Houston Grand Opera News

Bristol Riverside Theatre hosts its 30th Anniversary Gala on Saturday, June 3 at 5:00 PM.  The evening honors Keith Baker's 25-year tenure as Artistic Director at BRT and concludes the 30th anniversary season of BRT. 

Lyric Opera of Kansas City concludes its 59th season with Gilbert & Sullivan's delightful comic operetta The Pirates of Penzance  April 22, 26, 28, 29, and 30 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The production will be sung in English with English titles. High res production and artists' photos can be downloaded here .

Opera Santa Barbara will conclude its 23rd season with the company's premiere production of Giacomo Puccini's sensuous and poignant operetta La Rondine at the historic Granada Theatre on April 28 and 30. Performances will take place at 7:30 pm on Friday, April 28, and at 2:30 pm on Sunday, April 30. Ranging in price from $29 to $204, tickets can be purchased at www.granadasb.org or by calling 805-899-2222. 

The Dallas Opera is thrilled to present—for the first time on our stage—Vincenzo Bellini's suspense-filled masterpiece of the bel canto repertoire, NORMA, starring the phenomenal South African-born soprano Elza van den Heever in the title role of a Druid priestess wronged by the man she loves.

???????Director of Opera Studies and Associate Professor at University of South Carolina School of Music Ellen Douglas Schlaefer received USITT's 2017 Wally Russell Professional Mentor Award at USITT 2017 in St. Louis.

American Lyric Theater (ALT) and The Morgan Library & Museum present ALT Alumni: Composers & Librettists in Concert on Sunday, April 23, 2017 at 3pm at The Morgan Library & Museum in the Gilder Lehrman Hall, 225 Madison Avenue, NYC. 

On March 24 and 25 at 7:30 PM, guest conductor Richard Egarr takes to the podium, leading the Utah Symphony in an evening of music by Johann Sebastian Bach. Also featured on the program are Utah Symphony Principal Flutist Mercedes Smith and Concertmaster Madeline Adkins. Tickets start at $21 ($15 for students), and can be purchased at www.utahsymphony.org or by calling (801) 533-6683.

Parents, we heard you loud and clear: You want more GARBAGE ISLAND! Rec Room Arts' newest, original production, GARBAGE ISLAND, an original live sketch show for children ages 2 - 6, opened in February and ran to sold-out crowds for 4 weeks straight. The response was fantastic! Houston parents lined up out the door to give their children the opportunity to enjoy the wacky characters and sustainability-themed 30-minute performance, while they enjoyed a break…and a mimosa.

After a months-long series of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, a panel of expert judges named six young singers as the winners of the nation's most prestigious vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Each winner receives a $15,000 cash prize and the prestige and exposure that come with winning the competition that launched the careers of many of opera's biggest stars.

Asia Society Texas Center will host Representation and 21 st Century Responsibilities in the Performing Arts, a free panel discussion and public forum in collaboration with Houston Grand Opera (HGO) on Friday, March 31, at 7 p.m.

The production will be conducted by MasterVoices' Artistic Director Ted Sperling and will feature previously announced stars Kelli O'Hara, Bill Irwin, Lauren Worsham, Christopher Fitzgerald - with Jonathan Freeman, Chris Sullivan, and Jeffrey Schecter just joining the lineup - alongside 130 singers of MasterVoices, with Orchestra of St. Luke's.

Following yesterday's highly competitive semi-final competition, nine young singers will advance to the final phase of the Metropolitan Opera's 2017 National Council Auditions, America's most prestigious vocal competition.

Houston Grand Opera's HGOco announces auditions for the Bauer Family High School Voice Studio (HSVS) for students entering their junior or senior year of high school beginning in the fall of 2017. Applications are now being accepted on HGO's website at HSVS auditions. The deadline has been extended to March 24 at 5 p.m.

???????Casting has been announced for Cameron Mackintosh's spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA for the premiere West Palm Beach engagement at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. 

Houston Grand Opera presents Gotterdammerung (Twilight of the Gods), the final installment of Wagner's epic Ring cycle, featuring a new generation of leading Wagnerians including Simon O'Neill as Siegfried and Christine Goerke as Brunnhilde, starting April 22.

SOULSKIN Dance is proud to present a brand new work SATIN & SWING as part of their 4th Season in San Francisco. Artistic Director and Choreographer Adrianna Thompson seeks to engage audiences in a study of two eras, the 1920s and the present. Dance Mission Theatre transforms into a time machine, transporting us back to the 1920s. Glitz and glam sparkle from the dingy corners of a speakeasy. Raucous jazz blares, bringing bejeweled and sequined dancing flapper girls to life. An evening of indulgence has begun. The entry notes of Prince's 'Erotic City' ring in your ears, an echo from another time. Suddenly you notice the writing on the wall. The crash of overindulgence is imminent.

SOULSKIN Dance will present a brand new work SATIN & SWING as part of their 4th Season in San Francisco.

On Tuesday, April 11 at 8:00PM at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, the American Classical Orchestra will perform Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, the composer's towering final achievement. Unique among the seasons' 9th performances, this concert will be performed on period instruments, using the tempos and performance techniques of its premiere nearly 200 years ago. The thrilling textures and nuanced blend of period instruments with the voices of the highly acclaimed ACO Chorus will transport listeners back to the sound world of the early 19th century, while bringing them closer to the composer's intentions and original markings. The result is a deeper, more fulfilling musical experience of this great work. To provide greater understanding, Maestro Thomas Crawford will deliver an introduction, with orchestra and chorus onstage to perform excerpts, before conducting the 70-minute Symphony. This combination of pre-symphony talk and period instrument performance offers rare and meaningful immersion into this much-loved symphony. Soloists are Sherezade Panthaki, Michael Sumuel, Helen Karloski and Kang Wang.

Abingdon Theatre Company, under the artistic direction of Tony Speciale, presents the world premiere of CHESS MATCH NO. 5, conceived and directed by Anne Bogart, with text arranged by Jocelyn Clarke from the words of John Cage.

On Tuesday, April 11 at 8:00PM at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, the American Classical Orchestra will perform Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, the composer's towering final achievement. Unique among the seasons' 9th performances, this concert will be performed on period instruments, using the tempos and performance techniques of its premiere nearly 200 years ago. The thrilling textures and nuanced blend of period instruments with the voices of the highly acclaimed ACO Chorus will transport listeners back to the sound world of the early 19th century, while bringing them closer to the composer's intentions and original markings.  The result is a deeper, more fulfilling musical experience of this great work. To provide greater understanding, Maestro Thomas Crawford will deliver an introduction, with orchestra and chorus onstage to perform excerpts, before conducting the 70-minute Symphony. This combination of pre-symphony talk and period instrument performance offers rare and meaningful immersion into this much-loved symphony. Soloists are Sherezade Panthaki, Michael Sumuel, Helen Karloski and Kang Wang.