Details Announced for OPERA America’s Onstage at the Opera Center 2017–2018 Season

Details Announced for OPERA America’s Onstage at the Opera Center 2017–2018 Season: 
operaamerica.org/Onstage

Featured guests include: Anthony Roth Costanzo, Michael Fabiano, Angela Meade, Paul Moravec, Ailyn Pérez and Kamala Sankaram

Events are live streamed at operaamerica.org/Live

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation’s leading champion for American opera, announces its 2017–2018 season of Onstage at the Opera Center, which begins on Thursday, October 5, 2017, and runs through May 2018.

Onstage at the Opera Center is a unique series of public performances and discussions with today’s leading singers and opera creators, presented at OPERA America’s National Opera Center in Midtown Manhattan. The Opera Center’s intimate Marc A. Scorca Hall provides the perfect setting for audiences to engage with featured artists; events are also live streamed for free around the world.

The 2017–2018 Onstage at the Opera Center season is composed of three distinct series:

• Creators in Concert. Performances of vocal works by leading American composers, followed by lively discussions with the creators.
• Conversations. Interviews with luminaries of the opera world, who share stories from their careers and provide insights into the intricacies of the field.
• Emerging Artist Recitals. Concerts featuring competition winners and leading young artists from advanced training programs across the United States.

ONSTAGE AT THE OPERA CENTER: 2017–2018 SEASON DETAILS

DATES: See the event listings below for dates.

TIMES: 7:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. ET
Each Onstage event lasts for approximately one hour. Following the event, attendees are invited to stay for a casual reception.

LOCATION: OPERA America’s National Opera Center
330 Seventh Avenue (at 29^th Street) | New York, NY 10001
Situated just blocks from New York Penn Station, the Opera Center is easily accessible by subway, PATH, bus and train.

TICKETS: $10 (members) | $25 (non-members)
Purchase at operaamerica.org/Onstage.

LIVE STREAM: Watch each event live at operaamerica.org/Live.
Videos of past events from current and prior seasons are available at youtube.com/OPERAAmerica.

2017–2018 EVENT LISTINGS

Creators in Concert
Acclaimed composers talk about their creative processes and present highlights from their latest vocal works.

Kamala Sankaram | Thursday, October 19, 2017
Kamala Sankaram, composer of the operas Thumbprint and The Parksville Murders, has been praised as “strikingly original” by The New York Times. Sankaram has received commissions from organizations like Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera and Opera Memphis, and has also performed and premiered pieces with Beth Morrison Projects and the Wooster Group, among others. She is the leader of Bombay Rickey, an operatic Bollywood ensemble whose debut recording was named Best Eclectic Album by the Independent Music Awards Vox Pop. As a performer, Sankaram has been hailed as “an impassioned soprano with blazing high notes” (The Wall Street Journal).

Paul Moravec | Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Moravec, whose music has been described as “tuneful, ebullient and wonderfully energetic” (San Francisco Chronicle), has composed more than a hundred orchestral, chamber, choral, lyric, film and electro-acoustic works. His recent successes include the opera The Shining, with a libretto by Mark Campbell based on Stephen King’s novel, which premiered at Minnesota Opera in 2016. Moravec’s latest project is Sanctuary Road, featuring a Campbell libretto based on William Still’s The Underground Railroad, which will be premiered by the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall in 2018.

Conversations
Four of today’s most thrilling performers join Marc A. Scorca, president/CEO of OPERA America, to talk about their pathways to the world’s greatest stages.

Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor | Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who has been described as having “an instrument of inexorable beauty…virtuously seamless, robust and ethereal” by Opera News, is one of the rising stars of the next generation of singers. This season, Costanzo appears in the title role of Giulio Cesare at Houston Grand Opera, the Boy in Written on Skin at Opera Philadelphia and Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice at Florida Grand Opera. A champion of new work, Costanzo recently created roles in the world premieres of Jimmy Lopez and Nilo Cruz’s Bel Canto at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Great Scott at The Dallas Opera.

Michael Fabiano, tenor | Monday, February 26, 2018
A recipient of both the Beverly Sills Artist Award and the Richard Tucker Award, Michael Fabiano is one of the most celebrated tenors in the world today. In 2017–2018, he opens the Royal Opera House’s season in a new production of La bohème, conducted by Antonio Pappano, and appears in the company’s Rigoletto as the Duke, a role he will reprise for his Los Angeles Opera debut. Fabiano will also perform his first Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon at San Francisco Opera, and will return to the Metropolitan Opera for Rodolfo in La bohème and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Angela Meade, soprano | Monday, March 12, 2018
Hailed as “the most talked about soprano of her generation” (Opera News), soprano Angela Meade made her professional operatic debut on the stage of the Met in 2008, singing Elvira in Ernani. Since then, she has become recognized as one of today’s outstanding vocalists, excelling in the most demanding bel canto repertoire, as well as in the operas of Verdi and Mozart. This season, she sings the title roles of Bellini’s Norma and Rossini’s Semiramide at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as Handel’s Alcina with Washington National Opera in the company’s first-ever staging of the work.

Ailyn Pérez, soprano | Thursday, May 3, 2018
Soprano Ailyn Pérez, described by The New York Times as “a major soprano” and “a beautiful woman who commands the stage,” is increasingly in demand at the world’s leading opera houses and cultural capitals. The 2017–2018 season sees Pérez’s return to the Bayerische Staatsoper for her role debut as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and Micaëla in Carmen. She will also sing the title role in Thaïs and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera, in addition to Violetta in La traviata at the Staatsoper Berlin, Staatsoper Hamburg and Opernhaus Zürich.

Michael Fabiano, Angela Meade and Ailyn Pérez appear courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Emerging Artist Recitals
Companies from across the U.S. present recitals featuring competition winners and the most promising young singers from their training programs.

Palm Beach Opera: Benenson Young Artists | Thursday, October 5, 2017
The Benenson Young Artist Program, designed for post-graduate and emerging singers, is a stepping-stone to a successful career as an opera singer. During their five-month residency in Palm Beach, the Benenson Young Artists develop and polish essential stagecraft and performance skills, aided by musical and career guidance from Palm Beach Opera’s experienced artistic staff. The young artists appear on the mainstage in supporting roles, cover leading roles and are featured soloists in the annual Opera @ the Waterfront concert, as well as in other concerts and special events throughout the community.

SongFest | Thursday, December 7, 2017
SongFest strives to ensure the future of art song by providing young singers and pianists with training and performance opportunities in a supportive, challenging and rewarding musical environment. The organization offers two distinct training programs: a summer institute held each June at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, and a recently established winter intensive in California’s Carmel Valley. SongFest attracts students from some of the nation’s top music conservatories, as well as an internationally distinguished roster of artist teachers.

Michigan Opera Theatre Studio | Thursday, April 19, 2018
Each year from September to June, the resident artists of Michigan Opera Theatre Studio gain valuable experience through myriad performance opportunities on the main stage and in community productions, while honing their skills through masterclasses and training with an array of world-class professionals, guest artists and coaches. Throughout their residency, the studio artists benefit from advanced individual training from the tenor Richard Leech, MOT’s director of resident artist programs.

Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Vocal Competition Winners | Monday, May 7, 2018
The Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Vocal Competition is designed to encourage the most promising and deserving young students graduating from Manhattan School of Music. The competitions winners — all of whom are singers of outstanding professional potential — are provided with funding to further their training and launch their careers. The winners of the 2018 competition, to be announced in April, will be featured in this Emerging Artist Recital.

For more Onstage at the Opera Center information or to purchase tickets, visit operaamerica.org/Onstage.

Onstage at the Opera Center is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by grants from the Amphion Foundation and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

For more information about OPERA America, its many programs and the National Opera Center, visit operaamerica.org.

About OPERA America

OPERA America (operaamerica.org) leads and serves the entire opera community, supporting the creation, presentation and enjoyment of opera.

• Artistic services help opera companies and creative and performing artists to improve the quality of productions and increase the creation and presentation of North American works.
• Information, technical and administrative services to opera companies reflect the need for strengthened leadership among staff, trustees and volunteers.
• Education, audience development and community services are designed to enhance all forms of opera appreciation.

Founded in 1970, OPERA America's worldwide membership network includes 150 Professional Company Members, 250 Associate, Business and Educational Members, 1,200 Individual Members, and 17,500 subscribers to the association's electronic news service. In response to the critical need for suitable audition, rehearsal and recording facilities, OPERA America opened the first-ever NATIONAL OPERA CENTER (operaamerica.org/OperaCenter) in September 2012 in New York City. With a wide range of artistic and administrative services in a purpose-built facility, OPERA America is dedicated to increasing the level of excellence, creativity and effectiveness across the field.