Blue-Eyed Countertenor David Hansen Releases Debut Album

The release date in Germany for Rivals: Arias for Farinelli & Co. is August 23, 2013. Purchase your copy by clicking here. Video EPK and album cover art can both be found after the jump.

Bulgarian Soprano Nellie Petrova Tapped To Entertain Lobby Guests

"Designer luggage and fussing bellhops were rarely part of the backdrop for the soprano Nellie Petrova. Then the Bulgarian-born opera singer landed the unusual mission of helping a new UAE five-star hotel go the extra octave to give guests a sophisticated experience. Now, four nights a week, Petrova’s voice greets guests at the spectacular lobby of the Venetian-inspired Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal, as sunset illuminates the neighbouring Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Although it’s a contrast to the concert halls she is used to, Petrova is bewitched by the setting. 'This is an elegant venue to perform in,' she says, 'an awesome venue, so beautiful, I feel like I am in a movie.' And she should know; the soprano claims a brief appearance in Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Although Petrova admits that while she didn’t meet Tom Cruise, officially, she worked alongside him. 'You could see me in a bright red dress, on his left, as he leaves the bar in the Mumbai party scene.'"

Joyeux Quatorze Juillet!

Celebrate Bastille Day by listening to Hildegard Behrens interpret

 "Les nuits d'été" of Hector Berlioz.  

Les nuits d'été (Op. 7):
I. Villanelle
II. Le spectre de la rose
III. Sur les lagunes
IV. Absence
V. Au cimetière
VI. L'île inconnue

Royal Baby Will Light Up Opera House In New Zealand

"One of Wanganui's most historic buildings will be bathed in light the night after the birth of the new royal baby. The city is joining the nationwide 'light-up' initiative, organised by Monarchy New Zealand, which will mark the birth of the first child for Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge. The due date for the royal baby is today. The Royal Wanganui Opera House will be lit in pink or blue - depending on the gender of the baby - on the night following the announcement of the birth. Mayor Annette Main said lighting up the Opera House was an appropriate way to recognise the birth of a future King or Queen of New Zealand. 'Wanganui already has an association with the royal family, with Prince Edward having lived here during his time as a junior master at Wanganui Collegiate in 1982,' Ms Main said. The Opera House celebrated its centennial in 1999. In October that year it was given a Royal Charter as part of the centennial celebrations, changing the name to the Royal Wanganui Opera House." [Source]

Beverly Sills Lives On In Rare Recordings Released From Ohio

Beverly Sills as Tosca (Photo: Cleveland Public Library)

"DoeHeads – those die-hard fans of Douglas Moore’s opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe – have new reason to rejoice. Among the eight live recordings of operas performed at Musicarnival in Warrensville Heights in the 1950s and 1960s soon to be available to the public is a 1958 production of Baby Doe starring soprano Beverly Sills in one of her signature roles. There’s a lot more here than Moore, who served as director of music at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the 1920s and conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in the premiere of his Four Museum Pieces in 1923. Sills, who lived in Cleveland in the late 1950s, appears in four other productions in the Musicarnival series, including the title roles in two great potboilers – Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Tosca – she performed only in John L. Price’s tent theater-in-the-round. By the end of

The Ansonia Featured Everything From Opera Singers To Gay Baths

Vanity Fair tells the story of this famed New York landmark that Enrico Caruso and Arturo Toscanini once called home. From the laying of the cornerstone to Steve Ostrow's gay Continental Baths, this building has quite a history. Not even Eleanor Steber could stay away!

Renée Fleming Receives National Medal of Arts From President Obama

Seems as though the soprano cracks up the commander-in-chief while receiving her honor. For a complete list of honorees go to the official White House website by clicking here. Look at more pictures of the ceremony and watch the video (Ms. Fleming comes on at 14:09...) after the jump.

Is Angela Gheorghiu Tasting Forbidden Fruit At The Opera?

After last week's revelations about Ms. Gheorghiu's tumultuous marriage to Roberto Alagna and her affair with Cezar Ouatu, Romanian websites (1, 2, and 3) are trying to romantically link her to co-star tenor Charles Castronovo. He was formerly involved with another soprano before settling down into marriage with Russian soprano Ekaterina Siurina. The rumored pair are performing together in La Rondine at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London. One has to wonder how long it will be before accusations start to fly that she had a fling with former tenor colleague James Valenti. Pictures of all the gentlemen are after the jump.

Deutsche Grammophon Previews Anna Netrekbo Extended Clips

(Photo: Kristian Schuller/Deutsche Grammophon)

Watch the Deutsche Grammophon tribute video, celebrating Anna Netrebko's 10-year anniversary with the label, after the jump.

San Francisco Opera Turns On Rainbow Lights In Honor Of Equality

Cite as: 570 U. S. ____ (2013)
Opinion of the Court
The power the Constitution grants it also restrains. And though Congress has great authority to design laws to fit its own conception of sound national policy, it cannot deny the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. What has been explained to this point should more than suffice to establish that the principal purpose and the necessary effect of this law are to demean those persons who are in a lawful same-sex marriage. This requires the Court to hold, as it now does, that DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the liberty of the person protected by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. The liberty protected by the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause contains within it the prohibition against denying to any

Lindsay Ammann Apartment Shops On "House Hunters International"

Season 51, Episode 11: "Till Death Do Us Part, in Stuttgart, Germany" (March 25, 2013) "While Lindsay was singing with the Pittsburgh Opera, she met and fell in love with a young patron named Linas. Shortly after, the love birds flew to his native Lithuania to live with his family and plan their wedding. One week after they tied the knot, the couple was en route to Stuttgart, Germany where Lindsay accepted a job at the city's Opera House. But, before she can begin work, the newlyweds must agree on an apartment that's quiet and close to public transit. With rentals hard to come by, will they be in for marital bliss or property pains? Find out, when House Hunters International takes the stage in Stuttgart, Germany." [Source]

Watch Jamie Barton's Winning Performances At CSOTW

Watch one more performance after the jump.

Security Concerns Force Renée Fleming To Cancel Lebanon Concert

(Photo: Andrew Eccles/Decca Classics)

"American soprano Renee Fleming, who was scheduled to open the Baalbeck International Festival at the end of June, has canceled a festival official said Friday, citing the deteriorating security conditions. The news surfaced as the organizers of Lebanon's most famous summer music festival mull over plans to relocate the event from the ancient Roman-era temple complex because of spillover violence from Syria's civil war. The change of venue from Baalbek, where the annual music festival is usually held under the towering columns of the Temple of Jupiter, is the latest fallout from Syria's civil war. This month a barrage of 18 rockets and mortar rounds fired from Syria hit Baalbek, about 15 kilometers from the Syrian border. Over the decades, Baalbek has been known for its Roman-era ruins and the international festival under the towering columns that attracted stars like jazz singers Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone." [Source]

Decca Classics Signs Soprano Pumeza Matshikiza To Global Contract

(Photo: Martin Sigmund)

"Pumeza Matshikiza, 34, has signed with Decca to release an album that will feature arias by Mozart and Puccini alongside a musical setting of Invictus, the Victorian poem that inspired Nelson Mandela during his imprisonment on Robben Island. Ms Matshikiza, who currently performs with the Stuttgart Opera, grew up in rented shacks of corrugated iron as her family moved between townships around Cape Town. Her mother sang in church choirs but she discovered her vocation when she stumbled across a classical music radio station. She studied singing at the University of Cape Town and secured a part in an opera, whose composer was so impressed by her voice that he paid for her to fly to London and audition at the Royal College of Music. Ms. Matshikiza said: 'My debut album tells the story of my incredible journey from Africa to Europe and I feel privileged to be able to chart it through the very personal repertoire choices on this album; songs and arias that prove music unites people across the world and brings cultures together.' The album will include traditional African songs in her mother tongue, Xhosa, alongside arias and a new arrangement of the South African hit 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight.'" [Source] Videos, and a photo of where the soprano grew up, can be found after the jump.

Nicole Cabell Leads Master Class For OpTIC In Evanston

The latest recording from soprano Nicole Cabell
features songs composed by Ricky Ian
 Gordon. Click here to purchase the CD.

"Presbyterian Homes’ Westminster Place retirement community will host the Fourth Annual Young Artist Opera Workshop, a month-long opera training program for junior and senior college students, graduate students and young professionals. The workshop will take place from June 17 through July 12, 2013, and is produced by the Opera Training Institute of Chicago (OpTIC) located in Evanston, IL. Workshop classes will be held in the performance spaces at Westminster Place, where its residents are invited to attend. Classes include private voice and coaching lessons, master classes taught by guest artists, acting, aria presentation and audition technique. Additional courses will include yoga and the Alexander Technique of proper posture and stress elimination for optimal vocal delivery, and scenes performance in full costume with piano accompaniment. A special night of arias and songs in concert will take place in Elliott Chapel on the Westminster Place campus on Sunday, June 30, 2013. An opera scenes performance will be held in the same venue on Tuesday evening, July 9, 2013. Among the guest artists leading master classes is Soprano Nicole Cabell, 2005 winner of the BBC Singer of the World competition and Decca recording artist." [Source]

Mark Morris Tells Gerard Mortier He Would Rather Watch Opera

Opera Talk: Gerard Mortier [left] makes a point in discussion with Mark Morris.
(Photo: Gloria Nieto/The Globe and Mail)

"It was Mortier, in a previous incarnation as director of the Brussels opera, La Monnaie, who hired a younger Morris to replace his then outgoing director of dance, Maurice Bejart. And it was in Brussels in the late-1980s and early-1990s that Morris created several of his most famous dances, including L’Allegro, The Hard Nut, and Dido and Aeneas. That work, he later confesses, made it easier to re-establish himself in the United States. Morris’s work always begins with the music. 'What a lot of people do is make up a dance,' he explains. 'What I do, in the old-fashioned sense, is go from a piece of music that I love and imagine that I won’t tire of very soon, analyze the score, think about it, and make up a dance with my company.' He adds that he’d rather go to see opera than see dance, 'because if I’m super familiar with someone’s dance work and if I don’t like it, I don’t need to go back. And I won’t go see a three-hour ballet if it only has 10 minutes of good dancing. But I go to the Met [New York’s Metropolitan Opera] a lot.'" [Source]