Jake Heggie News

Houston Grand Opera announced at its annual meeting today that its 2016-17 season closed on a strong financial footing despite recent pressures on the Houston economy.

Miami Music Festival (MFF), an intensive training program for the next generation of classical musicians to work with mentors and gain performing experience, announces the lineup for the 2017 season from June 6 through July 30, 2017 at various venues in Miami. In its fourth season, MMF will host young artists from around the world selected from top conservatories and universities. MMF receives nearly 1,500 international applicants each season with only a small portion selected for participation through a rigorous audition process.

The Dallas Opera has released soprano Elza van den Heever from singing the upcoming matinee performance of Vincenzo Bellini's NORMA on Sunday, May 7, 2017 at 2:00 p.m., due to a family emergency.  Acclaimed Italian-Canadian soprano, Aviva Fortunata, will assume the role of the betrayed Druid priestess.

On June 4 at 2PM, Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) will present Tyler's Suite at Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall in commemoration to the memory of Tyler Clementi, a young musician who died by suicide shortly after being bullied online by his roommate for being gay.

In the third of Alan Gilbert's final four subscription weeks as New York Philharmonic Music Director, he will lead an enhanced concert production of Wagner's Das Rheingold. Soloists include bass-baritone Eric Owens as Wotan, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as Fricka (in her New York Philharmonic debut), baritone Christopher Purves as Alberich (debut), tenor Russell Thomas as Loge, mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor as Erda, bass Morris Robinson as Fasolt (debut), bass Stephen Milling as Fafner (debut), soprano Rachel Willis-Sorensen as Freia (debut), tenor Brian Jagde as Froh (debut), bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Donner (debut), tenor Peter Bronder as Mime (debut), soprano Jennifer Zetlan as Woglinde, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano as Wellgunde, and mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford as Flosshilde. The enhanced concert production will be directed by Louisa Muller with costume design - featuring character-based treatment of modern concert attire - by David C. Woolard. The performances will take place Thursday, June 1, 2017, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 3 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Ya se ha anunciado la programacion de la temporada 2017-2018 del Teatro Real de Madrid, y entre las producciones que se montaran este año destaca STREET SCENE, que podra verse en Madrid por primera vez entre el 13 y el 18 de febrero y entre el 26 de mayo y 1 de junio de 2018.

Laguna Playhouse has announced the final announced production of its 2017-2018 season of shows, written and directed by Hershey Felder, NATHAN GUNN, FLYING SOLO.

As part of the 2017 New York Opera Fest, SIGN & SING will present EXPLORATIONS, which examines three stories of love and travel, reimagining great works of classical music in sung English and American Sign Language (ASL).

Will the statue of Venus come alive? Can the vagabond find a travel companion? SIGN & SING'S "EXPLORATIONS" examines three stories of love and travel, reimagining great works of classical music in sung English and American Sign Language.

Known for staging “the ultimate in intimate productions” (The New York Times), On Site Opera (OSO) presents the U.S. premiere and new site-specific production of Darius Milhaud's La mère coupable (The Guilty Mother). For the premiere, OSO partners with the Darius Milhaud Society and the award-winning International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). The site-specific production celebrates the 125th birthday of Milhaud and is dedicated to Katharine Warne, composer and founder of the Darius Milhaud Society. La mère coupable also marks the completion of OSO's three-year Figaro Project, in which the company is staging lesser-known operatic adaptations of French playwright Beaumarchais' (1732-1799) famed trilogy of Figaro plays.

The independent hip-hop music tour RiverKings 2 Tour will bring a exciting addition to the 2017 Midtown Memphis Opera Festival. Memphian Marco Pave and New Orleans' Alfred Banks will offer sounds of music's youngest genre to one it's oldest styles. Alongside Pave and Banks, River Kings at the Opera is a collection of five operas/performances designed to showcase the art of hip hop and connect it to the tradition of opera. Memphis musician and composer Sam Shoup arranged the music. Shoup has arrnaged for The Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Pops Orchestra, Kallen Esperian and the New York Pops. Opera Memphis received a development grant from Opera America for the groundbreaking performance.

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.

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. 

For the fifth year running, Opera Memphis will be in midtown for ten days of opera, concerts, parties, and more, including the reading of a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the US Army. Midtown Opera Festival takes place March 31-April 9 at Playhouse on the Square.  

Canada's Honens International Piano Competition is pleased to announce the appointment of pianist Jon Kimura Parker as Artistic Director. Mr. Parker assumes his new role in January 2018.

After a lavishly praised star turn in Washington National Opera's revival of Dead Man Walking this winter, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham turns to a U.S. tour in April of her equally successful and wide-ranging recital program, “Frauenliebe und -leben: Variations,” inspired by and centered on Schumann's iconic song cycle, with longtime recital partner Malcolm Martineau. She also joins a cast of the world's greatest opera luminaries to celebrate the Metropolitan Opera House's 50 Years at Lincoln Center in an Anniversary Gala; performs selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Met Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen in Carnegie Hall; and sings Berlioz's La mort de Cléopâtre, a staple of her signature French repertoire, with the San Antonio Symphony.

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.

Three dazzling new opera productions are at the core of the inaugural Vancouver Opera Festival, April 28 to May 13, 2017.

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.