Catherine Cook News

San Francisco Opera presents the West Coast premiere of It's a Wonderful Life by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer in nine holiday-season performances from November 17 through December 9. The two-act work, a co-commission and co-production between San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, is based in part on Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life and The Greatest Gift, a story by Philip Van Doren Stern.

San Francisco Opera presents the West Coast premiere of It's a Wonderful Life by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer in nine holiday-season performances from November 17 through December 9. The two-act work, a co-commission and co-production between San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, is based in part on Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life and The Greatest Gift, a story by Philip Van Doren Stern.

After a national search, Florida Grand Opera (FGO) has chosen three new singers for the 2018-19 FGO Studio. One of the most respected and highly competitive studio programs in the nation, the FGO Studio, led by Artistic Directors Diana Soviero and Bernard Uzan, provides comprehensive career development to emerging artists who have demonstrated potential to make major contributions to the field of opera

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced plans for the 2018 19 Season. The Company's 96th Season will open Friday, September 7 with a gala double-bill performance of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci in Jos Cura's production with an international cast featuring Lianna Haroutounian, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Roberto Aronica, Marco Berti and Dimitri Platanias, conducted by Daniele Callegari. To usher in the new opera season, San Francisco Opera Guild will produce its signature benefit event, Opera Ball 2018.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced plans for the 2018 19 Season. The Company's 96th Season will open Friday, September 7 with a gala double-bill performance of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci in Jos Cura's production with an international cast featuring Lianna Haroutounian, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Roberto Aronica, Marco Berti and Dimitri Platanias, conducted by Daniele Callegari. To usher in the new opera season, San Francisco Opera Guild will produce its signature benefit event, Opera Ball 2018.

Continuing its 2017 2018 Season, Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) presents Twelfth Night. Directed by internationally acclaimed director Ethan McSweeny and featuring Antoinette Robinson (previously announced) as Viola and Tony Award-nominee Hannah Yelland as Olivia, Shakespeare's comic tale of unrequited love will run at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW) from November 14 December 20, 2017.

Celebrating the 150th birthday of novelist and playwright John Galsworthy, the first professional UK production in 85 years of Windows by John Galsworthy opens at the Finborough Theatre for a three week limited season on Tuesday, 22 August 2017 (Press Nights: Thursday, 24 August and Friday, 25 August 2017 at 7.30pm).

Florida Grand Opera (FGO) is pleased to welcome the singers who will make up the company's 2017-18 Young Artist Program. Twelve performers in all, chosen from the nearly 550 who applied, will arrive in early October to become an integral part of the seventy-seventh season of Florida Grand Opera, the state's longest continuously running performing arts institution.

Langan has performed with such opera luminaries as Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Marilyn Horne

The Merola Opera Program launches its 60th Anniversary season on Sunday, June 11 with a Benefit Gala at City Hall and a concert immediately following at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, featuring some of the acclaimed Merola program's most illustrious participants. The 60th Anniversary concert will feature performances by Merola alumni from the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and current and recent participants, including: soprano Deborah Voigt (1985); mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick (1983); Mark Morash, pianist and Merola Opera Program Music Director (1987); and soprano Tracy Dahl (1985); soprano Kristin Clayton (1993), mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook (1990), Bojan Knezevic, bass-baritone (1992, 1993, 1994), and John Churchwell, pianist (1996); baritone Quinn Kelsey (2002); 2013 Merola graduates mezzo-soprano Zanda Šv?de and tenors Pene Pati and Issachah Savage; soprano Julie Adams, and bass Anthony Reed,  all from 2014; Amina Edris and Toni Marie Palmertree, sopranos; and Brad Walker, bass-baritone, both from 2015; and 2016 artists Sarah Cambidge, soprano; Amitai Pati and Kyle van Schoonhoven, tenors; Andrew G. Manea, baritone; John Elam and Jennifer Szeto, pianists; and director Aria Umezawa.

Music of Remembrance (MOR) presents the world premieres of two newly commissioned works at its concert at Benaroya Hall's Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall in Seattle on May 21, 2017 at 5 p.m., with a free pre-concert interview with the composer and choreographer at 4:15 p.m. Tickets: $30 - $45 available online at http://bit.ly/Ceija

Music of Remembrance (MOR) presents a newly commissioned multi-media work by American composer Mary Kouyoumdjian to be performed at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak St.,SF, on May 24, 2017 at 7:30 p.m.

The partnership between San Francisco Opera and the Bay Area's Classical KDFC continues with monthly broadcasts of performances captured during the Fall 2016 Season, including the world premiere of Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang's Dream of the Red Chamber, and a historic broadcast from the Company's archives. All performances were recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House and feature the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus (Ian Robertson, Chorus Director).

The San Francisco Symphony's 2016 holiday season at Davies Symphony Hall offers a festive array of concerts for all ages, from its traditional Christmas classical concerts to classic pop vocalists Gladys Knight and Patti Austin performing with the Orchestra; favorite films like Singin' in the Rain, The Snowman, and a Rodgers and Hammerstein music and film night; family-friendly events like A Charlie Brown Christmas-Live!, the circus feats of Cirque de la Symphonie, and the Orchestra's annual Deck the Hall concerts for children.

MIAMI - August 2, 2016- Florida Grand Opera (FGO) is pleased to announce the members of its 2016-17 class for its Young Artist Program. These artists, consisting of both new and returning members, were selected from more than 600 singers who auditioned for the coveted program. 

San Francisco Opera's partnership with the Bay Area's Classical KDFC continues with a fall season of opera radio broadcasts beginning August 7 with the star-studded, June 16, 2016 gala concert celebrating San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley. The Company's highly acclaimed 2016 Summer Season productions of Bizet's Carmen, Verdi's Don Carlo and Jana?ek's Jen?fa, along with a special 1982 'From the Archives' broadcast of Handel's Julius Caesar, will air each month through December 4. All performances were recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House and feature the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and San Francisco Opera Chorus.

On Thursday, June 16, the San Francisco Opera honored Company General Director David Gockley with a gala evening and concert titled Celebrating David! Many of the leading artists from the world of opera gathered to honor one of the great careers in the modern history of the art form. Gockley, who in 2014 announced that he would retire from his position as General Director at the completion of the 2015­­-16 Season on July 31, has led a storied career of more than 40 years as an opera impresario.

San Francisco Opera celebrates David Gockley's remarkable career and ten-year tenure as San Francisco Opera General Director with a gala concert at the War Memorial Opera House on Thursday, June 16 at 7 p.m. David Gockley retires from San Francisco Opera in July 2016, culminating a 45-year career as one of today's most important opera impresarios.

What happens when American women move to Paris for creatively fulfilling careers?

Seattle-based Music of Remembrance (MOR) will present the world premiere of Out of Darkness at 4:00 p.m. on May 22, 2016, at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Seattle's Benaroya Hall, and again at 7:30 p.m. on May 25 and 26 at the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.