{"id":13243,"date":"2024-04-29T15:39:14","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T15:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/?p=13243"},"modified":"2024-04-29T15:39:14","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T15:39:14","slug":"countertenor-takes-reins-opera-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/2024\/04\/29\/countertenor-takes-reins-opera-philadelphia\/","title":{"rendered":"Countertenor Takes the Reins at Opera Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_13244\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13244\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13244\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/04\/Anthony-Roth-Costanzo.jpg\" alt=\"Anthony Roth Costanzo\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/04\/Anthony-Roth-Costanzo.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/04\/Anthony-Roth-Costanzo-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/04\/Anthony-Roth-Costanzo-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/04\/Anthony-Roth-Costanzo-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13244\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anthony Roth Costanzo (Photo: courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo has been appointed general director of Opera Philadelphia. Costanzo will succeed the Toronto-born David B. Devan, who announced his departure from the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/2023\/08\/21\/opera-philadelphia-reduces-staff-budget-20-general-director-announces-plans-step\/\">last spring<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Driving the news:<\/strong> Anthony Roth Costanzo, Opera Philadelphia\u2019s new general director, has a long history with the company. When he was 13, Costanzo played the shepherd in the company\u2019s production of Tosca <a href=\"https:\/\/www.operaamerica.org\/magazine\/fall-2018\/my-first-opera-anthony-roth-costanzo\/\">alongside Luciano Pavarotti<\/a>. Now an acclaimed countertenor, Costanzo <a href=\"https:\/\/anthonyrothcostanzo.com\/Events\">appears regularly with major companies around the world<\/a>. Opera Philadelphia\u2019s board was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/25\/arts\/music\/anthony-roth-costanzo-director-opera-philadelphia.html\">drawn<\/a> to the singer\u2019s ideas to help attract new audiences, sustainability initiatives, as well as his well-rounded background.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Playing catch-up:<\/strong> When Costanzo was in his twenties, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, impeding his ability to sing. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/05\/13\/1098762497\/anthony-roth-costanzo-nearly-lost-his-voice-to-cancer-now-hes-back-as-akhnaten\">He worked daily with his teacher Joan Patenaude-Yarnell<\/a> as part of his recovery. He returned to singing and won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions the following year. Two years ago, Costanzo made headlines as the genderfluid Egyptian pharaoh and title character in Philip Glass\u2019 Akhnaten at the Met. Costanzo immersed himself in the role by studying Egyptology with experts at Oxford University and working out \u201cfuriously\u201d in preparation for his costuming. Costanzo also stunned audiences by making his first onstage entrance as the pharaoh in his birthday suit; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2019\/feb\/12\/singing-philip-glass-akhnaten-anthony-roth-costanzo-naked-pharoah\">the first male-frontal nudity <\/a>at the Metropolitan Opera. Chapeau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo has been appointed general director of Opera Philadelphia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":13244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[360,3,80],"tags":[426,318],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/04\/Anthony-Roth-Costanzo.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13245,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13243\/revisions\/13245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13243"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}