Takaoki Onishi News

Twenty of the finest young opera singers in the United States will be competing in the 29th Annual Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition presented, jointly, by The Dallas Opera and The Dallas Opera Guild.

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance, in association with Lyric Unlimited, has announced the return of Beyond the Aria - the highly acclaimed performance series produced by the Harris Theater which pairs internationally celebrated opera singers of Lyric's mainstage alongside rising stars from The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Under the direction of Bartlett Sher (whose work is currently represented on Broadway with Lincoln Center Theater's revival of The King and I, Charles Gounod's 1867 French opera ROMEO AND JULIET comes to opulent, dramatic life--with the quality and grandiosity that characterize Lyric Opera's productions. This production of Gounod's opera--with libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carre and which was first performed at the Lyric in 1981--retains the original Renaissance setting of Shakespeare's classic play and renders it larger-than-life. The inherently dramatic nature of the play makes it a fitting choice for an operatic adaptation--Romeo and Juliet's tragic love story becomes even more heightened when set to Gounod's decadent score.

Lyric Opera of Chicago continues its 61st season with ROMEO AND JULIET in a new-to-Chicago production created by Tony Award-winning director Bartlett Sher, tonight, February 22, through Saturday, March 19 (nine performances). This is the eighth and final mainstage opera production of the widely acclaimed 2015/16 season. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the company in action below!

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the eagerly awaited world premiere of Bel Canto. This is Lyric's seventh full-length operatic world premiere.  Check out a first look below!

Dan Novak, director of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, is pleased to announce that soprano Ann Toomey and mezzo-soprano Lauren Decker have been accepted into the prestigious program for its 2016-17 Ensemble.

The Oratorio Society of New York is in its 142nd season as the city's standard for grand choral performance, and its tenth with its current music director, Kent Tritle. Celebrating the culmination of their landmark season together and, as it happens, emergence from a frigid and stormy winter, Tritle and the OSNY will present two life-affirming works for their spring concert: the ardent, hopeful Chichester Psalms of Leonard Bernstein, which will be conducted by the OSNY's associate conductor, David Rosenmeyer (also marking his tenth season with the group), and Carl Orff's spirited, bawdy Carmina Burana. Soloists Jennifer Zetlan, soprano; Peter Tantsits, tenor; Takaoki Onishi, baritone, and the Choristers of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine join the OSNY tonight, May 5, 2015, at 8:00 pm, at Carnegie Hall.

The Oratorio Society of New York is in its 142nd season as the city's standard for grand choral performance, and its tenth with its current music director, Kent Tritle. Celebrating the culmination of their landmark season together and, as it happens, emergence from a frigid and stormy winter, Tritle and the OSNY will present two life-affirming works for their spring concert: the ardent, hopeful Chichester Psalms of Leonard Bernstein, which will be conducted by the OSNY's associate conductor, David Rosenmeyer (also marking his tenth season with the group), and Carl Orff's spirited, bawdy Carmina Burana. Soloists Jennifer Zetlan, soprano; Peter Tantsits, tenor; Takaoki Onishi, baritone, and the Choristers of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine join the OSNY on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, at 8:00 pm, at Carnegie Hall.

The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago celebrates its 40th season with its annual Rising Stars in Concert program tonight, March 21, at 7:30pm at the Civic Opera House. The talented singers and pianist of the 2014-15 ensemble will perform with members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra in works of Bellini, Berg, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Donizetti, Floyd, Gounod, Handel, Korngold, Mozart, Puccini, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Rossini. Rising Stars in Concert is offered in celebration of an exceptionally successful year of study and performance for these up-and-coming artists.

The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago celebrates its 40th season with its annual Rising Stars in Concert program Saturday, March 21, at 7:30pm at the Civic Opera House. The talented singers and pianist of the 2014-15 ensemble will perform with members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra in works of Bellini, Berg, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Donizetti, Floyd, Gounod, Handel, Korngold, Mozart, Puccini, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Rossini. Rising Stars in Concert is offered in celebration of an exceptionally successful year of study and performance for these up-and-coming artists.

'Annual performances of Handel's Messiah have been a New York tradition from the time New York culture began to assert itself,' says Oratorio Society of New York Music Director Kent Tritle. English choral societies, inspired by grand performances of Messiah at Westminster Abbey at the turn of the 19th century, would perform the work periodically, but the Oratorio Society of New York made it an annual tradition in New York City - in 1874, the year after the Society was founded.

A performance of Verdi's Requiem that is a tripartite collaboration highlights the 2014-15 season of Kent Tritle, called 'New York's reigning choral conductor' by The New York Times. In an event emblematic of Kent's multiple roles in the city's choral life, he will conduct a performance of the massive work by the Oratorio Society of New York, of which he is Music Director, and the Symphony and Symphonic Chorus of the Manhattan School of Music, where he is Director of Choral Activities, in the grand space of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where he is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist -- with a new choral configuration that features the more-than-250 singers on risers in the cathedral's Great Choir space.

Haydn's oratorio The Creation (Die Schopfung) depicts nothing less than the creation of the world, based on the Bible's Book of Genesis and Book of Psalms, and Milton's Paradise Lost. It is the work with which the Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY), New York's standard for grand choral performance, will open its 2014-15 season at Carnegie Hall on Monday, November 3, 2014, at 8:00 PM. OSNY Music Director Kent Tritle will conduct The Creation in its German language version, and the three soloists - representing the archangels Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael - are Susanna Phillips, soprano; Aaron Blake, tenor; and Sidney Outlaw, baritone.

Dan Novak, director of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, have announced that soprano Diana Newman, mezzo-sopranos Lindsay Metzger and Annie Rosen, tenors Alec Carlson and Mingjie Lei, baritone Takaoki Onishi, and bass Patrick Guetti have been accepted into the prestigious program beginning April 27, 2015.

Dan Novak, director of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, is pleased to announce that soprano Diana Newman, mezzo-sopranos Lindsay Metzger and Annie Rosen, tenors Alec Carlson and Mingjie Lei, baritone Takaoki Onishi, and bass Patrick Guettihave been accepted into the prestigious program beginning April 27, 2015.

A performance of Verdi's Requiem that is a tripartite collaboration highlights the 2014-15 season of Kent Tritle, called 'New York's reigning choral conductor' by The New York Times. In an event emblematic of Kent's multiple roles in the city's choral life, he will conduct a performance of the massive work by the Oratorio Society of New York, of which he is Music Director, and the Symphony and Symphonic Chorus of the Manhattan School of Music, where he is Director of Choral Activities, in the grand space of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where he is Director of Cathedral Music and Organist -- with a new choral configuration that features the more-than-250 singers on risers in the cathedral's Great Choir space.

The Georg Solti Accademia and The Juilliard School invite the public to attend an historic evening with one of the classical music world's acclaimed elder statesman, Australian conductor and pianist Richard Bonynge, celebrating the Georg Solti Accademia's 10th Anniversary and first master classes in New York City. Maestro Bonynge leads singers from Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, The public master classes are also the first to be given by Mr. Bonynge in New York City, and the first collaboration between the Accademia and Juilliard.Tickets for this October 9 event are available to the public starting today, September 25, 2013, via the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office at Juilliard or via events.juilliard.edu.

The Georg Solti Accademia and The Juilliard School invite the public to attend an historic evening with one of the classical music world's acclaimed elder statesman, Australian conductor and pianist Richard Bonynge

Houston Grand Opera (HGO)'s 50th World Premiere Opera had its first public performance last night at Asia Society Texas Center. This enchanting chamber opera is a gorgeous and stirring piece that examines the power and necessity of memory for the advancement of the human species. It opens with rollicking thunder and a stunning, breathtaking image that is representative of the destruction of Japan in wake of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. As a woman sings about various terrible and destructive moments from Japan's rich history, the scene shifts to the tea room in Houston's Japanese garden. Here the non-linear opera explores how such tragedies affect Japanese-Americans and immigrants from Japan, deftly playing on the emotions, sympathy, and empathy of the assembled audience. The compelling opera elicited several gasps of sorrow, pain, and understanding from the opening night audience as the beauty of the piece spoke to our hearts, minds, and souls.

Opera Index presents its 34th Distinguished Achievement Award to the powerful and charismatic bass-baritone Eric Owens at its annual black-tie winter gala on Sunday, January 13. The gala, held in the Grand Salon of the JW Marriott Essex House at 160 Central Park South, begins at 6 p.m. with a reception in the Petit Salon. Presenting the award to Mr. Owens is a longtime champion of his career, Janet Stovin, the vice president of Opera Index. Last year's Distinguished Achievement Award was presented to opera pioneer and founder of Opera Orchestra of New York, Eve Queler.