Dimitri Pittas News

Renowned experimental, often-controversial opera and theater director Peter Sellars will join Debbie McNulty, director of Mayor Turner's Office of Cultural Affairs, and Patrick Summers, artistic director of Houston Grand Opera, in a public conversation about art and activism moderated by the Rothko Chapel's executive director, David Leslie, on Tuesday, March 20, 7-8:30 p.m. at the Rothko Chapel, 3900 Yupon St., Houston. The "pay what you can" event has a suggested value of $20. Registration is advised; visit rothkochapel.org or call 713-524-9839.

On Friday, February 16, 2018, 16 of the best young American and Canadian opera singers will perform with pianist Craig Rutenberg before a panel of judges and an enthusiastic audience at The Morgan Library & Museum. At the event's conclusion, six of them will be named this year's winners of the George London Award, an honor that has been conferred upon hundreds of the best young singers since 1971. The award, currently a $10,000 prize, is named for the legendary Canadian-American bass-baritone, one of the greatest opera singers of 20th century.

Houston Grand Opera will open its 63rd season with a new production of Verdi's most romantic opera, La traviata, October 20 November 11 in the new HGO Resilience Theater at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.

On August 1, 2017, Santa Fe Opera presented Johann Strauss II's operetta, DIE FLEDERMAUS (THE BAT). The original German libretto was by Carl Haffner and Richard Genée. The audience heard it sung in an English translation by Ruth and Thomas Martin with dialogue adapted by Charles Ludlam from W. S. Gilbert's play ON BAIL. Gilbert based his play on a work by Meilhac and Halévy.

Washington National Opera's 2016–2017 season concludes with one of the most beloved operas in the repertory, Puccini's Madame Butterfly, May 6– 21, 2017 in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Featuring some of the most enduring and memorable music in all of opera, this production also features dazzling sets and costumes by Japanese American production designer Jun Kaneko, whose dramatic designs for WNO's 2014 production of The Magic Flute amazed audiences. This new- to-Washington production from Opera Omaha and San Francisco Opera is directed by Leslie Swackhamer and conducted by WNO Music Director Philippe Auguin. A special Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Performance of Madame Butterfly is presented in the Opera House on Friday, May 19, 2017, and features current singers of WNO's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program.

Asia Society Texas Center will host Representation and 21 st Century Responsibilities in the Performing Arts, a free panel discussion and public forum in collaboration with Houston Grand Opera (HGO) on Friday, March 31, at 7 p.m.

Houston Grand Opera expands its commitment to broadening the audience for opera with a 2017-18 season that includes the first presentations of Leonard Bernstein's classic musical West Side Story by a major American opera house and the world premiere of composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek's holiday opera The House without a Christmas Tree. HGO will present its first performances in a quarter century of two iconic works: Richard Strauss's revenge-filled Elektra with virtuoso sopranoChristine Goerke in the tempestuous title role and 2016 Richard Tucker Award-winner and HGO Studio alumna Tamara Wilson in her role debut as Chrysothemis, under the baton of HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers; and Bellini's grand-scale tragedy Norma showcasing the debut of stellar dramatic soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska in the notoriously difficult title role, with 2015 Tucker winner and HGO Studio alumna Jamie Barton as Adalgisa.

Houston Grand Opera expands its commitment to broadening the audience for opera with a 2017-18 season that includes the first presentations of Leonard Bernstein's classic musical West Side Story by a major American opera house and the world premiere of composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek 's holiday opera The House without a Christmas Tree.

On Sunday, November 6, 2016 at 7:30pm, Works & Process at The Guggenheim presents a discussion with the creators and excerpts of Houston Grand Opera's upcoming world premiere of It's a Wonderful Life by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer.

BWW Review: Houston Grand Opera opens the season with an eye-popping ELIXIR OF LOVE

Donizetti's ebullient comedy The Elixir of Love sets a celebratory tone as Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) 62nd season opener on October 21. The colorful production features tenor Dimitri Pittas and soprano Nicole Heaston, as well as the HGO debut of eminent English conductor Jane Glover. Performances run through November 4.  

Donizetti's ebullient comedy The Elixir of Love sets a celebratory tone as Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) 62nd season opener on October 21.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will offer New Yorkers a preview performance of excerpts from a new opera based on the classic story and Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life on Sunday, November 6, at 7:30 p.m. at the Guggenheim Museum, as part of the museum's Works & Process program. The evening will include a discussion with the composer/librettist team of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, moderated by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers.

Houston Grand Opera will present four pinnacles of the operatic repertoire during the company's 2016-17 season, which also features the highly anticipated world premiere of It's a Wonderful Life by composer Jake Heggie with libretto by Gene Scheer, and much-loved comedies by Donizetti and Mozart. Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers will lead Gotterdammerung, the final installment of Wagner's epic Ring cycle, featuring a new generation of leading Wagnerians includingSimon O'Neill as Siegfried and Christine Goerke as Brunnhilde. HGO will bring back its popular production of Gounod's Faust, with the HGO debut of international star tenor Michael Fabiano in the title role partnered by Houston favorite Ana Maria Martinez as Marguerite, along with the role debut of prominent bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni as Mephistopheles. The company will celebrate the 30thanniversary of HGO's world premiere of John Adams's pivotal Nixon in China by presenting James Robinson's production, of which HGO is a co-producer, with HGO Studio alumnus Scott Hendricks as Richard Nixon and soprano Andriana Chuchman as his wife, Pat. Patrick Summers will conduct Verdi'sthrilling Requiem, which critics at the time termed "an opera in ecclesiastical robes," with soloists Angela Meade, soprano, in her HGO debut; Sasha Cooke, alto; Alexey Dolgov, tenor; and Peixin Chen, bass; and the HGO Orchestra and Chorus. HGO's 62nd season will open with a whimsical production of Donizetti's buoyant The Elixir of Love, featuring tenor Dimitri Pittas as Nemorino and HGO Studio alumna Nicole Heaston as Adina and led by the eminent English conductor Jane Glover, HGO's 2016-17 Lynn Wyatt Great Artist, in her first HGO appearance. Mozart's zany yet deeply emotive comedy TheAbduction from the Seraglio-featuring Russian coloratura soprano and HGO Studio alumna Albina Shagimuratova as Konstanze and leading American tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Belmonte in HGO's inventive 2002 co-production-will close the main-stage season.  

To conclude the 20th season of its recital series, the George London Foundation for Singers presents a performance by two acclaimed young artists: mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, who won a George London Award in 2014, and tenor Dimitri Pittas, a 2004 George London Award winner, on Sunday, May 15, 2016, at 4:00 pm, at The Morgan Library & Museum. Accompanying them at the piano will be each singer's respective spouse: Christopher Cano and Leah Edwards.

The winners of the 45th annual George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers were announced at the conclusion of the competition's final round this evening, which took place in a front of an audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. 

Verdi's late masterpiece based on Shakespeare's tragic drama of jealousy and deceit, OTELLO, airs on THIRTEEN'S Great Performances at the Met today, February 21 at 12 p.m. on PBS. (Check local listings.) (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the opera at 12:30 p.m.) Get a sneak peek below!

Verdi's late masterpiece based on Shakespeare's tragic drama of jealousy and deceit, OTELLO, airs on THIRTEEN'S Great Performances at the Met Sunday, February 21 at 12 p.m. on PBS. (Check local listings.) (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the opera at 12:30 p.m.) Get a sneak peek below!

Verdi's late masterpiece based on Shakespeare's tragic drama of jealousy and deceit, Otello, airs on THIRTEEN'SGreat Performances at the Met Sunday, February 21 at 12 p.m. on PBS.

Andrey Nemzer will sing the role of Orlofsky in this evening's performance of Johann Strauss, Jr.'s Die Fledermaus, replacing Susan Graham, who is ill.