Javier Camarena News

Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) is perhaps the most famous 'opera buffa'- an informal style of comic opera developed to appeal to the lower classes in the early 18th Century.

One of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation's annual gala returns home to New York's Carnegie Hall for the first time in more than a quarter of a century on Sunday, October 30.

21C MEDIA GROUP just released its season preview of opera, vocal and choral music for 2016-17. Scroll down for details!

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance has appointed Patricia Barretto as the new Executive Vice President, External Affairs effective immediately. After joining the Harris Theater executive team as Vice President of Marketing & Communications in 2015, Ms. Barretto's role will expand to oversee both the Marketing and Development departments.

Point/counterpoint: As if to set off its trio of Elizabethan tragedies by Donizetti, the Met is presenting two of the master's comedies. First up: DON PASQUALE, and it was a pip. (The other is L'ELISIR D'AMORE.) Too bad the Met underestimated its appeal, because it had a truncated run of only five performances. Judging by the audience reception, they could have done more--certainly if tenor Javier Camarena was at bat.

The International Opera Awards are pleased to announce the shortlist for this year's Awards. These were selected by the jury chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and classical music critic with The Daily Telegraph.

Donizetti's comedy Don Pasquale will return to the Met March 4 for a starry revival featuring Ambrogio Maestri in his first-ever performances of the title role, opposite Javier Camarena, who caused a sensation in his 2014 Met appearances in La Cenerentola, as the lovelorn Ernesto. Italian soprano Eleonora Buratto will make her Met debut as the bewitching Norina, opposite Levente Molnár as the two-faced physician, Dr. Malatesta. Maurizio Benini conducts Otto Schenk's 2006 production.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2016-17 season, the 50th anniversary of its home at Lincoln Center, will feature 225 opera performances of 26 operas in a varied repertory that ranges from 18th century masterpieces to one of the most acclaimed operas in recent years. Repertoire for the company's 132nd season will include the Met premiere of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's 2000 opera L'Amour de Loin, as well as new stagings of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Rossini's Guillaume Tell, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Dvo?ak's Rusalka, and Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. A gala concert on May 7, 2017 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the company's Lincoln Center location with performances by opera's leading stars honoring the Met's past and future. Ticket prices will not increase, remaining the same as in the current season, and audience development programs instituted by the company in recent years will continue.  

The audited financial results for San Francisco Opera's 2013–14 season (FY14) were announced today by San Francisco Opera Association President Keith Geeslin: a deficit of $348,244 on an operating budget of $74,119,493. The Company's 91st season presented eight main stage works at the War Memorial Opera House in addition to numerous concerts, recitals, workshops and community engagement events attracting more than 271,954 individuals.

For the second time in two seasons, casting has made me reconsider a Met production that I'd written off as past its expiration date. The first was Diana Damrau and Javier Camarena in Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA. This time around it's the wonderful Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, who breathed new life into the Willy Decker LA TRAVIATA. She's a marvel, both as an actress and a singer.

Donizetti's MARIA STUARDA is a chamber piece blown up to grand opera proportions. That was the takeaway from the new production--that centers on a fictional battle royal between Elizabeth I (Elisabetta) and her cousin Mary (Maria) Stuart, better known as Mary, Queen of Scots--at Barcelona's historic opera house, the Liceu. It stars the sensational Maria of American mezzo Joyce DiDonato, the highly charged Elisabetta of Spanish mezzo Silvia Tro Santafé and Mexican tenor Javier Camarena's sonorous Roberto.

“The party's over,” wrote Betty Comden & Adolph Green in BELLS ARE RINGING. “It's time to call it a day.” The opera season at the Metropolitan said its farewells to 2013-2014 on May 10 with a bel canto doubleheader of Rossini's LA CENERENTOLA (a shot heard round the world via radio and The Met's LIVE IN HD) and Bellini's IL PURITANI--not a bad swan song, considering the singing talent involved.

When the Met's production of LA CENERENTOLA, Rossini's version of the Cinderella story. arrives in movie theatres around the world next week, the star for many will be tenor Juan Diego Florez as the prince. But he didn't make it to the first three performances of the opera this season in New York--not that we got short-changed in the matter. Mezzo Joyce DiDonato was there in the title role, as scheduled, with her wonderfully sung, deeply felt portrayal and, as the prince, was Javier Camarena, the Met's own Cinderella man.

She has become a favorite at the Metropolitan Opera, earning accolades for every role she attempts. Mezzo Joyce DiDonato returns to end this opera season with her first La Cenerentola, and the reviews are glorious.

Mezzo-soprano star Joyce DiDonato will sing her first Met performances of one of her signature roles, the winsome heroine of Rossini's adaptation of the Cinderella story, La Cenerentola, beginning April 21.

Javier Camarena will sing the role of Prince Ramiro in the season's three initial performances of Rossini's La Cenerentola on April 21, 25, and 28, replacing Juan Diego Flórez, who is ill. Flórez is scheduled to return for the three final performances of the opera, on May 2, May 6, and the May 10 matinee, which will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series.

It's always reassuring when a change of cast--in this case soprano Diana Damrau and tenor Javier Camarena in wonderful performances--transforms a truly terrible production into an exciting night at the opera. But that's exactly what happened with the revival of Bellini's LA SONNAMBULA at the Met last week.

Diana Damrau will add a new role to her extensive repertory when she sings her first-ever performances of Amina, the title character in Bellini's bel canto showpiece La Sonnambula. Last season, Damrau made an acclaimed role debut as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata in a sold-out series of performances at the Met. La Sonnambula, which opens tonight, March 14 in a revival of Mary Zimmerman's 2009 production, will be conducted by Marco Armiliato and also star rising Mexican tenor Javier Camarena as Elvino and Italian bass Michele Pertusi as Rodolfo.

Diana Damrau will add a new role to her extensive repertory when she sings her first-ever performances of Amina, the title character in Bellini's bel canto showpiece La Sonnambula. Last season, Damrau made an acclaimed role debut as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata in a sold-out series of performances at the Met. La Sonnambula, which opens March 14 in a revival of Mary Zimmerman's 2009 production, will be conducted by Marco Armiliato and also star rising Mexican tenor Javier Camarena as Elvino and Italian bass Michele Pertusi as Rodolfo.

Zwei Rollendebuts in den Hauptpartien gibt es in 'Il barbiere di Siviglia' ab 7. Juni 2013 an der Wiener Staatsoper: Die Ensemblemitglieder Margarita Gritskova und Nikolay Borchev sind erstmals