Houston Grand Opera News

LA Opera Off Grand presents the West Coast premiere of Matthew Aucoin's Crossing in two concert performances on May 25 and 26. Crossing will be presented at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis), located at 9390 North Santa Monica Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Mr. Aucoin, now in his second season as Artist in Residence with LA Opera, is both composer and librettist of the opera; he will also conduct the performances.

Camerata New York to Present the "Triumph of Music" Opera Gala Orchestra to Perform Exquisite Operatic Masterpieces with Renowned International Soloists for Concert at St. Jean Baptiste Church, June 7, 2018 New York, NY - Camerata New York, now in its 17th year, will present the "Triumph of Music," a program featuring operatic favorites from Bizet, Puccini, Verdi, Wagner and others. The opera gala, which is part of Camerata New York's 2017-2018 concert series, is scheduled for Thursday, June 7, 2018, at 7:30 pm, at New York's St. Jean Baptiste Church on 76th Street at Lexington Avenue.

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is teaming up again with Los Angeles  magazine to present Center Stage:  Mapping the Ecology of Dance in Los Angeles, a dynamic discussion with both established and emerging leaders in LA's dance world on May 17, 2018 at 9:00 am. This two-part panel will explore the exciting and explosive growth of dance in Los Angeles in recent years and the influences that have made it possible. Admission is free, but reservations are required.This special event, taking place in advance of Dance USA's 10thAnnual Conference in Downtown Los Angeles, will also be available as a Facebook Live stream on The Wallis' Facebook page.  

Schimmel Center will present Tony and Pulitzer Prize nominee Anna Deavere Smith's Obie Award-winning solo performance, Notes From the Field, for one weekend only on Friday, June 1 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, June 2 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in preparation for a two week run at the Royal Court in London. The production is directed by Leonard Foglia and features original music composed and performed by bassist Marcus Shelby who joins Ms. Smith on stage.

American mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick is one of the world's leading exponents of the dramatic Verdi repertoire. Her talent was first noticed when she was a pre-med student at the University of Nevada in Reno. Some years after that, she debuted with the San Francisco Opera as Azucena in IL TROVATORE, and it brought her international stardom. Decades later, she is best known for her interpretations of Amneris in AIDA, Eboli in DON CARLO, Ulrica in UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, Ježibaba in Dvo?ak's RUSALKA, and Adalgisa in Bellini's NORMA.

Costume designer Paul Tazewell, winner of a Tony Award and an Emmy Award, is Commencement Speaker at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, at 10 a.m. on Saturday. The ceremony will take place at UNCSA's Stevens Center Stevens Center at 405 West Fourth St. in downtown Winston-Salem. It will be streamed live on the school's website.

On Thursday, May 24 (7:30 pm) Japan Society presents an evening with two New York-based master instrumentalists: koto player Yumi Kurosawa and shamisen player Yoko Reikano Kimura, who are revitalizing their instruments through novel repertoire, musical approaches, and playing techniques. The eclectic program will span traditional, classical, and contemporary works, including duets of koto + shamisen, shamisen + cello (Hikaru Tamaki) and koto + tabla (Anubrata Chatterjee). The recital will take place in Japan Society's serene and intimate Murase Room, with a cash bar at 7 pm. Tickets are $25, $20 for Japan Society members, available at japansociety.org/performingarts.

Strathmore and Beth Morrison Projects will present the world premiere of Iron & Coal, a multi-media rock opera by composer/lyricist Jeremy Schonfeld and director Kevin Newbury, in the Music Center at Strathmore on Thursday and Friday, May 3 and 4, 2018 at 8 p.m.

Porchlight Music Theatre announces that due to audience demand Memphis is now extended through Sunday, June 10, at The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn Street.

Most of us in this area know Michael Kahn as the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC). It's a post he will have held for over thirty years when he retires at the end of the company's 2018/19 season.

World premieres of an oratorio about the Underground Railroad that sets narratives of slaves running for freedom and their lives, and a work that sets poems calling for peace in Farsi, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, and English: Sanctuary Road, music by Paul Moravec and text by Mark Campbell based upon the writings of William Still, a conductor for the Underground Railroad; and We Are One for chorus and orchestra by Behzad Ranjbaran, both completed within the last year, will be given their first performances by the Oratorio Society of New York (OSNY) led by Music Director Kent Tritle as the culminating concert of the OSNY's 145th season on Monday, May 7, 2018, at Carnegie Hall.

Lyric Unlimited in collaboration with the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance (PRAA), is excited to present Caribe Clasico, an evening of vocal and orchestral music dedicated to the classical sounds of zarzuelas, beloved Puerto Rican melodies, and popular Mexican boleros.

For the third and final concert of its 50th anniversary season, New Amsterdam Singers, led by Music Director Clara Longstreth, will perform the world premiere of The Wave Rises by Ben Moore, a work commissioned by the chorus as part of its 50-year celebration.

At a time when our nation is wrestling with tough questions about immigration, Houston Grand Opera is bringing back its bilingual production of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna / To Cross the Face of the Moon, a moving story that chronicles the joys and struggles of three generations of a family divided between countries and cultures through the rich melodies of mariachi. HGO presents three special performances on May 17, 19, and 20 in the HGO Resilience Theater at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Composed by Jose 'Pepe' Martinez with libretto by Leonard Foglia and known as the world's first mariachi opera, Cruzar has been performed to audiences around the world, including in New York City in January 2018. HGO's production will feature the Grammy Award-winning Mariachi Los Camperos. Tickets for these productions at the HGO Resilience Theater in the George R. Brown Convention Center are available at HGO.org. Parking is available at the Avenida North Garage located at 1815 Rusk Street, across from Resilience Theater. A sky bridge connects the parking garage to the GRB, and clear signage directs patrons to the theater. More information about parking can be found here.

Pat Flicker Addiss and Mary Cossette present Desperate Measures, a new musical comedy gone wild with music by David Friedman (Listen To My Heart), book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg (Anna Karenina),and directed by Bill Castellino (Cagney, Marry Harry). Desperate Measures has announced full casting and will play New World Stages (340 West 50th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues), for an open-ended engagement beginning May 30 with opening night set for June 13.

 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.

The ASPECT Foundation for Music & Arts presents its final concert of the season, Fete Galante: The Anatomy of Melancholy on Thursday, May 17, 2018 at 7:30pm at the Italian Academy at Columbia University, part of the foundation's second New York City season of illuminating performances featuring many of the most prominent performers and musical scholars of today. Fete Galante features the acclaimed New York-based Four Nations Ensemble and soprano Sherezade Panthaki, with an illustrated talk by art historian Tav Holmes.

National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company, under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, continues its 2017-2018 Season at Lincoln Center with Beethoven Symphony #9 on Friday, April 13, 2018 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC. Tickets are $30-$100 and are available at www.nationalchorale.com, or by calling (212) 333-5333.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation announced today that Christian Van Horn – “one of those treasurable singers in whose presence one can entirely relax, assured that everything he does will be delivered with solid interpretive insight and unfailingly attractive tone” (Opera News) – has been named as the winner of the 2018 Richard Tucker Award.

In a new interview with The Guardian, Harold 'Hal' Prince has revealed that he is working on two more musicals at the age of 90. One is based on the documentary 'How to Dance in Ohio,' which is about a group of autistic children realizing their potential. The other musical is set in the 19th century and explores the roles and responsibilities of men and women.