Singer

640 girls in Italy, 231 in Germany, 100 in France, 91 in Turkey, 1,003 in Spain. As the servant Leporello famously sings in his “Catalogue aria,” the eponymous fiend in Mozart’s sublime tragicomedy Don Giovanni has already been very busy when he beds the engaged Anna and then kills her father in a duel. Even as he’s pursued by aggrieved parties on all sides, Don Giovanni sets about seducing the lovely Zerlina—on her wedding day. But the arrogant Spanish antihero everyone loves to hate meets his comeuppance, and in director Kasper Holten’s brilliant production, his descent into hell is not literal but mental, as depicted by Luke Halls’s incredible projections onto Es Devlin’s magically minimalist set.

EPSG:4326

Don Giovanni

Wortham Theater Center

Giancarlo Guerrero explores the range of emotions of art borne from grief. After visiting a friend’s posthumous art exhibit, Mussorgsky exclaimed “Ideas, melodies, come to me of their own accord.” He penned Pictures at an Exhibition with a feverish intensity, and the result is a work that showcases the virtuosity found within the orchestra. Sasha Cooke joins us for One Sweet Morning, John Corigliano’s achingly beautiful song cycle written to commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Pictures at an Exhibition

Shermerhorn Symphony Center

The most triumphal lyrical scenes amidst the Bernese Oberland ... now, that’s a rare spectacle! Also, we get to see a stellar cast led by Wagner experts Camilla Nylund and Jonas Kaufmann, both currently scaling the peaks of their careers. Kaufmann, who dazzled audiences in the title role of Tannhäuser at the 2023 Salzburg Festival, had previously mesmerised the audience with the second act of Tristan und Isolde in concertante performances in Boston and New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2018. Jonas Kaufmann knows exactly what resonates in Wagner’s world today. Starting off in the Gstaad Festival Tent and later moving to the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden (a regular venue for the Gstaad Festival Orchestra), the tenor unfolds the profound tension between heaven and earth: the longing for love and yearning for death. The role holds a treasure trove for Jonas Kaufmann!

Tristan Und Isolde – Trans-cendence IX – Gstaad Festival Orchestra III

Gstaad Festival Tent

Sounds of nature meet music of love: a festive Wagner evening featuring the glorious Good Friday Music from Parsifal and the second act of Tristan und Isolde. This Second Act is itself an opera within an opera: a never-ending love duet, performed here by a dream couple of Wagnerian singing, Jonas Kaufmann and Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund. And if you’ve always wondered why Wagner's music never seems to come to an end, it is clear from this love duet. Its enormous length allows the composer to explore the feeling of love like a landscape. The fact that Wagner's characters are heroes heightens our awareness of the armor they have to cast off.

Jonas Kaufmann & Camilla Nylund

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

The audience gets a unique opportunity to feel the opera rush from the mythical Bayreuth Festival. The tradition of playing operas by Richard Wagner in Bayreuth is long and is due to the composer's desire to perform his great works. He himself chose Bayreuth for his opera house, and the city has since been the center of the world-famous Wagner performances.

Tristan and Isolde

Musikhuset Aarhus

One of the brightest stars on the operatic stage and a Tucson favorite, internationally recognized mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke returns to the TSO for a riveting performance of Mahler’s colossal third symphony. Organized over six movements, the work is the composer’s hymn to nature and one of his most complete musical statements.

Mahler’s Third

Linda Ronstadt Music Hall

Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke returns for a second Mahler turn! The Metropolitan Opera star will perform a selection from the composer’s five-song cycle based on the work of Friedrich Rückert. The brilliant young composer Chelsea Komschlies’ new work, a TSO commission through the League of American Orchestras Toulmin Commissions Program, has its world premiere. Maestro Gomez continues his Schumann cycle with the composer’s Symphony No. 3, the “Rhenish,” and Coleridge-Taylor’s beautiful, rarely-played Ballade complete the program.

Sasha Cooke

Mezzo-soprano

Events

Apr 19 - May 3, 2024

Don Giovanni · Houston Grand Opera

5 - 7 Jun, 2024

Pictures at an Exhibition · Nashville Symphony

Aug 23, 2024

Tristan Und Isolde – Trans-cendence IX – Gstaad Festival Orchestra III · Gstaad Festival Orchestra

Aug 25, 2024

Jonas Kaufmann & Camilla Nylund · Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Aug 29, 2024

Tristan and Isolde · Musikhuset Aarhus

About

Sasha Cooke hasn't added a bio