Elaine J. McCarthy News

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced plans for the 2018 19 Season. The Company's 96th Season will open Friday, September 7 with a gala double-bill performance of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci in Jos Cura's production with an international cast featuring Lianna Haroutounian, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Roberto Aronica, Marco Berti and Dimitri Platanias, conducted by Daniele Callegari. To usher in the new opera season, San Francisco Opera Guild will produce its signature benefit event, Opera Ball 2018.

Watch out Memphis, Tennessee because something WICKED is coming your way! Starting March 7, 2018, Orpheum Theatre will be showing WICKED until the curtain closes on March 25, 2018.

An elite group of nineteen of the most talented young opera singers in the country competed this weekend for prestige and prizes in the 29th Annual Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition.

The Dallas Opera presents The Everest Trio, culminating in a semi-staged performance of Joby Talbot and Gene Scheer's critically acclaimed 2015 masterpiece,Everest, on the stage of the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. This one-time-only performance on Friday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. will be conducted by Dallas Opera Music Director Emmanuel Villaume and directed by Leonard Foglia, who staged the earlier world premiere.

The Dallas Opera announces one remarkable evening of music, competition, and celebration as two great traditions come together. The Dallas Opera Springs Gala 2017returns this year in partnership with the final round of the 29th Annual Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. The events focus on encouraging the next generation of artists with proceeds from the Gala to support the company's education programs.

In honor of its 60th Season, The Dallas Opera is elated to present Celebrate 60: Past, Present, and Future, a week of public performances and special events designed to pay tribute to the company's founding and illustrious history, to celebrate six decades on the national and international stage, and to demonstrate TDO's commitment to the highest levels of artistic excellence and innovation.

The latest musical playing at Syracuse's historical Landmark Theatre is none other than the three time Tony Award-winning musical Wicked. The successful Broadway blockbuster with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman has everything - an amazing cast, spectacular sets, gorgeous costumes, and, of course, those famous Witches of Oz.

Coming directly from a multi record-breaking tour of the UK and Ireland, Stephen Schwartz' WICKED plays in Manila for the second time as part of a major international tour. Gala night was held last Wednesday, February 8, 2017.

Due to extremely high ticket demand, Anna Deavere Smith's critically acclaimed new work, NOTES FROM THE FIELD, has added a performance at 1pm on Wednesday, December 14. The production plays through Sunday, December 18th at Second Stage Theatre (305 West 43rd Street).

Houston Grand Opera continues its cycle of holiday operas with the world premiere of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. The timeless tale follows a troubled banker whose guardian angel shows him the lasting impact our lives can have on those around us.

San Francisco Opera will present the West Coast premiere of It's a Wonderful Life, a new opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, during the 2018-19 Season at the War Memorial Opera House. An opera in two acts, It's a Wonderful Life is a co-commission and co-production with Houston Grand Opera and Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music and is based on Frank Capra's beloved 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, by permission of Paramount Licensing, Inc., and "The Greatest Gift," a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern.

San Francisco Opera will present the West Coast premiere of It's a Wonderful Life, a new opera by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer, during the 2018-19 Season at the War Memorial Opera House. An opera in two acts, It's a Wonderful Life is a co-commission and co-production with Houston Grand Opera and Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music and is based on Frank Capra's beloved 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, by permission of Paramount Licensing, Inc., and 'The Greatest Gift,' a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern.

Due to extremely high ticket demand, Anna Deavere Smith's critically acclaimed new work, NOTES FROM THE FIELD, will extend for one week and will now play through Sunday, December 18th at Second Stage Theatre (305 West 43rd Street). The production, directed by Leonard Foglia and featuring original music composed and performed by Marcus Shelby, opened to rave reviews on November 2nd and was originally scheduled to close on Sunday, December 11th.

The Dallas Opera is very proud to present the eagerly anticipated revival of an historic Dallas Opera production: Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's critically acclaimed twenty-first century masterpiece: MOBY-DICK, starring world-renowned heldentenor Jay Hunter Morris as Captain Ahab.

The Dallas Opera is very proud to present the eagerly anticipated revival of an historic Dallas Opera production: Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's critically acclaimed twenty-first century masterpiece: MOBY-DICK, starring world-renowned heldentenor Jay Hunter Morris as Captain Ahab.

The Dallas Opera is thrilled to announce the fourteenth in a series of free public simulcasts, this time involving a game-changing Dallas Opera production: Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's critically acclaimed twenty-first century masterpiece: MOBY-DICK, starring world-renowned helden tenorJay Hunter Morris as Captain Ahab.

 The Dallas Opera is pleased to announce that single tickets for its eagerly-anticipated 2016-2017 '60th' Season and popular Family Performances Series will go on sale to the general public on Monday, July 11, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. 

The Dallas Opera is proud to present one of the most eagerly anticipated new operas of the year: Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's GREAT SCOTT, featuring a once-in-a-lifetime cast headed by America's favorite mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonato, in the title role of Arden Scott; also starring soprano Ailyn Pérez, mezzo-sopranoFrederica von Stade, baritone Nathan Gunn, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, bassKevin Burdette, tenor Rodell Rosel and baritone Michael Mayes.  Check out the interview below with mezzo-soprano Frederica Von Stade!

Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, an alternative telling of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The musical is told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz; its plot begins before and continues after Dorothy's arrival in Oz from Kansas and includes several references to the 1939 film and Baum's novel. Wicked tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda, who struggle through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace.

When it comes down to it, trying to convince rabid or even casual fans of the hit Broadway blockbuster WICKED into seeing the show again (and again… and again) when it comes to their town really doesn't take much of a struggle. No matter how many times over the years that the Broadway blockbuster has landed in our own backyard, the demand for tickets is still high (hence the often long engagements the show has on our stages). Now finishing up the final week of its national tour's latest return engagement at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through March 6, the 'popular' musical continues to be a must-see favorite, and shows no signs of slowing down. So, 15 years later... is WICKED still worth seeing at a city near you for the umpteenth time these days? Absolutely! And here are 10 pretty good reasons why...