New Site Launched for American Tenor Russell Thomas
“A heroically shining tone of exceptional clarity and precision…” American tenor Russell Thomas will bring his signature elegance and intensity to the title characters in Verdi’s Otello, Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, and Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito.
July 11, 2018
Verismo Communications announces the launch of a new website for American tenor Russell Thomas, who performs Verdi's iconic Otello with this Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl this month.
With a “heroically shining tone of exceptional clarity and precision” (Opera Magazine) and “gorgeously burnished power” (The New York Times), Thomas uses his signature elegance and intensity to create vivid character portrayals on the world’s most important stages.
The upcoming 2018/19 season features Mr. Thomas’s hotly anticipated stage debut as the title character in Otello, to be seen at the Canadian Opera Company after concert performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He sings Manrico in Il trovatore at the Bayerische Staatsoper and Lyric Opera of Chicago, makes his role debut as as the title character in Roberto Devereux at San Francisco Opera, and brings his celebrated Tito in La clemenza di Tito to Los Angeles Opera. On the concert stage, he joins the World Orchestra for Peace in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the BBC Proms, and performs Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
New HeidiMelton.com Launch
"The Wagnerian voice we have been waiting for since Flagstad and Nilsson." This season, American dramatic soprano Heidi Melton sings Brünnhilde and Sieglinde in performances of Wagner's Ring Cycle at the New York Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, and Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.
December 20, 2017
Verismo Communications announces the launch of a new website for dramatic soprano Heidi Melton, who has been hailed as “the Wagnerian voice we have been waiting for since Flagstad and Nilsson” (La Presse), with a voice that is “big, gleaming and tonally resplendent” (San Francisco Chronicle).
In the 2017/18 season, Melton makes a role debut as Brünnhilde in a new production of Götterdämmerung at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe followed by performances of the complete Ring Cycle later in the spring. Ms. Melton also returns to the New York Philharmonic as Sieglinde in Act 1 of Die Walküre and with the Dallas Symphony as Brünnhilde in a complete concert performance of Die Walküre, both conducted by Jaap van Zweden. She sings Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 as the Second Soprano with Tonkünstler Orchester and Andres Orozco-Estrada in Vienna. In New York City, she sings a recital for the George London Foundation at the Morgan Library.
New Website Launched for Visionary Fry Street Quartet
The Fry Street Quartet are working on the vanguard of collaborative classical music.
August 11, 2016
Verismo Communications announces the launch of a new website for the visionary Fry Street Quartet, who are working on the vanguard of collaborative classical music.
The FSQ's signature is an interdisciplinary collaboration joining science and art. The Crossroads Project aims to inspire reflection, foster engagement and incite action at a pivotal moment for our environment. In the live performance experience, and now on the album to be released this fall, the Fry Street Quartet brings together commissioned works by Grammy winner Libby Larsen and Pulitzer Prize nominee Laura Kaminsky to create a thought-provoking, viscerally affecting exploration of global sustainability.
American Western Opera Launches Digital Homestead
Riders of the Purple Sage, based on Zane Grey's iconic Western novel, will receive its world premiere at Arizona Opera in 2017.
April 29, 2016
Riders of the Purple Sage, an American Western opera composed by Craig Bohmler with a libretto by Steven Mark Kohn, will receive its world premiere at Arizona Opera in 2017.
Based on Zane Grey's most famous novel, the story of Riders is remarkably relevant today – tackling issues of women's independence, faith vs. fundamentalism, abuse of power, and guns in society. Complex issues are given human faces, with sharply drawn characters like Jane Withersteen, our morally incorruptible heroine, and Lassiter, the "John Wayne of Opera.”
Riders is a visceral experience that raises Big Questions and allows audiences to seek their own answers through the pure emotional experience of opera. The music style is influenced by Carlisle Floyd, Stephen Sondheim, and Kurt Weill, and utilizes the musical idioms of Western film soundtracks.
The world premiere production will star baritone Morgan Smith (Starbuck in Jake Heggie's Heggie's Moby-dick) as Lassiter, opposite the Jane Withersteen of Karin Wolverton (Anna Sorensen in Kevin Puts's Silent Night). Sets will be designed by famed Southwest landscape artist Ed Mell, with stage direction by Fenlon Lamb and Keitaro Harada conducting.
New Website Launched for Baritone Weston Hurt
"Faultless — stylistically on the money, dramatically committed, and displaying a vocalism that was perfectly even from the top to the bottom of his range." Weston Hurt's signature roles are the complex, menacing, cajoling heroes and villains immortalized by Verdi, Puccini, and Donizetti.
October 9, 2015
Verismo Communications is pleased to announce the launch of a new website for baritone Weston Hurt, whose signature roles are the complex, menacing, cajoling heroes and villains immortalized by Verdi, Puccini, and Donizetti.
This season Hurt makes role debuts as two of the operatic repertoire's most formidable villains – Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca and Iago in Verdi's Otello. He returns to Seattle Opera for major role debuts as Talbot in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and the title character in Verdi's Nabucco, inaugurates the Berkshire Opera Festival as Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, and makes his New Orleans Opera debut in his signature role of Germont in Verdi's La traviata. During a brief hiatus from his onstage manipulations and pleading, Weston will mentor students at the University of Texas at Austin's Sarah and Ernest Butler Opera Center.
New Website Launched for Conductor Christopher Allen
"At once supportive, unassuming, and richly musical." Christopher Allen is currently The John L. Magro Resident Conductor for Cincinnati Opera, Associate Conductor at Los Angeles Opera, and was recently nominated as a finalist for the 2015 International Opera Awards in London in the “Newcomer” category.
September 24, 2015
Verismo Communications is pleased to announce the launch of a website for conductor Christopher Allen, who is currently The John L. Magro Resident Conductor for Cincinnati Opera, Associate Conductor at Los Angeles Opera, and was recently nominated as a finalist for the 2015 International Opera Awards in London in the “Newcomer” category.
This season, Mo. Allen makes his UK debut conducting The Barber of Seville at the English National Opera and debuts at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City in a production of L’elisir d’amore directed by James Robinson. He made his debut as Resident Conductor of Cincinnati Opera leading Ricky Ian Gordon’s world premiere production of Morning Star and conducted the Cincinnati Symphony in Cincinnati Opera's Washington Park Concert. He will return to Cincinnati Opera for Tosca in 2016 and a third production in the summer of 2017.