Ricky Ian Gordon News

Chicago Opera Theater (COT) kicks its 2015/16 season off with the Chicago premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's passionate story of love, power, bloody conspiracies and revenge, 'Lucio Silla' at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance (205. E. Randolph Drive) Sept. 26 - Oct. 4, 2015. Directed and designed by COT General Director Andreas Mitisek and conducted by the acclaimed Francesco Milioto, the opera, was written by the musical prodigy as a teenager for Milan's Teatro Regio Ducal in 1772.

Producers Michael Alden, George DeMarco, Frank Evans and Jack Lechner announced today that they will present a private reading of the new musical DATE OF A LIFETIME on Thursday, September 17th. Four time Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks (Guys and Dolls) serves as Creative Consultant. Date of a Lifetime features a book and lyrics by Carl Kissin and music by Rob Baumgartner, Jr.

Two additional performance dates have been added to pianist Anthony de Mare's concert tour of his new 3-CD album Liaisons: Re-Imaging Sondheim from The Piano. De Mare will perform selections from the recording at Bard College on November 2 and at Chicago's PianoForte Studios on December 12. The remaining tour dates include Virginia Tech in Blacksburg VA (September 18) and performances of ALL 36 piano works - split up over three concerts in New York at Birdland (September 24), The Sheen Center (October 22) and Symphony Space (November 19). 

The Old Globe opens its 2015-2016 Season with IN YOUR ARMS, a World Premiere dance-theatre musical featuring direction and choreography by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies, Godspell, Lincoln Center Theater's The King and I and South Pacific) and original music by Tony Award winner Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Once on This Island; two-time Oscar nominee for Anastasia). The production begins tonight, September 16, with an opening slated for September 24, and runs through October 25, 2015.

Third Eye Theatre Ensemble, a Chicago company which seeks to engage audiences with inspiring performances relevant to today's ever changing world, will be presenting contemporary [& in English] at Forte Framing & Gallery on Saturday, September 26th at 8pm. contemporary [& in English] is a night of singing featuring excerpts from Third Eye Theatre Ensemble's fall production, Sumeida's Song, by composer Mohammed Fairouz. Cast members and guest artists perform the music of Mohammed Fairouz, in addition to other contemporary composers, including Ricky Ian Gordon, Gwyneth Walker, William Bolcom, Lori Laitman, Jake Heggie, Dominic Argento, Benjamin Britten, and Alan Hovhaness. A wine reception follows the concert. There is a $10 suggested donation at the door. Forte Framing and Gallery is located at 2301 W. North Ave, Chicago, Il  60647.

Stephen Sondheim's macabre musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street receives its highly anticipated San Francisco Opera premiere in a production featuring a cast of notable operatic stars and performed with Sondheim's original score for the lyric stage.

MidAtlantic Opera and Seton Hall University will present the third concert in conductor Jason C. Tramm's Peace Trilogy Concert series, entitled A Prayer for Peace, on Saturday, October 17, 2015 at 8 pm in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall. Ticket prices range from $10 - $90. Order tickets online at www.carnegiehall.org, by phone at CarnegieCharge (212-247-7800) or at the Carnegie Hall box office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue in New York City. Student and senior discounts are available at the box office only.  Group ticket discounting is available to your organization by calling 212-903-9705 Monday-Friday, 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM or Online at groupsales@carnegiehall.org.

WASHINGTON)—Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced details for the fourth season of the American Opera Initiative, its comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. Three pairings of new opera composers and librettists—Christopher Weiss and John de los Santos, David Clay Mettens and Joshua McGuire, and Sarah Hutchings and Mark Sonnenblick—will premiere new one-act operas, each based on a contemporary American story, in a semi-staged concert performance on December 2, 2015 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Composer Luna Pearl Woolf and librettist Caitlin Vincent, an alumnus of the program's second season, will present their new hour-long work Better Gods—based on the life of Queen Lili'uokalani, the last monarch of Hawaii—on January 8 and 9, 2016 in the Terrace Theater.

Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival 2015 presents Daddy's Boy, a world premiere play written by Cristian Avila where the wrestling ring becomes a battleground sexuality, family and identity. Avila directs a cast of eight, including David Conrad Brouillard, Julia Gyory, Aya Esther Hayashi, Jonathan Palmiotti, Christopher Staley*, Kyle Stockburger, Rachel Wharton, and Nick Zale. Six performances will be staged at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (bet. 9th and 10th Streets), New York, NY 10003 from August 30-September 6, 2015. *Member, Actors' Equity Association. AEA Showcase.

Houston, August 17, 2015—Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) 2015–16 season showcases the vibrant and diverse artistic mix that marks HGO as a leading 21st-century American opera company: Wagner's Siegfried, the third installment of La Fura dels Baus's imaginative Ring cycle featuring a new generation of Wagnerians; the world premiere of Prince of Players by eminent American composer Carlisle Floyd, the Lynn Wyatt Great Artist for 2015–16; Dvoák's fairy tale rarity Rusalka; a holiday revival of family favorite The Little Prince from the award-winning composer Rachel Portman and librettist Nicholas Wright; a new production of The Marriage of Figaro; a new-to-Houston Eugene Onegin; a beloved core production, Tosca; and the Houston debut of Broadway sensation Rob Ashford's take on the classic musical Carousel. Through its community collaboration program HGOco, the company will present two additional world premieres: O Columbia, a chamber opera by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Royce Vavrek that examines the past, present, and future of the American spirit of exploration; and The Root of the Wind is Water, a chamber opera by composer David Hanlon and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann about the impact of hurricanes on the Texas Gulf coast.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced the four conductors for the 2015-2016 season in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Gary Thor Wedow (pictured, left, Mozart's Don Giovanni), and David Charles Abell (Bizet's Carmen) will be returning to the Lyric Opera. Alexander Polianichko (Dvorak's Rusalka) and Christopher Allen (Donizetti's The Elixir of Love) will be making their Lyric Opera debut.

Among them, the company can claim 18 Tony Awards, 4 Pulitzer Prizes, 6 Pulitzer finalist distinctions, 3 Emmy Awards, and 2 Academy Awards; to list all their honors would take several pages.

Berkeley Rep has announced the full company for its 2015-16 season opener Amelie, A New Musical, starring award-winning actress Samantha Barks.

Stephen Sondheim's macabre musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street receives its highly anticipated San Francisco Opera premiere in a production featuring a cast of notable operatic stars and performed with Sondheim's original score for the lyric stage.

Pianist Anthony de Mare presents a new 3-CD set of 36 songs by legendary composer Stephen Sondheim -- arranged and reimagined by some of the world's most exciting contemporary composers.

Houston, July 21, 2015— Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present the world premiere of O Columbia, a chamber opera created by an acclaimed team of artists: composer Gregory Spears, librettist Royce Vavrek, stage director Kevin Newbury, and conductor Timothy Myers—on September 23 and 24 at 8:00 p.m. at the Bayou Music Center. O Columbia examines the past, present, and future of the American spirit of exploration and celebrates the identity of America's frontiersmen and women. O Columbia will be HGO's 57th world premiere.

Andy Warhol famously declared, 'in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.' ANDY: A Popera promises to make audience members famous for 15 seconds.

She was hand-picked by Leonard Bernstein to sing Mimi in his Grammy nominated La boheme

The New York Philharmonic will present the U.S. Premiere of director Co?me de Bellescize's staging of Honegger's dramatic oratorio Joan of Arc at the Stake in season-finale performances conducted by Alan Gilbert and starring Academy Award-winning actress Marion Cotillard as Joan of Arc.