Washington National Opera (WNO) presents the seventh season of its acclaimed American Opera Initiative (AOI) with four world premieres from January 11-13, 2019, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. A comprehensive commissioning program that originates and develops new works, the American Opera Initiative provides rare opportunities for emerging composers and librettists to partner and write for the opera stage. The Initiative encourages and ensures the future of contemporary American opera through development, mentorship, and performance, with works based on American themes and stories. Since its inception, the annual program has commissioned 28 chamber operas, with some going on to future productions around the country; notables include this summer's successful production by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis of An American Soldier, an AOI commission in 2014, and Opera Omaha's and Miller Theater's recent productions of AOI's 2018 commission, Proving Up.
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.
At San Francisco Opera Guild's Annual Meeting on Tuesday, November 13, at the Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square, Mary Poland was elected president of the organization for a two-year term. Poland succeeds Jane Mudge, whose tenure as president (2016-2018) was celebrated with a proclamation signed by San Francisco Mayor London Breed declaring November 13 "Jane S. Mudge Day." During the Guild's annual luncheon, held immediately after the meeting, society photographer Drew Altizer was presented with the "Star of Excellence" award.
San Francisco Opera, Compass Family Services and Community Housing Partnership present a community conversation on the application of civic practices to address San Francisco's homelessness crisis on Friday, November 16 at 7 p.m. at ODC Theater.
San Francisco Opera Guild will honor Bay Area philanthropists John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn at the sixth annual An Evening on the Stage on Wednesday, November 28. The gala dinner on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House is co-chaired by Kim Dempster and Linle J. Froeb. The set of composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer's holiday opera It's a Wonderful Life provides the magical backdrop for this year's event, when the Opera Guild's 2018 Crescendo Award will be presented to John Gunn, Chairman of San Francisco Opera's Board of Directors, and arts patron Cynthia Fry Gunn. Passionately committed to the art form and actively involved in the leadership of the Company, the Gunn's magnanimous support has set an extraordinary standard in the community.
San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald today announced the 12 recipients of the 2019 Adler Fellowship. Selected from participants of the Merola Opera Program, the ten singers and two pianist/apprentice coaches begin their fellowships in January 2019. The multi-year performance-oriented residency offers advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching and professional seminars, as well as a wide range of performance opportunities. Since its inception in 1977, the prestigious fellowship has nurtured the development of more than 180 young artists, introducing many budding stars to the international opera stage and launching active careers throughout the world as performers, production artists, arts professionals and educators.
San Francisco Opera announces "Earn Your Wings" (#EarnYourWings), a new initiative designed to promote civic engagement and which recognizes Community Housing Partnership and Compass Family Services-two organizations making an impact in the City of San Francisco by providing life-changing services and housing to families and individuals at risk of or who have experienced homelessness. The campaign is born from the Company's focus on developing civic practices as part of a strategic framework to guide the organization into its centennial 2022-23 Season and beyond. With the launch of #EarnYourWings and similar programs in the future, San Francisco Opera renews its commitment to form responsive, long-term reciprocal relationships with community partners.
In 2019, San Francisco's acclaimed Merola Opera Program will present the first opera commissioned in the Program's history, the world premiere of If I Were You, by distinguished American composer Jake Heggie and noted librettist Gene Scheer. This ground-breaking work will be presented August 1 - 6, 2019, at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre. Today it was announced the opera will be conducted by Nicole Paiement and directed by Keturah Stickann. Information is available at www.merola.org. Tickets will go on sale in Spring 2019.
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.
Utah Opera opens its 2018-19 season with Shakespeare's love story of two star-cross'd lovers in Charles Gounod's musical take on the tragic tale, “Romeo and Juliet” The production will be performed five times at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre (50 West 200 South) on October 13 and 19 at 7:30 PM, October 15 and 17 at 7 PM, and October 21 at 2 PM.
This fall, contemporary opera producer AMERICAN OPERA PROJECTS (AOP) will present COMPOSERS & THE VOICE: SIX SCENES 2018, a showcase concert of opera scenes from nine artists emerging in the world of contemporary opera. Audiences will get a first look at six wildly different new works invoking diverse settings such as the Arab Spring in Tunisia, a post-apocalyptic future, and a modern college campus and exploring a multitude of themes and concepts, including the emotional minefield of solar flares, the dissonance of fundamentalism in urban and regional communities, and the nature and validity of Opera itself. The composers Matt Browne, Scott Ordway, Frances Pollock, Pamela Stein Lynde, Amber Vistein and Alex Weiser, and librettists Laura Barati, Kim Davies, andSokunthary Svay, were chosen by AOP to spend a year creating new works in its bi-annual fellowship program Composers & the Voice (C&V). The evening will be hosted by C&V Artistic Director Steven Osgood.
Washington National Opera (WNO) presents the seventh season of its acclaimed American Opera Initiative (AOI) with four world premieres from January 11-13, 2019, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. A comprehensive commissioning program that originates and develops new works, the American Opera Initiative provides rare opportunities for emerging composers and librettists to partner and write for the opera stage. The Initiative encourages and ensures the future of contemporary American opera through development, mentorship, and performance, with works based on American themes and stories. Since its inception, the annual program has commissioned 28 chamber operas, with some going on to future productions around the country; notables include this summer's successful production by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis of An American Soldier, an AOI commission in 2014, and Opera Omaha's and Miller Theater's new productions of AOI's 2018 commission, Proving Up.
San Francisco Opera announces updated casting for its 96th Season, which opens Friday, September 7, with the double bill of Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and two galas, Opera Ball 2018: ¡Viva La Noche! and the BRAVO! CLUB Opening Night Gala. The 2018-19 Season features eight productions that are new to the War Memorial Opera House stage, including a new staging of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca and the West Coast premiere of Jake Heggie's It's a Wonderful Life. Highlights also include Placido Domingo in Concert on October 21 and a roster of returning artists, debuting soloists and conductors.
Opera Maine is proud to present a new production of Mozart's masterpiece The Marriage of Figaro, a comic satire often described as 'the perfect opera.' Mozart's sublime music in The Marriage of Figaro has delighted audiences since 1786, and the captivating plot, with its dynamic characters and themes of social and sexual tension, is sure to excite today's audiences. The Marriage of Figaro will be performed at Merrill Auditorium on Wednesday, July 25 and Friday, July 27 at 7:30 p.m.
American Lyric Theater concludes the 10th Anniversary of its nationally acclaimed Composer Librettist Development Program this season with InsightALT: Opera in Eden, a one-night-only concert featuring three new one-act operas written by ALT Resident Artists, hosted by composer/librettist Mark Adamo and producing artistic director Lawrence Edelson.
As part of Pittsburgh Opera's commitment to bring new, American operas to the Benedum Center stage, we are very proud to announce the Pittsburgh premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's critically acclaimed opera Moby-Dick.
The Living Libretto: Opera in Eden gives audiences a first glimpse at three new one-act operas being written by first year resident artists in American Lyric Theater's Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP)
OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion for American opera, is pleased to announce the latest recipients of Discovery Grants from the Opera Grants for Female Composers program, made possible through the generosity of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
American Lyric Theater presents The Living Libretto: Opera in Eden on March 18, 2018 at 3pm at The National Opera Center, 330 Seventh Avenue, NYC. Tickets are $20.
