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Russell Tenor Is Opera News Magazine's May Cover Story

“Thomas is an engaging, easy conversationalist; he admits with a grin that he has ‘a lot of opinions,’ but they are impressively well argued and delivered without a trace of arrogance.” The American tenor has landed his first Opera News cover.

April 2, 2019

Photo by James Foster

Photo by James Foster

American tenor Russell Thomas is featured on the cover of the May issue of Opera News, America’s most widely read classical music magazine.

Life on the road is sometimes challenging for Thomas, a single father who lives in Atlanta with his four-year-old son. Thomas is an engaging, easy conversationalist; he admits with a grin that he has “a lot of opinions,” but they are impressively well argued and delivered without a trace of arrogance. He speaks frankly and thoughtfully about the challenges of being a gay black man in an industry that has not traditionally nurtured black men as performers—or celebrated them as stars. “When I was in college [at New World School of the Arts in Miami], I began to hear those things that a lot of gay men in opera and the arts hear—‘Keep your personal life to yourself, don’t talk about that whole gay thing.’ But I have always felt that if I were going to be a singer—and I have wanted this career since I was eighteen—that I needed to be open about myself. I believe that people who aren’t open about who they are don’t share as much, emotionally, onstage as the people who own who they are. Singing has always been therapeutic for me. It helps me to be free. If I were closed off about who I was, I don’t know if I would be able to do that.”

Read the full interview in the May issue of Opera News!

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A Silent Night Album Resonates

“These artists address the listener with the urgency of a prophet or an obsessive. World War I ended almost a century ago, but they make it seem present and pressing, like many of the songs it inspired. Artsong recitals rarely feel so grounded in reality.” The debut album from baritone John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan is reviewed in Opera News and aired on radio stations across the U.S.

October 15, 2017

“These artists address the listener with the urgency of a prophet or an obsessive. World War I ended almost a century ago, but they make it seem present and pressing, like many of the songs it inspired. Art song recitals rarely feel so grounded in reality.”
— Opera News

A Silent Night, the first disc from baritone John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan, has earned praise from Opera News and airtime on radio stations across the U.S. Hailed by The Washington Post as “refreshingly, marvelously different,” their WWI tribute album features the music of British, German, French, and American composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War.

Read the full review in Opera News.

JohnBrancyandPeterDugan_creditBrentCline.jpg
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Christopher Allen Featured in Opera News Magazine

"At thirty-one, conductor Christopher Allen is one of the fastest-rising podium stars in North America. Allen’s leadership is a model of clarity, vigor and intelligence, keenly detailed and richly colored; his work with soloists, chorus and orchestra is first-class..." The October issue of Opera News includes a 2-page spotlight on the young conductor – and his tattoos.

October 1, 2017

Photo by Gabriel Gastelum

Photo by Gabriel Gastelum

“Opera is not dead. I’m just going to keep saying that.”
— Christopher Allen

During a late afternoon lunch in St. Louis’s plush Tenderloin Room last June, Allen answered questions carefully and succinctly; his voice is soft, but his passion for opera is loud and clear. “The stories of our time need to be told. And the medium where I can help that is opera. That’s what we do—tell stories. Look at Ricky’s Grapes of Wrath, which we are doing now. Steinbeck’s novel was written in the ’30s, but there are so many things in it that are relevant today. How scary is that? 

“Did you see Fellow Travelers at Cincinnati Opera? Greg Spears is a brilliant composer, and that piece is a perfect example of a story that is relevant to our time and needed to be told. I sat there and thought, ‘Wow, this is absolutely entertaining—people need to see this.’ And the reaction of that audience was astonishing. Opera is not dead. I’m just going to keep saying that. I suppose ‘Opera is dead’ is a good media headline, but I don’t know how true it is.

Read the full feature in Opera News.

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Jamie Barton Is The Cover Story in Opera News Magazine

"Jamie Barton channels her mezzo superpowers" and lands on the cover of the January 2017 issue!

December 15, 2016

Jamie Barton’s voice is a vast, enveloping sound, the sort of thing soprano Carol Vaness calls “a voice that blankets.” This is true whether she is offering a Dvorák song in recital or holding the stage as Waltraute. But nowhere was it more in evidence than at the Glimmerglass Festival last summer. After her opening group of Turina songs, the heavens opened, and a major storm pelted the roof. Returning to the stage for a group of Ives songs, Barton merrily chirped, “Hi! It’s raining!” (It is hard to think of a singer readier than Barton to smile in a lieder recital or giggle offstage.) She then proceeded to override the storm with her voice, never losing quality of sound and never giving the slightest sign that she might be at her limits.
— Opera News

Jamie Barton "channels her mezzo superpowers" and lands on the cover of Opera News magazine's January 2017 issue!


Read the full story at operanews.com >

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Corinne Winters Featured in Opera News

Her 2016/17 season is highlighted in September's "Noteworthy & Now."

August 15, 2016

Soprano Corinne Winters is featured in the September issue of Opera News magazine, appearing alongside Renée Fleming in the "Noteworthy & Now" section.

The spotlight includes a rundown of Winters's 2016/17 season, including her Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut as Fiordiligi in a new Jan Philipp Gloger production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. Her season also includes a trio of La traviata runs – her Seattle Opera debut in the controversial Peter Konwitschny production, her San Diego Opera debut in Marta Domingo's 1920s-set production, and a return to the Royal Opera House in the iconic Richard Eyres production. Winters will also make her role debut as Katya Kabanová at Seattle Opera.

Read more in the September issue of Opera News >

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