Month: January 2021

San Francisco Opera continues its free Opera is ON streams this weekend with a 2014 production of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata. With production by John Copley and revival staging by Laurie Feldman, this performance stars Nicole Cabell as Violetta, Stephen Costello as Alfredo and Vladimir Stoyanov as Alfredo’s father, Count Germont. Verdi’s three-act opera, with…

Matthias Pintscher leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in this week’s online concert, which features the Netherlands premiere of his Songs from Solomon’s Garden – with baritone Georg Nigl as soloist. Also on the programme is Ravel’s enchanting ballet suite Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose). Maestro Pintscher is Music Director of the Ensemble Contemporain, is the…

San Francisco Ballet goes digital with the Company’s 2021 season. The calendar is as interesting as ever, with a fascinating mix of classics, full-length ‘story’ ballets, contemporary works which have proved successful in previous seasons, and new offerings from an impressive list of choreographers. To open the season, San Francisco Ballet presents George Balanchine’s enchanting…

The first 2021 performance of the Met Stars Live in Concert series features soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and tenor Piotr Beczala, in the glorious setting of the Stadthalle Wuppertal, in Germany. They’ll be performing a selection of arias and duets from operas by Verdi, Dvořák, Giordano, Mascagni and Bernstein, accompanied by pianist Vincenzo Scalera. American-Canadian soprano…

Monte-Carlo Opera’s first production of 2021 is a new staging of Jules Massenet’s relatively unknown opera Thaïs – last seen in the Principality in February 1950. Starring Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka in the title role, the opera features French baritone Ludovico Tézier as Athanaël, the monk who aims to convert Thaïs to Christianity, and French…

This Friday evening, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra presents the first of three online concerts, in which Myung-whun Chung leads the Orchestra in a program featuring the Violin Concerto by Sibelius – with principal violinist Liviu Prunaru as soloist – and the Brahms Symphony No 4. Myung-whun Chung has held the position of Principal Guest Conductor…

SFJAZZ starts 2021 as it means to go on – with a fabulous line-up of stars in its weekly Fridays at Five series. Every Friday afternoon, from 5.00 to 6.00 pm (PT), SFJAZZ streams a performance from its vast library of concerts recorded live at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco. This Friday features the…

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, has been awarded an Honorary Knighthood by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year’s Honours List. He receives the honour for his services to music, and to relations between the United Kingdom and his home country, Finland. Maestro Salonen’s links with Britain date back…