Verdi News

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theaters around the world, continues Saturday, Feb.

Utah Opera Company production of Verdi's "Rigoletto" will open Pittsburgh Opera's next season at the Benedum in October.

A Gencer, Lazzarini, Gatta; Bergonzi, Zanasi; Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, De Fabritiis.

Ugly dumpling Maria Callas lost almost a hundred pounds and transformed herself into a beautiful diva.

Imperious a Naomi O'Connell as Sharon Graham and Tyne Daly as Maria Callas in Master Class at the Vaudeville Theatre, London.

Nicola Luisotti has been appointed Music Director of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy, effective immediately.

Well, the singing, most of it anyway, was very good. On Thursday the Met revived Ernani , the fifth of Verdi's 28 operas.

Yannick Nezet-Seguin's doesn't take over the mantel of chief conductor until later this year, but he has been already putting his stamp of the Philadelphia Orchestra in the months leading up to it.

Reyna Carguill and Calvin Lee, accompanied by local pianist Brenda Raabe, will appear in concert Sunday afternoon, Feb.

Although maestro Fabio Mechetti will remain with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra for part of the 2013-14 season, next season will be the last season for which he is fully engaged in planning and conducting.

In an era of overthinking directors, intricate stage movements and concept productions that transport operas through time and locale, there is an argument for Verdi the way it used to be.

Cellist Julie Albers will be the guest soloist with Symphony Syracuse for its "Triumphiant Tchaikovsky" concert in May at Crouse Hinds Theater in the John H. Mulroy Civic Center Hometown Big Band" will bring together the symphony and the Stan Colella Orchestra for a performance of big-band hits, including "Back Beat Boogie," "Take the A Train," and ... (more)

The Delaware Valley Opera is hosting its 2012 season-opening fundraiser by bringing highlights of Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto." Soloists Francisco Perez-Abreu, Evelyn Thatcher, Alexander Caraballo, Jeremy Griffin and Caroline Tye will be featured in the show, with piano by Violetta Zabbi and direction by Carol Castel.

One of them is Alice's Tea Cup, on W. 73rd St., where her drink of choice is the chocolate chai brew.

This is a fine production by the Seattle Opera that should not be missed. Sorry, but I simply have to take issue with the naysayers who hate Seattle Opera placing its current production of Verdi's Attila in modern times.

Baritone Dmitry Hvorostovsky returns to New York's Metropolitan Opera in beginning of February as King Carlos in Verdi's opera "Ernani." Russian baritone Dmitry Hvorostovsky, left, performing with the Hermitage Ensemble at Moscow's International House of Music.

Manhattanites paused to stare at a familiar free show: ladies in low necks and long skirts, and men in top hats and white ties, all piling out of limousines and taxicabs at the musty, brownstone Metropolitan Opera House.

The Fredonia Shakespeare Club held its 12th regular meeting of the 2011-2012 year on Jan.

The annual award, which carries a $50,000 prize, was announced Monday. It is given to singers from 25-40. Meade sings Elvira on Thursday in the opening of the Met's revival of Verdi's "Ernani," the role she sang for her company debut in 2008.

The year was 1839, and a young, unknown Italian composer was having his first opera produced at La Scala.