NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera has set a record for its box office opening day, selling more than $2.6 million worth of single tickets for the new season. The total, reflecting the sale of more than 24,000 tickets on Sunday, compares to $2.5 million in sales on last year’s opening day. Sales included in-person purchases, plus those made by telephone and online. The company’s 33-week season starts Sept. 27 with a new production of Richard Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” directed by Robert Lepage. It’s part of the Met’s first new version in more than two decades of the German composer’s four-part epic, “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” And Met General Manager Peter Gelb was banking on a theatrical success by hiring the Canadian director whose dazzling audio-visual techniques have been called “visionary” by hip spectators. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of his Met debut, James Levine will conduct “Das Rheingold” six times through April, starring bass-baritone Bryn Terfel and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe. The second part of the Ring, “Die Walkuere,” premieres April 22, with Terfel, soprano Deborah Voigt and tenor Jonas Kaufmann. The full cycle is planned for the spring of 2012. The 2010-11 season also features six other new productions, including Modest Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov”; Giuseppe Verdi’s “Don Carlo” and his “La Traviata”; John Adams’ “Nixon in China”; and Gioachino Rossini’s “Le Comte Ory.” News of the record-setting ticket sales is especially welcome at the Met after several years of financial struggles exacerbated by the recession. Sales were strong for the whole season despite the Met’s first across-the-board ticket price increase in five years. Individual tickets went up an average of 11 percent, with seats for regular single performances ranging from $25 to $420, up from a range of $20 to $375 last season. —- Online: Metropolitan Opera: http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/season ? 2010 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use .
August 16, 2010 | Posted in
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NEW YORK (AP) — Conductor Riccardo Muti, sopranos Kiri Te Kanawa and Patricia Racette, bass-baritone Bryn Terfel and tenor Jonas Kaufmann have won this year’s Opera News Awards. The five will be honored at a dinner on April 17 in New York, with proceeds going to the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s education programs. Muti, former music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, made his Metropolitan debut this year conducting Verdi’s “Attila” and becomes music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this season. Terfel and Kaufmann are to star in a new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle that starts with the first two installments at the Met this season. Te Kanawa made her Met debut in 1974, and Racette has sung at the Met since 1995. ? 2010 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use .
August 3, 2010 | Posted in
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LONDON (AP) — The world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Anna Nicole” will be presented by the Royal Opera next Feb. 17, starring Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek as the late model and Playboy playmate. Covent Garden Music Director Antonio Pappano will conduct and Richard Jones will direct, the company announced Wednesday. Turnage is the composer of “Greek” and the West End show “Jerry Springer: The Opera.” The libretto is by Richard Thomas. Smith died of an accidental drug overdose in 2007. She was 39. She was Playboy’s Playmate of the Year in 1993. She married 89-year-old J. Howard Marshall II the following year. After his death in 1995, she fought a protracted legal battle with his son over his estimated $500 million fortune. Smith died five months after the death of her 20-year-old son from her first marriage. Daniel Smith died of an accidental overdose in the Bahamas hospital room where his mother had days earlier given birth to a daughter. The company also said the world premiere of Judith Weir’s “Miss Fortune,” a co-commission with the Bregenz Festival, will take place in Bregenz on July 21, 2011. The production will open the Covent Garden in March 2012 as part of the buildup to the London Olympics that summer. The opera is based on a Sicilian folk talk about a woman whose wealthy family has hard times. The Royal Opera’s 2010-11 season also will include the British premiere of Steffani’s “Niobe” (opening Sept. 23 in a production seen at the 2008 Schwetzingen Festival), and new productions of Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur” (November starring Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann); Wagner’s “Tannhauser” (Dec. 11 starring Johan Botha and Westbroek); Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Tsar’s Bride” (April 2011 starring Marina Poplavskaya); and Massanet’s “Cendrillon” (July 2011 starring Alice Coote and Joyce DiDonato).
March 10, 2010 | Posted in
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