Heidi Stober News

On October 22, 2021, Houston Grand Opera will celebrate its return to live performance at the Wortham Theater Center with audience favorite Carmen.

Principal Guest Conductor Nicholas Kraemer takes the podium in November for Thanksgiving performances of Handel's Messiah, the first by the group in over a decade and the Music of the Baroque Chorus's first regular season appearance since December 2019. Andrew Megill, conductor of the Montreal Symphony Chorus and the Carmel Bach Festival Chorale, will lead the annual Holiday Brass & Choral Concerts in December.

Houston Grand Opera will present its 2021-22 season live and in person after a year of reimagining the artform in a virtual format through the 2020-21 HGO Digital season.

Have you watched Los Angeles Opera’s digital short Brown Sounds yet? Brown Sounds celebrates Black history by beginning with the Garden of Eden. Conceived by Raehann Bryce-Davis, a rising star in the LA firmament, it's a stunning vocal piece. Composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson set poet Henry Dumas's evocative verses to music with Bryce-Davis’s ravishing mezzo-soprano in mind.

Watch the digital debut of Missy Mazzoli’s impassioned opera Breaking the Waves. The opera is based on Lars von Trier’s film of the same name. The story begins when a near-fatal accident leaves the heroine’s new husband paralyzed. In his anguish, he implores her to take other lovers. She follows her faith to a tragic end.

San Francisco Opera's weekly, free opera streams continue in April with Donizetti's Don Pasquale (April 3–4), The Fall of the House of Usher double bill featuring one-act operas by Gordon Getty and Claude Debussy (April 10–11) and Verdi's Don Carlo (April 17–18).

This summer, the Grand Teton Music Festival and Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles will 'Welcome Home' their musicians, patrons, and community from July 2 to August 21, 2021. GTMF celebrates its 60th season with seven weeks of performances - one week outdoors and six weeks inside Walk Festival Hall.

Angelinos, join soprano and Shakespeare super-fan Katherine Powers on a romp through the Bard’s stories told in music. In each of her episodes, Powers calls an expert on her 'Shakespeare Hotline' and performs songs from his timeless works.

LA Opera's newest digital short film, Death, unites the striking visuals of celebrated filmmaker Nadia Hallgren, the Emmy-nominated director of the Michelle Obama documentary Becoming, with the intriguing harmonies of composer Tyshawn Sorey, a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship.

San Francisco Opera’s weekly, free opera streams continue in February with Wagner’s Lohengrin (February 6–7), Mozart’s Così fan tutte (February 13–14), Puccini’s La Rondine (February 20–21) and Verdi’s Falstaff (February 27–28).

Free digital tickets are now available for The Anonymous Lover which premieres online Saturday, November 14, at 5 PM Pacific Time. The Anonymous Lover is a 1780 comic romance by pioneering Black composer Joseph Bologne, known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Conducted by Music Director James Conlon and directed by Bruce Lemon, Jr. 

BroadwayHD will be expanding their partnership with the revered San Francisco Opera with the debut of Moby-Dick by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer on November 17th.

The presentations, filmed live in high-definition at the War Memorial Opera House, will be viewable on demand for free with registration at sfopera.com on the first streaming date starting at 10 am (PDT) and expiring at 11:59 pm the following day.

BroadwayHD today announced that it will be bringing the San Francisco Opera's 2014 performance of Show Boat exclusively to their platform. This dynamic production of the iconic hit, directed by Francesca Zambello, will be available on the service beginning October 16.

Adam Plachetka will sing Guglielmo in all upcoming performances of Mozart's Così fan tutte, replacing Luca Pisaroni, who has withdrawn due to a family emergency.

Two years ago, when I first saw photos of the projected new COSI FAN TUTTE,which was a production that originated at English National Opera and was slated to come to the Met, I was circumspect. I had grown up on three previous incarnations of COSI, the first dating from the 1950's a very traditional production which starred Richard Tucker and Eleanor Steber, the subsequent one dating from the 1980's, which had featured Kiri TeKanawa, and the last from 1996, which starred Carol Vaness and Suzanne Mentzer as the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella. All were very much 'period' pieces which made no effort to update or change the locale from the original setting of eighteenth century Naples.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced the Company's 98th season, which opens on September 11, 2020 with an Opening Night Celebration featuring soprano Albina Shagimuratova and tenor Pene Pati in concert with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by Music Director Designate Eun Sun Kim. Opening Night festivities include San Francisco Opera Guild's Opera Ball, BRAVO! CLUB's annual Opening Night Gala and two new events: the Opera Supper in the Veterans Building's elegant Green Room and, for the entire audience, a celebratory, post-concert toast to the season.

San Francisco Opera presents Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, November 15–December 7.

San Francisco Opera presents Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, November 15–December 7. Last seen on the War Memorial Opera House stage nearly two decades ago, the popular fairy-tale opera returns in an “enchanting” (The Times, UK) new co-production with London's Royal Opera by director and production designer Antony McDonald. Humperdinck's sweeping score will be conducted by Christopher Franklin and sung in English translation by a cast including mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Hansel, Heidi Stober as Gretel and Robert Brubaker as the Witch.

Single (non-subscription) tickets for San Francisco Opera's 2019 Fall Season at the War Memorial Opera House are now available for purchase online at sfopera.com, in-person at the San Francisco Opera Box Office and by phone at (415) 864-3330. Tickets are also available for Full, Half and Design Your Own Flexible Series subscription packages, special events such as Opera Ball 2019, the San Francisco Opera Chorus in concert at the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater and The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Concert at Herbst Theatre.