Gordon Hawkins News

Blue, a new work by Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson, had its world premiere at The Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York, this weekend.

This May, two different artistic genres-street art and opera-are coming together for Seattle Opera's Aida. Acclaimed stage director Francesca Zambello was looking to create something unique when she asked the graffiti artist RETNA (born Marquis Duriel Lewis) to collaborate with her on a new production of Verdi's masterpiece. RETNA created the bold visual backdrops for Aida with his same distinct style, a type of graphic lettering and illuminated script that has earned him commissions from Usher and Justin Bieber.  

Arizona Opera is proud to present the first Mainstage production of its 2017/18 Season, Giacomo Puccini's Tosca, one of the most exciting and dramatic operas of all time.

Opera is for everyone-and so is Seattle Opera's 2017/18 season! There's a new bilingual performance for elementary-school students, new performance venues such as Georgetown Steam Plant, a new mainstage collaboration with ACT Theatre and Seattle Symphony leaders, and even an outdoor performance offered free of charge. Regardless of background or socioeconomic status, this season offers ways for a broad audience to be able to experience opera; it's an open invitation for the Pacific Northwest. 

Director Francesca Zambello's Gotterdammerung is truly awesome-in both the original and contemporary senses of the word.  The conclusion of a four-part epic, this six-hour installment depicts the final struggle for ownership of a magical ring whose owner might rule the world-but which also holds a dire curse for all who come into contact with it. Through unforgettable projections, beautifully-executed music and stunning vocal performances, this is a once-in-a-lifetime artistic event. 

In the third installment of the Washington National Opera's mammoth staging of Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung at the Kennedy Center, a new Brunnhilde awakens, Fafner's dragon turns out to be more of a monster truck, and the titular star of the work, Siegfried, turns out to be much more of a jerk than you'd ever want him to be.

In 2006, then Washington National Opera Artistic Director Placido Domingo announced that the Opera would take on their first complete cycle of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). In the subsequent years, the opera produced the first three of the four-some, but not in quick succession. As the opera and the nation suffered an economic downturn, the complete cycle was never realized. Until now.

In conjunction with the centennial of World War I and the Kansas City debut of the Pulitzer Prize winning production of Silent Night, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City presents Over There! at the National World War I Museum tonight, August 23. This 1914 field dining experience, co-chaired by Trudy and Jack Gabriel, will include a cabaret performance featuring music of the era.

In conjunction with the centennial of World War I and the Kansas City debut of the Pulitzer Prize winning production of Silent Night, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City presents Over There! at the National World War I Museum on Saturday, August 23. This 1914 field dining experience, co-chaired by Trudy and Jack Gabriel, will include a cabaret performance featuring music of the era.

Music Director Robert Spano will lead the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and Chorus in a concert staging of Verdi's Aida today, June 5, 2014, at 8:00 p.m., June 7, 2014, at 7:30 p.m., and June 8, 2014, at 2:00 p.m. in Atlanta Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center. This will be the ASO premiere of Aida, and these performances will mark the end of the Orchestra's 2013-14 season.

Colorado Symphony Music Director Andrew Litton and George Gershwin go way back. As conductor, performer and recording artist, Litton has carried his love of Gershwin with him to every podium. He's recorded Gershwin's music with the Bournemouth Symphony, the Bergen Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic and the Dallas Symphony. In May, Litton closes the Colorado Symphony's 2013/14 season with a blockbuster rendition of Porgy and Bess, featuring Gordon Hawkins in the role of Porgy. (Hawkins recently won audiences in the title role of Opera Colorado's Rigoletto.) Litton invites you to Catfish Row - and into the Porgy and Bess Concert Suite, his 1996 arrangement of Gershwin's classic opera.

Music Director Robert Spano will lead the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and Chorus in a concert staging of Verdi's Aida June 5, 2014, at 8:00 p.m., June 7, 2014, at 7:30 p.m., and June 8, 2014, at 2:00 p.m. in Atlanta Symphony Hall at the Woodruff Arts Center. This will be the ASO premiere of Aida, and these performances will mark the end of the Orchestra's 2013-14 season.

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Announces 2013-14 Season

Over three days of preliminary auditions today, February 25 through the 27th, 2013, approximately 90 of the best young American and Canadian opera singers will compete to reach the final round of the 42nd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition.

Over three days of preliminary auditions on February 25-27, 2013, approximately 90 of the best young American and Canadian opera singers will compete to reach the final round of the 42nd annual George London Foundation Awards Competition.

The Opera Orchestra of New York will present its annual Vidda Award Recital featuring soprano Chiara Taigi at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on Monday, December 12, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. Joined by Eve Queler at the piano, Ms. Taigi will present a program including works by Bellini, Cherubini, Mascagni, Puccini, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky.

The Opera Orchestra of New York will present its annual Vidda Award Recital featuring soprano Chiara Taigi at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on Monday, December 12, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. Joined by Eve Queler at the piano, Ms. Taigi will present a program including works by Bellini, Cherubini, Mascagni, Puccini, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky.

Right from the first few notes of the overture, whether you're familiar with the show or not, a musical theater lover's ears will register the familiar lilt of a Gershwin melody reminiscent of "Rhapsody in Blue" and cause you to settle in your seat a little more with a contended sigh. At least that's what happened to this musical theater lover as he ventured just a little outside his normal realm and into the world of opera to catch Seattle Opera's breathtaking production of "Porgy and Bess".

Right from the first few notes of the overture, whether you're familiar with the show or not, a musical theater lover's ears will register the familiar lilt of a Gershwin melody reminiscent of "Rhapsody in Blue" and cause you to settle in your seat a little more with a contended sigh. At least that's what happened to this musical theater lover as he ventured just a little outside his normal realm and into the world of opera to catch Seattle Opera's breathtaking production of "Porgy and Bess".

Seattle Opera opens its 2011/12 season this summer with Porgy and Bess, the masterpiece by George Gershwin, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin.