United States Beethoven and the Global Aspiration for Peace: Yael Weiss (piano), New York. Viewed on YouTube on 16 and 17 December 2020. (RP)
Rick Perdian
The Brooklyn Art Song Society offers the gift of Schubert’s most-beloved songs
United States Brooklyn Art Song Society – Schubert: Bonus Concert: Sarah Nelson Craft (mezzo-soprano), Nils Neubert (tenor), Nana Shi (piano). Brooklyn Art Song Society, Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn. First streamed on 12.12.2020. (RP)
© Joan Chiverton
Pittsburgh Opera presents David T. Little’s powerful and provocative Soldier Songs
United States Little, Soldier Songs: Yazid Gray (baritone), Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra / Mark Trawka (conductor). Pittsburgh Opera Headquarters, Pittsburgh, 8.12.2020. Livestream viewed on 11.12.2020. (RP)
The stars shine in Milan for La Scala’s season-opening spectacular
Italy A riveder le stelle: Soloists, Teatro alla Scala Orchestra, Chorus & Ballet / Riccardo Chailly & Michele Gamba (conductors). Teatro alla Scala, Milan, 7.12.2020. (RP)
(c) Brescia e Amisano
Five cliff-hanger podcasts from Experiments in Opera
United States Various, Aqua Net & Funyuns: Experiments in Opera / Dmitry Glivinskiy (piano & music director), New York. Available for free download at Apple Podcasts, stitcher.com or experimentsinopera.com, 7.12.2020. (RP)
SOPRANO JULIET PETRUS IN CONVERSATION WITH RICK PERDIAN
Rick Perdian talks to soprano Juliet Petrus
In February, Juliet Petrus garnered critical acclaim for her Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Hamburger Kammeroper. Midway through the run, the first wave of the novel coronavirus shuttered theaters in Germany and Petrus returned to London, where she has spent the rest of 2020 with her husband and son as lockdowns come and go in the UK.
SOPRANO FATMA SAID IN CONVERSATION WITH RICK PERDIAN
Rick Perdian talks to Fatma Said
Mention Egypt, and classical music lovers immediately think of Verdi’s Aida, which was commissioned by Cairo’s Khedivial Opera House and had its première there in 1871 – and of little else. A new generation of Egyptian singers is changing that dynamic, and Fatma Said in particular is attracting notice for her luminous mezzo-soprano and blossoming international career. With El Nour, her debut recording on Warner Classics, Said combines her twin loves of song and her native country’s culture in music that is as colorful and exotic as the places that inspired it.
Spotlight on Joseph C. Phillips Jr.’s mono-opera, The Grey Land
The killing of George Floyd last May sparked protests in 2,000 US cities and many others around the world, but the fuse had been burning for years. In July 2013, the Black Lives Matter movement began in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Mothers of the … Read more