Christopher James Ray News

I’ve heard much praise about the quality of the vocal writing of Jake Heggie from singers who adore the way his music caresses their voices. But THREE DECEMBERS, performed this past weekend at the Berkshire Opera Festival at Pavilion Theatre, PS21 in Chatham, New York, was the first time I heard a complete dramatic work by the composer. As characters from FOLLIES by Sondheim--a composer whose music echoes in Heggie’s score--said about showing up at the reunion that frames that musical, “I’m so glad I came.”

Berkshire Opera Festival opens its 2022 summer season with a compelling new production of Jake Heggie's intimate THREE DECEMBERS on July 21 and 23 at PS21 in Chatham, NY, conducted by Christopher James Ray and directed by Beth Greenberg. This contemporary American opera is based on Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally's original script for Some Christmas Letters.

Opera San José will close its 2021–2022 season with West Side Story, Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Jerome Robbins’s classic American tale of two star-crossed lovers and the prejudices that keep them apart.

Fiery flamenco joins brilliant singing to ignite Bizet’s iconic opera, Carmen, in a vibrant Opera San José production conducted by Music Director Joseph Marcheso, with reimagined stage direction by Lillian Groag and a new collaboration with the acclaimed Flamenco Society of San José.

Fiery flamenco joins brilliant singing to ignite Bizet’s iconic opera, Carmen, in a vibrant Opera San José production conducted by Music Director Joseph Marcheso, with reimagined stage direction by Lillian Groag and a new collaboration with the acclaimed Flamenco Society of San José. Dance, singing, and drama come together to tell the tale of a defiant heroine whose rebellious quest for freedom defies societal expectations  and seals her tragic fate.

Opera San José will close its 2021–2022 season with West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's classic American tale of two star-crossed lovers and the prejudices that keep them apart.

Fiery flamenco joins brilliant singing to ignite Bizet's iconic opera, Carmen, in a vibrant Opera San José production conducted by Music Director Joseph Marcheso, with reimagined stage direction by Lillian Groag.

Opera San José will make its much-anticipated return to the historic California Theatre with a new production of Purcell's baroque masterpiece, Dido and Aeneas.

Today, Opera San José launches its 2021-22 season with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's rarely-seen opera Mozart and Salieri, presented virtually to opera lovers throughout the Bay Area and beyond.

General Director Khori Dastoor has announced the 2021-22 Resident Company who will be cast in leading roles for Opera San José's upcoming season, welcoming a cohort of opera talent who will be starring in this season's California Theatre mainstage productions. 

Opera San José launches its 2021-22 season with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s rarely-seen opera Mozart and Salieri, presented virtually to opera lovers throughout the Bay Area and beyond. In this intimate psychological thriller, Vienna’s leading composer, Antonio Salieri, is seething over the upstart Mozart – a brash newcomer whose genius is undeniable.

One of Silicon Valley's flagship arts organizations, Opera San José, unveils its 2021-22 season, featuring new productions, company premieres, artist debuts, and cultural collaborations, in four vivid productions – including one with Broadway roots, a company first. 

Los Angeles Opera presents a digital recital exploring the invaluable contributions Latina composers have made to the world of classical music. LAO’s much-beloved After Hours Recital Series is back, and this time it celebrates eleven Latina composers. Russell Thomas, the company's Artist in Residence-turned-host, curated this fabulous stream to transport viewers virtually to Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, and Peru.

Due to popular demand, Opera San José has announced the extension of its critically acclaimed digital offering, Love & Secrets: A Domestic Trilogy, tales of passion and yearning in which three couples contend with the tumult, joy, and heartache of love.

Opera San José invites music lovers from the Bay Area and beyond to its virtual variety show and fundraiser, Sing for Your Supper!  

Opera San José is offering Spanish and Vietnamese subtitles (in addition to English) for its latest virtual production, Love & Secrets: A Domestic Trilogy, welcoming two of San Jose's largest communities to experience this local art.

On the Los Angeles Opera website, tenor Russell Thomas and collaborative pianist Kyung-Mi Kim present a program of song that includes Schumann's song cycle, Dichterliebe (Poet's Love),  Handel's aria “Total Eclipse” from Samson, and love songs by Adolphus Hailstork and Robert Owens that was filmed recently at Spivey Hall in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Romance so often conjures images of affectionate gestures grand and small: flowers, chocolates, initials carved in bark. Opera San José’s latest digital offering, Love & Secrets: A Domestic Trilogy, explores what happens below the surface, with three tales of passion and yearning, as couples contend with the tumult, joys, and heartache of love. 

Opera San José has announced the extension of its stream of Three Decembers, by popular demand. World-renowned mezzo-soprano Susan Graham leads the cast of Opera San José’s first fully-staged digital production, Jake Heggie’s THREE DECEMBERS, based on Tony Award winning playwright Terrence McNally’s unpublished play “Some Christmas Letters”.

In keeping with Opera San José's mission to expand accessibility to its work, the company has announced that through the support of generous donors it is able to extend access to its hit virtual production of Jake Heggie's chamber opera, Three Decembers, now making it available on a pay-what-you-can basis for streaming on demand.