Houston Grand Opera News

The International Opera Awards today announces the finalists for its 2019 Awards.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has selected the finalists for the 31st annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, to be presented in the Wortham Theater Center on February 1, 2019, at 7 p.m. A limited number of general admission tickets for the performance are available for purchase here. The program will also be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube for all to enjoy, inviting viewers to cast their votes for the Online Viewers' Choice Award.

Opera Atelier is delighted to present The Angel Speaks, a groundbreaking one-hour concert that effortlessly blends masterpieces of the baroque repertoire with the Canadian premiere of Annunciation, a new commission by Toronto-based composer and violinist Edwin Huizinga for period instruments. This singular performance takes place in the Samuel Hall Currelly Gallery at the historic Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), February 21, 2019, at 8pm.  Soprano Mireille Asselin and Baritone Jesse Blumberg will be joined by members of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra under the direction of David Fallis, alongside Artists of Atelier Ballet.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its 2019-20 season with a broad repertoire of operas in productions that have never been seen by Houston audiences. The 65th season will open October 18, 2019, with Verdi's classic Rigoletto. Tomer Zvulun returns to direct the season opener after successfully opening the 2018-19 season with his production of The Flying Dutchman. American baritone Brian Mulligan sings his first Rigoletto leading an outstanding cast filled with renowned HGO Studio alumni, including Mexican tenor Arturo Chacon-Cruz as the Duke of Mantua and Armenian soprano Mane Galoyan as Gilda. Paired with Rigoletto is the North American  premiere of the dramatic oratorio Saul in a much-lauded and imaginative production by Barrie Kosky. Christopher Purves returns to the title role after his celebrated performance at the Glyndebourne Festival and is joined by countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen and Korean soprano Pureum Jo, both HGO Studio alumni.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) announces that baritone Mariusz Kwiecie , scheduled to sing the role of Zurga in Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, recently withdrew from the production due to personal circumstances.

Acclaimed multi-genre recording artist Damien Sneed released a new full-length recording titled 'Damien Sneed: We Shall Overcome' on LeChateau Earl Records on January 18th. The inspiring new project is currently available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and all other digital retail outlets everywhere. A celebration of R&B classics, civil rights anthems, beloved spirituals, jazz compositions and more, the album arrives on the heels of the 35th Anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which was made a federal holiday in 1983.

Breakout recording artist, Damien Sneed, will bring his brand of jazz and gospel music to The Soraya for an evening of We Shall Overcome A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Joining him for this musical tribute to the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King will be two of LA's leading gospel singers, Grammy Award-winner Erica Campbell and evangelist Markita Knight.

Acclaimed Broadway performer Corey Cott and rising star Mikaela Bennett will headline Lyric Opera of Chicago's premiere of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's groundbreaking American musical West Side Story, presented from May 3 - June 2, 2019 at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago (press opening May 4, 2019).

General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced the next production of Lyric Opera of Kansas City's Explorations Series, Mack The Knife is The Man I Love: A Weill-Gershwin Cabaret which will feature the songs of George and Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill. The 2018-2019 Explorations Series performance, with musical direction by Mark Markham and stage direction by Fenlon Lamb, will showcase the Lyric Opera's Resident Artists, including Kaylie Kahlich, Kelly Birch, Joseph Leppek, and James Maverick, plus Apprentice Artists Ruby Dibble, Jonathan Ray, and Armando Contreras. The performance will be held February 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lyric Opera's Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building.

Multi-genre recording artist Damien Sneed embarks on a 36-city North American tour, 'We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.' The Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient will bring his brand of classical, jazz, and gospel music to concert halls and universities in the U.S. and Canada. The tour kicks off at the Empire Center on Friday, January 11, 2019, at The Egg in Albany, NY, and will conclude on March 3 at the Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto, CA.

Queensbury Theatre is proud to announce the cast for the world premiere of Breaking Out of Sunset Place, playing January 24 - February 10, 2019.

The Metropolitan Opera announced today that Thomas Lausmann, currently the Head of Music at the Vienna State Opera, will become the Met's Director of Music Administration at the start of the 2019 20 season. Lausmann will replace Assistant General Manager John Fisher, who is stepping down after many years at the Met to resume his freelance musical career. Fisher will continue to coach many of the world's top singers on a freelance basis, including on occasion at the Met.

In January 2019, Utah Opera unveils its new production of composer Rachel Portman and librettist Nicholas Wright's 'The Little Prince' (2003), an operatic adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's classic children's novella published 75 years ago

Lyric Opera of Chicago will hold auditions for dancer/singer/actors for the 2018-19 Season production of Leonard Bernstein's musical theater masterpiece West Side Story. Directed by Francesca Zambello, this new co-production is shared by Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival. James Lowe is the conductor and the original Jerome Robbins' choreography will be recreated by Julio Monge. Eric Sean Fogel is the associate director. The production design is contemporary, with sets by Peter J. Davison, costumes by Jessica Jahn and lighting by Mark McCullough.

IMG Artists, today's leading global performing arts management agency, announces a 36-city North American tour with multi-genre recording artist Damien Sneed. The Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient will bring his brand of classical, jazz, and gospel music to “We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., featuring Damien Sneed.” The tour will kick off on Friday, January 11, 2019, at the Empire Center at The Egg in Albany, NY, and will make stops at concert halls and universities in the U.S. and Canada. The tour will conclude on March 3 at the Gallo Center for the Arts in Modesto, CA.

The Swedish label BIS Records is releasing its third album of the ongoing Mahler recording series in collaboration with Music Director Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra—a recording of Mahler's Second Symphony, Resurrection, also featuring soprano Ruby Hughes, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and the Minnesota Chorale. The album will be released on disc in the U.S. and Canada, and digitally worldwide, on February 1, 2019, but will be available in advance at Orchestra Hall and through the Minnesota Orchestra's website, minnesotaorchestra.org, beginning December 14, 2018.  

After his hit production of King Charles III, David Muse returns to Shakespeare Theatre Company to direct Shakespeare's Richard the Third, a mesmerizing chronicle of the megalomaniac's rampage to the throne. The production will play at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW) from February 5-March 10, 2019.

The Spirit of This Place, authored by Houston Grand Opera Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers, is now available for sale on Amazon and through the Chicago University Press, the publisher of the work. The Spirit of This Place is described as "a moving credo elucidating Summers's belief that the arts, especially music, help us to understand our own humanity as intellectual, aesthetic, and ultimately spiritual."

Lucinda y las Flores de la Noche Buena is a coming of age Mexican Christmas folktale revealing the moral that any gift is beautiful because it is given, featuring Mexican folk tunes and traditional Christmas carols. Last year Opera in the Heights (Oh!) produced the Houston premiere of a bilingual and family-friendly holiday opera, Evan Mack's Lucinda y las Flores de la Noche Buena (Lucinda and the Christmas Eve Flower).

New Philharmonic's immensely popular New Year's Eve program returns to ring in 2019 with three concerts at the McAninch Arts Center (MAC) Monday, Dec. 31, 2018 at 2, 5:30 and 9 p.m.