Artist of the Week: Sabina Puértolas

(Credit: Jan Verseweyveld) Germany’s Ruhrtriennale has named Ivo van Hove its Artistic Director from 2024 to 2026. The Belgian theatre director and artistic director of the International Theater Amsterdam will succeed the current artistic director Barbara Frey on Nov. 1, 2023. The state’s Minister for Culture, Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, introduced...

The Metropolitan Opera has announced a cast change for its production of “Lucia di Lammermoor.”. The company noted that Christian Van Horn will replace Matthew Rose for the May 17 and 21 performances in the role of Raimondo. Van Horn took to social media and noted, “Surprised and humbled...

Germany’s Theater Bonn has announced its 2022-23 season. Here are the operatic productions this season. Kurt Weill’s “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny” will star Susanne Blattert, Martin Koch, Giorgos Kanaris, Natalie Karl, Matthias Klink, Mark Morouse, and Tobias Schabel. Dirk Kaftan conducts the production by Volker Lösch.

London’s Arcola Theatre has announced the 2022 edition of the Grimeborn Festival. It kicks off with “L’Incoronazione di Poppea” in a production featuring Emseble OrQuesta. Performance Dates: July 26 -30, 2022. Pablo Sorozábal’s “Black, El Payaso” will be presented by The Cervantes Theatre....

The Bayerische Staatsoper has announced a cast change for its production of “Der Rosenkavalier”. The company noted that tenor Josh Lovell will step in as the Italian singer for the performance on May 15 replacing Galeano Salas. Lovell is an ensemble member with the Wiener Staatsoper and the winner...

On April 21, soprano Renate Holm died at the age of 90. Born in Berlin on August 10, 1931, the soprano decided to become an opera singer at age 12, when she saw a film version of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” with Maria Cebotari. In 1943, women with...

Jonas Kaufmann has expressed concern for the future of the opera world. The tenor, who is one of the biggest box office draws in the world, told the Age in an interview while performing “Lohengrin” at Opera Australia, “the pandemic has been an ‘existential’ crisis” for opera.”

The Handel and Haydn Society has announced its 2022-23 season featuring important vocal performances. The season opens an all-Bach program at Symphony Hall. Bernard Labadie conducts The Glories of Bach with featured soloist soprano Lauren Snouffer, countertenor Cody Bowers, tenor Andrew Haji, and bass Michael Sumuel. Performance Dates: Oct. 7...

The Madison Opera in Wisconsin has announced its 2022-23 season featuring three productions. The season opens with Strauss’ “Salome” starring Amanda Majeski, Craig Irvin, Dennis Petersen, Lauren Decker, and Chaz’men Williams-Ali. John DeMain conducts the production by Keturah Stickann. Performance Dates: Nov. 4 & 6, 2022.

The San Francisco Symphony is set to present Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex” and “Symphony of Psalms” on June 10-12, 2022. The showcase will be conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and staged by Peter Sellars, in the first of a four-year collaboration during which the director will mount four large-scale productions between 2022-25.

The Curtis Institute has appointed four composers to its faculty. The composers include Nick DiBerardino, Amy Beth Kirsten, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and Steven Mackey. They will begin their respective tenures during the 2022-23 school year. The quartet will all work with Curtis students and current faculty member Richard Danielpour to...

Soprano Dawn Upshaw is set to present “Dido Reimagined” at the Soraya in Los Angeles on April 20, 2023. The soprano will take the stage with the Brentano String Quartet to present a program featuring music by such composers as Purcell, Locke, Dowland, Tomkins, Byrd, and Johnson. Moreover, Purcell’s famed rendition of the Dido myth will be paired by a new work by Melinda Wagner entitled “Dido Reimagined.”

The American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) is joining forces with the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) in a new partnership. The goal is for the two unions to work together to strengthen their partnership; the two organizations first partnered in 2020 when they worked on the Expert Medical Advisory Panel for the AGMA/SDC Return to Stage and Performing Arts Playbook.

On May 27, 2022, Death of Classical and The Green-Wood Cemetery will present “Hot Dogs, Hooch, & Handel.”. The event will feature several hot dog vendors, a selection of local spirits, and a performance of works by George Frideric Händel. Baroque ensemble directed by Elliot Figg at the...

(Credit: Sarah Katharina) Elīna Garanča has opened up about the #Metoo movement openly criticizing the effects in a new interview with the telegraph. Ahead of her performances at the Royal Opera House in a new production of “Samson et Dalila,” the mezzo told the publication she was shocked there were no more dirty jokes and no more compliments.

Over the past few days, the Asian Opera Alliance has released the results of its look into diversity of casting at major American Opera companies for the 2022-23. The study takes a look at casting for such companies as the Metropolitan Opera, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Portland Opera, Seattle Opera, Tulsa Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, The Dallas Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and the Richard Tucker Foundation.

(Image Copyright www.peterrigaud.com) The Latvian National Symphony has announced that 22-year-old conductor Tarmo Peltokoski will be its new music and artistic director. The Finnish maestro started off his career at age 14, working with conductor Jorma Panulu. In 2017, he debuted with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen where, earlier this year, he was named the ensemble’s first-ever principal guest conductor.

Mezzo-soprano Guadalupe Peraza and the American Classical Orchestra will return to Harlem Parish to finally perform “Revisit: The Chaconne Project” in person on June 22, 2022 at 7 p.m. Originally, the live premiere was to take place on Feb. 3, 2022, but was postponed due to the Omnicron...

The Metropolitan Opera is set to revive Philip Glass’s “Akhnaten.”. The production will return for six performances from May 19 to June 10, 2022 after the production won a Grammy Award. When the production premiered in 2019 OperaWire said, “Anthony Roth Costanzo, Zachary James Lead The Best Met...

On May 21, soprano Albina Shagimuratova will perform at the Mariinsky Theatre, a theater run by pro-Putin supporter Valery Gergiev. The soprano, who recently canceled concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Zaradye Hall in Moscow, will perform alongside pianist Irina Soboleva in a recital of music by Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff.