Jazz Fest’s Saturday opening delayed by weather
May 6, 2023 GMTNEW ORLEANS (AP) — The gates opened about an hour later than usual for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival after a line of strong thunderstorms, with wind gusts of up to 60 mph (about 97 kph), prompted organizers to delay Saturday's opening.
Met premieres Blanchard’s `Champion,′ an `opera in jazz’
April 12, 2023 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — When Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” proved a sell-out hit at the Metropolitan Opera in 2021, general manager Peter Gelb wasted no time lining up the composer’s other opera for the current season.
Terence Blanchard gets yearlong Lincoln Center celebration
January 19, 2023 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — Terence Blanchard, the first Black composer whose work has been heard at the Metropolitan Opera, will be given a yearlong celebration at Lincoln Center starting in March.
The Met, New York Philharmonic, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Film at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will focus on compositions by Blanchard, a trumpeter who turns 61 on March 13.
Celebrity birthdays for the week of March 13-19
March 7, 2022 GMTCelebrity birthdays for the week of March 13-19:
March 13: Jazz drummer Roy Haynes is 97. Songwriter Mike Stoller is 89. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 83. Singer Candi Staton is 82. Actor William H.
Met Opera to present Blanchard’s ‘Champion’ in April 2023
December 8, 2021 GMTThe Metropolitan Opera will present its premiere of Terence Blanchard’s first opera, “Champion,” about closeted gay boxer Emile Griffith, in April 2023 following the success of the composer’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” on the opening night of this season.
Nézet-Séguin to take 4 weeks off from conducting
November 30, 2021 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of the Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra, is taking a four-week sabbatical from conducting starting Dec. 19 after a busy autumn and ahead of a challenging second half of the season.
Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green ready for operatic stardom
November 24, 2021 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — He opened the season as kindly Uncle Paul in the Metropolitan Opera premiere of Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” Next night he was the vagabond monk Varlaam, stopping the show in Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov.”
Aucoin’s ‘Eurydice,’ modern retelling of myth, opens at Met
November 23, 2021 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — As Erin Morley sang on the big stage of the Metropolitan Opera, Matthew Aucoin sat in the first row of the orchestra, his score in front of him, taking notes.
Unlike most of her performances, Morley could use rehearsals to suggest adjusting notes to fit her soprano.
Met returns with 1st work by a Black composer in its history
September 28, 2021 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — “We bend, we don't break. We sway!” sings the chorus in the second act of Terence Blanchard's "Fire Shut Up in My Bones.”
That is how much of the audience of about 4,000 in the Metropolitan Opera felt as they watched Monday night' landmark performance, the first staged work in the house since March 2020 and the first by a Black composer in the long history of a company that launched in 1883.
Met season to open with first-ever opera by Black composer
September 23, 2021 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — Charles Blow recalls being in the audience at the premiere of the opera based on his memoir, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” and watching the scene that depicts his sexual abuse as a child by an older cousin.
Met Opera to stage Anthony Davis’ `X’ on Malcolm X in 2023
September 17, 2021 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera will present its second work by a Black composer, Anthony Davis’ “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X,” just two years after its first.
The company said Thursday that “X” will open on Nov.
Silenced by pandemic, Met Opera to make brief return
May 12, 2021 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — Silenced for 14 months by the pandemic and dealing with labor strife, the Metropolitan Opera will make a brief return Sunday.
Music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct members of the Met orchestra and chorus in a program with soprano Angel Blue, tenor Stephen Costello baritone Justin Austin and bass-baritone Eric Owen...
Met Opera skips this season, 1st Black composer opens ’21-22
September 23, 2020 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera will skip an entire season for the first time in its nearly 140-year history and intends to return from the pandemic layoff next September with the company’s first presentation of a Black composer, Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones...