Houston Grand Opera News

The 2018 Janet and Mark L. Goldenson Broadway Concert Series at Rubicon Theatre Company kicks off with five intimate concerts by award-winning stars of the Great White Way, including Tony Award-winner FAITH PRINCE (Guys and Dolls), L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award-winner JASON GRAAE (RTC's Return to the Forbidden Planet, Falsettos), Helen Hayes Award-winners DAVID BURNHAM (The Light in the Piazza) and TAMI TAPPAN (RTC's Streetcar Named Desire, Miss Saigon), husband-and-wife duo MEGAN MCGINNIS and ADAM HALPIN (Daddy Long Legs), Ovation nominee ERIC KUNZE (Evita), and Nashville-based singer MELISSA HAMMANS (Back to the Garden).

Company XIV has won the 11th Annual Goldstar National Nutcracker Award, the only award which honors live performances of the seasonal classic. As winner of the audience-favorite competition, Company XIV takes home 'The Nutty' statuette, a cash prize for its education/accessibility programs, and is named the best-loved Nutcracker in the U.S. for 2017. This production competed in the largest field of nominees in the award's history -- it beat out over 85 other Nutcracker-themed productions for the win.

This Mother's Day weekend, Steeven Sandoval, known as 'La Voz del Mariachi,' returns to San Antonio by popular demand to headline the SERENATA PARA LAS MADRES concert at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre (226 N. Saint Mary's St.) on Friday, May 11, 7:30 PM. Steeven will be accompanied by Mariachi Azteca de Am rica, directed by Gino Rivera. These outstanding artists will perform favorite traditional mariachi classics as well as selections that pay tribute to mothers on their special weekend. Tickets are on sale now.

The Glimmerglass Festival will present Rachel Portman's opera, The Little Prince, on December 19 and 20 at 7 p.m. in the Cooperstown High School auditorium.

Following the success of its fall productions of Puccini's beloved La Fanciulla del West and the New York premiere of Tobias Picker's Dolores Claiborne, New York City Opera continues the 2017/2018 season in January 2018 with the New York premiere of Jos 'Pepe' Mart nez and Leonard Foglia's Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, the world's first mariachi opera.

American Lyric Theater presents ALT Alumni: Composers and Librettists in Concert on January 14, 2018 at 8pm at Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Music Center, 129 W. 67th Street, NYC.

Alumni of American Lyric Theater's Composer Librettist Development Program are changing the landscape of contemporary opera. ALT's annual alumni concert showcases scenes from three exciting new operas taking the stage around the country, written by alumni of the CLDP.

The enduring strength and persistence of artistry, love, and loyalty are at the center of Mercury's newest multi-theatrical production. In a dramatic combination of music, dance, voice and imagery, 'Loving Clara Schumann,' by co-creators Tara Faircloth and Antoine Plante, travels through the remarkable life of pianist and composer Clara Wieck Schumann, a pioneer in the male-dominated field of mid-nineteenth century music, and her relationships with two of the Romantic era's distinguished composers, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms.

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion for American opera, is pleased to announce that it has awarded grants to 11 opera companies through the Repertoire Development Grants program, supported by The Opera Fund. These grants provide vital financial support to opera companies developing new American opera and music-theater works.

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion for American opera, is pleased to announce that it has awarded grants to 11 opera companies through the Repertoire Development Grants program, supported by The Opera Fund. These grants provide vital financial support to opera companies developing new American opera and music-theater works.

On January 18, the ten outstanding musicians from Music Academy of the West who have been named as this year's Zarin Mehta Fellows will arrive in New York to take part in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program's fourth season.

Six Rice University graduate students have been selected to participate in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program, part of the New York Philharmonic Global Academy partnership launched in fall 2015 between Rice's Shepherd School of Music and the New York Philharmonic.

American Lyric Theater presented A Toast to Ten Years, a wine tasting recital in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the company's lauded Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP), on Friday, November 17, 2017 at 7pm at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South, NYC.

Alumni of American Lyric Theater's Composer Librettist Development Program are changing the landscape of contemporary opera! Join us for ALT's annual alumni concert, showcasing scenes from three exciting new operas taking the stage around the country, written by alumni of the CLDP. Hosted by ALT's Founder and Producing Artistic Director, Lawrence Edelson.

American Lyric Theater presented A Toast to Ten Years, a wine tasting recital in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the company's lauded Composer Librettist Development Program (CLDP), on Friday, November 17, 2017 at 7pm at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South, NYC. Tickets were $125 ($50 tax-deductible) and $250 ($175 tax-deductible), and tables of four were available at $500 ($200 tax-deductible) and $1,000 ($700 tax-deductible).

Hot Feat USA Ltd presents the U.S. Premiere of COUNTING SHEEP, a breathtaking immersive theatrical experience that brings audiences inside the heart of the 2013-2014 Ukrainian revolution on Maidan Square, and offers a deeply personal retelling of the popular uprising that succeeded in toppling the Ukrainian government.

All new operas start somewhere, and the journey to Houston Grand Opera's latest commission from composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek, The House without a Christmas Tree, started nearly 40 years ago in rural Indiana.

Houston Grand Opera's annual white-tie fundraiser, this year chaired by Drs. Liz Grimm and Jack Roth, returnsApril 14 with the 2018 Opera Ball, An Evening in Old Hollywood featuring a special guest appearance by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Lee Roth, who will perform a rare, private mini-set of hits. Always a highly anticipated event on Houston's social calendar, Opera Ball, to be held at The Post Oak at Uptown Houston, brings together many of the city's movers, shakers, and tastemakers for an unforgettable evening in support of Houston Grand Opera. For the young professional crowd, the Encore Party will offer a chic, late-night celebration that tops off Opera Ball. Drs. Ishwaria and Vivek Subbiah are chairmen of the Encore Party.

The Houston Symphony has received a nomination for the 60th Grammy Awards for the recording of Alban Berg's Wozzeck for Best Opera Recording in the classical category.

Palm Springs Opera Guild, one of the longest-standing cultural institutions in the Coachella Valley, has selected eight emerging opera stars to compete at the upcoming 34th Annual Dorothy Nocita Memorial Palm Springs Vocal Competition on Sunday, December 3, 2017 from 3 5:30 PM. This annual free event provides an opportunity for eight emerging young opera singers to compete for nearly $40,000 in prizes, earn community recognition for their achievements, and advance their careers. The event will take place at the Helene Galen Performing Arts Center, located at 31001 Rattler Road in Rancho Mirage.