Michel Altieri Is The Chosen One

The actor got his break at age 20 when opera legend Luciano Pavarotti, who served as a producer on Rent, handpicked him for the show. “He was in the audience during an audition and just put his finger on me and said I was the horse to put the money on," Altieri recalls. "On opening night, I hit the wrong high note and was so worried he’d be upset, but afterwards he said, ‘Bravissimo! You’re incredible and never forget it!’”

Renée Fleming Recital Review

(Photo: Daniel Mallard/Journal Quebec)

After singing the New Year's Eve concert in Dresden, the soprano soared back to North America to perform a recital on January 5 at the Grand Théâtre de Québec for Le Club Musicale de Québec with Hartmut Höll on piano. Works on the recital included such composers as Korngold, Schoenberg, Duparc, Mehldau and Strauss, as well as encores with Puccini, Leoncavallo and Zandonai. Perhaps the best quote in the review: 

"La diva y flottait comme une reine dans son bain de lait."

The recital tour will continue through January with stops in Washington D.C., New York, Ann Arbor, San Juan, Montréal and Philadelphia.

Rolando Villazón Makes Opera Directing Debut

The Mexican tenor will be directing Werther with Opera de Lyon. Performances will begin in January and run through February 7. His concept for the production is to look at the piece psychologically from the viewpoint of Carl Jung. The cast includes Arturo Chacon-Cruz (Werther), Karine Deshayes (Charlotte), Lionel Lhote (Albert) and Anne-Catherine Gillet (Sophie).

Italy Still Loves Russia

Vladimir Putin receiving Riccardo Muti

A partnership that began in Soviet-era Russia in 1964 will continue when La Scala travels to Moscow to perform in 2011. 

The last time this cultural exchange occurred was when Riccardo Muti led the Milanese opera troupe at The Bolshoi in 2001. After years of renovation, The Bolshoi Theater will reveal its new look just in time for the opening of Verdi's Requiem by the Italians. Aside from operatic presentations, La Scala will also perform Mendelssohn's Symphony #4 (commonly known as the Italian).

Mike & Molly Attend "La Bohème"

"Mike's opera fever when he attends a production of La Bohème with Molly has nothing to do with the love of opera."

Watch the clip from the CBS sitcom here.

Aleksandra Kurzak Signs Exclusive Contract With Decca

Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak has announced she has just signed an exclusive recording contract with Decca. The debut album was recorded in December 2010 and will be released mid-2011. The disc will contain bel canto arias from I Puritani, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata and more. As a tribute to homeland, an aria from Stanislaw Moniuszko's The Haunted Manor will also be included. The Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana is conducted by Omer Meir Welber. 

As part of the contract, she will also make a guest appearance on the next album of tenor Joseph Calleja that will feature duets from La Bohème and Les pêcheurs de perles. It will also be released in 2011. She is the first Polish artist to sign exclusively with the label famous for singers like Pavarotti, Sutherland, Horne and Fleming.

Händel Has Successful Return to Vienna

"Auf der Bühne hielt ein hochkarätiges Ensemble ein unwiderstehliches Plädoyer für Händel. Anja Harteros lotete hinreißend den Gefühlskosmos der Titelheldin aus, Vesselina Kasarova feierte in der Hosenrolle des Ruggiero ein fulminantes Comeback an der Wiener Staatsoper. Erstaunliches leistete der Wiener Sängerknabe Shintaro Nakajima als Oberto."

When a Man Comes Home

A small provincial town is buzzing with excitement: the town's most illustrious son, a world-famous opera singer, is coming home. Meanwhile, Sebastian, a kitchen boy who is as good as married, falls head over heels in love with the new maid, Maria. Their love affair, along with rumours that the opera singer and the kitchen boy are related, turns the town upside down, threatening to ruin everyone's high expectations and the opera singer's triumphant return.

Thomas Vinterberg (Director); Released in Denmark on September 14, 2007

One Night Only With René Pape

(Photo: Mathias Bothor/DG)

René Pape prepares for recital in Los Angeles on January 15. He will be accompanied by Brian Zeger. According to the company's website: "The Dresden-born artist has been the object of countless critical raves and constant audience enthusiasm in every major opera house in the world. LA Opera now presents a rare opportunity to hear one of the world's most exciting singing actors in the intimate atmosphere of a recital program, featuring songs by Franz Schubert and Hugo Wolf, as well as a complete performance of Robert Schumann's song cycle, Dichterliebe ('A Poet's Love'), a captivating exploration of the many exquisite shades of love."

Mechanic Turned Tenor Thinks Covent Garden Is Snobby

"Former car mechanic Boe, 37 — who was given a three-minute standing ovation at the 25th ­anniversary of Les Miserables at the 02 Arena last year — says he is angry at the treatment he has received in the past because of his working-class background. The youngest of a Roman ­Catholic family of nine from Fleetwood, ­Lancashire, tells me: 'There is a huge class system at work in ­classical music. Years ago, lots of guys came into opera from ­working-class backgrounds, but now it is snooty and elitist.'

Débutante Nino Machaidze

On January 11, Nino Machaidze will make her Metropolitan Opera debut as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto. The soprano, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Angelina Jolie, was a First Prize Winner in the 2007 Leyla Gencer Vocal Competition held in Istanbul. She made her North American debut in 2009 with the Los Angeles Opera. The MET broadcast of January 22 will be live on Sirius XM radio.

CAST: Giovanni Meoni (Rigoletto), Nino Machaidze (Gilda), Joseph Calleja (Duke of Mantua), Kirstin Chávez (Maddalena), Stefan Kocán (Sparafucile); Paolo Arrivabeni (conductor); Otto Schenk (Production/Director); Zack Brown (Set & Costume Designer); Gil Wechsler (Lighting Designer)

Spoleto Festival Commemorates Menotti Centenary

The two-week performing arts blitz will feature the American premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Emilie with soprano Elizabeth Futral, a North Carolina native who has been lauded for her refined performances with prestigious companies such as the New York City Opera and Metropolitan Opera, in the lead.

Then there’s The Magic Flute, Mozart’s symbolism-laden opera, which will be conducted by Steven Sloane, Spoleto’s former music director.

But the sentimental favorite to garner the most robust applause is The Medium, Gian Carlo

Opera Benefactress Breathes Perfumed Air

Photo: Patti Sapone/NJ Star-Ledger

Countess Lucienne von Doz has known the sweet smell of success. Now she helps others achieve their dreams in the form of a foundation for young opera singers.

Born in New York, von Doz married an Austrian count at age 20. He swathed her in Cartier and had her personally fitted by Coco Chanel. She shared his box at La Scala, Milan’s world-renowned opera house, where they watched their friend Maria Callas perform and von Doz fell in love with the art form.

She became the face of "Crème de La Mer" skin cream. For 20 years, she has led the Singers Development Foundation (SDF) to help young singers begin their careers. She has counted opera luminaries such as Luciano Pavarotti, Marilyn Horne and Renée Fleming among her friends and supporters.

"We don’t take anyone that’s not world-class. I won’t compromise."

Anna Nicole Smith Goes to the Opera

Britain's Royal Opera House will stage the premiere of an opera about Anna Nicole Smith in 2011. The libretto of Anna Nicole is by Richard Thomas, a creator of the controversial Jerry Springer: The Opera. Covent Garden commissioned the opera about the former Playmate in 2008. It will focus on her life, not the legal battles that followed her death, Thomas tells the BBC. Smith died of a prescription drug overdose in 2007. The opera will be performed February 17, 21, 23, 26 and March 1, 4.

Synopsis and full cast list after the jump.

Anne Hathaway: Soprano in the Wings

(Photo: Mario Testino/Vogue)

Actress Anne Hathaway has made a success on celluloid, but few know of her musical talents. Hathaway graduated from Millburn High School, where she participated in many school plays; her high school performance as Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress garnered her a Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Award nomination for Best Performance by a High School Actress. A soprano, Hathaway performed in 1998 and 1999 with the All-Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and has performed in plays at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, New Jersey. Three days after her 1999 performance at Carnegie Hall, she was cast in the short-lived Fox television series Get Real at the age of 16. In 2004, Hathaway dropped out of her role in a film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera, because the production schedule overlapped with The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, which she was contractually obligated to make. Disney began production on The Princess Diaries 2 in early 2004, and it was released in August of that year. The film opened to negative reviews, but commissioned $95.1 million against a $40 -million budget. Anna Netrebko, portraying an opera singer, appeared in the film. Outside of portraying the life of legend Judy Garland, one has to wonder if there isn't a role for Anne Hathaway to play that depicts the life of an opera star like Jenny Lind during her P.T. Barnum days.

Prince of Persia Takes His Own Life

The prince at age 12

Sad news to report. Ali Reza Pahlavi has committed suicide. 

Ali Reza Pahlavi (April 28, 1966 – January 4, 2011), was the younger son of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his third wife, Empress Farah Diba and an Iranian prince of the Pahlavi Imperial Family.

After attending primary school in Iran, he moved to the U.S. where he received a Bachelor's degree from Princeton University, a Masters of Arts degree from Columbia University and was studying at Harvard University as a Ph.D. student in ancient Iranian studies and philology (at the time of his death).