, and vulnerable throughout London.
Meanwhile, Maestra UK provides support, visibility, and community for the women and nonbinary people who make music in the UK’s musical theatre industry.
By Francisco Salazar
The Northern Ireland Opera has announced a new production of Puccini’s “Tosca,” directed by Artistic Director Cameron Menzies.
The opera, which will open at Belfast’s Grand Opera House will be performed from Sept. 9 through 16, 2023.
In a statement, Artistic Director Cameron Menzies said, “After the critical success and audience response to last year’s production of La Traviata, we are very excited to be able to bring to life a masterpiece such as Tosca by Puccini. Gathering our forces alongside the Grand Opera House, the Ulster Orchestra and showcasing the second year of commitment to the Chorus Development Program is thrilling for us as a company. Our NI Opera Chorus is becoming one of our greatest assets and allows the company to work with many NI artists to stage and perform some of the most moving music written in the operatic canon. We can’t wait to be able to share this new production with our audiences.”
Meanwhile, Ian Wilson, Grand Opera House Chief Executive added, “We are thrilled to welcome NI Opera back to their home following the sell-out success of ‘La Traviata’ last year, the fastest-selling opera on record at the Grand Opera House. Cameron Menzies is taking opera at the theatre to new heights, and we are delighted to support the company’s work.”
By Francisco Salazar
The DePaul University School of Music in Chicago has announced its slate of February performances.
Here is a look at the vocal performances of the month.
Under the direction of faculty member Eric Esparza, Director of Choral Studies, the DePaul Concert Choir and Ensemble 20+ take the stage together. The concert will be performed at the Gannon Concert Hall.
Performance Date: Feb. 11, 2023
The DePaul Baroque Ensemble, Concert Choir, and Chamber Choir combine for this concert under the direction of faculty members Jason Moy and Eric Esparza. The concert will be performed at the Gannon Concert Hall.
Performance Date: Feb. 26, 2023
By Francisco Salazar
Sempre Artists has announced that Martin Luther Clark has joined for General Management.
Clark recently created the role of CJ in the world premiere of “The Factotum” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. This season he returns to the Lyric’s stage for “Proximity,” the company’s production of three one-act operas, and returns to the Tulsa Opera. He also sings at the Aldeburgh Festival this summer.
Next season sees Martin’s return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for a role debut as well as a series of exciting company debuts at Houston Grand Opera, Portland Opera, and Madison Opera.
Sempre Artists represents such artists as Ricardo Garcia, Scott Hendricks, Hannah Ludwig, and Madison Leonard to name a few.
By David Salazar
San Francisco Opera and the Merola Opera Program have announced the 2023 Schwabacher Recital Series.
The series opens with a concert featuring soprano Meigui Zhang and pianist John Churchill as they present music in German, French, and Chinese.
Performance Date: March 1, 2023
That will be followed up by a concert featuring the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows and Merola alumni including Mikayla Sager, Gabrielle Beteag, Victor Cardamone, Edward Graves, and Marika Yasuda. The program, which includes music by Brahms, Schumann, and Monteverdi to Pauline Viardot, Nora Holt, and Ruth Crawford Seeger, was curated by Nicholas Phan.
Performance Date: March 22, 2023
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen and Carrie-Ann Matheson deliver a recital of music by Max Janowski, Erroll Garner, Maurice Ravel, and George Frideric Handel, among others.
Performance Date: April 12, 2023
The Schwabacher Recital Series comes to a close with Erin Wagner and Shawn Chang performing music by Shawn Chang, Franz Schubert, Stefanie Turkewich, Viktor Ullman, Radiohead, and Bernard Ighner as part of “Everything Must Change.”
Performance Date: May 18, 2023
By Francisco Salazar
The Santa Fe Opera will host a costume sale on Saturday, March 11, 2023 in Stieren Orchestra Hall at the Santa Fe Opera.
The sale will feature costumes, fabrics, and accessories including hats, masks, shoes, and more from past company productions, ranging in style from Baroque to Contemporary, all priced to sell.
The entry will be free and to enhance the shopping experience, reservations for specific entry times between 9:30 am and 2:30 pm are required.
Early-access sale will be held on Friday, March 10 for local theater groups, other arts organizations, and nonprofits.
In a statement, Santa Fe Opera Costume Director Blair Gulledge said, “We are excited to host this event for our community. Not only do these groups benefit from having access to these carefully crafted garments, we’re also reducing waste and making much-needed space. There will still be plenty of treasures for the public to discover on Saturday — from one-of-a-kind couture to this year’s Halloween costume, there’s something for everyone. We hope you will join us!”
By Francisco Salazar
Journalist Matthew Rye has died at the age of 60 in Madeira.
The Opera Magazine said, “deeply saddened to hear of the sudden death yesterday of our colleague Matthew Rye, aged 60, in Madeira. A valued contributor to our pages – several of his reviews are in our new issue – he was liked and respected for his writing and editorial work across many publications.”
Rye studied music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic, and editor. He wrote numerous program notes as well as booklet notes. Among other magazines, he wrote for were Daily Telegraph critic, BBC Music Magazine, The Strad, The Wagner Journal and Opera, and blogs at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk.
He was also the General Editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die and the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music.
Bachtrack also remembered Rye and said, “He was the loveliest of men, very supportive and inordinately grateful for the opportunities we gave him to review. He never used his undoubted seniority as a writer to expect plum commissions. One of my final email exchanges with him was in response to my Christmas greeting message, where he thanked us for ‘gifting [him] such a rich panoply of musical treats this year.’ It was us that should have been thanking him. A humble, gentle, brilliant man. RIP.”
By David Salazar
Famed mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke will appear at an upcoming concert presented by Music of Remembrance scheduled for March 19, 2023.
The mezzo will perform Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s “Intonations: Songs from Violins of Hope.” She will appear alongside solo violinist Mikhail Shmidt, youth violinist Zoe Lonsinger. Other instrumentalists performing on this piece include violinists Artur Girsky and Elizabeth Phelps as well as violist Susan Gulkis Assadi, and cellist Walter Gray.
“The violins bore witness to heartbreak and horrible atrocity,” said Music of Remembrance artistic director Mina Miller in an official press statement, “and yet they represent belief in a future where music, life and beauty endure. Each of the instruments has its own story to tell, but together they call out to us: ‘We were played by proud people.’”
Additionally, the concert, which will take place at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington, will also feature Joel Engel’s “The Dybbuk Suite” and Karl Weigl’s “Intermezzo for String Quintet, ‘ Revelation.’”
By Nicolas Quiroga
The Los Angeles Master Chorale has announced the next two major shows in its 2022-23 season.
First up is “Choose Something Like A Star.” The showcase, which will be directed by Artistic Director Grant Gershon, is set to take place on Feb. 12, 2023 at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
“Choose Something Like A Star” will feature must by Brahms, Schumann, Meredith Monk, and Arvo Pärt, among others. The program will also feature the a cappella piece “The Open Hand” and two world premieres: “VOYAGER” by Matthew Brown and “Alas de Noche” by Diana Syrse.
Meanwhile, “Esmail/Fauré” will feature the world premiere of a new work by Reena Esmail as well as Fauré’s Requiem in D minor.
“In this time of so much loss, I knew I wanted to write a requiem,” Esmail said in an official press statement. “But in these years of upheaval, with the loss of so much life and human connection, I’m afraid that one of the greatest continual losses is slipping through the cracks – the loss of the environment we depend on for life. This piece will be a requiem for one of our most precious and quickly diminishing resources in California: water. Built on the structure of the mass, with texts from modern poets interwoven, in a blend of musical traditions and cultures, this piece explores the powerful force of water, mourns what we have lost, and reminds us that we must still care for what we have left.”
