Houston Grand Opera News

The universally renowned and acclaimed Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan will perform for one night only on Saturday, November 29 at 8 p.m. at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, located at 615 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Internationally acclaimed as 'the best mariachi in the world,' the group comes to the Center for a rare Orange County appearance.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City opens its 57th season with Giuseppe Verdi's lush and grand opera, La Traviata, September 27, October 1, 3 and 5, 2014 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The production will be sung in Italian with English and Italian titles.

Last night, after a week of competition that brought 40 young singers from 17 nations to Los Angeles, Placido Domingo announced that Rachel Willis-Sorensen, an American soprano, and Mario Chang, a Guatemalan tenor, took the top prizes tonight in the 22nd edition of Operalia, the World Opera Competition. Hosted by LA Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the weeklong contest culminated tonight in a Gala Finals Concert-featuring the LA Opera Orchestra conducted by Mr. Domingo at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion-which was streamed live on Medici TV.

The critically acclaimed American Spiritual Ensemble will return to the William E. Schmidt Opera Theatre at the Sarasota Opera House on Saturday, September 6th at 7pm for a one night only performance celebrating the life of William E. Schmidt. The concert will be free and open to the public.

San Francisco Opera today announced a cast change for the Company's season-opening new production of Vincenzo Bellini's Norma, presented September 5-30, 2014 at the War Memorial Opera House. American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton--recent winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition--will make her Company debut as Adalgisa for five of the opera's seven performances on September 5, 10, 14, 27 and 30. Ms. Barton replaces Daveda Karanas, who has withdrawn from the production for personal reasons. A casting update for the September 19 & 23 performances will be announced at a later date.

Houston Grand Opera's 2014–15 season, the company's 60th anniversary season, includes the world premiere of A Christmas Carol by Iain Bell—the company's 55th new commission —from award-winning Dickens authority Simon Callow; the continuation of HGO's first Ring cycle, with the American premiere of La Fura dels Baus's groundbreaking take on Die Walküre; the American premieres of Sir Nicholas Hytner's The Magic Flute and Lee Blakeley's Sweeney Todd; a 60th Anniversary Gala Concert featuring mezzo-soprano (and HGO Studio alumna) Joyce DiDonato; and a host of career-shaping role debuts that speak to Patrick Summers's gift for casting. Together with the company's first presentation of John Cox'sOtello, and the returns of Göran Järvefelt's beloved Così fan tutte and Michael Grandage's hit staging of Madame Butterfly, these rich offerings serve once again to illustrate some of the ways that HGO—still the only opera company with two Grammys, two Emmys, and a Tony—epitomizes “one model of what a forward-looking opera company could be” (Greg Sandow, Arts Journal).

The 21st Annual TransCanada Theater District Open House presented by Bank of America is a free, fun-filled, family day of learning more about Houston's nine major performing arts organizations: Alley Theatre; Broadway at the Hobby Center; Da Camera of Houston; Houston Ballet; Houston Grand Opera; Houston Symphony; Society for the Performing Arts; Theatre Under The Stars and Uniquely Houston.

Skylight Music Theatre is creating a new production of Rossini's classic opera La Cenerentola. The production runs September19th through October 5th in the Cabot Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center (158 N. Broadway, Milwaukee WI).

San Francisco Opera Guild presents an Insight Panel Discussion exploring Carlisle Floyd's iconic American opera Susannah. Insight Panels feature renowned cast and production team members, sharing behind-the-scenes experiences and inspirations during informal discussions. The Susannah Insight Panel provides the rare opportunity to learn about the opera directly from award-winning 88-year-old composer and librettist Carlisle Floyd. One of the foremost composers and librettists of opera in the United States, Floyd has written a total of 11 operas and is currently completing his twelfth. Joining Carlisle Floyd on the panel are San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley, soprano Patricia Racette, director Michael Cavanagh and conductor Karen Kamensek. The discussion takes placeThursday, August 28 at 6 p.m. in the Concert Hall at San Francisco Conservatory of Music (50 Oak Street).

The Canadian Opera Company is proud to announce that it has selected Steven Kelley to serve in the opera company's new senior staff position of Chief Communications Officer. Kelley joins the COC in early October, coming directly from Houston Grand Opera where he has been director of marketing for the past four years.

Joyce DiDonato sings the title role in Rossini's Cinderella story, La Cenerentola, with bel canto master Juan Diego Florez as her dashing prince.

American Opera Projects and LivelyWorks present Two Premieres and a Reunion, a special evening of music by composer Conrad Cummings Wednesday September 10th, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. at The National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, Manhattan.

Described by Opera News as the “lyric soprano who truly seems to have it all,” Ailyn Pérez takes the stage at leading opera houses on both sides of the Atlantic in 2014-15 for an exciting new season that features house debuts at both the Metropolitan Opera and Houston Grand Opera, the latter also serving as a role debut for Pérez as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello.

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.

Ailyn Perez, born and bred in Chicago, returns to her hometown's famous Ravinia Festival for two performances (Aug 14 & 16) as Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni - a role that the Dallas Morning News has said shows her to be 'a singer of considerable nuance.' LA Opera Music Director James Conlon leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the run, which also features baritone Christopher Maltman in the title role, baritone David Bizi? as Leporello, soprano Tamara Wilson as Donna Anna and tenor Saimir Pirgu as Don Ottavio. The Chicago Tribune praised Perez's 2012 appearance at Ravinia, as Pamina in Die Zauberflote, as 'show-stopping…all floating pianissimos and diminuendos and delicate pathos, which roused the sold-out crowd to a long, well-deserved ovation.'

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director, Todd Schmidt-Managing Director) is proud to open its 2014-2015 season with a Broadway-bound, world-class revival of Can-Can starring Kate Baldwin as Pistache and Jason Danieley as Aristide.

San Francisco Opera presents the Company premiere of Carlisle Floyd's two-act opera Susannah September 6 at the War Memorial Opera House. Soprano Patricia Racette returns to San Francisco Opera in her role debut as the innocent, strong-willed and falsely accused young woman Susannah Polk.

Tulsa Opera today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Greg Weber to the position of Managing Director. Currently Director of Production at San Francisco Opera, Weber brings more than 28 years of experience in arts management. He was hired after a nationwide executive search guided by Arts Consulting Group. Weber will assume his duties as Managing Director this October.

CHICAGO – Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Artistic Director Glenn Edgerton are excited to release single tickets to the renowned contemporary company's 2014–15 season performances in Chicago, on August 25, 2014 at 10am. All remaining seats to the company's performances at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's Edlis Neeson Theater will be available online at hubbardstreetdance.com or by phone to the Hubbard Street Ticket Office at 312-850-9744. (Season 37 subscriptions, which include tickets to all four 2014–15 season engagements, went on sale May 1, 2014 and remain available by phone or online at hubbardstreetdance.com/subscribe.) Season 37 single tickets start at just $25; the performance schedule is as follows:

Washington National Opera (WNO) opens its 2014-2015 season with the company premiere of Daniel Cata?n and Marcela Fuentes-Berain's Florencia in the Amazon, September 20-28 in the Kennedy Center Opera House. This modern romantic drama, the first Spanish-language work WNO has presented in a decade, is inspired by the magical realism of Colombian author Gabriel Garci?a Ma?rquez. WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello revisits her world premiere production with members of her original creative team to present a fresh take on this contemporary classic. Conductor Carolyn Kuan leads the WNO Orchestra in her WNO debut.