The Richard Tucker Music Foundation holds its 37th annual gala, one of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season, on Sunday, November 11 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center. Ailyn Pérez, winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award and the first Latina singer to be so honored, joins a dazzling array of special guests – including baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Gerald Finley; mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina; tenor Marcello Giordani; bass Ildar Abdrazakov; bass-baritone Erwin Schrott; and many more – in a program of favorite arias and ensembles, including selections by Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Massenet, Mascagni, Handel, and Wagner. Maestro Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director of Houston Grand Opera, leads the lineup of luminaries, supported by members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Choral Society.
Tickets for this year’s event, which is being made possible in part by the generous support of Cadillac, range from $40 to $500 and are on sale to the public on the Richard Tucker Music Foundation’s web site, www.richardtucker.org, as well as at www.lincolncenter.org, by calling CenterCharge (212) 721-6500, or at the Avery Fisher Hall box office. Seats at the gala dinner on the Grand Promenade that follows the concert can be arranged by contacting the foundation’s offices at (212) 757-2218.
Those unable to attend the star-studded performance will be happy to learn that it is returning to television for the first time since 2007; the concert will be filmed for delayed national broadcast in the U.S. as part of PBS’s Emmy Award-winning “Live From Lincoln Center” series on Thursday, December 13. Hosted by five-time Tony Award-winning singer and actress Audra McDonald, the telecast will feature mini-documentaries in addition to the musical performance.