Anthony Dean Griffey News

Music Director Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in a celebration of the centennial of English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten. The program will include Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, featuring tenor Paul Appleby and Philharmonic Principal Horn Philip Myers, and Britten's Spring Symphony, with soprano Kate Royal (in her Philharmonic debut), mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Philharmonic subscription debut), tenor Paul Appleby, New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun-Menaker. The concerts, which include a performance on the composer's 100th birthday, November 22, will take place Thursday, November 21, 2013, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, November 22 at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturday, November 23 at 8:00 p.m.

The Canadian Opera Company has announced that Canadian tenor Ben Heppner, scheduled to sing the title role in the upcoming production of Britten's Peter Grimes, has had to withdraw from the opening night performance on October 5 for health reasons. Mr. Heppner will return to the role for subsequent performances in the COC's production. Four-time Grammy Award-winning American tenor Anthony Dean Griffey will sing the role of Peter Grimes on October 5.

Susan Graham - winner of a Grammy, an Opera News Award, Musical America's Vocalist of the Year, and hailed by the New York Times as 'an artist to treasure' - returns for another compelling season, highlighted by three role debuts. As Houston Grand Opera's 2013-14 Lynn Wyatt Great Artist, she undertakes Prince Orlofsky in the company's first staging of Die Fledermaus in 30 years.

The St. Louis Symphony will mark the centennial of Benjamin Britten's birth with two concert performances of the composer's haunting opera Peter Grimes: first at Powell Hall on November 16, then at Carnegie Hall on November 22, the date of the late composer's 100th birthday.

Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) 2013–14 season includes the launch of the company's first Ring cycle, in a visionary and captivating production by the Catalan company La Fura dels Baus; the hotly anticipated American premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Holocaust opera The Passenger; the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's A Coffin in Egypt, based on the play of the same name by renowned Texas writer Horton Foote and starring iconic mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade; a new HGO production of Carmen from Broadway sensation Rob Ashford; revivals of Aida, Rigoletto, and Die Fledermaus; and, in tribute to the nation's homegrown musical theater tradition, Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music designed by fashion star Isaac Mizrahi. Through its HGOco S o n g o f H o u s t o n project—winner of the National MultiCultural Institute's Leading Lights Diversity Award—the company continues to celebrate Houston's cultural diversity with the world premieres of two new commissions exploring the city's Vietnamese and Indian communities as part of the East + West series.

Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) 2013-14 season includes the launch of the company's first Ring cycle, in a visionary and captivating production by the Catalan company La Fura dels Baus; the hotly anticipated American premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Holocaust opera The Passenger; the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's A Coffin in Egypt, based on the play of the same name by renowned Texas writer Horton Foote and starring iconic mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade; a new HGO production of Carmenfrom Broadway sensation Rob Ashford; revivals of Aida, Rigoletto, and Die Fledermaus; and, in tribute to the nation's homegrown musical theater tradition, Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music designed by fashion star Isaac Mizrahi. Through its HGOco Song of Houston project-winner of the National MultiCultural Institute's Leading Lights Diversity Award-the company continues to celebrate Houston's cultural diversity with the world premieres of two new commissions exploring the city's Vietnamese and Indian communities as part of the East + West series.

Superstar Renée Fleming returns to Los Angeles in a role created for her extraordinary talents! Clinging desperately to a masquerade of Southern grace, Blanche DuBois moves into her sister's cramped apartment, creating all the wrong kinds of sparks with her crude brother-in-law. When dark truths about Blanche's past begin to emerge, her world comes apart at the seams in a spiral of violence and madness.

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Announces 2013-14 Season

Please note the following updates to Carnegie Hall's 2013-2014 schedule, reflecting major updates made since the hall announced the concert season last January.

Carnegie Hall has announced its November 2013 calendar. Details below!

Following her resounding success in A Streetcar Named Desire at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Beverly Sills Artist Susanna Phillips returns to Santa Fe Opera as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro (June 29–Aug 23). In her first summer festival engagement, she celebrates the Britten centennial at the Aspen Music Festival, where she will make her role debut as Ellen Orford in a concert performance of Peter Grimes (July 27). At the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Phillips will join the Philadelphia Orchestra for Mahler's Fourth Symphony (July 12). And theworld premiere of a new commission from Christopher Weiss will crown Twickenham Fest, the festival that Phillips herself co-founded in her hometown of Huntsville, Alabama (Aug 30–Sept 1). After this full summer, the soprano looks forward to returning to New York's Metropolitan Opera, where she will star in three important productions next season.

Andre Previn's operatic version of Tennesee Williams's A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, with a libretto by Andrew Littell, made its belated New York debut at Carnegie Hall on Thursday. It plays to Renee Fleming's vocal strengths, with her shimmering, lyric soprano and soaring high notes. This is not surprising since Previn wrote the role of Blanche specifically with her in mind and it shows with every note she sings. But is she Blanche? Unfortunately, she's too healthy, too sane and too much a star to be the character that Williams created, a woman clings to a false gentility--and her sanity--from the moment that she arrives on stage. It also doesn't help that she has zero chemistry with New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes the Stanley Kowalski of the evening. Rhodes' muscular baritone carries the threat that Blanche should feel, but he might as well be playing to the Merry Widow.

Today, the St. Louis Symphony announced its 2013-2014 season, the orchestra's 134th since its founding in 1880 and the ninth led by Music Director David Robertson. The 2013-2014 classical subscription series is sponsored by Wells Fargo Advisors and runs from September 20, 2013 through May 11, 2014.

On Monday, March 11, at 8:00 p.m., the versatile and commanding mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, joined by frequent collaborator, pianist Warren Jones, makes her Carnegie Hall recital debut in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage with a deeply personal program of American song. Ms. Blythe's program features Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson, a set of songs written for her by the late composer James Legg, and Samuel Barber's Three Songs, Op. 10, powerful settings of three poems by James Joyce. Also featured are songs by Tin Pan Alley songwriters Ray Henderson, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin.

Clive Gillinson, Executive and Artistic Director, today announced Carnegie Hall's 2013-2014 season, consisting of over 170 performances and extensive education and community programs created by Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute. The upcoming season features collaborations with many of the world's greatest musicians and ensembles from the worlds of classical, pop, jazz, and world music, with performances presented on Carnegie Hall's three stages and throughout New York City.

Lead by CSO Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni and featuring guest vocalists Sasha Cooke and Anthony Dean Griffey, this rapturous program includes one of the Romantic era's most definitive compositions, Tchaikovsky's moving String Serenade, written as an homage to Mozart, and concludes with Cortese's orchestration of Mahler's infinitely ingenious combination of song cycle and symphony, The Song of the Earth.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO)-the only opera company with two Grammys, two Emmys, and a Tony - continues to raise the bar for American opera with next season's gripping new line-up.

Anthony Dean Griffey, a tenor internationally renowned for his portray of the title role of Britten's Peter Grimes, and Emalie Savoy, a 2011 George London Award winner who is one of New York's fastest rising young sopranos, perform the second George London Foundation Recital of the season with pianist Ken Noda on Sunday, January 13, 2013, at 4:30 PM at The Morgan Library & Museum. The George London Foundation Recital Series presents pairs of outstanding opera singers, many of whom were winners of a George London prize early in their careers or are recent George London Award recipients.

After nearly 40 performances at Carnegie Hall, renowned soprano Renée Fleming curates a four-event Perspectives series, showcasing her multifaceted talents and collaborating with some of her favorite fellow artists beginning on Sunday, January 27 at 8:00 p.m. when she appears in recital in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage with her frequent operatic co-star and close friend mezzo-soprano Susan Graham.

Sing for Hope will present AIDS QUILT SONGBOOK @ TWENTY at the Great Hall at Cooper Union today, December 1st, 2012, in observance of World AIDS Day and to mark the 20th anniversary of the first AIDS Quilt Songbook performance, which took place on June 4th 1992 at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.