Starring Joyce DiDonato and Ryan McKinny, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts this landmark premiere of the most widely performed new opera of the last 20 years.
“It is rare, not only for a male singer who’s not a tenor, but especially a bass-baritone to be able to do this kind of concert with an orchestra like the Chicago Philharmonic.”
A Verdi and bel canto expert, Lyric’s new music director Enrique Mazzola will open the season with Verdi’s Macbeth and Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, while also conducting contemporary opera Proving Up by Missy Mazzoli later in the season.
Star tenor Lawrence Brownlee’s new Facebook Live series aims to change the face of the industry through interviews with other Black opera singers and advice for aspiring Black opera singers, Brownlee explains.
Latonia Moore, Eric Owens, Lise Davidsen, J’Nai Bridges, and Leah Hawkins are scheduled to perform, the company said Wednesday, along with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
More than 60 years after Marian Anderson broke the color barrier at the Met, Black singers still face unique obstacles within the opera industry. “We’ve made some strides, but not a whole lot,” said Professor Naomi Andre.
The Metropolitan Opera will hire an all-black outside chorus next season for its first presentation in nearly three decades of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess.
