United States Maecenas XXXVI – Mask-erade: Pittsburgh Opera’s Resident Artists, Natalie Bencivenga (host). A special online event from Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh, 14.6.2020. (RP)
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United States Maecenas XXXVI – Mask-erade: Pittsburgh Opera’s Resident Artists, Natalie Bencivenga (host). A special online event from Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh, 14.6.2020. (RP)
United States Mazzoli, Breaking the Waves: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Opera Philadelphia / Steven Osgood (conductor), Opera Philadelphia, Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia. 29.9.2016 performance reviewed as part of Digital Festival O. (RP)
United States Roumain, We Shall Not Be Moved: Soloists, Opera Philadelphia Orchestra / Viswa Subbaraman (conductor). Opera Philadelphia, Wilma Theater, Philadelphia. Performance of 20.9.2017 reviewed as part of Digital Festival O. (RP)
Hungary R. J. Lustig, Semmelweis: Soloists, Dancers, Béla Bartók Chamber Choir of Szolnok, Chamber Orchestra of the Budapest Operetta Theater / Dániel Dinyés (conductor). Bartók Plusz Opera Festival, Miskolc National Theatre, Miskolc. World premiere performance of 9.6.2018 reviewed as a video (available click here). (RP)
Over a few days in early March, concert halls, opera houses and theaters went dark around the world in an attempt to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Countless works of music, both new and old, could not be performed, among them the premiere of a symphonic piece by the American composer David Hertzberg. Hertzberg gave the piece the working title Madig, a German word that may translate to worm-eaten but has a range of meanings in colloquial usage.
Opera Philadelphia’s Digital Festival O
Opera Philadelphia will stream five operas in May 2020 as part of its Digital Festival O. Southeastern Pennsylvania, where Philadelphia is located, has been hit hard by the coronavirus, but at present there is hope that the peak of the epidemic has passed.
The Singapore Symphony’s new season
The Singapore Symphony recently announced its upcoming season, the first under the baton of Hans Graf, the new Chief Conductor. Appointed to the post in July 2019, the Austrian conductor will open the season on 2 July 2020 at the Victoria Concert Hall with the world premiere of 承 Flow, a SSO commission by Singaporean composer Zechariah Goh; Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor with violinist Karen Gomyo; and Beethoven’s Symphony No.3 in E-flat major ‘Eroica’. This concert also launches the SSO’s year-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.
For a singer whose career was cut short in the 1960s by illness, Canadian-American bass-baritone George London’s presence still looms large in the opera world. His magnificent voice can be heard on recordings, including a 1960 Tosca with Renata Tebaldi that for many remains a definitive version of the Puccini opera, but it is the work of The George London Foundation for Singers that is his true legacy. Each year the Foundation awards tens of thousands of dollars to young American and Canadian singers who are in the early stages of their careers.