Shortly into the first act of PAGLIACCI, church bells call the villagers off to vespers, before they return for the commedia dell'arte show at sunset. Carlo Montanaro conducted the Seattle Opera chorus and orchestra in 2024.

PAGLIACCI Chorus of the Bells

At Seattle Opera's 60th Anniversary Gala in May 2024, Kazem Abdullah conducted the chorus and orchestra performing "Va, pensiero" from Verdi's NABUCCO. This chorus of enslaved Israelites, toiling on the banks of the Euphrates river in their Babylonian Exile, has become something of an unofficial national anthem for Italy.

60th Anniversary Gala NABUCCO Va, pensiero

Nadiege Sabate

VICTORY song in French performed by feature artist ZAYN with orchestra, inspired by Nessun Dorma by Giacomo Puccini, 1858-1924. #Zayn #Zain

Video: Victory in English with piano accompaniment: youtu.be/71oAZE4Fm3I
Magazine article about the Victory song history: stereostickman.com/music/beatriz-villar-victory/

© Copyright 2024, Nirvana Records.

Victoire!

Notre chemin,
Sur notre chemin,
À travers les vallées et les ombres,
Mais dans le nouveau jour,
Jésus est notre lumière.
Pas d'obscurité, pas de nuit.
Avec un nouvel espoir,
Croyez en Jésus-Christ et sachez,
Que la vie éternelle ne mourra jamais, non.
Pour Dieu qui me donne,
Croyez, oh, croyez.
Avec l'amour de Dieu que nous partageons,
À travers le désespoir et la mort.
À partir de ce moment dans le temps,
Nous continuerons avec joie pour toujours.
Pour un jour plus lumineux,
Sur notre chemin,
Vers la gloire du ciel,
La victoire du Christ.
Victoire!
Victoire!
_______________________
Victory!

Our way,
On our way,
Through valleys and shadows,
But in the new day,
Jesus is our light.
No darkness, no night.
With new hope,
Believe in Jesus Christ and know,
Eternal life will never die, no.
For God who gives me,
Believe, oh, Believe.
With the love of God that we share,
Over despair and death.
From this moment in time,
With joy we will go on forever.
For a brighter day,
On our way,
To Heaven’s glory,
Christ’s victory.
Victory!
Victory!

Victory

Victoire - Victory by ZAHN in French

Victoire - Victory by ZAHN in French, orchestral

Rehearsal extract from 'Lanternfish' - a chamber opera developed in collaboration with librettist David Bottomley, and supported by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Quicksilver - a lanternfish - sung by Yolisa Ngwexana

Repetiteur: Alistair Burton
Conductor: Dominic Wheeler

Lanternfish - a chamber opera: rehearsal Extract (Scene V)

This is the final scene of my opera Æthelflæd

Æthelflæd: Rachel Kobernick
Elfwynn: Emily Misch
Halfdan: Matthew Anchel
Frode: Gabriel Hernandez
Bo: Bryan Murray
Eowils: Matt Soibelman
Chorus: Carla Sargiotto, Camila Hernandez, Eugenia Redoni, Victoria Bellone, Camila Martin, Valentina Gadagñotto, Juan Leoni, Santiago Brusco, Ignacio Luna, Raymi Acebo, Nahuel Camargo, Nicolás Visintin.
Macrófona Choir, Conducted and produced by Héctor Muñoz, Argentina.

Music and libretto by Andre Fratto, Translation into Old English by James Combe

Æthelflæd Act 3 Scene 2

South Korean tenor Yonghoon Lee made his Seattle Opera debut singing Samson in SAMSON ET DALILA at the 2023 concert presentation of Saint-Saëns’ masterpiece. In Act 1, the rabble-rousing Samson inspires the Hebrews to rise up against the Philistines with this rousing music. Chorus and orchestra of Seattle Opera conducted by Ludovic Morlot. 
Photo by Sunny Martini

YONGHOON LEE as SAMSON Heroic

South Korean tenor Yonghoon Lee gave an impassioned performance of Saint-Saëns’ Samson at Seattle Opera’s 2023 concert presentation of SAMSON ET DALILA. In Act 3, shorn by the duplicitous Dalila and blinded and tortured by his Philistine enemies, Samson is mostly concerned by how he has let down his people, whose voices continue to plague him with guilt: 
SAMSON: Brothers, your sorrowful song resounds in the darkness of my prison. Its misery will drown my broken heart. God, take my life in sacrifice. Appease thy anger. Turn thy hand from Israel and I will praise thy justice!
HEBREWS: He sold us for a woman! He sold us to pay for Dalila’s charms. Son of Manoah, 
what hast thou made of our blood and of our tears?
Ludovic Morlot conducted the chorus and orchestra of Seattle Opera. 
Photo by Sunny Martini

YONGHOON LEE as SAMSON Tragic

Sarah Coburn returned to Seattle Opera for the 60th Anniversary Gala in May 2024. Among her thrilling performances that night, she sang a dazzling mad scene from Donizetti’s LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, a role she has sung with great success around the world. Kazem Abdullah conducted the orchestra of Seattle Opera. Flute solo by Demarre McGill.  
Photo by Philip Newton

SARAH COBURN Sings Lucia’s Mad Scene

In the final moments of Saint-Saëns’ SAMSON ET DALILA, the Philistines are mocking the blinded Samson and ridiculing his God—but he begs Jehovah for a miracle, and suddenly his strength returns; with it he destroys the Philistine temple, crushing both himself and his enemies in a final coup de théâtre. At Seattle Opera’s 2023 concert presentation of this masterpiece, audiences used their imagination to envision the catastrophe; but the music, memorably performed by tenor Younghoon Lee and the chorus and orchestra of Seattle Opera conducted by Ludovic Morlot, helped. 
Image by Gustave Doré

SAMSON Brings Down the House

At Seattle Opera’s 60th Anniversary Gala, in May 2024, Kazem Abdullah conducted chorus and orchestra performing one of Wagner’s noblest melodies, the Pilgrims’ Chorus from TANNHÄUSER. This excerpt included the redemptive conclusion to the opera, when news that the dead staff in the Pope’s hand has indeed sprouted new verdure arrives at just the right time, proving that there is hope for the fallen Tannhäuser’s immortal soul. 
Photo by Philip Newton

Pilgrims’ Chorus from TANNHÄUSER

Tacoma native J’nai Bridges sang Delilah in a concert presentation of Saint-Saëns’ SAMSON ET DALILA at Seattle Opera in 2023. This flirtatious Philistine floozy seduces Samson with her famous aria “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix,” begging her ex-lover to return to her tenderness and grant her ecstasy. Ludovic Morlot conducted the orchestra of Seattle Opera. 
Photo by Sunny Martini

J’NAI BRIDGES Sings “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix”

Tacoma native J’nai Bridges made her long-awaited Seattle Opera debut in 2023, singing the seductive temptress Delilah in a concert presentation of Saint-Saëns’ SAMSON ET DALILA. Act 2 begins with her luscious aria “Amour, viens aider ma faiblesse,” a prayer for strength for the seduction she intends to execute: “Love, come to the aid of my weakness. Pour poison into his lap. Let Samson be conquered, enchained by my craft. He has no power against love. He may be the strongest of the strong; but even if he breaks his people’s chains, from my chains he will not break free.” Ludovic Morlot conducted the orchestra of Seattle Opera. 
Photo by Sunny Martini

J’NAI BRIDGES Sings “Amour, viens aider ma faiblesse”

Greer Grimsley returned to Seattle Opera as the High Priest of Dagon for the 2023 concert presentation of SAMSON ET DALILA. This blasphemous character sings what’s perhaps the most anti-Semitic aria in all opera, cursing the Hebrews who have just led a successful revolt against their Philistine oppressors. Grimsley has sung many a bad guy at Seattle Opera in many great performances since his 1994 debut, but few of them are this nasty. Ludovic Morlot conducted John Marzano, James Galbraith, Jonah Spool, and the chorus and orchestra of Seattle Opera. 
Photo by Sunny Martini

GREER GRIMSLEY as the High Priest of Dagon

At Seattle Opera’s 60th Anniversary Gala in May 2024, South Korean tenor Duke Kim sang Roméo’s “Ah, lève-toi, soleil” from ROMÉO ET JULIETTE by Charles Gounod. Kim, who has sung Alfredo in LA TRAVIATA and Count Almaviva in THE BARBER OF SEVILLE in Seattle, has triumphed elsewhere as Romeo. Here, in an operatic answer to Shakespeare’s balcony scene, he wonders “What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun…”
Kazem Abdullah conducted the orchestra of Seattle Opera.

DUKE KIM Sings “Ah, lève-toi, soleil”

Australian bass Daniel Sumegi returned to Seattle Opera in 2023 to sing the Old Hebrew in the concert presentation of SAMSON ET DALILA. Following Samson’s Act 1 victory over the Philistines, a group of Hebrew Elders give thanks in a touching plainchant, and from them the Old Hebrew’s voice emerges to sing further praises of Jehovah: “He smote us down in his wrath when we refused to walk in his law. Our souls were bowed down to the dust; but we lifted our voices to him, and he said to his children, “Arise!  March to battle. I am the Lord of Hosts. I am the strength of your arms.” Ludovic Morlot conducted the orchestra and chorus of Seattle Opera. 
Photo by Sunny Martini.

DANIEL SUMEGI as the Old Hebrew with the Elders

The ballet sequence Saint-Saëns composed for the final scene of his opera SAMSON ET DALILA is the quintessence of musical exoticism, an obsession of nineteenth-century French composers. When Seattle Opera gave S&D in concert in 2023, Ludovic Morlot conducted the orchestra of Seattle Opera in this spectacular music. 
Photo by Sunny Martini

Bacchanal from SAMSON ET DALILA

American bass Andrew Potter made his Seattle Opera debut singing Abimelelch, Satrap of Gaza in the 2023 concert presentation of SAMSON ET DALILA. This unpleasant character insults the Hebrews in the first scene, in an aria with striking orchestration—the tuba doubles the voice, while chattering woodwinds snicker at each vocal pause. Ludovic Morlot conducted the orchestra of Seattle Opera. 
Photo by Sunny Martini

ANDREW POTTER as Abimelech

https://www.tumblr.com/nadiegesabate1990/741926170107543552/nadiege-and-the-four-seasons?source=share

The Victory songs. #Victory Music and vocal performances by leading international recording artists. Arrangements with orchestra, piano accompaniment, acoustic guitar accompaniment, and pop bands. GREAT PERFORMANCES #Victoria #Vittoria #NessunDorma #Shannon #ShannonBurchett #Burchett #Zayn #Beatriz

Founded in 1963, Seattle Opera is a leading American opera company. The company presents the classics of the European repertoire as well as new works of American opera. Frequent productions of Wagner's RING, beginning in 1975, established the company's worldwide reputation. Seattle Opera usually presents five opera productions each year.

Film and Television composer, independent record producer.

New tracks tagged #opera