On December 15 and 16, 2018 David Stern offers Shanghai music lovers the 4th annual baroque festival at the Shanghai Symphony Hall, with a performance of Bach’s B-minor Mass with Opera Fuoco and the Tölzer Knabenchor. The work has not been heard in Shanghai since 1918.
Andreas Scholl returns to the festival after a series of performances in 2016. He will be joined by Markus Werba, bass-baritone and three members of Opera Fuoco’s young artist program, Theodora Raftis, Adèle Charvet and Andrés Agudelo. David Stern has previously brought Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Alcina to the festival as well as Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and vocal soloists such as Vivica Genaux, Rafaela Milanese, and Alice Coote. This year’s festival will also include a concert with Paris-based 18th century wind ensemble, Tibiades and a masterclass by French baroque cellist, Jérôme Huile.
Mozart’s last opera was by no means a return to an earlier style. This Opera Seria displays all the sensibility and colors of the composer’s late period. The relationship between the singers and the orchestra is nothing short of revolutionary.
West Palm Beach, FL (August 26, 2024) – Palm Beach Opera announces the contract extension of internationally-acclaimed conductor David Stern through the 2026-2027 season with the new title of Music Director. Maestro Stern has served as Palm Beach Opera’s Chief Conductor since 2015, an appointment that was made following his impressive musical leadership of the company’s world premiere of Enemies, A Love Story by Ben Moore and Nahma Sandrow.
Contrary to the claims of the reference edition, Hercules is not an oratorio. Handel always wanted it to be considered a musical drama, and thus an opera in English. In order to reinforce the dramatic tension and to give Hercules its operatic colors, David Stern proposes an interpretation based on the original manuscript and the reworkings that Handel made in 1749 and 1752.