Ricky Ian Gordon News

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) presents 'The Invention of Morel,' a world premiere of the co-commissioned opera composed by Stewart Copeland, co-founder and drummer of The Police. Based on Argentinian author Adolfo Bioy Casares' 1940 novel 'La invencion de Morel,' Copeland's new adaptation examines the triumph of time-bending love over convention in a story of adoration and desire. 'The Invention of Morel' features London-based actor, director and writer Jonathan Moore as Stage Director/Librettist together with COT's Artistic Director Andreas Mitisek as Conductor. The press performance will be February 18 at 7:30 p.m. Subsequent performances will be February 24 at 7:30 p.m.and February 26 at 3 p.m.  

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) presents "The Invention of Morel," a world premiere of the co-commissioned opera composed by Stewart Copeland, co-founder and drummer of The Police. Based on Argentinian author Adolfo Bioy Casares' 1940 novel "La invencion de Morel," Copeland's new adaptation examines the triumph of time-bending love over convention in a story of adoration and desire. "The Invention of Morel" features London-based actor, director and writer Jonathan Moore as Stage Director/Librettist together with COT's Artistic Director Andreas Mitisek as Conductor. The press performance will be February 18 at 7:30 p.m. Subsequent performances will be February 24 at 7:30 p.m.and February 26 at 3 p.m.

Four-time Tony Award Nominee Judy Kuhn(Fun Home, She Loves Me, Chess, Les Miserables) joins the cast of Fiddler on the Roof as Golde beginning tonight, Tuesday, November 22nd and will play through the show's final performance on Saturday, December 31st at 2:00 pm.  She takes over the role from Jessica Hecht whose final performance was on Sunday, November 20th.

Husband-and-wife duo John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey make their annual fall pilgrimage toCafe Carlyle with an all-new show, The Arc of a Love Affair, November 22-December 1. They return following last year's universally acclaimed show My Generation. 

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale), celebrating its 75th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, presents St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach on February 9, 2017 at 7pm at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall (57th Street and 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019).

Hailed as “one of the great amateur choruses of our time (New York Today) for its “full-bodied sound and suppleness (The New York Times),” The Dessoff Choirs celebrates the holidays as part of its 92nd season. This year, it presents a trio of concerts featuring seasonal repertoire and contemporary arrangements of carols, including Handel's Messiah, the quintessential classical music highpoint of the Christmas season; Bach's Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230, Gregg Smith's Twelve Days of Christmas; and Robert Parsons's Ave Maria, to name a few. (Program details are below.)

Bay Street Theater has announced the three productions planned for the 2017 Mainstage Summer Season.

The extended New York Premiere of SWEAT by Lynn Nottage officially opens tonight, November 3, at The Public Theater.

MasterVoices raised over $200,000 at its 2016 Fall Galain support of its artistic and outreach programs on October 20. The event featured the New York premiere performance of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek's opera 27 starring Metropolitan Opera mezzo Stephanie Blythe as Stein, Heidi Stober, Theo Lebow, Tobias Greenhalgh, and Daniel Brevik directed by James Robinson and conducted by MasterVoices' Artistic Director Ted Sperling with 150 singers of MasterVoices and Orchestra of St. Luke's. The evening featured Scenic Design by Allen Moyer, Costumes by James Schuette and Lighting by James. F. Ingalls.

Second Stage Theatre's New York Premiere production of NOTES FROM THE FIELD: DOING TIME IN EDUCATION, the latest work created, written and performed by groundbreaking theatre artist Anna Deavere Smith with music composed and performed by Marcus Shelby and directed by Leonard Foglia, opens tonight, November 2, 2016 at the Tony Kiser Theatre (305 West 43rd Street).

 Hailed as “one of the great amateur choruses of our time (New York Today) for its “full-bodied sound and suppleness (The New York Times),” The Dessoff Choirs, with soloists and orchestra, opens its 92nd season at Alice Tully Hall. For one night only, Dessoff presents We Remember including Mozart's Requiem and contemporary choral works reflecting on the lives of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and paying tribute to composer Steven Stucky, a champion of new music.

OPERA NEWS Editor in Chief F. Paul Driscoll today announced the recipients of the 12th Annual OPERA NEWS Awards. This year's honorees—stage director Robert Carsen, soprano Christine Goerke, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, tenor Matthew Polenzani, and mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade—will be feted at a black tie gala celebration on April 9th, 2017 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara will be the special musical guest. 

In many ways, '27'--the 90-minute the chamber opera about Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and their circle, composed by Ricky Ian Gordon to a Royce Vavrek libretto--is an old-fashioned love story. It just happens to be about two women who entertained and collected (in all senses) some of the most important visual artists and writers of the first half of the century. And it happens to take place when Paris was still the hub of the artistic world and 27 rue de Fleurus, the women's home, was its epicenter.

Chicago's historic Studebaker Theater will become the home of live opera with a contemporary adaptation of Henry Purcell's 1692 "The Fairy Queen," a reimagining of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" presented by Chicago Opera Theater (COT) beginning November 5.

The New York City Classical Guitar Society is proud to join with Guitar Plus in presenting the extraordinarily versatile guitarist/composer David Leisner with the expressive, dynamic vocalist Michael Kelly in Leisner's arrangement of Schubert's Die Schone Mullerin

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) will celebrate its 75th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, beginning with the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek's 27, specially adapted for MasterVoices, on October 20 and 21, 2016 at 8pm at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, New York City. Get a sneak peek at the production in St. Louis below!

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) will celebrate its 75th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, beginning with the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek's 27, specially adapted for MasterVoices, on October 20 and 21, 2016 at 8pm at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, New York City.

American Lyric Theater (ALT) and Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center, in partnership with MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale), presents The Halloween Tree on October 30, 2016 at 3pm in the Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center, 129 W 67th Street, New York City.  Based on Ray Bradbury's classic novel that explores the origins of Halloween, composer Theo Popov and librettist Tony Asaro take us on an epic journey as a group of children search for their friend Pipkin, who has mysteriously disappeared on Halloween night. Conductor: Adam Turner. Featuring Mark S. Doss as Moundshroud; with Emma Grimsley, Shirin Eskandani, Spencer Viator, Brian Wallin, Michael Kelly, and Jarrett Porter with members of MasterVoices.  

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) will celebrate its 75th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, beginning with the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek's 27, specially adapted for MasterVoices, on October 20 and 21, 2016 at 8pm at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, New York City. Get a sneak peek at the production in St. Louis below!