Spring will bring a trio of striking productions to Houston Grand Opera, starting with the return-by-popular-demand of the world's first mariachi opera - Cruzar la Cara de la Luna ('To Cross the Face of the Moon'). Cruzar - an HGO commission that the company premiered to acclaim in 2010, with the Houston Chronicle calling it 'a multicultural winner' - will run today, March 22-24 at the Wortham Theater Center. Next up is HGO's new production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (April 18-May 5), conducted by the company's music and artistic director, Patrick Summers, and starring two of today's greatest Wagnerian singers: soprano Nina Stemme as Isolde and tenor Ben Heppner as Tristan, both in their company debuts.
Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director for Houston Grand Opera, moves from the conductor's podium to the speaker's podium when he gives three lectures in Rice University's prestigious Campbell Lecture Series on March 18, 19 and 20. His three presentations, collectively titled "Thinking Music: the Conductor as Cultural Leader and Teacher," will endeavor to explain music's role and relevance in modern society. Summers, who is profiled in the April 2013 issue of Opera News (on sale March 8), will also conduct two major productions this spring at Houston Grand Opera: a new production of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (April 18 - May 5), featuring Nina Stemme in her US role debut as Isolde and Ben Heppner as Tristan, followed by Verdi's Il trovatore (April 26 - May 11).
The Canadian Opera Company unveiled its 2013/2014 season today at a press conference at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The company's 64th season stars the world's best singers, conductors, directors and designers in a performance year with seven operas, including three COC premieres and three new COC productions. The COC presents Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème with a new production featuring some of Canada's brightest stars; COC Music Director Johannes Debus makes his Benjamin Britten debut when he conducts Peter Grimes with a production starring acclaimed Canadian tenor Ben Heppner in the iconic title role; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Così fan tutte with a new COC production by renowned film and theatre director Atom Egoyan with Debus conducting; Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera starring great Canadian diva Adrianne Pieczonka in a role debut; George Frideric Handel's Hercules with a COC premiere and new COC production by world-renowned director Peter Sellars with a star-studded cast; Gaetano Donizetti's Roberto Devereux with a COC premiere starring soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in a role debut; and Jules Massenet's Don Quichotte with a COC premiere featuring Debus in another conducting debut and the world's pre-eminent bass Ferruccio Furlanetto in the title role.
BroadwayWorld.com, the largest theatre site on the net, continues its expansion into other areas of entertainment with our latest feature -The Regional Opera Company of the Week! This week's featured Opera Company is Opera Colorado in Denver celebrating its 30th anniversary!
The Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, Canada's premier training program for young opera professionals, welcomes six outstanding new Canadian artists for the 2013/2014 season. Bass-baritone Gordon Bintner, mezzo-soprano Charlotte Burrage, soprano Aviva Fortunata, baritone Clarence Frazer, tenor Andrew Haji and mezzo-soprano Danielle MacMillan were among the 10 finalists who competed for the highly coveted Ensemble Studio positions at the Second Annual Ensemble Studio Competition in November 2012. Bintner, Haji and Burrage were top prize winners at the 2012 competition with Bintner securing the first-place and audience-choice awards, Haji receiving second-place honours and Burrage taking the third-place award.
Promising young opera singers from across the Gulf Coast will compete for the chance to perform on one of the world's most prestigious stages at the Metropolitan Opera National Council District and Regional Auditions today, Jan. 5 and the 6th at Loyola University New Orleans. The winner of the regional auditions will advance to the national semi-final round, held in March on the Metropolitan Opera Stage in New York City.
Promising young opera singers from across the Gulf Coast will compete for the chance to perform on one of the world's most prestigious stages at the Metropolitan Opera National Council District and Regional Auditions Jan. 5 and 6 at Loyola University New Orleans. The winner of the regional auditions will advance to the national semi-final round, held in March on the Metropolitan Opera Stage in New York City.
Canadian Opera Company Music Director Johannes Debus conducts his first Tristan und Isolde when he leads the COC Orchestra and Chorus this winter in the company's production of Wagner's epic masterpiece. He replaces Jir?i? Be?lohla?vek, who has regrettably withdrawn due to health reasons.
The Canadian Opera Company hosts its second annual Ensemble Studio Competition today, November 29, 2012 in the intimate Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The Ensemble Studio Competition is the final round of national auditions for the COC Ensemble Studio, Canada's premier training program for young opera professionals. Today, November 29, Canada's finest young opera singers will compete in front of a public audience for four cash prizes and the offer of a coveted position in the 2013/2014 Ensemble Studio.
Houston Grand Opera, with Music Director Patrick Summers and Managing Director Perryn Leech, announces its 2012-13 season, headlined by four new productions. The first of these is Puccini's La boheme, which launches the new season with a new staging by award-winning British director John Caird. To honor 2013's joint bicentennials of Wagner and Verdi, the coming season juxtaposes Tristan und Isolde - starring Ben Heppner and Nina Stemme in a new contemporary staging by Christof Loy - with a revival of Steven Lawless's unforgettable take on Il trovatore. British conductor Trevor Pinnock leads a strong international cast in Mozart's ensemble masterpiece Don Giovanni, while Francesca Zambello's new production of Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat brings together stars of Broadway and the opera house in a celebration of America's own contribution to the art. For a more intimate experience, Daniela Barcellona and Lawrence Brownlee star in Rossini's dramma giocoso, The Italian Girl in Algiers.
Houston Grand Opera opens its 2012-13 season in grand style on October 19, with a brand-new production of Puccini's La boheme starring Dimitri Pittas and Katie van Kooten.
Almost 3,000 artists from 47 nations gather to share the live experience of theatre, dance, opera and music with audiences from approximately a third of the world's nations at Edinburgh International Festival 2012. This year the festival takes place today, August 9 to September 2.
The editors of Opera News have announced the honorees for the 2012 Opera News Awards, paying tribute to five superb artists who have made an invaluable contribution to the art form: sopranos Mirella Freni and Dawn Upshaw, countertenor David Daniels, baritone Simon Keenlyside, and bass-baritone Eric Owens. The eighth annual Opera News Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, April 21 at The Plaza in New York City. All the winners - and a host of the city's cultural, civic, and social luminaries - will be present at the gala awards dinner, which will feature celebrity presenters speaking about the awardees and introducing video performance clips.
The Canadian Opera Company hosts its second annual Ensemble Studio Competition on November 29, 2012 in the intimate Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The Ensemble Studio Competition is the final round of national auditions for the COC Ensemble Studio, Canada's premier training program for young opera professionals. On November 29, Canada's finest young opera singers will compete in front of a public audience for four cash prizes and the offer of a coveted position in the 2013/2014 Ensemble Studio.
The Canadian Opera Company has closed another successful opera season with 2011/2012 recording an average attendance of 91%. A total of 125,238 patrons attended the 67 performances of the company's seven mainstage productions in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts: Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris, Verdi's Rigoletto, Puccini's Tosca, Saariaho's Love from Afar, Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, the double bill of Zemlinsky's A Florentine Tragedy and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, and Handel's Semele.
Almost 3000 artists from 47 nations will gather to share the live experience of theatre, dance, opera and music with audiences from approximately a third of the world's nations at Edinburgh International Festival 2012. This year the festival will take place August 9 to September 2.
Houston Grand Opera - the only opera company to have won a Tony, two Grammys, and two Emmys - enhances its 2012-13 line-up with three productions from its Song of Houston project, winner of the National MultiCultural Institute's 2009 Leading Lights Diversity Award.
