Brandon Cedel News

On October 22, 2021, Opera Philadelphia began streaming its rendition of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. This staging is a judiciously cut two-hour-and-forty-eight-minute production by Opera Philadelphia, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, San Diego Opera, and Palm Beach Opera. Each company is choosing its own conductor and cast.

September marks two years since Opera Philadelphia's orchestra, chorus, staff, and principal singers have gathered at the historic Academy of Music to produce opera. As the company works to bring live opera back to its longtime home, it continues to bring the art form into fans' homes by producing new operatic films and revisiting favorite productions streamed on the Opera Philadelphia Channel.

Committed since its inception to reviving important but neglected operas, Bard SummerScape has long proven itself “an indispensable part of the summer operatic landscape” (Musical America). This year's immersion in “Nadia Boulanger and Her World” presents the long overdue first fully staged American production of King Arthur (“Le roi Arthus”), the only opera by Boulanger's compatriot and close contemporary Ernest Chausson.

The New York Choral Society is celebrating their virtual Spring season on a high note on May 11, 2021 with a Gala of special musical  guests and the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Invitation to Love.

 American conductor Steven Mercurio, Music Director of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, returns to Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center to conduct 'The Voice of Silence,' a concert presenting the world premieres of two symphonic multi-media works by American composer Georgia Shreve. 

The Canadian Opera Company's remount of THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, last performed in 2015, is a visually striking and pitch-perfect adaptation of one of opera's most well-known works. With staging by Spanish theatre troupe Els Comediants, director Joan Font beautifully blends 19th century sensibilities, modern architecture, and clownish costumes for an opera experience that defies any one genre.

Mozart's musically brilliant and masterful tale of lust and revenge, Don Giovanni, returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago on Thursday, November 14 at 7pm. There will be nine performances through December 8 at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago. Tickets start at $39 and are available now at lyricopera.org/Giovanni or by calling 312-827-5600.

Mozart's musically brilliant and masterful tale of lust and revenge, Don Giovanni, returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago on Thursday, November 14 at 7pm. There will be nine performances through December 8 at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago. Tickets start at $39 and are available now at lyricopera.org/Giovanni or by calling 312-827-5600.

Don Giovanni is bad to the bone and utterly unrepentant. He takes what he wants and lives only for his own pleasure in his encounters with fiery Donna Elvira, tormented Donna Anna, and impressionable Zerlina, among countless others. He manipulates and abuses his frustrated servant Leporello, Anna's fiancé Don Ottavio, and Zerlina's brand-new husband Masetto, and murders Anna's father. Mozart's tale of lust and revenge is set to some of the composer's most thrilling and dramatic music.

Don Giovanni is bad to the bone and utterly unrepentant. He takes what he wants and lives only for his own pleasure in his encounters with fiery Donna Elvira, tormented Donna Anna, and impressionable Zerlina, among countless others. He manipulates and abuses his frustrated servant Leporello, Anna's fiancé Don Ottavio, and Zerlina's brand-new husband Masetto, and murders Anna's father. Mozart's tale of lust and revenge is set to some of the composer's most thrilling and dramatic music.

On Sunday, April 14 at 2:00 p.m., Harry Bicket conducts Handel's Semele at Carnegie Hall with acclaimed baroque orchestra The English Concert. In this concert presentation, soprano Brenda Rae performs the title role, joined by mezzo-soprano Elizabeth DeShong (Juno/Ino), bass Soloman Howard, (Cadmus/Somnus), tenor Benjamin Hulett (Jupiter), countertenor Christopher Lowrey (Athamas), soprano Ailish Tynan (Iris), tenor Brian Giebler (Apollo), and bass-baritone Joseph Beutel (Priest), along with The Clarion Choir (Steven Fox, Artistic Director).

The Canadian Opera Company closes its 2018/2019 season with Otello, Verdi's blistering adaptation of Shakespeare's famous tragedy. Otello seemingly has it all: an impressive military track record, an adoring wife, and a courageous reputation. But when he looks over his trusted advisor Iago for promotion, he becomes the target of swift retaliation. Posing as a concerned friend, Iago preys on the general's insecurities, deftly planting seeds of doubt and steadily stoking the flames of blind rage, until Otello arrives at a devastating point of no return. Otello runs for eight performances on April 27, 30, May 3, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 2019.

Puccini's La Boheme, one of opera's best-known love stories, is returning to the stage at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Art, life, love and loss collide for a charismatic group of struggling young artists in 19th-century Paris. Set to some of the most moving music ever composed, the story has captured the hearts of generations of audiences and inspired numerous adaptations, including the hit Broadway musical, Rent. La Boheme runs for 10 performances on April 17, 26, 28, May 2, 4, 5, 7, 11 (two performances), 22, 2019.

According to a quote attributed to Andy Warhol, if you want to tell a good painting from a bad one, first look at a thousand paintings; then you'll realize that there are no hard and fast rules. When it comes to performing arts and traditional repertoire, the standards are a little different. Directors, designers and cast are expected to add their two cents to work of the creators, to show their smarts and insights (or at least come up with something they think will be more meaningful to modern/younger audiences). Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte were victims of this maneuvering in the season premiere of the Met's DON GIOVANNI.

Boston Lyric Opera's (BLO) season of rebels and dissenters continues into Spring 2019 with tales of strong women helmed by women directors. BLO's productions of THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA and THE HANDMAID'S TALE tell startlingly relevant stories -- both with extraordinary music, and both produced in distinctive, non-traditional spaces. Artistic and General Director Esther Nelson says the spring season highlights stories from which female characters emerge as moral and societal touchstones.

The Metropolitan Opera presents Mozart's timeless drama Don Giovanni, with 12 performances January 30, 2019, to April 18, 2019. All performances of Michael Grandage's production are conducted by Cornelius Meister in his Met debut.

Georgia Shreve, the New York based composer and writer, is sitting in the living room at her piano, a Steinway classic grand in walnut, of her Upper East Side home closely scrutinizing a score she is working on of her latest orchestration. Georgia works best in daylight amply provided by three walls of high windows. The muted tones of cream and celadon in the room provide a serene backdrop to work in.

The Canadian Opera Company's 2018/2019 season presents the world premiere of Hadrian, a new opera from composer Rufus Wainwright and librettist Daniel MacIvor, which features the highly anticipated COC debuts of international opera stars Thomas Hampson and Karita Mattila.

September 14 marks the launch of O17, the first edition of Opera Philadelphia's new annual season-opening festival. Featuring seven operatic happenings, six city venues, three world premieres, many already sold-out performances, and one superstar Festival Artist, this twelve- day immersion will transform the City of Brotherly Love into an urban stage for diverse audiences to gather and connect through the shared experience of opera (Sep 14-25). O17 shines a contemporary light on the genre, tackling daring subject matter, offering cutting-edge takes on the classics, and providing extraordinary artists with the chance to create their most imaginative and inspired work.

Opera Philadelphia continues to combine cutting-edge new commissions with fresh takes on the classics. To conclude a 2016-17 season highlighted by the knockout success of its world premiere production of Breaking the Waves, the company turns to iconic Mozartean comedy, with a new co-production of The Marriage of Figaro (April 28–May 7). With Jack Mulroney Music Director Corrado Rovaris leading five performances at the historic Academy of Music, celebrated young singers Brandon Cedel, John Chest, Layla Claire, Ying Fang, and Cecelia Hall anchor a stellar cast in the new Stephen Lawless staging that has already proven “as beautiful as it is humorous, as sophisticated as it is raunchy” (Kansas City Star).