Joseph Kaiser News

Tonight, February 7, 2014 at 7:30 p.m., the spotlight shines on the rising stars of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio when they take to the mainstage of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. They present their own special performance of Mozart's wry romantic comedy, Così fan tutte. This production is sung in Italian with English SURTITLES and all tickets to the Ensemble Studio performance are accessibly priced at $25 or $55.

Tonight, January 28, 2014 at 7:30pm at Opera America's National Opera Center, New York Festival of Song opens the 2013-14 edition of its forward-looking NYFOS Next series with MARK ADAMO & FRIENDS.

Houston Grand Opera is kicking off 2014 with the most harrowing and exhausting evening of opera I have ever experienced, and as an audience member I couldn't be more thrilled. If you're simply looking for entertainment, you'll be better off seeing RIGOLETTO (the other opera being performed in repertory with THE PASSENGER this January at Houston Grand Opera). However, if you're searching for a cerebral, gripping, and altogether emotional experience, then Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) US Premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Alexander Medvedev's THE PASSENGER delivers everything you're wanting and so much more.

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG (Steven Blier, Artistic Director • Michael Barrett, Associate Artistic Director) concludes its 2013-14 Mainstage series at Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Music Center with WARSAW SERENADE.

The Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, Canada's premier training program for young opera professionals, welcomes four talented new Canadian artists for the 2014/2015 season. Soprano Karine Boucher, tenor Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure and bass-baritone Iain MacNeil were among the nine finalists featured in the third annual Ensemble Studio Competition in November 2013. Boucher, Fortier-Lazure andMacNeil were top prize winners at the competitive vocal showcase which was the feature event of the COC's inaugural Ensemble Studio Competition Gala, Centre Stage, an evening dedicated to the discovery and celebration of the next generation of opera stars. In addition to the three opera singers, the 14/15 Ensemble Studio welcomes pianist Jennifer Szeto.

The New York Festival of Song marks its ninth annual co-presentation with Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts with a program celebrating the longtime partnership between P.G. Wodehouse and composer Jerome Kern: THE LAND WHERE THE GOOD SONGS GO, to be performed tonight, January 15, 2014 at 8:00PM in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at The Juilliard School.

On Friday, February 7, 2014 at 7:30 p.m., the spotlight shines on the rising stars of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio when they take to the mainstage of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. They present their own special performance of Mozart's wry romantic comedy, Così fan tutte. This production is sung in Italian with English SURTITLES and all tickets to the Ensemble Studio performance are accessibly priced at $25 or $55.

On Tuesday, January 28, 2014 at 7:30pm at Opera America's National Opera Center, New York Festival of Song opens the 2013-14 edition of its forward-looking NYFOS Next series with MARK ADAMO & FRIENDS.

The opening months of 2014 bring into focus the strengths of Houston Grand Opera (HGO), which launches the new year with an extraordinary line-up. This comprises the world premieres of three important new commissions -Ricky Ian Gordon's A Coffin in Egypt, named one of the twelve "must-see opera events of the season" (Opera News), and two works exploring Houston's Vietnamese and Indian communities, courtesy of HGO's award-winning Song of Houston project; the hotly anticipated American premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's long-suppressed Holocaust opera, The Passenger, in the production that took Europe by storm; the first American presentation of a visionary and groundbreaking treatment of Das Rheingold by Catalan's La Fura dels Baus; a new HGO production of Carmen from Broadway sensation Rob Ashford; a revival of Rigoletto; and a restaged production of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, which boasts designs by fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi. As the Houston Press recently noted, "Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers is thinking bigger than ever."

Houston, December 17, 2013 ­– The opening months of 2014 bring into focus the strengths of Houston Grand Opera (HGO), which launches the new year with an extraordinary line-up. This comprises the world premieres of three important new commissions —Ricky Ian Gordon's A Coffin in Egypt, named one of the twelve “must-see opera events of the season” (Opera News), and two works exploring Houston's Vietnamese and Indian communities, courtesy of HGO's award-winning Song of Houston project; the hotly anticipated American premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's long-suppressed Holocaust opera, The Passenger, in the production that took Europe by storm; the first American presentation of a visionary and groundbreaking treatment of Das Rheingold by Catalan's La Fura dels Baus; a new HGO production of Carmen from Broadway sensation Rob Ashford; a revival of Rigoletto; and a restaged production of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, which boasts designs by fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi. As the Houston Press recently noted, “Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers is thinking bigger than ever.”

The New York Festival of Song marks its ninth annual co-presentation with Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts with a program celebrating the longtime partnership between P.G. Wodehouse and composer Jerome Kern: THE LAND WHERE THE GOOD SONGS GO, to be performed on Wednesday, January 15, 2014 at 8:00PM in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at The Juilliard School.

Conductor James Conlon, Music Director of LA Opera, will lead a series of Britten performances across the Southland as part of the Britten 100/LA celebration, in commemoration of the 2013 Benjamin Britten centenary.

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG, with Steven Blier, Artistic Director, and Michael Barrett, Associate Artistic Director, continues its 2013-14 Mainstage series at Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Music Center with 'CUBANS IN PARIS, CUBANS AT HOME', featuring Cuban music's rich history in the concert halls, theaters, and nightclubs of two continents.

Toronto – Soprano Karine Bocher from Quebec City took home first prize and the Audience Choice Award at the Canadian Opera Company's third annual Ensemble Studio Competition on November 26, 2013, at the

Nigel Redden, director of the Lincoln Center Festival, and Rebecca Robertson, President and Executive Producer, Park Avenue Armory, today announced that the two organizations will co-present The Passenger, Mieczyslaw Weinberg's uncompromising 1968 opera about the Holocaust, performed by Houston Grand Opera and directed by David Pountney, in its New York premiere performances July 10, 12 and 13 at Lincoln Center Festival 2014. Pountney's production will have its U.S. premiere on January 18, 2014 at Houston Grand Opera.

Out of a pool of 155 young, aspiring opera singers from across the country, the Canadian Opera Company has selected nine to compete in the third annual COC Ensemble Studio Competition today, November 26, 2013 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Events coming up in the next few weeks for the LA Opera include special celebrations tonight, November 22, Britten's 100th birthday.