Tabla de contenidos para Summer 2024 en Opera Now

Until recently, conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya’s name would have been little known among UK opera lovers. But over the past year especially, through her collaborations with ENO – first with Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs and most recent with Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle – she has shown herself to be a serious artist with a vital voice. Jessica Duchen meets her for this month’s cover story, where Yankovskaya speaks so honestly and candidly about her experiences as a young musician, leader of Chicago Opera Theater, founding the Refugee Orchestra Project and as a woman conductor. The past few years have seen some significant movements within opera’s management roles, with creatives such as this issue’s Lila Palmer and Robin Norton-Hale taking on directorship of New Orlean’s Opera and English Touring Opera respectively. Then…

The Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel will collaborate with Deaf West Theatre at the Barbican to present Beethoven’s Fidelio on 3 June. A cast from Deaf West Theatre, with the White Hands Choir of Venezuela, will perform Beethoven’s only opera through sign language. Founded in Los Angeles in 1991, Deaf West Theatre, led by DJ Kurs, is the artistic bridge between the Deaf and hearing worlds, and has received five Tony Awards for its work. This collaboration was conceived by Dudamel with director Alberto Arvelo to explore this opera’s themes of freedom and the fight to overcome adversity.…

The programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival will include Opéra Comique’s production of Bizet’s Carmen with Gaëlle Arquez in the title role, and Komische Oper Berlin’s production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov. The National Museum of Scotland’s Grand Gallery will host Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, performed by the Scottish Opera with a 100-strong community chorus from across Scotland, and Strauss’ final opera Capriccio will act as the finale on 25 August, with a cast including Malin Byström, Sebastian Kohlhepp and Dame Sarah Connolly.…

SONYA YONCHEVA & DOMINGO HINDOYAN Opera and family life – we profile the husband-and-wife duo continuing to take the opera world by storm as they celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. From Yoncheva’s return to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in July after a four-year absence to Hindoyan’s strides as chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, they share insight into life as a musical couple and upcoming collaborations ALSO… Ella Taylor – The British soprano on their journey from BBC Chorister of the Year to the Dutch National Opera Missy Mazzoli – Previewing the American opera composer’s new work for her hometown company, Opera Philadelphia History of Oedipus Rex – Looking at the story of Stravinsky’s opera-oratorio as Scottish Opera uses the the Grand Gallery as the setting…

There’s a certain ‘bug’ that descends on anyone that has ever been to the Verbier Festival. I remember at music college that musicians would return from three weeks at the Swiss mountain town’s renowned programme able to speak of little else. We’d tease them, taking a tally for every time ‘Verbier’ was mentioned in conversation. I went to the Festival last summer for the first time, initially sceptical about the attraction of the place and the judgments of grandeur I had surrounding it. Arriving at the ski hotel that would become my base on the high street, it felt as if I had descended into a dreamland. Morning coffee on my room’s balcony, looking across to the snow-capped mountains, followed by wondering up the town’s high street, complete with cafes,…

I’m walking down Hackney’s Mare Street on what feels like the first day of spring, albeit in February. There’s a tangible sense of hope in the air and I’m on my way to meet Robin Norton-Hale, the general director of English Touring Opera since July 2022. We sit down in a window seat; she’s on her lunch break from tech rehearsals for Manon Lescaut which, she tells me, is going smoothly under Jude Christian’s masterful directorship. Norton-Hale is an accomplished creative of many talents, making waves in her directing and writing ventures, and yet she also emits a quiet pride and confidence in her abilities to facilitate a collaborative creative process with her chosen team. ‘It seems so obvious that it’s almost not worth stating, but my one set of…

2002 – Ariadne auf Naxos – Strauss An interesting choice for an opening salvo, as Strauss’ opera has a small orchestra and consequently lighter scoring, so there really is nowhere to hide. Pappano paced the work to perfection, described in these pages as ‘a great Straussian performance, at once sharp and lyrical’, adding ‘this augurs well for the future’. Christof Loy’s complex production set the piece in a Park Lane triplex, complete with lift, and the cast included a scintillating Zerbinetta, Marlis Petersen, and the intense Composer of Sophie Koch, who between them stole the show from under the nose of Petra Lang’s turgid Ariadne. 2005 – Die Walküre– Wagner An early Wagner performance sums up the energy and passion that Pappano generally brought to the composer. Keith Warner’s production…

I would go a lot further than the Wigmore to hear Lucy Crowe singing, so two concerts three days apart were never going to be much of a hardship. The first was with David Bates and La Nuova Musica, his meaty little band (four horns!) who bookended Crowe’s five concert arias with two Sturm und Drang symphonies, the Mozart K183 very hard-driven and Haydn’s Trauer rather more forgiving, with that heavenly slow movement. Mozart wrote about 46 concert arias, so many of them will always be pleasantly unfamiliar. Some are little exercises (the K78 ‘Per pietà’, probably written as a child in London, an elegantly poised opera seria piece), some pure showoffery, but all with something of considerable interest. At their best they are proper little scenas, almost mini-operas that…

Seattle Opera, USA Anthony Davis and the Davis family’s 1985 opera X: The Life & Times of Malcolm X opened its six-performance run in Seattle Opera’s McCaw Hall on 24 February. The first opera by a Black composer to reach Seattle Opera’s stage, it arrived in Robert O’Hara’s new, enlightening futurist production after debuts by the production’s other three co-commissioners: Detroit Opera, Omaha Opera and New York’s Metropolitan Opera. It’s easy to imagine why X was dismissed and quickly faded from view after its 1986 premiere at New York City Opera. Thulani Davis’ libretto, to a story by Christopher Davis, is raw and explicitly unapologetic (as well it should be) in its unflinching condemnation of American racism and brutality. Malcolm is surrounded at every public appearance by White reporters (Allison…

Do you know your Verdi from your Wagner? Test your wits in this month’s set of fiendish questions for the dedicated opera buff (with a clue or two in the pictures) 1 What is Charpentier’s sequel to Louise? 2 In La bohème, what does Marcello do for a living?  3 What is the title of Rossini’s opera based on the fairy tale Cinderella? 4 Unscramble this director: ORSZZFTKY IROWYSAKLKV. 5 Which is the odd one out: Carlyle, Cross, Fontaine, Hammond. 6 Whose opening line is ‘Allein! Weh, ganz allein’. (Alone, alas, all alone)? 7 In the 2022-23 season, which opera had the most productions worldwide? 8 Anna Bolena, Giovanna Grey and Colonel Fairfax are all imprisoned in which fortress? 9 Make a rich tomato broth containing octopus and several types of…

Artistic director of Garsington Opera Douglas Boyd has extended his contract with the company for the next five years. Partner ensembles, the Philharmonia Orchestra and The English Concert, have also agreed to continue their partnerships with the company. Executive director Nicola Creed said, ‘We look forward to creating many more memorable productions and are thrilled to be continuing our partnerships with our two world-class orchestras.’ Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan has been named as the recipient of the prestigious Academy Fellowship by The Ivors Academy. Regarded as the highest accolade bestowed by The Ivors, the Academy Fellowship recognises exceptional compositional prowess, profound impact and enduring musical legacy. YouTube channel Classics Explained has relaunched with a new series of animated videos, including its latest retelling of Bizet’s Carmen. Started during the…

International opera soprano and educator Jane Irwin has been appointed head of vocal performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS). Irwin will join the RCS in April from her current role as professor of singing at the Royal Northern College of Music. Her career has taken her all over the UK, Europe and America, from New York’s Carnegie Hall to London’s Royal Opera House. Speaking about the appointment, she said: ‘I just landed my dream job! It will be a privilege to work alongside such experienced and talented teachers, helping to nurture the next generation of singers in the safe and stimulating environment that the RCS provides.’…

‘Prima le parole, e poi la musica.’ First the words then the music, to misquote Salieri, had been opera’s modus operandi until Richard Wagner wrapped his arms around the form and convinced Europe and North America that the composer genius was the arbiter of dramatic truth, much to the detriment of dramaturgy for the next century and a half. But the pendulum seems to be swinging back towards specialism. As the opera community attempts to expand the voices and perspectives on stages, it amplifies and trains ever more new librettists each year. A recent survey by American Lyric Theater counted more than 40 companies training or developing librettists in North America alone. This number reflects a sea change in both the volume of new operas being created and in opportunities…

Few musicians can claim to have conducted more than 40 world premieres by the age of 38. Step forward Lidiya Yankovskaya, the outgoing music director of Chicago Opera Theater and named Chicagoan of the Year for 2020, when the Chicago Tribune praised her as ‘the very model of how to survive adversity, and also how to thrive in it’. In her seven years in post, despite the onslaught of disruptive world events – maybe even because of them – she has spearheaded initiatives that variously cultivate new opera makers, female and diverse conductors and composers, and a new generation of artistic leaders. She made her London debut in 2023, conducting Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs in a rare staging at English National Opera; earlier this year she returned for two…

Few people have studied or worked in so many aspects of opera as Paul Carr. A one-time vocal student at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, he also took a course in theatre and lighting design, then spent the bulk of his career – some 35 years in all – in stage management. More recently came a move into stage direction: in the last year or two engagements have included working on shows for Dorset Opera (Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, The Magic Flute), the Nederlandse Reisopera in Holland (Powder Her Face) and at the historic Teatru Manoel in Valletta (Rossini’s Armida). During much of this time, too, Carr has composed, prolifically and successfully: choral works especially, but also orchestral and chamber pieces. This summer there’s a new…

Teatro Regio di Parma Gala Verdiana A rriving in Parma on Verdi’s birthday, 10 October, was the spectacular ‘Gala Verdiana’, commemorating the maestro’s 210th birthday. The celebration had been elevated from previous less-remarkable recitals of a few singers to a major gala with a large orchestra, sharing the stage with a full chorus, and parade of singers. Luciano Messi, superintendent of the Teatro Regio, wanted to restore the ‘gala’ aspect of the evening. Huge photos of Verdi, showing his Sant’Agata home, inside and out, including the piano where he composed many operas, were projected during the event. This gala was also a fundraiser to save Sant’Agata from the auction block. The concert itself was emotional, with big voices at full-throttle, but lacked shading and finesse, with a couple of artists…

Giacomo Puccini – La fanciulla del West For its spring festival, Opéra de Lyon gambled on a pair of new productions featuring works that both hinge on crucial card games. If Tatjana Gürbaca’s take on La fanciulla del West plays it safe, the stakes are higher in Timofey Kulyabin’s audacious bid in a provocative Pique Dame, where bold risks largely pay off. Puccini’s spaghetti western doesn’t enjoy the popularity it deserves; it is arguably his most symphonically scored opera, but it lacks a real ‘hit tune’. It also has a large cast of comprimario roles and is difficult for a director to choreograph, but Gürbaca gives it a decent shot. Set in a mining camp during the 1849 Gold Rush, the opera is usually translated as The Girl of the…

Do I Bark Like a Dog?: How an Italian Family History Shaped a Boy in London by Michael Volpe Renard Press Michael Volpe, the much admired founding director of Opera Holland Park, which he ran from 1996 to 2020, now directs the innovative ‘If Opera’ company based in Wiltshire. Volpe previously wrote Noisy at the Wrong Times, a memoir of how he emerged from an impoverished Italian immigrant family on a Fulham housing estate to contribute mightily to the London opera scene. This time his investigation is focused on identity, on how Italianità impacted his achievement in music theatre. Volpe and company proved that Mascagni’s Iris, Cilea’s L’arlesiana and Montemezzi’s Love of the Three Kings were more than mere staged hysteria. Devoid of literary airs, Volpe’s prose expresses a passion…

Meeting the producer of Welsh National Opera’s successful wellness programme, which uses the power of singing to support individuals with chronic health conditions Can you explain what you do at WNO? I’m a producer in the programmes and engagement department. My remit is particularly arts and health, and the programme ‘Wellness with WNO’ falls under that. I produce programmes, projects and pilots that engage people with a particular focus around health and well-being with WNO. What is Wellness with WNO? The long Covid programme is a national initiative in partnership with the seven NHS Wales health boards, covering different geographical areas. It’s an arts and health programme whereby the NHS refers people from the long Covid rehab service to us at WNO, and we run a six-week programme. It’s online…

What can you tell us about the work of Deaf West? Deaf West Theatre, renowned for its innovative and boundary-pushing productions, has been a force in integrating Deaf culture and American Sign Language (ASL) with the performing arts. Our work transcends the conventional limitations of theatre to create fully accessible performances that equally engage Deaf and hearing audiences. What would you like hearing opera audiences to know about the Deaf world? For hearing opera audiences, it’s important to understand that the Deaf world is rich with its own culture, language, and artistic expressions. Deaf individuals experience music and performances in profoundly different but equally meaningful ways, through visual and tactile sensations, and through the nuanced, expressive power of ASL. Recognising and appreciating these differences can broaden one’s perspective on music,…

When I was younger, starting to get the chance to see live opera regularly, I presumed that the more radical a production, the more likely I was to enjoy it. Most of the time, I would have the score for a particular work lodged to a respectable degree in my head. The thought of some smart individual putting relevant but contextually new scenery on it was thrilling. Sometimes, I confess, I would allow the nuances of character interaction and development to occupy less headspace than the general world being presented on stage. It wasn’t long before that attitude started to erode. With all respect to later generations, when you’ve seen everything you can see on various international opera stages for 20 years – and I still see far less than…

‘The language of Italian is the language of legato!’ Riccardo Muti is in fine form, holding forth in a lecture-concert about Bellini’s Norma, the chosen opera for the latest edition of his Italian Opera Academy. We’re at the stylish Fondazione Prada in Milan, which is an institution dedicated to contemporary art and culture, but the 82-year-old conductor is dedicated to preserving something much older: Italian opera. It was while being interviewed at the Salzburg Festival last summer that he bemoaned the state of opera and how conductors are marginalised in a system where ‘stage directors have now become the gods’. Some years ago, Muti decided that he wanted to devote more time to young students, to pass on the knowledge he has acquired over a long career in the orchestra…

Dutch National Opera, The Netherlands A sell-out run of Dutch National Opera’s ‘Opera Forward Festival’ centred around the world premiere of American composer Ellen Reid’s work The Shell Trial. Based on the play De zaak Shell by Anoek Nuyens and Rebekka de Wit with Frascati Producties and De Nwe Tijd, The Shell Trial represents the multiple voices encircling the climate debate. The idea stems from an ongoing high-profile Dutch legal dispute, holding oil giant Shell responsible for its contribution to climate change. In their opera, Ellen Reid, along with librettist and collaborator Roxie Perkins, masterfully conveyed these multiple voices. They collaborated once before to create the acclaimed opera prism (2018) and the impact of The Shell Trial is testament to their creative synergy. The opera begins with a plea from…

Gothenburg Opera Wagner – The Flying Dutchman Wagner’s Ring looms large over the Gothenburg Opera’s new production of The Flying Dutchman. Seat-pinning singing, idiomatic playing and fluid conducting all suggest the company’s recent staging of the cycle has left a musical mark. Director Alessandro Talevi’s belief that Wagner’s uneven early work adumbrates the Ring’s central theme of human greed at environmental expense is less convincing, while his underlining of the text’s misogyny plays havoc with the transformative love on which the opera’s climax hinges. Talevi serves up some potent home truths concerning toxic masculinity’s contribution to societal rot. Here, Daland’s oil worker heavies have only inflatable sex-dolls for company on their rig, which anticipates the crudeness of their behaviour on shore. All the womenfolk can do, confined like Barbies to…

Show Me The Way Will Liverman Cedille CDR 90000 226 In the Shadows Michael Spyres Erato 5419787982 L’esule di Roma Donizetti Opera Rara ORC64 Il barbiere di Siviglia Rossini Unitel/C Major 765404 Samson et Dalila Saint-Saëns Opus Arte OA1371D Die Walküre Wagner Naxos NBD0158V CDs and digital Show Me The Way Liverman is a youthful baritone who has made the big-time at the Met, winning plaudits for the lead roles in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Up in My Bones and Anthony Davis’s X: the Life and Times of Malcolm X. This is his second solo album and features pieces by composers old and new. It opens with ‘You Showed Me the Way’ by the young Ella Fitzgerald among others, arranged here with arresting dissonance by pianist Jonathan King and dispatched suavely…

Performance runs starting in April and running to June 2024. Listings are in alphabetical order by city within each country heading. M = Matinee performance. Comprehensive Worldwide Listings are available at www.operabase.com UNITED KINGDOM CARDIFF WELSH NATIONAL OPERA wno.org.uk Il trittico | Puccini JUN 15, 18, 20, 22M Conductor Carlo Rizzi Stage director David McVicar CAST Suor Angelica: Suor Angelica Alexia Voulgaridou La Zia Principessa Justina Gringyte Gianni Schicchi: Lauretta Vuvu Mpofu La Ciesca Sioned Gwen Davies Il tabarro: Luigi Leonardo Caimi Il Tinca Dan Norman Giorgetta Alexia Voulgaridou GLASGOW SCOTTISH OPERA scottishopera.org.uk La traviata | Verdi Conductor Stuart Stratford Stage director David McVicar Revival director Leo Castaldi Set designer Tanya McCallin CAST Violetta Valéry Hye-Youn Lee Alfredo Germont Ji-Min Park  Flora Bervoix Lea Shaw Gastone Monwabisi Lindi LONDON NEW SUSSEX OPERA newsussexopera.org…