On March 29 ATMA will release its recording of Caldara’s La Conversione di Clodoveo Re di Francia. Conducted by Alex Weiman, it features Dean Artists Nathalie Paulin, Suzie LeBlanc Allyson McHardy. The project came about following a performance of this work at the Montreal Baroque Festival where it was staged in one of Montreal’s grand old churches.

Sopranos Betty Waynne Allison and Lucia Cesaroni will be participating in the prestigious Ravinia Festival this summer. Things are still in the early planning stages, but they are both looking forward to working with head coach Brian Zieger and to spending a couple of weeks at the summer home of the famous Chicago Symphony.

Carrol Anne Curry has just recently returned from Calgary where she attended the world premiere of The Inventor by Bramwell Tovey and John Murrell. Directed by Kelly Robinson this all Canadian piece recounts the true-life trajectory of scoundrel Sandy Keith, nephew of Alexander Keith of Nova Scotia brewing fame. Carrol Anne was thrilled to be there for the opening and called it a brilliant production that was wonderfully sung.

At the end of March Carrol Anne’s travels continue when she goes to see the Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Agrippina which will be conducted by Gary Thor Wedow and will feature countertenor David Trudgen as Nerone. Says Gary “So happy to be in Boston, 'the home of the bean and the cod, where the Cabots talk only to the Lodges, and the Lodges talk only to God!' I went to school here at the New England Conservatory and so it's a stroll down memory lane. Working on Agrippina is terrific, such a masterpiece and side-splitting funny; great cast including David Trudgen as the pyro-maniac, violin playing Nero! We are also playing in the historic Shubert Theater where Bernhardt and Mae West both trod the boards and are rehearsing in a building where Lincoln spoke! So off now to get some scrod!”

Henry Ingram enjoyed a whirlwind road trip last month that saw visits to three US cities to hear

Dean Artists perform and to have meetings. In Seattle Henry caught a performance of the Symphony conducted by Gary Thor Wedow in an evening of Operatic Hightlights, then it was

on to Denver where mezzo-soprano Anita Krause was singing the Mozart Requiem with the Colorado Symphony. The final stop was in Minnesota to hear baritone Michael Nyby in Minnesota Opera’s production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda.

On a personal note, congratulations to soprano Michèle Bogdanowicz who married tenor Edgar Ernesto Ramirez in a quiet ceremony on February 12. There have also been a number of new babies on the scene including Leander Angelo, born January 31 to soprano Allison Angelo and her husband Joe and John Alexander James Dean Dowell, grandson of Bruce Dean, born on February 28.