SINCE 1999 A LIVE REVIEW SITE FOR OPERA, BALLET, CONCERTS, BROADCASTS, AND THEATRE
Franco Vassallo is an acclaimed interpreter of leading Verdi roles – amongst many others – in the world’s most important opera houses (including Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Opéra de Paris, London’s Royal Opera House and New York’s Metropolitan Opera). He has just sung Scarpia for the first time in Puccini’s Tosca at the Staatsoper Hamburg in the Robert Carsen production and performed with Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann.
Kokoschka’s Doll and The Art of Love, incorporating Einsamer Gang will be performed in Oxford and Newbury
It is well known that in addition to the fourteen songs by Alma Mahler published in her lifetime, several dozen more – perhaps as many as one hundred – were written and have been lost or destroyed. One of those ‘lost’ songs, Einsamer Gang (Lonely Walk), has recently been discovered and will be given its UK premiere performances by Rozanna Madylus and Counterpoise at the Wagner 1900 conference in Oxford (April) and at the Newbury Spring Festival (May).
PUSHKIN – THE OPERA
STAGED WORLD PREMIERE GIVEN BY MOSCOW’S NOVAYA OPERA AT GRANGE PARK OPERA, SURREY: 11-12 JULY 2018
THE BEST OF 2017
AN INTERVIEW WITH VALENTINA LISITSA
The Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa has achieved the accolade of becoming the world’s most popular classical artist since her first YouTube recital in 2007. By leading the way to finding new audiences with sensational success, Lisitsa has gained a staggering 95 million views and almost 200,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky (16 October 1962 – 22 November 2017) dies at 55
Seen and Heard-International is saddened to have heard of the death – after a courageous fight against cancer – of the wonderful Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, at much-too-early age of 55.
2017 Elizabeth Connell Prize Winner Announced
KATIE LOWE from England Cheshire born 31 year old English soprano Katie Lowe has won the 4th annual Elizabeth Connell Prize for aspiring Dramatic Sopranos held in Sydney Australia on 16 September. Ms Lowe receives $30,000 and an audition at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London. The Finalists were chosen from live auditions held in London, New York, Zurich, Paris and Melbourne and competed over 3 rounds in Sydney for the prize. Ms Lowe sang the “Immolation Scene” from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and “Suicidio” from La Gioconda by Ponchiello in the Final Round.
Catriona Morison, 31-year-old mezzo soprano from Scotland, is the first British winner of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.
