Chicago Opera Theater's General Director Andreas Mitisek today announced plans for the company's 41st season, featuring classic and contemporary operas replete with intense drama and marvelous music. Tobias Picker's 'Therese Raquin,' Ricky Ian Gordon's 'A Coffin in Egypt' and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 'Lucio Silla' will all be staged at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph Street.
Legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade has performed many of opera's greatest roles in her storied career that began in 1970. In June, she makes her Opera Philadelphia debut in an incredible new role written just for her, in the East Coast Premiere of A Coffin in Egypt by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist/director Leonard Foglia.
Legendary mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade has performed many of opera's greatest roles in her storied career that began in 1970. In June, she makes her Opera Philadelphia debut in an incredible new role written just for her, in the East Coast Premiere of A Coffin in Egypt by composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist/director Leonard Foglia.
Minnesota Opera is pleased to announce it will present Cold Mountain, a new opera by the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner in music, Jennifer Higdon. This co-commission and co-produced opera with The Santa Fe Opera and Opera Philadelphia is based on the eponymous bestselling novel by Charles Frazier. Cold Mountain is the powerful account of one soldier, W. P. Inman, who deserts the Confederate Army as the war is coming to an end and makes his way back to his home on Cold Mountain. The novel won the 1997 National Book Award and was made into a film in 2003, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards. The Santa Fe Opera will present the world premiere in the summer of 2015, which marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.
The internationally-acclaimed Pacific Chorale in Orange County, CA will be presenting a new work created by American opera composer Jake Heggie, and the versatile librettist Gene Scheer entitled 'THE RADIO HOUR'. The choral opera will be conducted by Pacific Chorale's Artistic Director, John Alexander, and stage-directed by James R. Taulli. The premiere work will be performed by the organization's chamber choir, The John Alexander Singers, accompanied by an 8-member ensemble of musicians who are members of Pacific Symphony. The performance is on Sunday, May 18 at 5:30 p.m. at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, CA. Scroll down to see an interview with composer Jake Heggie and conductor John Alexander!
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced today that American Lyric Theater (ALT) is one of 886 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. ALT is recommended for a $35,000 grant to support the Composer Librettist Development Program - the only full time professional mentorship initiative for emerging operatic writers in the country.
The Dallas Opera, in partnership with AT&T Stadium and with support from our presenting sponsor, The Dallas Foundation, is extremely proud to announce the company's third stadium simulcast—the seventh free Dallas Opera simulcast since 2010. The announcement was made this afternoon at a gathering of prominent arts and sports representatives and attending local media at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Participants included:
OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, is pleased to announce the first round of recipients of its new program: Opera Grants for Female Composers, made possible through the generosity of The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. From among the 112 eligible applicants, an independent adjudication panel selected eight composers. The recipients have each been awarded $12,500 to support the development of their compositions listed below.
The internationally-acclaimed Pacific Chorale in Orange County, CA will be presenting a new work created by American opera composer Jake Heggie, and the versatilelibrettist Gene Scheer entitled 'THE RADIO HOUR'. The choral opera will be conducted by Pacific Chorale's Artistic Director, John Alexander, and stage-directed by James R. Taulli.
Much like the ocean waters in which the show's title character resides, Washington National Opera's production of Moby-Dick is a bit choppy at times but is nevertheless an imaginative and soaring production. Transferring Herman Melville's 1851 novel into an opera is not an enviable task by any means. Yet, by reframing the story and having it be told in an active voice, rather than the novel's narrative tone, composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer have created a solid work, complete with a gorgeous score, stunning vocals and an eye catching visual design.
Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2013-2014 season with the east coast premiere of the new American opera Moby-Dick, today, February 22 to March 8 in the Kennedy Center Opera House.
David B. Devan, General Director and President of Opera Philadelphia, today announced the commissioning of a new opera based on the life of legendary saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920-1955), one of the most influential soloists in the history of jazz and a central figure in the development of bebop. American tenor Lawrence Brownlee will star as Parker in a work written for him by composer Daniel Schnyder, with a libretto by poet and playwright Bridgette A. Wimberly. Soprano Angela Brownwill costar as Charlie's mother, Addie Parker. The opera is being developed in partnership with Gotham Chamber Opera.
The Dallas Opera has announced its return to five mainstage productions (including one double-bill) for the company's adventurous 2014-2015 Season in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.
The Dallas Opera is proud to announce its return to fivemainstage productions (including one double-bill) for the company's adventurous 2014-2015 Seasonin the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.
The Dallas Opera, in partnership with AT&T Stadium and with support from our presenting sponsor, The Dallas Foundation, is extremely proud to announce the company's third stadium simulcast—the seventh free Dallas Opera simulcast since 2010. The announcement was made this afternoon at a gathering of prominent arts and sports representatives and attending local media at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Participants included:
Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2013-2014 season with the east coast premiere of the new American opera Moby-Dick, February 22 to March 8 in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Written by composer Jake Heggie and featuring an English- language libretto by Gene Scheer based on Herman Melville's 19th-century literary classic, Moby-Dick sweeps audiences straight out to the high seas with its massive nautical sets and dazzling multimedia visual effects, in what is perhaps the most technically challenging opera WNO has ever mounted. Renowned American director Leonard Foglia leads a talented all- American cast in performances conducted by Evan Rogister, a dynamic young American maestro making his WNO debut.
The Dallas Opera thrilled audience members at this evening's “Composing Conversation” at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, when Dallas Opera General Director and CEO Keith Cerny made the surprise announcement that Mark Adamo, one of America's most successful and accomplished composer-librettists has agreed to create a new holiday opera for the 2015-2016 Season.
Today, October 21 marks the release of HERE/AFTER: Songs of Lost Voices, a two-CD set of recent songs and music by Jake Heggie, 'the finest American art song composer of his generation' (John von Rhein, Classical Review), to texts by the Grammy Award-nominated Gene Scheer. The generous PentaTone Classics collection features more than two hours of music from the composer and librettist of the operas Moby-Dick and Three Decembers, with performances by some of the foremost exponents of their work, including soprano Talise Trevigne, mezzo Joyce DiDonato, tenor Stephen Costello, baritone Nathan Gunn, flutistCarol Wincenc, and the Alexander String Quartet. Recorded at LucasFilm's Skywalker Ranch and produced by Grammy Award-winner Steve Barnett,HERE/AFTER seeks to give voice to silenced individuals whose stories deserve to be heard, including victims and survivors of 9/11 (Pieces of 9/11) and the great French sculptor Camille Claudel (Camille Claudel: Into the Fire). The composer explains that he and Scheer set out to capture 'the hope and newness that can come from grief,' and, as the Associated Press recently recognized, HERE/AFTER succeeds in transmuting 'memories of grief into survivor songs - some of them surprisingly joyous.' Video trailers featuring excerpts from five of the songs may be viewed here.
Composer Steven Stucky - winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 and nominated for a Grammy Award last season - has been called 'a master of orchestral writing' (Dallas Morning News) and 'a fascinating voice in American composition' (Pittsburg Post-Gazette). His 2013-14 season kicks off today with the premiere of The Stars and the Roses in its chamber version at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia; the San Jose Mercury Newshas said that the 'song cycle - based on the lyric and touchingly optimistic wartime poems of Czeslaw Milosz - seems to paint with light.' From October 25-27 the Kansas City Symphony under Michael Stern performs the piece that earned Stucky his Pulitzer: the Second Concerto for Orchestra, which the Los Angeles Times called 'a colorful, delight-bringing score.' On November 10, the Washington Choral Society opens its season with the East Coast premiere of Stucky's Take Him, Earth, the first of several performances this year of a work composed to mark the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. The New Year brings performances of Stucky's take on Purcell's Funeral Music for Queen Mary by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink in Boston (Feb 6-8) and at Carnegie Hall (Feb 11); the re-orchestration by Stucky makes Purcell's 17th century masterpiece seem 'as if viewed through rippled glass,' according to the New York Times. Stucky will cap his season with the world premiere of his opera The Classical Style - written to a libretto by Jeremy Denk - at the Ojai Music Festival in California (June 14).
October 21 marks the release of HERE/AFTER: Songs of Lost Voices, a two-CD set of recent songs and music by Jake Heggie, “the finest American art song composer of his generation” (John von Rhein, Classical Review), to texts by the Grammy Award-nominated Gene Scheer. The generous PentaTone Classics collection features more than two hours of music from the composer and librettist of the operas Moby-Dick and Three Decembers, with performances by some of the foremost exponents of their work, including soprano Talise Trevigne, mezzo Joyce DiDonato, tenor Stephen Costello, baritone Nathan Gunn, flutistCarol Wincenc, and the Alexander String Quartet. Recorded at LucasFilm's Skywalker Ranch and produced by Grammy Award-winner Steve Barnett,HERE/AFTER seeks to give voice to silenced individuals whose stories deserve to be heard, including victims and survivors of 9/11 (Pieces of 9/11) and the great French sculptor Camille Claudel (Camille Claudel: Into the Fire). The composer explains that he and Scheer set out to capture “the hope and newness that can come from grief,” and, as the Associated Press recently recognized, HERE/AFTER succeeds in transmuting “memories of grief into survivor songs – some of them surprisingly joyous.” Video trailers featuring excerpts from five of the songs may be viewed here.
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