Florida Grand Opera delays ‘Tristan and Isolde,’ replaces with ‘Thaïs’
Margaux Herrera
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The Miami Herald
Florida Grand Opera has postponed Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde for a season and will be performing Massanet’s Thaïs in its place for the 2013-2014 season.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/23/3413448/florida-grand-opera-delays-tristan.html#storylink=cpy
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Survival Economics: Small Opera Companies Drive Change
Molly Colin
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San Francisco Classical Voice
Welcome to the world of small opera companies, where rising costs and
diminished private and public support require a constant shifting of
gears to stay viable. Some companies are reinventing themselves with
complex business models. Others are sharing productions as a way to trim
costs and increase production values. No matter what model these
companies choose, however, they’re all chasing funds to sustain
themselves.
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Is An MFA The New MBA?
Steven Tepper
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Fast Company
Organizations far and wide — perhaps even yours — will compete intensely for workers who are adaptable, resourceful, and can quickly learn and apply new skills to a variety of challenges. Where can you find such workers? One answer runs counter to much conventional wisdom: Ask an artist.
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Viktor Ullmann's opera written in Nazi concentration camp revived in Berlin
Kate Connolly
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The Guardian
It is a small operatic gem that was written under torturous
circumstances and almost failed to see the light of day when its
composer was dragged off to the gas chambers before being able to hear
it performed. But it lives on thanks to a professor of philosophy who
survived Theresienstadt concentration camp, where it was written, and
who preserved the manuscript.
Now a Berlin orchestra and an
American conductor are to revive The Emperor from Atlantis by
Czech-German composer Viktor Ullmann on a more than unusual stage – the
former headquarters of the SS and Gestapo in the German capital, known
as the Topography of Terror. "We wanted to reinforce the immediacy of
the genocide of Ullmann and whole schools of composers of that time and
this is a far more effective mise en scène than an opera house would be," said John Axelrod, the US conductor who is leading the project.
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Why are Opera Fans so Fascinated with James Levine?
Brian Wise
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WQXR
In the Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin, Wagner depicts a
vision of a Grail descending to earth. This Sunday, it will come with a
special dramatic touch: an elevating podium, which will lift conductor
James Levine and his motorized wheelchair from the stage at Carnegie
Hall.
The 69-year-old music director of the Metropolitan Opera has been
away for two years, following an accident in 2011 left him partially
paralyzed and unable to walk. Levine says he can’t wait to pick up the
baton with the Met Orchestra.
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Wagner's 200th birthday celebrated with opera singalong
Alexa Vaughn
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The Seattle Times
In the shower or in the car — with the windows rolled up — weren't
the only places amateur Seattle opera singers could perform Wednesday
night. More than 200 Seattle opera fans belted out classic Wagner pieces at
the Seattle Center Armory. The Seattle Opera's Wagner singalong
celebrated the composer's 200th birthday and the opera's upcoming August
performances of the Ring Cycle.
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'Becoming Traviata' goes behind the opera scenes with Natalie Dessay
David Ng
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Culture Monster (Los Angeles Times)
When soprano Natalie Dessay showed up for rehearsals for the 2011
production of La traviata at the annual Aix-en-Provence Festival in
France, she encountered a rather unwelcome presence — a documentary
crew with a camera that followed her around in disarming proximity.
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The Thin Lady Sings: Spanish Opera Protests Austerity
Guy Hedgecoe
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CNBC
"El crepusculo del ladrillo," or "Twilight of the brick," premiered
on Sunday in la Tabacalera, a rundown tobacco factory in downtown
Madrid, to rapturous applause. A nod to Wagner's
"Goetterdaemerung," or "Twilight of the Gods," the opera takes on
Spain's ongoing economic crisis, which started to unfold in 2008 after
the country's real estate bubble burst.
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Met Opera Dismantles Its Ballet in Buyouts
Allan Kozinn
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The New York Times
The Metropolitan Opera
has decided to disband its resident ballet company, whose roots date
back to the opera’s founding in 1883. The 8 remaining dancers of the
Metropolitan Opera Ballet, down from 16 in 2011, have accepted buyout
packages and left the company, their union confirmed.
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Opera Theatre of St. Louis announces 2014 season
Sarah Bryan Miller
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stltoday.com
The 2013 season at Opera Theatre of St. Louis opens Saturday night
with Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, but OTSL has
already announced the lineup for 2014.
It’s an enticing season,
opening with Mozart’s The Magic Flute and continuing with Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites — with an
all-star cast headed by Christine Brewer — and the world premiere of
OTSL commission Twenty-Seven, with music by Ricky Ian Gordon, starring
Stephanie Blythe as Gertrude Stein.
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Supertitles, once denounced, loom large in modern-day opera
Marcia Adair
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Los Angeles Times
The Canadian Opera Company premiered them in 1983, and since then audiences have been guided through an opera's libretto in their native tongue. Despite occasional poor translations, technical glitches and some directors' resistance to them, they have become standard and popular at almost every opera.
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Sarasota Opera announces new season
Marty Clear
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Bradenton Herald
The coming months will bring the 200th birthday of Giuseppe Verdi and
Richard Wagner and the 100th birthday of Benjamin Britten. To celebrate,
Sarasota Opera will offer works by those three giants of opera in its
recently announced 2013-14 season.
Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2013/05/19/4531204/sarasota-opera-announces-new-season.html#storylink=cp
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Placido Domingo turns Isabel Allende short story into opera
Agencia EFE
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Global Post
Under the baton of Placido Domingo, acclaimed Chilean
writer Isabel Allende's short story "Una Venganza" ("An Act of
Vengeance") emerges from the printed page as the opera "Dulce Rosa," a
production with a Latin heart and Greek tragedy in its soul that
premieres Friday in Los Angeles.
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Experiments in venue: Take me out to the … opera?
Marsha Lederman
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The Globe and Mail
As opera companies met last week in Vancouver for the annual North American opera conference, strategies like these are feeding a great sense of optimism and renewal. The fat lady is not singing. But it is imperative, these companies are hearing, to change up the tune to some extent – or at least, where (and how) you can hear it.
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Moms in Opera: Women on the Edge
Moms In Opera: Women On The Edge
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NPR
We love mothers for all the Hallmark reasons: for their compassion
and patience, not to mention giving birth. But some moms aren't exactly
greeting card friendly — and none less so than those who live in the
opera house.
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Adapting 'The Great Gatsby': Film or Opera?
Brian Wise
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WQXR
The return of The Great Gatsby to cinemas comes just as
composer John Harbison's opera adaptation from a decade ago is getting
some fresh attention in concert halls. Coincidence? It's hard to say if
the film begot the opera revivals, but here's a cheat sheet on what to
listen for in each version.
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Los Angeles Opera among recipients of new-audiences grant
David Ng
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LA Times
As the classical-music world continues to struggle with graying and
shrinking audiences, companies are experimenting with ways to attract
new crowds. On Tuesday, 13 opera companies across the nation were named
recipients of a new grant from Opera America designed to foster
attendance growth.
Based in New York, Opera America is a nonprofit
organization whose goal is to promote and raise general awareness of
opera as an art form. The group said it awarded a total of $300,000 in
grants -- ranging from $7,500 to $30,000 -- under the new program, which
is titled "Building Opera Audiences."
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OPERA America Program to Aid 13 Companies
Allan Kozzinn
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ArtsBeat (The New York Times)
Thirteen opera companies across the United States will share $300,000 in grants awarded by OPERA America in the first year of its new Building Opera Audiences program. The grants, which range from $7,500 to $30,000, are for programs meant to increase first-time opera attendance, and to increase return visits.
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Dallas Opera names Emmanuel Villaume new music director
Scott Cantrell
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The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Opera has named French conductor Emmanuel Villaume its new music director. He
was introduced by Dallas Opera General Director Keith Cerny at a news
conference Tuesday morning at the Winspear Opera House. Speaking in
charmingly accented, fluent English, Villaume praised the opera house,
the Dallas Opera Orchestra, the company staff and “the response of the
people in the house, the community.”
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Two Opera Professionals Produce Legendary Operas at Home
Staff
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Cerritos-Artesia Patch
It’s an insane idea, to produce opera at your home and expect audiences to flock to backyard performances of Così fan tutte or Don Giovanni.
But a couple of wild and crazy professionals, artistic director Josh
Shaw of Highland Park and musical director Stephen Karr of New Jersey,
have done just that. Their company, Pacific Opera Project (POP) — launched
in 2011 — aims to provide audiences with an alternative to L.A.'s
big-budget opera circuit and offer local performers a showcase for their
talent. (They even pay their artists!) A fully functioning opera
company, POP operates primarily out of Josh Shaw’s home on the border of
Eagle rock. The compound houses skeletons of sets, props and costumes
procured from studio auctions, including a pair of purple pants worn by
Jack Nicholson during his turn as the Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman.
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Why Not Have City Opera Go Home to City Center?
Anthony Tommasini
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The New York Times
Last spring, reflecting on the completion of New York City Opera’s first
season as an itinerant company bringing productions to the people in
theaters throughout the city, George Steel, its general and artistic
director, defended his decision to abandon Lincoln Center and argued
that things were going well.
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Theater's Expiring Subscription Model
Terry Teachout
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The Wall Street Journal
"I'm in the ticket-selling business. If I don't sell tickets, we shut
down. We used to do it by selling subscriptions. That gave us money up
front, and it also made it easier for me to do serious work, because
people were buying a five-show package, and they trusted me to give them
a well-chosen, wide-ranging package each year. We'd do a comedy, a new
play or two, a classical revival, maybe a couple of modern classics.
August Wilson, Tennessee Williams, that kind of thing. Sometimes they
didn't like all five. Maybe they never did. But they still went home
feeling like they'd gotten a balanced diet, they'd done their duty to
theater. And that used to matter to people. It really did. They thought
that seeing good shows made you a better person."
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Atlanta Opera Appoints Tomer Zvulun as General & Artistic Director
Staff
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broadwayworld.com
Beginning June 1, 2013, Tomer Zvulun will become the Atlanta Opera's new general and artistic director. At only 37 years old, Zvulun is hailed as a rising star in the opera industry, and has earned consistent praise for his creative vision and work in prestigious opera houses worldwide, including The Metropolitan Opera, and the opera companies of Seattle, Cleveland, Dallas, Cincinnati, Buenos Aires, Wolf Trap and more. Zvulun, an Israeli native, will manage both the artistic and administrative aspects of The Atlanta Opera.
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Opera dressers: quick, my hot towels!
Hermione Hoby
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The Guardian (U.K.)
They zip the zippers, fetch the chocolate, calm the nerves — and occasionally look after babies. Hermione Hoby spends an evening backstage with the unsung heroes of opera: the dressers.
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Interview: San Diego Opera Property Master Retires
Beth Accomando
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KPBSSanDiego
When Aida closes this weekend it not only marks the end of the San Diego Opera’s
2013 season but also the end of their property master’s 25 year career.
Go backstage with Ned W. Krumrey to see that a property master is
responsible for everything from human sacrifices to taking out the
trash.
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Supersizing a 'Sunday in the Park'
Jan Benzel
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The New York Times
What happens when you take a Stephen Sondheim chamber piece — Sunday in the Park With George — and produce it operatically, quadrupling the size of the orchestra?
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What if an Arts Organization was a MOOC?
Douglas McLennan
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Diacritical
That’s “Massive Open Online Course” and they’re everywhere right now. Some of the most prestigious universities are creating courses online and attracting tens of thousands of students.
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Fort Worth Opera announces 2014 festival
Mark Lowry
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The Star-Telegram
One day before the 2013 Fort Worth Opera Festival is to begin, the organization announced the 2014 season, its 68th. Two
of the 2014 works, both from this century, had previously been
announced: the regional premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night and the world premiere of With Blood, With Ink. The rest of the season comprises one warhorse, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Bizet's second best-known opera, The Pearl Fishers.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/04/19/4788165/fort-worth-opera-announces-2014.html#storylink=cpy
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Chicago Opera Theater, Luna Negra Dance team for rarely staged tango opera
Kyle MacMillan
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Chicago Sun-Times
Astor Piazzolla took these essential qualities of the tango and invested them with even greater depth and complexity, as he merged the traditional form with jazz and classical music and took it off the dance floor onto the concert stage.
Piazzolla’s nuevo tango style, which he pioneered in the 1950s and ’60s, became a hit with audiences of all kinds, and he remains one of the best-known composers of the 20th century.
Wishing to tap into the power and popularity of his music, Chicago Opera Theater, along with Luna Negra Dance Theater, will present the composer’s rarely performed tango opera, Maria de Buenos Aires.
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'Django Unchained' pays homage to Wagner's 'Siegfried'
David Ng
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LA Times
When Los Angeles Opera presented its new production of Richard Wagner's Siegfried a few years ago at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the packed house included the usual assortment of donors and local opera buffs. Nestled somewhere in the orchestra section was an odd man out: Quentin Tarantino, the filmmaker whose hyper-modern and manic sensibilities would seem at odds with slow-moving 19th century German opera.... Tarantino's feelings about Siegfried remain unknown, but it's safe to say his encounter with the opera eventually helped to inspire his most recent movie, Django Unchained, which is available on DVD and video-on-demand this week.
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Obama's arts budget plan goes beyond restoring 'sequester' cuts
Mike Boehm
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Culture Monster (Los Angeles Times)
President Obama’s budget proposal for the coming fiscal year would boost
federal arts spending 10% above where it stands at the moment, lifting
it to $1.58 billion for the 2013-14 budget year that begins Oct. 1 and
more than compensating for cuts from the "budget sequestration" bill
that went into effect last month.
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Rocking the Cradle of Opera: Tough Times for Florence’s Maggio Musicale
Fred Plotkin
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OperaVore (WQXR)
Ask Italophiles to name their favorite city and more than a few will
cite Florence. It seems to exert considerable fascination for foreigners
and garners respect among many Italians. Florence has made excellence
and innovation its hallmark. Most people think of it as the cradle of
the Italian Renaissance, the place where almost every great Italian
writer and artist, including Dante, Petrarch, Giotto, Brunelleschi,
Leonardo and Michelangelo, left ample evidence of their genius.
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Opera Colorado announces 2014 slimmed-down season
Claudia Carbone
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Examiner.com
Opera Colorado has announced that its 2014 season will include only two productions: Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi and Carmen by Georges Bizet. In January of this year, the company announced a reorganization with a
$1.2 million fundraising campaign that pared its offerings to two
productions instead of the usual three per season. The "Stories that
Sing" campaign has raised more than $1.3 million thus far, and donations
are being accepted at operacolorado.org/support.
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Wagner's Dark Shadow: Can We Separate the Man from His Works?
Dirk Kurbjuweit
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Der Spiegel
Born 200 years ago, Germany's most controversial composer's music is cherished around the world, though it will always be clouded by his anti-Semitism and posthumous association with Adolf Hitler. Richard Wagner's legacy prompts the question: Can Germans enjoy any part of their history in a carefree way?
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