NEWS: Cancellations Continue to Roll The Kennedy Center Arts Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - March 30, 2025March 30, 2025 The ceiling of The Kennedy Center's Opera House in Washington, DC. Photo by Ron Blunt, courtesy of The Kennedy Center. Disruptions continue to spawn at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, long one of the nation's leading arts institutions in Washington, DC. The celebrated opera Fellow Travelers – which
REVIEW (London): Brilliant, Shocking Festen (Royal Opera House) Arts Music Opera by Amy Donahue - February 12, 2025 A promotional photo for the world premiere of Lee Hall and Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera Festen, now playing at the Royal Opera House in London. Photo courtesy of the Royal Ballet & Opera, London. The Royal Opera House in London played host last night to a brilliant world premiere of the opera Festen,
FEATURE: An Engine for New Opera Arts Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - December 3, 2024December 3, 2024 Mezzo-soprano and composer Lisa Neher (left), pianist Jodi Goble (center), and soprano Maggie Burr (right) rehearse music from the forthcoming opera murder mystery Kitchen/Wedding/Murder at the Mindekirken in Minneapolis, MN. The church sanctuary features an altarpiece by August Klagstad in the background. In October 2022, the Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church in
FRINGE FILE #5: Reviews, Pt. 2 Arts Music Opera Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - August 9, 2024August 11, 2024 Daddy Issues (Pretend Productions) A well-told bio-play, delivered in riveting form, by the skilled Allison Vincent. A moving exploration of family relationships, memory, and decline. Gasthaus (Trompe l'Oeil) An interesting Cold War era history piece at the dividing line border of East and West Germany that goes through the gasthaus itself. This of course complicates
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