Michaela Schuster

San Francisco Opera has released production photos of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelties (Dialogues des Carmélites) at the War Memorial Opera House, running October 15–30. Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and soloists in this powerful, 20th-century masterwork in the acclaimed production by French director Olivier Py. Check out the photos here!

San Francisco Opera's Centennial Season continues with Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelties (Dialogues des Carmélites) at the War Memorial Opera House, October 15–30. Caroline H. Hume Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and soloists in this powerful, 20th-century masterwork in the acclaimed production by French director Olivier Py.

Rebecca Nash will sing the title role in tonight’s performance of Strauss's Elektra, replacing Nina Stemme, and Wendy Bryn Harmer will sing Chrysothemis, replacing Lise Davidsen.

Richard Strauss’s ELEKTRA is simply overwhelming--particularly when you have Nina Stemme and, especially, Lise Davidsen, as the title character and her sister Chrysothemis, ably abetted by Greer Grimsley as their brother, Orest, and an incredible supporting cast top to bottom.

Elektra unites today’s leading dramatic sopranos: Nina Stemme, who reprises her acclaimed portrayal of the title role, and Lise Davidsen, making her role debut as Elektra’s sister Chrysothemis and appearing in her third Met production this season, following heralded turns in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Soprano Nina Stemme brought down the house when she headlined the premiere of visionary director Patrice Chéreau’s 2016 staging of Elektra. Now she returns to Strauss’s unhinged heroine, opposite one of today’s most in-demand artists, soprano Lise Davidsen, as her sister, Chrysothemis. Donald Runnicles is on the podium for one of opera’s most blistering scores, leading a cast that also includes mezzo-soprano Michaela Schuster as Klytämnestra, tenor Stefan Vinke as Aegisth, and bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as Orest.

As only the third American opera company in history to reach this centennial milestone, the Company’s 2022–23 Season will honor San Francisco Opera’s glorious past while inviting the public into an exciting new era of musical excellence under Kim’s music directorship and a renewed commitment to innovation.

Nicole Braunger, the first woman opera director at Staatstheater Karlsruhe, will remain with the theater for three more years, until the summer of 2024. 'I am pleased that the theater management has agreed to my wish to stay at this house,' said Braunger in a tweet. 'For me it is an affair of the heart to stay at this house.'

The Metropolitan Opera announced today that the ongoing health crisis has resulted in the cancellation of the entire 2020-21 season, but the company also announced ambitious artistic plans for its 2021-22 season, which will open with the Met premiere of Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones.

The Wiener Staatsoper has announced its upcoming 2020-21 season.

Theater an der Wien is presenting a new version of Salome that features puppets! The characters of Salome and John the Baptist are both portrayed by puppets.

Michaela Schuster will sing Fricka in tomorrow's performance of Wagner's Die Walküre, replacing Jamie Barton.

The spectacle is a hunger-inducing delight for the eyes.

To commemorate the start of Yannick Nézet-Séguin's new position as the Jeanette Lerman Neubauer Music Director, the Met is releasing an audio compilation of performance highlights on iTunes, as well as a series

Schuster makes her Met role debut as Waltraute, a role she has sung previously at Bayerische Staatsoper and Gran Teatre del Liceu. She made her Met debut last season as Klytämnestra in Strauss' Elektra. She sings regularly for all the leading German opera houses and for international companies including Wiener Staatsoper, Paris Opéra, La Scala, the Salzburg Festival, and Royal Opera, Covent Garden. Her wide repertory includes many Wagner roles such as Fricka in Der Ring des Nibelungen, Ortrud in Lohengrin, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde, and Kundry in Parsifal; 20th-century roles such as Marie in Berg's Wozzeck and Judith in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, and several roles in operas by Richard Strauss and in Italian repertory, including Amneris in Verdi's Aida, Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo, and Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana.

Sabine Hogrefe will perform the title role in Strauss's Elektra at tonight's performance, Monday March 12 at 7.30pm, replacing Christine Goerke who is ill.

When Christine Goerke took on the title role in the Met's revival of Richard Strauss's masterwork ELEKTRA--the final work of director Patrice Chereau--she wasn't so much competing with Nina Stemme, who sang the premiere of the production last spring, but with herself. Six months before this version first came to Lincoln Center, Goerke performed the role in concert with the Boston Symphony at Carnegie Hall and blew the roof off. She was a transfixing, sensational presence that you just couldn't keep your eyes off.

Christine Goerke sings her first Elektra at the Met in Patrice Chéreau's landmark production, a sensation at its Met premiere last spring, which the Wall Street Journal called “revolutionary … a triumph on all fronts.” Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Strauss's shattering score, a tour de force for the singers and the orchestra alike.

Christine Goerke, “the reigning Amercian dramatic soprano of the day” (The New York Times), makes her first Met performances in the title role of Richard Strauss's tragedy Elektra at the Met. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Patrice Chéreau's acclaimed staging, with Elza van den Heever as Elektra's sister, Chrysothemis, and Michaela Schuster as her mother, Klytämnestra. Jay Hunter Morris sings the role of Aegisth, Klytämnestra's lover, and Mikhail Petrenko performs as Elektra's long-lost brother Orest. The production runs for six performances from March 1 through March 23, 2018.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2017-18 season will feature 220 performances of 26 works, including two Met premieres, one co-commissioned by the company and one an older masterpiece having its first Met performances; a variety of repertory favorites, three in new productions; and performances of Verdi's towering concert work for soloists, orchestra, and chorus, the Requiem. Of note, Broadway star Kelli O'Hara is set to return to the Met in Così fan tutte this season.