Houston Grand Opera News

On Wednesday, November 27 from 11:00 AM-1:00 PM, the holiday season will officially begin as hundreds of Houston children celebrate at the 26th annual Wortham Theater Center Tree Lighting Ceremony - a joyous festival held in the Grand Foyer of Wortham Theater Center downtown. This event is FREE and open to the public.

The Metropolitan Opera and The Juilliard School present an evening of opera featuring Act I of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Stravinsky's rarely-performed one-act comedy Mavra; Act I, scene 1 of Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini; and Act I, part 2 of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore in the fourth collaboration between the two institutions on Tuesday, February 11 and Friday, February 14, 2014 at 8 PM and Sunday, February 16, 2014 at 2 PM in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Met Music Director James Levine conducts the Juilliard Orchestra and singers from the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, as well as singers from the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at Juilliard. Director Edward Berkeley will stage the program in a semi-staged concert version.

The Dallas Opera thrilled audience members at this evening's “Composing Conversation” at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, when Dallas Opera General Director and CEO Keith Cerny made the surprise announcement that Mark Adamo, one of America's most successful and accomplished composer-librettists has agreed to create a new holiday opera for the 2015-2016 Season.

On Sunday, Nov. 10 at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the 2013 Houston Cinema Arts Festival will present the world premiere of a new documentary on the rich five-decade history of Houston Ballet - Houston Ballet: Breaking Boundaries - at 4:00 p.m. An encore screening of the film will be held at Sundance Cinemas on Monday, Nov. 11 at 6:45 p.m. Both screenings are free and open to the public. No advance tickets will be issued. Attendees should arrive at the venue 30 minutes prior to the screening for the best chance of being seated.

Today, Nov. 10 at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the 2013 Houston Cinema Arts Festival will present the world premiere of a new documentary on the rich five-decade history of Houston Ballet - Houston Ballet: Breaking Boundaries - at 4:00 p.m. An encore screening of the film will be held at Sundance Cinemas on Monday, Nov. 11 at 6:45 p.m. Both screenings are free and open to the public. No advance tickets will be issued. Attendees should arrive at the venue 30 minutes prior to the screening for the best chance of being seated.

Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, announced today that the acclaimed American director Kevin Newbury will direct the world-premiere production of Bel Canto during the company's 2015-16 season. Newbury replaces Stephen Wadsworth.

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2013-2014 season with the world premiere of a new holiday family opera: The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me, December 14-22 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Boston Baroque and its Founder/Music Director, Martin Pearlman, have chosen to acknowledge a monumental moment in their history with a monument of music: Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, popularly known as the 'Choral' Symphony, which concludes with the uplifting Ode to Joy.

The Merola Opera Program presents Opera & Ornaments: A Merola Opera Program Holiday Concert, on Sunday, December 7th, at 2 pm in the Community Hall of the Lafayette Library (3491 Mt Diablo Blvd). This special holiday concert features renowned opera performers Kristin Clayton, soprano, and Bojan Knezevic, bass-baritone.

The December broadcasts of The New York Philharmonic This Week - the weekly radio series of concerts and recordings by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by Alec Baldwin - begin with Bernard Labadie returning to the Philharmonic to conduct Mozart's Requiem; J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!; and Handel's 'Let the Bright Seraphim' from Samson. The program's soloists will include soprano Miah Persson, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Fre?de?ric Antoun, bass Andrew Foster-Williams, and Associate Principal Trumpet Matthew Muckey, joined by the New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt. The following week Music Director Alan Gilbert conducts the New York Premiere of The Marie- Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Oboe Concerto featuring Principal Oboe Liang Wang, and Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra and Don Juan, both featuring Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow in the concertmaster solos.

The Collegiate Chorale presents its first concert of the season, Mefistofele, by Arrigo Boito tonight, November 6, 2013 at 8pm at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, NYC. The Collegiate Chorale will hold its Annual Fall Gala immediately following the concert.

What's it like to be the most beautiful, most desired young woman who throws the wildest parties in all of Paris - and to be losing your life just as true love finally finds you? Welcome to the glittering, dark, hope-filled, doomed world of the Parisian demimonde, where the romantic tragedy of Verdi's La Traviata takes place.

The Houston Symphony's December calendar features a special one-night-only performance as John Williams Joins Yo-Yo Ma on December 5 at Jones Hall. The Symphony will also celebrate the holidays with concerts for the entire family. On December 13, 14 and 15, the Symphony and Chorus will perform Very Merry Pops, which celebrates the season with holiday hits including a special piece, Glad Tidings, which features spiritual leaders from the Houston community as guest narrators.

Houston, October 31, 2013 -- In January 2014, Houston Grand Opera (HGO) presents the American premiere of The Passenger(1968), a powerful opera exploring the Holocaust by exiled Polish-Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg. Reinforcing the immense significance of this historic event, HGOco–Houston Grand Opera's community collaboration and education initiative–will present a series of concerts and films throughout the city, focused on remembrance of the past and prominent themes explored in the gripping story of genocide. HGOco partners with the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center, Holocaust Museum Houston, and the Asia Society Texas Center to produce several concerts and films, inviting audiences to explore the connection from past to present through music, community conversation, and art.

The Collegiate Chorale announces its first concert of the season, Mefistofele, by Arrigo Boito on November 6, 2013 at 8pm at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, NYC. Tickets are available at www.carnegiehall.org or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800. Single tickets for this concert start at $15. The Collegiate Chorale will hold its Annual Fall Gala immediately following the concert.

HOUSTON -- On Sunday, Nov. 10 at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the 2013 Houston Cinema Arts Festival will present the world premiere of a new documentary on the rich five-decade history of Houston Ballet – Houston Ballet: Breaking Boundaries – at 4:00 p.m. An encore screening of the film will be held at Sundance Cinemas on Monday, Nov. 11 at 6:45 p.m. Both screenings are free and open to the public. No advance tickets will be issued. Attendees should arrive at the venue 30 minutes prior to the screening for the best chance of being seated.

The new Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is holding a Community Day celebration today, October 27, 2013 from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. to celebrate the delivery of the new venue to Beverly Hills and the greater Los Angeles community. The Wallis transforms the Beverly Hills city block, facing Santa Monica Boulevard, between Crescent and Canon Drives, into the first performing arts center to be built in Beverly Hills: a vibrant arts destination and a major cultural and education hub for audiences of every age, with two distinct, elegant buildings: the renovated historic 1934 Italianate-style Beverly Hills Post Office, now the Paula Kent Meehan Historic Building, and a new, contemporary 500-seat, state-of-the-art Bram Goldsmith Theater.

On Sunday, Nov. 10 at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the 2013 Houston Cinema Arts Festival will present the world premiere of a new documentary on the rich five-decade history of Houston Ballet – Houston Ballet: Breaking Boundaries – at 4:00 p.m. An encore screening of the film will be held at Sundance Cinemas on Monday, Nov. 11 at 6:45 p.m. Both screenings are free and open to the public. No advance tickets will be issued. Attendees should arrive at the venue 30 minutes prior to the screening for the best chance of being seated.

Vladimir Jurowski leads a rare revival of Richard Strauss's epic Die Frau ohne Schatten beginning November 7, in the acclaimed staging by the late Herbert Wernicke that had its Met premiere in 2001. Anne Schwanewilms, one of the world's leading Strauss sopranos, makes her Met debut as the Empress. Christine Goerke, a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program who has recently emerged as a prominent international dramatic soprano, returns to the company after an absence of several seasons to sing the role of the Dyer's Wife. The cast also includes Torsten Kerl as the Emperor, Johan Reuter as Barak, and Ildikó Komlósi as the Nurse. On November 16, American soprano Meagan Miller will make her Met debut as the Empress.