Houston Grand Opera News

The Collegiate Chorale concludes its 2014-2015 season with the US Premiere of Kurt Weill's The Road of Promise May 6, 2015 at 8pm and May 7, 2015 at 7pm at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019. Tickets are $30-$135 and are available at www.carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800, or the Box Office at 57th and Seventh. For more information, visit http://collegiatechorale.org/performances/the-road-of-promise.

Toronto – Audiences will discover love has a sense of humour with the Canadian Opera Company's new production of Rossini's TheBarber of Seville from the Spanish theatre troupe Els Comediants. Scottish-born Rory Macdonald, one of Britain's most talented and dynamic young conductors, returns to lead the COC Orchestra, Chorus and a cast of the most exciting young stars in opera today through Rossini's veritable hit parade of a score, filled with showstoppers and sparkling tunes. Sung in Italian with English SURTITLESTM, The Barber of Seville runs for 13 performances on April 17, 19, 21, 26, 29, May 2, 7, 9, 13, 15*, 19, 21, 22, 2015 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Audiences will discover love has a sense of humour with the Canadian Opera Company's new production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville from the Spanish theatre troupe Els Comediants. Scottish-born Rory Macdonald, one of Britain's most talented and dynamic young conductors, returns to lead the COC Orchestra, Chorus and a cast of the most exciting young stars in opera today through Rossini's veritable hit parade of a score, filled with showstoppers and sparkling tunes. Sung in Italian with English SURTITLESTM, The Barber of Seville runs for 13 performances on April 17, 19, 21, 26, 29, May 2, 7, 9, 13, 15*, 19, 21, 22, 2015 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Houston, March 12, 2015—Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its highly anticipated La Fura dels Baus staging of Wagner's Die Walküre with an all-star cast and Stephen Sondheim's thrilling Sweeney Todd in April, after notching critical and sales successes with its winter productions of Puccini's Madame Butterfly and Mozart's The Magic Flute. Butterfly's six performances averaged a total capacity of 102% (including resale of returned seats) while Flute's five performances averaged 104% capacity.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra welcomes guest conductor Andres Orozco-Estrada for his Heinz Hall debut in "Four Horns," A BNY Mellon Grand Classics concert weekend, March 27-29.

DALLAS, FEBRUARY 20, 2015 – The Dallas Opera is preparing to whisk audiences away to the Latin Quarter of Paris for the blockbuster opera of the season: Giacomo Puccini's 1896 masterpiece, LA BOHÈME, based on Henri Murger's newspaper serial-turned-novel, Scènes de la vie de bohème.

Next spring, Tony Award winners Audra McDonald, George C. Wolfe, and Savion Glover will team up to collaborate on SHUFFLE ALONG, Or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, a musical about the events that led to the creation of the groundbreaking Eubie Blake-Noble Sissle musical Shuffle Along. Starring Audra McDonald as the 1920's star Lottie Gee, directed by George C. Wolfe -- with a book written by Wolfe -- and choreographed by Savion Glover, the musical marks the first time that the writer/director and choreographer will have worked together since their 1996 hit Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk. Previews will begin Monday, March 14, 2016. Opening night is Thursday, April 21, 2016 at the Music Box Theatre (239 West 45th Street).

One of the world's leading 18th-century music specialists, Japan's Masaaki Suzuki, makes his Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) debut leading the Orchestra in an all-Mozart program, tonight, March 12 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore, and Friday, March 13 at 8 p.m. andSaturday, March 14 at 8 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Featuring the composer's Don Giovanni Overture and Violin Concerto No. 5, performed by young German violinist Augustin Hadelich, the concert culminates with Mozart's Mass in C minor, otherwise known as the “Great” Mass. Please see below for complete program details.

The Philadelphia Orchestra's conductor-in-residence, Cristian Macelaru, replaces Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos for three concerts this weekend, March 12, 13, and 14 at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Fruhbeck, who last season celebrated conducting more than 150 concerts with the Orchestra in Philadelphia, passed away in June.

She caused a sensation at the Met Opera and elicited critical raves for her Brunnhilde at Canadian Opera Company

Opera San José is hosting a memorial concert for its former general director and founder, Irene Dalis, at the California Theatre on May 16, 2015 at 8 p.m. The concert will feature arias and ensembles performed by over 20 current and former members of Opera San José's resident company, accompanied by the Opera San José Orchestra and Chorus.

Audra Mcdonald is returning to Houston. In 2006, McDonald made her opera debut in the Houston Grand Opera's double bill of LA VOIX HUMAINE and SEND. This is where she met music director and pianist Andy Einhorn. In 2006, Einhorn was hired to coach McDonald vocally. Now, he is her music director and pianist.

After a worldwide search, Houston Grand Opera has chosen seven new members for the 2015–16 HGO Studioprogram. One of the most respected and highly competitive young artist programs in the world, the HGO Studio provides comprehensivecareer development to young singers, pianist/coaches, and conductors who have demonstrated potential to make major contributions to thefield of opera. The HGO Studio received applications from 500 artists; of those, about 275 were heard in Houston, New York, Philadelphia,Cincinnati, and San Francisco. For singers, the audition process culminates in HGO's annual Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias, held this year on February 5.

HOUSTON (March 9, 2015) – Houston Symphony Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada will lead the orchestra, the Houston Symphony Chorus and vocal soloists on March 20-22 in Verdi's Requiem, a towering masterpiece by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi featuring dramatic operatic moments, brilliant symphonic writing and virtuosic solo performances.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) invites patrons to celebrate 60 years of producing and performing world-class opera in Houston at a gala anniversary concert featuring renowned mezzo-soprano and HGO Studio alumna Joyce DiDonato at the Wortham Theater Center's Cullen Theater on Thursday, March 19. Tickets to the anniversary concert start at $40, on sale now at HGO.org.

In honor of Houston Grand Opera's 60th anniversary season, the Houston Grand Opera is holding a special concert featuring Joyce DiDonato with Patrick Summers, the HGO Orchestra, and HGO Studio Artists. I got the chance to ask DiDonato a few questions about her ties to Houston and the HGO.

The winners of the 44th annual George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers were announced at the conclusion of the competition's final round this evening, which took place in a front of a capacity audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Eric Rosen announced today the casting for HAIR: Retrospection, under his direction.

Lyric Unlimited presents the world premiere of The Property, a klezmer opera by composer Wlad Marhulets and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann. It opens tonight, February 25, with five performances through Thursday, March 5. World premiere presentations of The Property are presented in partnership with the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood Feb. 25, 26, 27, with additional performances at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in suburban Skokie Mar. 4-5.

Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, today announced Memory and Reckoning, a confluence of activities related to the Chicago premiere of Mieczysaw Weinberg's The Passenger, on stage at Lyric tonight, February 24 through March 15. This poignant and gripping 20th-century masterpiece portrays the story of the Holocaust from the perspectives of both victim and perpetrator, and was only recently rediscovered after more than 40 years of suppression.