Renée Fleming Headlines All-Star Evening Of American Voices

"World-renowned American opera singer Renée Fleming convenes a festival of special guests to celebrate the diverse range of America’s vocal artistry. Young artists receive mentoring from respected singers including Ben Folds, Dianne Reeves, Sutton Foster, Eric Owens, Kim Burrell and Alison Krauss. Also see performances by Josh Groban, Sara Bareilles and Norm Lewis. A documentary about the festival will air on Great Performances on PBS Friday, January 9 at 9/8c." [Source] Watch the complete performance,  or just an excerpt of Renée Fleming singing "Danny Boy," after the jump.

Olympics Of Singing To Air January 11 On PBS

"Tune in to PBS on Jan. 11 to watch Stephanie Blythe, Stephen Costello, Joyce DiDonato, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Susan Graham, Gregg Grimsley, Angela Meade, Eric Owens, Ailyn Pérez, Matthew Polenzani, and 2013 Richard Tucker Award Winner Isabel Leonard perform at the highly anticipated opera event. Check local listings: http://to.pbs.org/12CzT1B"

Eric Owens and Riccardo Muti Perform For Young Chicago Inmates

In April 2013, bass-baritone Eric Owens, accompanied by Riccardo Muti, performed for inmates as part of the
 CSO's Citizen Musician program. The singer commented, "It's actually one of the proudest moments of my career!"
To learn more about Mr. Owens and his upcoming engagements, click here. (Photo: Facebook)

"The concert was part of a unique outreach that's the brainchild of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's musical director, the Italian-born Riccardo Muti, who attended the event at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center on Chicago's West Side. The concert included half a dozen of the orchestra's members. But the center-stage performers were some 10 inmates who participated in a weeklong musical workshop at the lockup. It culminated in the Sunday concert featuring compositions the inmates wrote in collaboration with the professionals. 'This is a wonderful beginning for you and for us,' Muti, 71, told the group after the 45-minute performance ended. 'You will join society with the sense of harmony you learned here.'....The Naples-born Muti has taken his act into prison before. He once performed Robert Schumann's 'Warum?' — which means 'why' in German — in a Milan prison. The work, he explained later, was his way of asking inmates what had brought them to such misfortune. Muti spoke philosophically to the detainees in Chicago after Sunday's concert and just before a dozen burly guards escorted the inmates-turned-musicians back to their holding cells. 'We will meet again in the future,' he said. He quickly added, 'Not here! But on the outside.' [Source]

Joyce DiDonato Markets New Album With Famous Friends

MET Sirius XM Radio Tonight: "The Enchanted Island"

Listen to the Metropolitan Opera perform The Enchanted Island live tonight at 8:00 PM EST on Sirius XM radio. Intermission guest: Eric Owens.

Eric Owens Discusses the Joy of Recitals in His Career

What's your sense of where recital singing fits into the imagination of the listening public? There are die-hard fans of lieder -- it's a lot of great repertoire -- but it can be difficult for some. The intimacy is something I like as a performer and as a listener.

How is it different for you as a singer to approach that repertoire? It can be daunting; there's so much out there. As a recitalist, you're able to be your own artistic director, setting the flow and arc of the evening. The first half of this recital, for example, is unified around the texts, starting with the Wolf, which is serious and somber. The Schumann next, a depressed, tortured soul -- I don't know what it is about depression and artistic release, but it produces such amazing stuff. The Schubert some people won't have heard; there are a couple of precursors to Wagner, in their lush harmonies. Then I'll cleanse the palate with Debussy, open the windows a bit. The Duparc shows the composer taking a sturdier approach; the Ravel Don Quichotte songs I just adore. The Wagner song, which quotes the Marseillaise, seemed like a fitting way to end the second half.

Read the full interview here.

While NYCO Runs Amok, the MET Performs in Central Park

"It has been four years since the Metropolitan Opera decided to stop presenting full operas in its summertime concerts in New York City’s parks, a decision that was difficult to understand, given the popularity of these free performances, and the likelihood that they were winning the company new listeners. Now, presumably, the Met’s high-definition opera screenings are expected to be its audience builders: It is presenting free screenings of 10 of them in its Met Summer HD Festival, at Lincoln Center from Aug. 27 to Sept. 5. But the Met also recognizes that it should maintain a presence in the parks with live music, and on Monday evening it opened this year’s installment of its Summer Recital Series with a program of arias and duets, with three young singers — Angela Meade, soprano; Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano; and Atalla Ayan, tenor — as part of Central Park SummerStage. The bass-baritone Eric Owens was on hand to introduce the program (and to sing Marcello’s offstage line in “O soave fanciulla,” from Puccini’s Bohème, from his seat in the audience)." [Source]

(Images left to right: Meade, Ayan, Cano. Photos by Hiroyuki Ito/New York Times)

LOC "Hercules" Production Claimed Success For Sellars

Alice Coote, David Daniels and Eric Owens

"This isn't just a brilliant conclusion to the season. The new production of Handel's Hercules at Lyric Opera of Chicago goes well beyond that. It could be an important springboard for a renewed civic and, indeed, national conversation about issues concerning America's war veterans, issues many people would just as soon sweep under a rug. What happens to these soldiers when they return home, bringing their post-traumatic stress with them? Having turned off their emotions for combat, how do they turn them back on with the family and friends they left behind? The answer, in director Peter Sellars' thoughtful and enthralling new production, which opened Friday night at the Civic Opera House, is they don't." [Source]