Marilyn Horne News

After an international search, Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is proud to announce the three new singers and one new pianists for the 2019 20 HGO Studio. One of the most respected and highly competitive young artist programs in the world, the HGO Studio provides comprehensive career development to young singers, pianist/coaches, and conductors who have demonstrated potential to make major contributions to the field of opera. Seven up-and-coming opera stars remain active in the HGO Studio as well for the 2019 20 season.

Schimmel Center at Pace University concludes its 2018-19 Cabaret Series with an evening of standards and musical theater selections composed by women titled Baby, Dream Your Dream: The Great Women Songwriters today, March 9, 2019 at 7:30pm. Tickets start at $29 and can be purchased at SchimmelCenter.org, by phone at 212-346-1715, or by visiting the Schimmel Center Box Office at 3 Spruce Street, Manhattan. Box office hours are Tuesday-Today, Noon-5pm, and then beginning three hours prior to each performance, through intermission.

The famous mezzo soprano Fredericka von Stade is in San Diego this week rehearsing Three Decembers, one of several works written with her in mind by her close friend Jake Heggie. The chamber opera for three singers and 11 musicians will be performed three times next weekend at the 500-seat Patrick Henry PHAME Theatre. Von Stade recognized Heggie's talent long before he wrote his first opera and has been an influential champion ever since. Their friendship and collaboration have benefitted both. In my interview with her in a San Diego Opera rehearsal room she said, 'He's given me a second career with parts in Dead Man Walking and Great Scott, and a lot of song cycles. He's my guy.'

Schimmel Center at Pace University concludes its 2018-19 Cabaret Series with an evening of standards and musical theater selections composed by women titled Baby, Dream Your Dream: The Great Women Songwriters on Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 7:30pm. Tickets start at $29 and can be purchased at SchimmelCenter.org, by phone at 212-346-1715, or by visiting the Schimmel Center Box Office at 3 Spruce Street, Manhattan. Box office hours are Tuesday-Saturday, Noon-5pm, and then beginning three hours prior to each performance, through intermission.

Schimmel Center at Pace University concludes its 2018-19 Cabaret Series with an evening of standards and musical theater selections composed by women titled Baby, Dream Your Dream: The Great Women Songwriters on Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 7:30pm.

Michael Mayer's 2013 production of Verdi's Rigoletto, set in a 1960s Las Vegas casino, returns to the Met on February 12, with conductor Nicola Luisotti leading an all-star cast. Initial performances star Nadine Sierra as Gilda, Vittorio Grigolo as the Duke, Roberto Frontali as Rigoletto, Štefan Kocán as Sparafucile, and Ramona Zaharia in her Met debut as Maddalena. In later performances, Rosa Feola makes her Met debut as Gilda, Bryan Hymel sings the Duke for the first time at the Met, George Gagnidze returns as Rigoletto, and Dimitry Ivashchenko reprises his portrayal of Sparafucile.

Opera Atelier is delighted to present The Angel Speaks, a groundbreaking one-hour concert that effortlessly blends masterpieces of the baroque repertoire with the Canadian premiere of Annunciation, a new commission by Toronto-based composer and violinist Edwin Huizinga for period instruments. This singular performance takes place in the Samuel Hall Currelly Gallery at the historic Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), February 21, 2019, at 8pm.  Soprano Mireille Asselin and Baritone Jesse Blumberg will be joined by members of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra under the direction of David Fallis, alongside Artists of Atelier Ballet.

San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program present the 36th season of the Schwabacher Recital Series, opening on February 13 and continuing through April 24. The four-recital series offers music lovers an opportunity to hear opera's next generation of stars in the intimate and state-of-the-art Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco.

The Metropolitan Opera announced today that Thomas Lausmann, currently the Head of Music at the Vienna State Opera, will become the Met's Director of Music Administration at the start of the 2019 20 season. Lausmann will replace Assistant General Manager John Fisher, who is stepping down after many years at the Met to resume his freelance musical career. Fisher will continue to coach many of the world's top singers on a freelance basis, including on occasion at the Met.

El maestro Jorge Medina Leal, considerado uno de los más destacados directores de coro en el país, falleció este miércoles a la edad de 90 años, dejando un importante legado en la educación, promoción y creación de instituciones corales.

From January 21-26, 2019, renowned soprano Renee Fleming will mentor 10 aspiring young singers and 10 collaborative pianists from around the world in the inaugural year of SongStudio, an innovative new program exploring the future of the vocal recital. Building on Marilyn Horne's remarkable work with The Song Continues, the intensive workshop will bring emerging vocalists and pianists together with leading artists and composers for a week of instruction and performance at Carnegie Hall.

The Atlanta Opera opens the 2018-19 mainstage season with a production of Leonard Bernstein's classic Broadway musical, West Side Story. Francesca Zambello, General & Artistic Director of The Glimmerglass Festival and Artistic Director of Washington National Opera, who created this new production with Houston Grand Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, will direct.

CSO Music Director Rossen Milanov leads the Columbus Symphony, guest soprano Alexandra Razskazoff, guest mezzo-soprano Siena Licht Miller, guest tenor Jonas Marcel Hacker, guest bass-baritone Andrew Bogard, and the Columbus Symphony Chorus in an unforgettable performance of Handel's deeply spiritual oratorio, Messiah. The work will be performed in its entirety and is the first time the Columbus Symphony has done so since 2010.

September 28 through to November 12, 2018, Baritone John Brancy will continue his collaboration with pianist Peter Dugan in an extensive 'A WWI Memorial in Song' tour in partnership with the WWI Centennial Commission. The pair have been redefining the art song recital since making their critically acclaimed debut of 'A Silent Night' at the Kennedy Center in 2014. Hailed by The Washington Post as 'so refreshingly, marvelously different,' the program pays homage to the centennial of World War I through the music of composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War. Naperville's Wentz Hall (Cantigny Park, IL) is the first stop on the tour at a special concert event for the First Division Museum on September 28, 2018.

The world-renowned Emerson String Quartet celebrates the 80th birthday of American composer and pianist, winner of the National Medal of Arts, Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award, William Bolcom at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall on Sunday, October 21, 2018 at 5 PM.  Joined by the acclaimed pianist Shai Wosner, the Quartet performs Bolcom's Piano Quintet No. 1.

The world premiere of the new musical Tenor by Night, with book, music and lyrics by James Chiao will take place September 22-26 for six performances at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood. Tickets are available online at www.TenorByNight.com

September 28 through to November 12, 2018, Baritone John Brancy will continue his collaboration with pianist Peter Dugan in an extensive 'A WWI Memorial in Song' tour in partnership with the WWI Centennial Commission. The pair have been redefining the art song recital since making their critically acclaimed debut of 'A Silent Night' at the Kennedy Center in 2014. Hailed by The Washington Post as 'so refreshingly, marvelously different,' the program pays homage to the centennial of World War I through the music of composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War. Naperville's Wentz Hall (Cantigny Park, IL) is the first stop on the tour at a special concert event for the First Division Museum on September 28, 2018.

San Francisco Opera today announced a cast change for Gaetano Donizetti's Roberto Devereux, opening September 8 and running for six performances through September 27. Romanian-American baritone Andrew G. Manea will perform the role of the Duke of Nottingham, replacing Artur Rucinski who has withdrawn due to lung injuries sustained in a serious bicycling accident involving a car in his native Poland. He is expected to make a full recovery. Rucinski deeply regrets having to withdraw but looks forward to returning to San Francisco Opera in the future.

San Francisco Opera celebrates the opening of its 96th Season with the annual San Francisco Chronicle Presents Opera in the Park on Sunday, September 9 at 1:30 p.m. The free concert in Golden Gate Park features vocal artists and conductors from the Company's fall season performing with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in a program of arias, duets, popular songs and orchestral favorites. San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock serves as master of ceremonies for the afternoon.

Musica Viva NY kicks off its 2018-19 season with Songs of Love, an evening of lieder by Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, and P.D.Q. Bach, on Sunday, September 23 at 5:00 p.m. at All Souls Church. The concert features soprano Devony Smith, mezzo-soprano Michele Eaton, tenor Nathan Siler, and baritone Brian Mextorf, accompanied by Artistic Director Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez and Trent Johnson.