Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced today complete casting for the three exciting new productions that will comprise the company's 2017 Summer Festival, which will build on the company's commitment to producing masterpieces from the operatic cannon, important American works, and works in which dance plays an integral role. In addition, a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events will be presented from May 28th through July 16th at venues throughout the region.
Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced today complete casting for the three exciting new productions that will comprise the company's 2017 Summer Festival, which will build on the company's commitment to producing masterpieces from the operatic cannon, important American works, and works in which dance plays an integral role. In addition, a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events will be presented from May 28th through July 16th at venues throughout the region.
“A prolific choreographer of skillfully constructed dances that respectfully mesh with music and striking visual design” (The New Yorker), Jessica Lang and her company return to Jacob's Pillow for the ensemble's first Ted Shawn Theatre engagement, July 5-9. In addition to a Pillow-commissioned world premiere work, the program includes Lang's Thousand Yard Stare, a dance embodying the incredible pride and honor as well as the searing loss experienced by military veterans. The program will also include the East Coast and company premiere of Lang's Lyric Pieces as well as Solo Bach, Sweet Silent Thought, and The Calling. This season, the Pillow has formed a partnership with the Tanglewood Music Center, whereby Tanglewood Fellows and alumni will be providing the music accompaniment for this engagement.
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) today announced plans for Seeking the Human Spirit (STHS), a six-year multidisciplinary initiative designed to highlight the universal spiritual themes raised in opera and to expand and deepen Houstonians' connections to opera and to art. Launching in the fall of 2017, STHS comprises three mainstage operas each season-one of which will be a new work-united by a single theme, and complementary projects by HGO and partner organizations created to enhance and enrich the community's experience of the themes. Some of these activities will be available to the public; others will offer personal access to opera and HGO artists and staff for groups such as hospital patients, women who are rebuilding their lives after homelessness, and young people pursuing interfaith projects.
Washington National Opera (WNO) today announces additional performers for its star-studded 2017 WNO Opera Gala, Trading Voices, celebrating WNO Board Chairman Jacqueline Badger Mars, on Saturday, June 3, 2017, in the Kennedy Center Opera House.
Michael L. Mael, Executive Director of Washington National Opera (WNO) since 2011, today announced he will step down from the leadership position effective July 1, 2017.
Washington National Opera (WNO) today announces an exciting conclusion to its 2016–2017 season: the 2017 WNO Opera Gala, celebrating WNO Board Chairman Jacqueline Badger Mars, who will step down as Chairman this summer. The Gala, on Saturday, June 3, 2017, will include a concert in the Kennedy Center Opera House featuring the WNO Orchestra and an array of musical stars who will pay special tribute to Jacqueline Mars's visionary leadership of WNO: legendary soprano Rene?e Fleming, superstar mezzo-soprano and D.C. native Denyce Graves, and Hamilton Tony Award® winner Leslie Odom Jr. The Gala is presented as part of JFKC, the Kennedy Center's season-long celebration of John F. Kennedy's centennial, and explores the themes of service and gratitude, which are often associated with President Kennedy.
Richard Tucker Music Foundation named soprano Nadine Sierra as winner of 2017 Richard Tucker Award; simultanously, it announced its roster of study and career grant recipients.
Soprano Nadine Sierra - who at 28 years old is already establishing herself as a fixture at many of the world's leading opera houses, including those of Paris, Milan, Berlin, and New York - was named today by the Richard Tucker Music Foundation as the winner of the 2017 Richard Tucker Award.
Known for staging “the ultimate in intimate productions” (The New York Times), On Site Opera (OSO) presents the U.S. premiere and new site-specific production of Darius Milhaud's La mère coupable (The Guilty Mother). For the premiere, OSO partners with the Darius Milhaud Society and the award-winning International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). The site-specific production celebrates the 125th birthday of Milhaud and is dedicated to Katharine Warne, composer and founder of the Darius Milhaud Society. La mère coupable also marks the completion of OSO's three-year Figaro Project, in which the company is staging lesser-known operatic adaptations of French playwright Beaumarchais' (1732-1799) famed trilogy of Figaro plays.
???????Director of Opera Studies and Associate Professor at University of South Carolina School of Music Ellen Douglas Schlaefer received USITT's 2017 Wally Russell Professional Mentor Award at USITT 2017 in St. Louis.
Known for staging 'the ultimate in intimate productions' (The New York Times), On Site Opera (OSO) presents a trio of exciting new site-specific opera productions in 2017, beginning May 11-13 with Mozart's rarely-performed early opera The Secret Gardener (La finta giardiniera) at the West Side Community Garden.
Last night, Ariel and her underwater friends swam into the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts for a weeklong stay, appropriately at the Walt Disney Theatre. The limited engagement, which originated at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre in November 2016, is a silly dose of fun and nostalgia for theatregoers of all ages. Though there are performances and elements that seem less than fitting for the grand Dr. Phillips stage, the show as a whole ends up being more than the sum of its parts.
Producers Paul Blake and Mike Bosner, in conjunction with San Francisco's SHN (Greg Holland, Chief Executive Officer) announced principal casting today for the pre-Broadway engagement of ROMAN HOLIDAY - The Cole Porter Musical, the new musical premiering as part of SHN's 2017 Season this summer.
The Washington National Opera opened Dead Man Walking on February 25, which continues throughMarch 11, 2017 in the Opera House. It is based on Sister Helen Prejean's acclaimed 1993 memoir, which tells of her time working with death row inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary and of a particular relationship she developed with one of the inmates. The opera explores the human conflicts posed by society's demands for vengeance and the Christian imperative for forgiveness and love. The lyrical score by composer Jake Heggie (WNO's Moby-Dick, 2014) is widely regarded as a modern classic, while Terrence McNally's balanced libretto has been called one of the most perfect librettos of an American opera ever written.
Rooted in the moral conflict between society's thirst for justice and Christianity's tenet of forgiveness, the modern American opera DEAD MAN WALKING is an apt selection for the Washington National Opera this season. With a moving score by Jake Heggie and an honest, straightforward libretto by Terrence McNally, it is based on Sister Helen Prejean's 1993 memoir of her work as a spiritual advisor to death row inmates, including one in particular, Joseph De Rocher. The Kennedy Center production directed by Francesca Zambello marks the 50th international production of DEAD MAN WALKING, and it's a bold and haunting one.
A spectacular new production of Disney's The Little Mermaid kicks off at The Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 for a limited two week run. Featuring the critically acclaimed work of Director Glenn Casale, this beloved tale of a young mermaid's coming-of-age adventure is told like never before. Previously announced casting includes Diana Huey as Ariel and Matthew Kacergis as Prince Eric, with Broadway's Jennifer Allen as Ursula and Steven Blanchard as King Triton. Melvin Abston, Connor Russell and Jamie Torcellini join the cast as Sebastian, Flounder and Scuttle.
On Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:30pm, Works & Process at the Guggenheim presents excerpts from Champion by five-time Grammy award-winning musician and playwright Terence Blanchard, who tells the true story of Emile Griffith in his haunting and visually stunning 'opera in jazz.'
Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2016-2017 season with the company premieres of two modern American masterworks of opera: Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's Dead Man Walking, February 25-March 11, 2017 in the Opera House, and Terence Blanchard and Michael Cristofer's Champion, March 4- 18, 2017 in the Opera House. Both operas explore the theme of social justice which is often associated with John F. Kennedy and are presented as part of JFKC, the Kennedy Center's season-long celebration of President Kennedy's centennial. Using many of the same designers and scenic elements, the directors of each opera have worked collaboratively to create two distinct worlds in each new production to showcase the issues of Justice, Courage, and Freedom at the heart of these two compelling stories. An additional special event will continue the exploration of these themes: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will headline Justice at the Opera on Thursday, March 9, 2017 in the Opera House.
