FEATURE: From Northfield to Cultural Ambassador: Victoria Erickson, Soprano and DAAD Scholar Arts Music Opera Theatre by John Anderson - July 9, 2024July 9, 2024 Minnesota singer and Opera Athena Creative Director Victoria Erickson in the 2024 premiere of the opera The Miller's Daughter, for which she wrote the libretto. The city of Northfield, Minnesota has long had an outsize influence on the larger world. In its early role as an agricultural hub, it exported flours
PREVIEW: Behind the Story – Before Out of the Box Opera’s Suor Angelica Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - June 24, 2024June 24, 2024 The interior of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, MN, which will host Out of the Box Opera's production of Puccini's opera Suor Angelica. In the spring of 1904, the composer Giacomo Puccini was at an impasse. To the public eye, his life and career were flying high: he had
PREVIEW: Mixed Precipitation’s Pickup Truck Opera Returns Arts Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - April 15, 2024 Singers Kara Morgan, Corissa Bussian, and Mark Billy in Mixed Precipitation's 2023 operatic production of Romeo and Juliet. In the not-so-distant future, scientist and entrepreneur Dr. Johann Faust faces a planet in crisis but no motivation to spare humanity its fate. He yearns to find a life of meaning and love.
DC REVIEW: Anything but Business as Normal in the American Opera Initiative (Washington National Opera) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - January 22, 2024January 22, 2024 Jonathan Pierce Rhodes (Ari) and Justin Burgess (Gale) in the world premiere of the short opera Hairpiece at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on Friday, January 19. Photo by Bronwen Sharp. One of the great criticisms of the American opera industry is its obsession with things now more than a
NYC REVIEW: Adoration, Myths, and Reality (PROTOTYPE FESTIVAL) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - January 13, 2024January 14, 2024 Tenor Omar Najmi stars in the opera Adoration at the PROTOTYPE Festival in New York City. Photo by Maria Baranova. Prejudice, love, collective judgment, and the uncertainty of truth. These are some of the major threads woven into Adoration, a new opera by Mary Kouyoumdjian and Royce Vavrek that premiered at
NEWS: Minnesota State Arts Board Announces Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre Visual Arts by John Anderson - October 15, 2023October 17, 2023 Common Loons Taking Off (2023), an acrylic on canvas painting by Duluth-based artist Karl Bardon. Bardon is 1 of 99 artists to receive grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board in a recently announced set of awards. Blacksmithing, opera, ballet, novels, screenplays, podcasts, and more. These are just a few of
INTERVIEW: Opera on the Lake’s Anne Wieben and Redesigning Scandalous Stage Marriages Arts Music Opera Theatre by John Anderson - July 20, 2023July 20, 2023 A 2022 file photo of Opera on the Lake's summer operetta festival. If you're a fan of opera – or have been wanting to give it a try – you've probably heard of Opera on the Lake, the summer festival that brings Viennese operetta to St. Paul's Como Park. This year,
REVIEW: Cantus/Really Spicy Opera Double-Header (Minneapolis Music in the Parks) Arts Music Opera Theatre by John Anderson - June 20, 2023June 23, 2023 A quintet of singers from Minneapolis-based Really Spicy Opera singing at the Lake Harriet Bandshell in Minneapolis on Sunday, June 18. The Lake Harriet Bandshell is back! The Minneapolis summer music scene's long-time anchor has been under renovation since warmer weather returned. When work is completed, the bandshell will have new
REVIEW: The 2023 AOI Operas at the Kennedy Center (Washington National Opera) Arts Music Opera by Basil Considine - January 23, 2023January 24, 2023 The gods of Oshun: Olodumare (Christian Simmons, left), Shango (Daniel Smith, upstage center), Oshun (Katerina Burton, downstage center), and Esu (Athony P. Ballard), which premiered on Saturday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Photo by Scott Suchman. On Saturday, a trio of new operas premiered at the Kennedy Center in
PREVIEW: Opera on the Lake Returns with The Merry Widow Arts Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - July 24, 2022July 25, 2022 Opera singer, director, and arts visionary Anne Wieben (standing) performing with the Opera on the Lake company at an outdoor concert at the Lake Harriet Bandshell in July 2021. COVID-19 has barely slowed Anne Wieben down. As theatres around the world shuttered, the Minnesota native and opera singer went about finding