Jesse Blumberg News

On Site Opera (OSO) announces today that soprano Jeni Houser has been added to the cast of the North American premiere of Marcos Portugal's The Marriage of Figaro (1799).

Just four years into its existence, On Site Opera (OSO) has established itself as one of New York City's most imaginative, nimble opera companies by doing more than simply staging musically and dramatically rich works outside of the opera house.

Just four years into its existence, On Site Opera (OSO) has established itself as one of New York City's most imaginative, nimble opera companies by doing more than simply staging musically and dramatically rich works outside of the opera house. OSO's team of General & Artistic Director, Eric Einhorn, Music Director, Geoffrey McDonald, and Executive Director & Producer, Jessica Kiger have pushed the boundaries of operatic storytelling, producing operas in locations that allow singers and audiences alike to immerse themselves in the narrative. Reviewing the first chapter of The Figaro Project, in which OSO is staging lesser-known operatic adaptations of French playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais' (1732-1799) famed trilogy of Figaro plays, Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times wrote, 'This visionary company could be on to something big.' He noted that the 'space proved ideal for the intrigues of the opera.' On Site Opera continues this ambitious three-year undertaking June 14-17, when it presents the North American premiere of Marcos Portugal's The Marriage of Figaro (1799). The production, presented in partnership with The New School's Mannes School of Music and The Portuguese Consulate in New York, will take place at 632 on Hudson, a stunning triplex in the West Village that will serve as Count Almaviva's summer palace. The Figaro Project will conclude with the U.S. premiere of Darius Milhaud's The Guilty Mother (1966) in the summer of 2017.

THE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, PURCHASE COLLEGE is pleased to present APOLLO'S FIRE BAROQUE ORCHESTRA & CHORUS, performing BACH'S ST. JOHN PASSION, Bach's most dramatic and theatrical oratorio. First performed on a Good Friday nearly 300 years ago, the Passion arrives at The Center just two weeks before Easter of 2016. The performance will be Sunday, March 13, 2016 at 3:00pm in the Concert Hall at The PAC, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY 10577.  Tickets are $40-$70, on sale at 914-251-6200 and https://tickets.artscenter.org/single/eventDetail.aspx?p=5491.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Toronto, ON (January 26, 2016) – Opera Atelier's founding co-artistic directors Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg today announced the company's 2016-2017 season, featuring Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Charpentier's Medea. Both operas are derived from ancient myth and feature a powerful, complex female protagonist. The season begins in October with Dido and Aeneas (Oct. 20-29, 2016), featuring Wallis Giunta and Christopher Enns, and continues with Medea (Apr. 22-29, 2017), featuring Peggy Kriha Dye and Colin Ainsworth. Following its Toronto run, Medea will tour to the Royal Opera House at the Palace of Versailles as part of Opera Atelier's engagement to perform there every two years.

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion for American opera, announces the details for the New Opera Showcase, taking place on Monday, January 18 at 8:00 p.m. at historic Trinity Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. The Showcase offers artists, producers and audiences a unique opportunity to hear some of the most exciting operas being composed today.

American Classical Orchestra presents J.S Bach's St. John Passion, conducted by Thomas Crawford, on Tuesday, November 3 at 8:00PM at Alice Tully Hall with renowned tenor Rufus Muller as the Evangelist, making a return engagement in Bach's beloved St. John Passion Members of the American Classical Orchestra Chorus will be featured in the solo arias. Bach's two surviving passions, the St. Matthew and the St. John, have become the bedrock of our western classical music canon. The passion offers compelling musical representations of the gospel story in graphic detail and timeless expanse. In the St. John, Bach's instrumental pallet is unique, employing now legendary solos for flute, 'hunting oboes', and Bach's most haunting solo for the viol da gamba.

Brooklyn Art Song Society launces into its sixth season with part one of Britannica, its ambitious six-concert survey of British song.

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) is excited to open its 2014-2015 season with two presentations of "A BANNER BICENTENNIAL: 200 Years of American Song." In its second collaboration with The Casement Fund Song Series, 5BMF will present this brand new program of American Song in two historic NYC venues: Flushing Town Hall in Queens, and Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan.

WASHINGTON)—Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced details for the fourth season of the American Opera Initiative, its comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. Three pairings of new opera composers and librettists—Christopher Weiss and John de los Santos, David Clay Mettens and Joshua McGuire, and Sarah Hutchings and Mark Sonnenblick—will premiere new one-act operas, each based on a contemporary American story, in a semi-staged concert performance on December 2, 2015 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Composer Luna Pearl Woolf and librettist Caitlin Vincent, an alumnus of the program's second season, will present their new hour-long work Better Gods—based on the life of Queen Lili'uokalani, the last monarch of Hawaii—on January 8 and 9, 2016 in the Terrace Theater.

Brooklyn Art Song Society launces into its sixth season with part one of Britannica, its ambitious six-concert survey of British song.

Five Boroughs Music Festival's 2014-2015 season concludes on Monday, June 29th with the virtuosic vocal ensemble EKMELES, presented at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in Manhattan. These master interpreters of avant garde vocal music, led by director and baritone Jeffrey Gavett, will join with musicians from TILT Brass and the loadbang ensemble in a thrilling program of works for brass and voice.

Five Boroughs Music Festival's 2014-2015 Season continues in March with the genre- blurring "rock recital", GUNS N' ROSENKAVALIER! With arrangements by composer John Glover and baritone Andrew Wilkowske and English lyrics by Kelley Rourke, "Guns N' Rosenkavalier" melds art song with rock song, resulting in musical mashups spanning the works of Kate Bush and Brahms, REM and Strauss, and more.

As part of its major concert series downtown, Musiqa presents Myths & Legends, an exciting, premiere-filled concert at Zilkha Hall tonight, January 10, 2015 at 7:30 PM.

As part of its major concert series downtown, Musiqa presents Myths & Legends, an exciting, premiere-filled concert at Zilkha Hall on January 10, 2015 at 7:30 PM.

Five Boroughs Music Festival's 2014-2015 Season continues in late October with baroque specialists AERIS (www.aerismusic.com), to be presented in three different boroughs over three days.

Five Boroughs Music Festival's 2014-2015 Season continues in late October with baroque specialists AERIS (www.aerismusic.com), to be presented in three different boroughs over three days.

American Opera Projects and LivelyWorks present Two Premieres and a Reunion, a special evening of music by composer Conrad Cummings tonight, September 10th, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. at The National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, Manhattan.

Due to popular demand, American Opera Projects and LivelyWorks have added a second performance of Two Premieres and a Reunion, a special evening of music by composer Conrad Cummings Wednesday September 10th, 2014. The second performance will take place at 9:00 p.m., immediately after the initial 7:30 p.m. performance. Both performances will be held at The National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, Manhattan.

Five Boroughs Music Festival (5BMF) is excited to open its 2014-2015 season with two presentations of "A BANNER BICENTENNIAL: 200 Years of American Song." In its second collaboration with The Casement Fund Song Series, 5BMF will present this brand new program of American Song in two historic NYC venues: Flushing Town Hall in Queens, and Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan.