Houston Grand Opera News

St. Ann's Warehouse welcomes back the National Theatre of Scotland, director John Tiffany and associate director Steven Hoggett for the American Premiere of Let the Right One In, which Jack Thorne adapted for the stage from John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel and screenplay, and which garnered tremendous acclaim on London's West End earlier this year.

General Director Plácido Domingo has announced final details for LA Opera's first revival of Florencia en el Amazonas, an enchanting and romantic opera by composer Daniel Catán. Co-commissioned by LA Opera in 1995, the opera returns to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for six performances from November 22 through December 20, 2014. In the exquisitely beautiful opera, inspired by the fiction of Gabriel García Márquez, a steamboat passage along the fabled Amazon becomes a poignant voyage of discovery for all seven travelers on board.

Mama Drama will play the Metropolitan Room today, October 25 at 1:00pm. The Metropolitan Room is located at 34 West 22 St. Tickets are $25 and can be purchase by phone at 212-206-0440, or online at www.metropolitanroom.com.

Richard Tucker and Plácido Domingo Award-winner Ailyn Pérez makes her hotly anticipated Houston Grand Opera debut this Friday (Oct 24), in what also marks her role debut as Desdemona in Otello. Under the baton of Patrick Summers, Houston's artistic and music director, she stars opposite Simon O'Neill as Otello and Marco Vratogna as Iago in the company's staging of John Cox's hit production of the Shakespearean tragedy, which runs through November 7.

Join Houston Grand Opera for an evening of celebration as it opens its 60th anniversary season with a dramatic production of Verdi's Otello followed by an evening of entertainment and fundraising at the Opening Night Dinner Celebration at the Wortham Theater Center. Otello is sung by an internationally acclaimed cast, led by Simon O'Neill, Ailyn Pérez, Marco Vratogna, Norman Reinhardt, Victoria Livengood, and Morris Robinson.

AOP (American Opera Projects) and Poets House present a discussion with award-winning poet and librettist J. D. McClatchy followed by a reading of his latest opera libretto The Leopard, based on the acclaimed novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and directed by James Robinson. The discussion will be joined by The Leopard's composer Michael Dellaira and will feature a performance of music from the opera-in-development and a mid-event reception with the artists. The event will take place on Saturday, November 8 at 3 pm at Kray Hall in Poets House (10 River Terrace, New York, NY 10282 in Battery Park City). Tickets are $10, $7 for students and seniors, free to Poets House members and can be purchased at operaprojects.org.

Brandon Jovanovich has agreed at short notice to step into the role of Don José in this evening's performance of Carmen, replacing Aleksandrs Antonenko, who is ill. Jovanovich is currently rehearsing for next month's revival of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Met. He sang the October 13 performance of Carmen substituting for Antonenko as well.

?The new musical THE NINE FATHERS OF ARIEL is currently undergoing a New York workshop, concluding with invited rehearsals for industry members on November 6 and 7.

On November 1, embark on the first concert of the Houston Symphony's Family Concert Series as Associate Conductor and audience favorite Robert Franz leads the orchestra in a program entitled African Safari with Music from The Lion King.

American tenor Jay Hunter Morris will replace Anthony Dean Griffey in Houston Grand Opera's world premiere production of A Christmas Carol, it was announced today by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. Mr. Griffey has withdrawn for health reasons. The 90-minute opera, commissioned by HGO from composer Iain Bell and librettist Simon Callow, is written for a single singer performing the role of The Narrator. A Christmas Carol runs from December 5 through 21, 2014, at the Wortham Theater Center, and is suitable for ages 12 and up.

American tenor Jay Hunter Morris will replace Anthony Dean Griffey in Houston Grand Opera's world premiere production of A Christmas Carol, it was announced today by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. Mr. Griffey has withdrawn for health reasons. The 90-minute opera, commissioned by HGO from composer Iain Bell and librettist Simon Callow, is written for a single singer performing the role of The Narrator. A Christmas Carol runs from December 5 through 21, 2014, at the Wortham Theater Center, and is suitable for ages 12 and up.

Tenor Norman Reinhardt will sing the role of Ferrando in Houston Grand Opera's production of Così fan tutte, it was announced today by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. He replaces Stephen Costello, who has withdrawn due to illness. Mr. Reinhardt is in Houston to perform the role of Cassio in Verdi's Otello and will play Ferrando concurrently. Otello opens October 24, and Cosi fan tutte opens October 31.

Mama Drama will play the Metropolitan Room on Saturday, October 25 at 1:00pm. The Metropolitan Room is located at 34 West 22 St. Tickets are $25 and can be purchase by phone at 212-206-0440, or online at www.metropolitanroom.com.

Pat Barker's Booker-nominated novel, REGENERATION, has been adapted for the stage by Olivier Award-winning playwright Nicholas Wright (His Dark Materials, Vincent in Brixton), it opened at Royal & Derngate, Northampton on 29 August 2014 prior to a national tour. The production plays Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from 4 - 8 November 2014.

Brandon Jovanovich has agreed at short notice to step into the role of Don José in this evening's performance of Carmen, replacing Aleksandrs Antonenko, who is ill. Jovanovich is currently at the Met rehearsing for next month's revival of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

Soprano Amanda Majeski is a 2009 George London Award winner who just made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the Met's season-opening presentation of Le nozze di Figaro, and bass-baritone Ryan McKinny is a 2011 George London Award winner who this past summer sang the roles of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire with the Los Angeles Opera and Billy Bigelow in Carousel at Glimmerglass Opera. Together, they will open the 2014-15 season of the George London Foundation for Singers with a joint recital at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library and Museum on Sunday, November 9, 2014, at 4:30 PM, with pianist Ken Noda. The event is Mr. McKinny's New York recital debut.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City continues its 57th season with Gioachino Rossini's hilarious opera, The Italian Girl in Algiers, November 8-16, 2014 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The production will be sung in Italian with English and Italian titles.

Opera Saratoga announces its 2015 Summer Festival season, which will run from July 2 - July 26, 2015 at multiple venues throughout Saratoga Springs, New York.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present El Pasado Nunca Se Termina/The Past Is Never Finished, an opera featuring the internationally renowned ensemble Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitla?n, on May 13, 16, and 17, 2015 in the Wortham Theater Center, it was announced by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers and Managing Director Perryn Leech. HGO's 2010 mounting of the world's first mariachi opera, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna/To Cross the Face of the Moon, with Mariachi Vargas, not only captivated audiences in Houston, but went on to hit runs in Paris, San Diego, Chicago, and Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. HGO brought Cruzar back to Houston in 2013 for three sold-out performances. Now the company will present a second mariachi opera from the same creative team of Jose? “Pepe” Marti?nez and Leonard Foglia, fresh from its March 2015 world premiere at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Set on a Mexican hacienda in 1910, just prior to the Mexican Revolution, the story traces how the country's cultural conflicts and nationalistic struggles shape one family across generations. El Pasado Nunca Se Termina/The Past Is Never Finished will be sung in Spanish and English with projected translations.

The New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera, the only grand opera company in Bergen County, New Jersey, concludes its 25th anniversary season, Vive la France, with Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme. Artistic Director Lucine Amara invites the public to see Puccini's renowned, romantic score on Sundays, October 19 and 26, 3:00 p.m., at the Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC), located at 30 North Van Brunt Street, in Englewood, New Jersey.