I just had a very excited Ailyn Perez on the telephone informing me that she is this year’s winner of the Richard Tucker Award ! This $30,000 prize is the operatic equivalent of winning the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and an Academy Award all rolled into one ! Her husband, Stephen Costello, [...]
Last night was a new production of FAUST, staged by Stephen Lawless, who has directed several productions in Dallas since his US debut with the company in 1991. It was cleverly updated to the middle of the 19th century (the time of its composition) and brimming with interesting ideas about the conflict between good and [...]
Dallas Opera favorite Stephen Costello will take centerstage at the Kennedy Center tomorrow night with soprano Elizabeth Futral in a joint recital presented by The Vocal Arts Society. Dallas Opera donors and subscribers enjoyed much of it first, as you’ll see when you check out the musical selections for the evening. However, one big difference [...]
If, after the relaxed yet romantic “Patron Appreciation Recital” given by tenor Stephen Costello and soprano Ailyn Perez on Monday, November 8th, you can’t get enough of their chemistry – check out not one, not two, but three extensive pieces by local journalist Marilee Vergati that explore multiple aspects of their wedded life, their red-hot careers and their [...]
It’s been a favorite story from Cinderella to Busby Berkeley’s Depression-Era cinematic classics: the understudy who goes on at the last minute and comes back a star. Only in this case, Ailyn Perez was the SECOND understudy who went on in the SECOND act - and already a bonafide star. So, let’s just say the dramatic events [...]
