Houston Grand Opera News

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects and partnerships in the NEA's second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2016.  Included in this announcement is an Art Works award of $40,000 to American Lyric Theater (ALT) in support of the Composer Librettist Development Program. The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields.

Audra is expecting! Today it was announced  that The West End production of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill will be postponed as the show's star Audra McDonald has announced that she and her husband, actor Will Swenson, are expecting a baby.

Previews are underway for Theatre for a New Audience's production of August Strindberg's THE FATHER in a new version by Scottish author David Greig commissioned by Theatre for a New Audience and performances start tonight, May 10, at 7:30pm for A DOLL'S HOUSE in an adaptation by Thornton Wilder not seen in New York since its Broadway premiere in 1937.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2016 – The acclaimed Merola Opera Program, one of the most prestigious and selective opera training programs in the United States, opens its 2016 Summer Festival with the popular Schwabacher Summer Concerts Thursday, July 7 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, July 9 at 2 pm at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Conducted by Eric Weimer and directed by Omer Ben Seadia, the Schwabacher Summer Concert features this year's Merola Opera artists performing extended scenes from operas including Handel's Serse, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, R. Strauss's Arabella, Wagner's Lohengrin, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, and Rossini's Le Comte Ory. Tickets for the concerts at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music range from $25 to $40, with a limited number of $15 student tickets. 

On May 7th, the highly anticipated world premiere of The Shining - a new opera based on Stephen King's 1977 best-selling novel - by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, will be presented by the Minnesota Opera, at the Music Theater at the Ordway in St. Paul, Minnesota. With less than three weeks to go before the curtain rises, all 7,056 seats across The Shining's four performances are sold out and only standing room tickets remain for the production which runs through May 15th.

HOUSTON, TEXAS – Houston Ballet, America's fifth largest ballet company, unveiled the first phase of a marketing plan for Artistic Director Stanton Welch's new production of The Nutcracker which premieres on November 25, 2016. To build upon the anticipation and excitement surrounding the upcoming production Houston Ballet's marketing team has devised a unique three-phase brand campaign to introduce audiences to the new look and feel of the ballet.  

Houston Ballet, America's fifth largest ballet company, unveiled the first phase of a marketing plan for Artistic Director Stanton Welch's new production of THE NUTCRACKER which premieres on November 25, 2016.

Tulsa Opera announces a thrilling lineup of four productions for the 2016-2017 Season.

Pioneer Theatre Company presents the American professional premiere of the new musical THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, written by Frank Wildhorn and Jack Murphy. Performances take place tonight, May 6, through May 21, 2016.

Ardea Arts announces BOUNCE The Basketball Opera, their latest project in development. Showcase performances will take place at Paerdegat Park in East Flatbush, Brooklyn Saturday-Monday June 25-27, 2016 at 6pm.

Ten years of planning and $10 million in production costs couldn't prevent the Washington National Opera from pleasing all the gods in its ambitious staging of all four operas in Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung.

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced that American soprano Christine Goerke will sing the role of Brünnhilde in the Monday, May 2 performance of The Valkyrie

After two days of intense competition by some of the most talented young singers in the country, the winners of the 28th Annual Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition were announced late this evening from the stage of the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

Previews begin Sunday, May 1, at 7:30pm for Theatre for a New Audience's production of August Strindberg's The Father in a new version by Scottish author David Greig commissioned by Theatre for a New Audience and Tuesday, May 10, at 7:30pm for A Doll's House in an adaptation by Thornton Wilder not seen in New York since its Broadway premiere in 1937.  The plays, both directed by Arin Arbus, Associate Artistic Director of Theatre for a New Audience, feature Maggie Lacey as Nora in A Doll's House and as Laura in The Father and John Douglas Thompson as Thorwald in A Doll's House and the Captain in The Father.

The Adelphi Orchestra, celebrating its 62nd season of 'Music for All'  presents a Grand Mother's Day concert Sunday May 8th in New Jersey. 'Wagner Masterworks: Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod and Die Walkure : Act 1.' The Wagner Masterworks Mother's Day concert will be the first of two performances, held on consecutive weekends, the second performance to take place in NYC at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.  The Adelphi Orchestra's special  Mother's Day performance of Wagner Masterworks is free and open to the public -  the first 50 individuals to reserve their seats through Eventbrite will receive a complimentary long stem rose at the concert for their Mother.

DALLAS, FEBRUARY 2, 2016 –Twenty of the finest young opera singers in the United States will be competing in the 28th Annual Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition presented, jointly, by The Dallas Opera and The Dallas Opera Guild. 

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale)will open its 75th anniversary season with Ricky Ian Gordon's 27, with libretto by Royce Vavrek, starring Stephanie Blythe, Heidi Stober,Theo Lebow, Tobias Greenhalgh, and Daniel Brevik, conducted by Ted Sperling, and directed by James Robinson, with Orchestra of St. Luke's on October 20 and 21, 2016at New York City Center.

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) continues the 2015-2016 season with Henry Purcell and Nahum Tate's tempestuous Baroque opera, DIDO AND AENEAS, tonight, April 28, 2016 at 7pm and tomorrow, April 29, 2016 at 8pm at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, New York City.

New York City Opera presents the New York premiere of HOPPER'S WIFE by composer Stewart Wallace, set to a libretto by Michael Korie.

A re-imagined version of the 1921 musical SHUFFLE ALONG, one of the earliest stage hits starring, written and directed by African-Americans, opens tonight, April 28, on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre. SHUFFLE ALONG has a new book and is directed by George C. Wolfe, choreographed by Savion Glover. Scroll down to learn more about the company, plus watch SUNDAY MORNING's recent behind-the-scenes look at the show!