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The Metropolitan Opera Reimagines Itself with New Themes and Celebrity Stars

This is Beirut, 21/09 10:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

The iconic Metropolitan Opera of New York is continuing its evolution amidst financial challenges, launching its new season this Sunday with a politically charged opera featuring a comic book superhero. The season also welcomes actress Sandra Oh, known for her roles in Grey's Anatomy and Killing Eve, in a beloved opera-comique. The Met is ...

Elina Garanca Defends Opera Amid Digital Age Challenges

This is Beirut, 10/09 13:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Elina Garanca Vienna Mezzo-soprano Netflix Opera Music

In her decades-long career, star Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca has seen the ups and downs of the music industry first hand. But the business has changed drastically with the rise of social media, even impacting the way many people inside and outside the industry approach classical music — namely "without patience or time", she told ...

Vienna State Opera Celebrates Season with Free Gala Concert

This is Beirut, 08/09 12:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Vienna Opera Music Opening Culture Art

No dress code, no stiff atmosphere, and no entry fees: Thousands flocked to a Viennese park Sunday as the Vienna State Opera opened its 2025-26 season with a star-studded open-air gala concert for the first time. The free, open-air concert was the state opera's latest effort to «open the house to all – especially new listeners», it said in a ...

British Opera Tenor David Rendall Dies Aged 76

This is Beirut, 22/07 18:40 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Opera David Rendall Obituary Britain Culture

Renowned British tenor David Rendall, who performed in some of the world's most famous opera houses during a decades-spanning career, has died aged 76, his family said Tuesday. His death, while surrounded by relatives in southern England on Monday, follows a long illness, their announcement noted. Rendall graced the stages of London's Royal ...

Anna Netrebko Returns to Royal Opera House Stage

This is Beirut, 06/04 10:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Music Culture Art Opera Russia

Russian superstar soprano Anna Netrebko — shunned on some world stages since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine — will appear at London's Royal Opera House later this year. Netrebko, 53, will star in a production of Puccini's Tosca from September 11, marking her return to Covent Garden after a six-year absence, the Royal Opera said on its ...

Final Curtain: Hong Kong's Sunbeam Theater Closes After 50 Years

This is Beirut, 04/03 09:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Art Opera Honk Kong Theater

A landmark Hong Kong venue that became synonymous with Cantonese opera for more than half a century closed its doors in the early hours of Tuesday, with hundreds gathering to watch its neon signs going dark. Crowds packed onto the streets of Hong Kong's North Point district after dark on Monday, eager to snap pictures of Sunbeam Theater – ...

Attend the Paris Opera Ballet in the Intimacy of Rehearsals

Bélinda Ibrahim, 08/02 18:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Paris Opera Ballet Culture Dance

The Paris National Opera, a prestigious cultural institution founded in 1669 during the reign of Louis XIV, is renowned worldwide for the rigor of its artistic programming, particularly the excellence of its Ballet. Each season, tens of thousands of spectators flock to attend performances on the legendary stages of the Palais Garnier and the ...

Flamenco, Lorca, and War: 'Ainadamar' Debuts at the Met

This is Beirut, 2024-10-17 14:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

opera Met

The life and death of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, assassinated by fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War, is the subject of an opera making its Met Opera debut in New York on Tuesday. Ainadamar, meaning “fountain of tears” in Arabic, brings flamenco and rumba to the Met’s prestigious stage, set against a backdrop of violence ...

Nearly 90, but Opera Legend Kabaivanska Is Still Calling Tune

This is Beirut, 2024-10-15 14:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

opera Bulgaria music

Raina Kabaivanska was one of the greatest sopranos of her generation — arguably the greatest Tosca after Maria Callas. And even at 89, the Bulgarian singer remains a force in opera. Although she gave her last stage performance a decade ago, her influence continues through the young stars she mentors in her annual masterclass in Sofia. “When my ...

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