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An “Anniversary Gala” celebrating 150 years of the Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier was inaugurated on 5 January 1875 in Paris, France. In 2025, the Opéra national de Paris will celebrate the 150th anniversary of this emblematic Parisian building with an Anniversary Gala on 24 January that will bring together the artists of the Opéra national de Paris. The gala will be broadcast on French television. In December 1858, Emperor Napoleon III decided to build a new opera house in Paris. A few years later, a young, almost unknown...
Bayreuth Festival 2026: seven operas instead of eleven for the 150th anniversary
For its 150th anniversary in 2026, the Bayreuth Festival had planned to present eleven operas by Wagner. However, due to budget constraints, the festival has scaled back its ambitions and will finally settle for seven of the composer's works, including a new tetralogy. In 2026, the Bayreuth Festival will celebrate its 150th anniversary. To mark the occasion, Katharina Wagner has promised a programme that will include all ten of Richard Wagner's major operas (from The Flying...
The Flying Dutchman for the impressive St. Margarethen Festival 2025
For its 2025 edition, the Steinbruch Opera Festival in Austria will be staging a new production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, starring Elisabeth Teige and George Gagnidze. Director Philipp M. Krenn intends to recreate a Norwegian fjord on the gigantic stage of the St. Margarethen quarries. The limestone blocks in the impressive quarry at St Margarethen in Austria have been quarried for almost 2,000 years – the Romans were already using them. In 1996, however, the site...
Christian Thielemann gives up the Ring at La Scala, Simone Young replaces him
At the end of October, La Scala will be staging a new Ring by Wagner (for the first time in ten years), and Christian Thielemann was to conduct it. He has had to withdraw for medical reasons. He will be replaced by Simone Young, the first woman to conduct the Ring at La Scala. From the end of October this year, La Scala in Milan will launch a new Wagner Tetralogy. A new production of Das Rheingold by David McVicar will open this new Wagner cycle - followed by Die Walküre and...
Lotte de Beer reappointed as director of the Vienna Volksoper
Lotte de Beer, artistic director of the Vienna Volksoper since 2022, has helped change the image of Vienna's "popular and folk" opera house by "trying new things". The public has responded. Her mandate has been extended until 2032. The programming of an opera house takes place over a long period of time: the choice of productions and the engagement of directors and artists are orchestrated years in advance, implying that the artistic directors of an opera house...
Missy Mazzoli's The Listeners opens Opera Philadelphia's 2024-25 season
For its 2024-25 season, Opera Philadelphia welcomes the American premiere of Missy Mazzoli's opera The Listeners (following its premiere at Oslo Opera in 2022), as well as Chevalier de Saint-Georges Joseph Bologne's rare comic opera L'Amant Anonyme. Philadelphia may not be the most vibrant of American cities when it comes to opera, but its Academy of Music (home of the Opera Company of Philadelphia) boasts the oldest opera house within the United States to be continuously...
Conversation with Giampaolo Bisanti, the new Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège Music Director
Italian conductor Giampaolo Bisanti rightfully defines himself as a “busy man”. His agenda will get even fuller with his new Music Director position at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège from next season, during which he will participate in two staged opera productions – Bellini’s La Sonnambula and Verdi’s Rare Alzira – and prestigious recitals with Plácido Domingo (accompanied for the occasion by Davinia Rodríguez)...
Zurich Opera: Matthias Schulz appointed as new director
MATTHIAS SCHULZ APPOINTED AS NEW DIRECTOR SUCCESSOR TO ANDREAS HOMOKI AS OF 2025 HAS BEEN FOUND Matthias Schulz was introduced as new artistic director of the Opernhaus Zürich by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Opernhaus Zürich AG, Markus Notter, at a press conference earlier today. The 44-year-old is to succeed Andreas Homoki, who has been heading the house since 2012 and is stepping down from the post by his choice in 2025. Matthias Schulz, current...
Interview with Antonio Pappano: “It is very important that the music sounds inevitable”
Who doesn’t know Antonio Pappano, current Music Director of the Royal Opera House in London and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome? He was performing in July at the Verbier Festival as a conductor in two symphonic concerts with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, and as a pianist in a music chamber programme along with other stars. He explains how he sees music and conducting, and reveals the decisions that take place behind-the-scenes to build an...
Leading Opera Houses Ensure the Tenor Viñas International Singing Contest
UNDETERRED BY THE PANDEMIC, THE WORLD’S LEADING OPERA HOUSES JOIN FORCES TO ENSURE THE TENOR VIÑAS INTERNATIONAL SINGING CONTEST CAN GO AHEAD The preliminary auditions were conducted on the basis of video recordings sent to opera houses in Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, New York and Paris. In the next stage, 125 of the 477 singers who entered the contest will go through to the second round in person, at the Gran Teatre del...
The Salzburg Festival, one hundred years of artistic ideals
As a result of the health measures in place in Austria to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 Salzburg Festival is being "downsized and redesigned". In 2020, the Festival nevertheless celebrates its centenary with a programme that begins this year and continues next year. Through a series of articles that we are starting today, we look back on the major challenges of the Festival, whether ideological and political, artistic or musical - whether through the great performers...
Verona Arena 2021: Sonya Yoncheva will sing Aida for the first time
Although there are still doubts about the exact course of the 2020 edition of the Verona Arena Festival (which could be based on small-scale productions for a reduced audience), the 2021 edition of the lyrical event is already the subject of special attention. In 2021, the 150th anniversary of the creation of Aida (first performed in 1871) will be commemorated, and the work obviously occupies a very special place in the Veronese programme -- the first edition of the festival in 1913 opened...