Houston Grand Opera News

Ash Lawn Opera launches its 40th Season as Charlottesville, Virginia's premier opera company with a special performance of by world-renowned tenor Jay Hunter Morris on Saturday, December 3, 2016 at 8 pm. Morris will perform beloved opera arias, play guitar, and tell stories in his delightful Texan drawl.

Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group welcome Derrick Davis, Jordan Craig, Trista Moldovan and Emily Ramirez to the principal cast of the spectacular new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera currently on national tour.

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) will celebrate its 75th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, beginning with the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek's 27, specially adapted for MasterVoices, on October 20 and 21, 2016 at 8pm at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, New York City.

Just announced, Second Stage Theatre's New York Premiere production of NOTES FROM THE FIELD: DOING TIME IN EDUCATION, the latest work created, written and performed by groundbreaking theatre artist Anna Deavere Smith with music composed and performed by Marcus Shelby and directed by Leonard Foglia, will open on November 2, 2016 at the Tony Kiser Theatre (305 West 43rd Street). Previews will begin on October 15.

The Friends of Jones Hall presents THE JONES HALL 50TH BALL - A MAD MID-CENTURY CELEBRATION AND CONCERT, a gala and concert featuring world-renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman with the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

Stephen Sondheim's epic musical thriller Sweeney Todd opened last night at Christchurch's Isaac Theatre Royal, its final stop on a tour across New Zealand. A joint collaboration between New Zealand Opera and Victorian Opera, this gritty and wonderfully stylised production emphasises the most operatic and dramatic features of this masterpiece of musical theatre.

Tonight, October 14, 2016 at 8:00PM, The New York Pops, led by Music Director Steven Reineke, will launch its 34th season at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, celebrating the legacy and timeless works of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe.

National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company, under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, begins its 2016-2017 Season at Lincoln Center with A Gershwin Celebration onFriday, October 21, 2016 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC.

National Chorale, New York's premier professional choral company, under the Artistic Direction of Everett McCorvey, begins its 2016-2017 Season at Lincoln Center with A Gershwin Celebration onFriday, October 21, 2016 at 8pm at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, NYC.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City continues its 59th season with the Lyric Opera debut co-production of Mozart's masterpiece The Marriage of Figaro November 5, 9, 11 and 13 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

New Philharmonic the professional orchestra in residence at the McAninch Arts Center, continues its 40th Anniversary Season with 'An Evening of Gershwin' at the MAC Saturday, Oct. 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 23 at 3 p.m.

Sarasota Opera and the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Englewood, FL will collaborate once again on a series of talks to be held at the Sarasota Opera House.

San Francisco Opera presents Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in a new production directed by Francesca Zambello and featuring designs by Los Angeles-based, contemporary visual artist RETNA(Marquis Duriel Lewis). A co-production with Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera and Minnesota Opera, this striking and bold vision for Verdi's enduring classic will feature soprano Leah Crocetto and tenor Brian Jagde in their role debuts as the lovers at the heart of the opera, the enslaved princess Aida and the Egyptian war hero Radames. Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk is Amneris, the daughter of the king who desires Radames' love, baritoneGeorge Gagnidze portrays Aida's vengeful father, Amonasro, and bass Raymond Aceto is Ramfis. The international cast and San Francisco Opera Orchestra will be conducted by Company Music Director Nicola Luisotti. Resident Conductor Jordi Bernacer will conduct the final performance on December 6. Ian Robertson is Chorus Director.

Donizetti's ebullient comedy The Elixir of Love sets a celebratory tone as Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) 62nd season opener on October 21. The colorful production features tenor Dimitri Pittas and soprano Nicole Heaston, as well as the HGO debut of eminent English conductor Jane Glover. Performances run through November 4.  

Calling all kings and queens, knights and ladies-in-waiting! Houston Grand Opera announces a fabulous costume sale from its private warehouse today, October 8, from 12 noon to 4 p.m.

Long Wharf Theatre, in conjunction with the Old Globe in San Diego, presents the world premiere of Steve Martin's Meteor Shower, directed by Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein, running from September 28 through October 23, 2016. The full cast has just been announced!

Opera Santa Barbara will open its 2016-17 season with a colorfully electrifying production of Carmen, Georges Bizet's enduring tale of love and jealousy set amid the vibrant, unruly streets of 19th century Seville. Performances will take place at 7:30 pm onFriday, November 4, and at 2:30 pm on Sunday, November 6, in the historic Granada Theatre. Ranging in price from $29 to $204, tickets can be purchased at www.granadasb.org or by calling 805-899-2222.

Rubicon Theatre Company has announced the complete cast of RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET, a fabulously campy send up of 'Forbidden Planet' and other sci-fi film and TV shows of the 1950s which melds plot elements from The Tempest with language from multiple plays by Shakespeare.

The Oratorio Society of New York fulfills its role as New York's champion of the grand choral tradition with the opening program of its 2016-17 season:  Mozart's "Great" Mass in C Minor, written to celebrate the composer's marriage, and Bruckner's Te Deum, a gem of a 19th-century choral masterwork that Bruckner called "the pride of my life."

Donizetti's ebullient comedy The Elixir of Love sets a celebratory tone as Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) 62nd season opener on October 21.