Houston Grand Opera News

Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught kicks off her 2015-16 season with a special event for her native country: she serves as one of 11 honorary ambassadors and will perform at RTE Arena in Meeting House Square for Ireland's Culture Night 2015, a significant national all-island cultural event involving over 900 venues throughout Ireland celebrating culture, creativity and the arts now in its tenth year.

Eric Owens will begin his tenure as The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence by curating, hosting, and performing in In Their Footsteps: Great African American Singers and Their Legacy, conducted by Thomas Wilkins in his Philharmonic debut.

Vancouver, BC ~  Vancouver Opera kicks off the exciting 2015-2016 season with Giuseppe Verdi's thrilling blockbuster, Rigoletto. Powerful baritone Gordon Hawkins will sing the title role, with international superstar soprano Simone Osborne as Gilda and acclaimed tenor Bruce Sledge as the Duke. Sensational melodies, heartbreaking drama and vivid characters make this dark, tender drama of love and revenge irresistible.

The Umeda Arts Theater world premiere production of Prince of Broadway will begin rehearsals on Thursday, September 3 in New York City. 

As previously reported, the World Premiere of PRINCE OF BROADWAY, a new musical celebrating the extraordinary six decade Broadway career of producer-director Harold Prince, will play from October 23-November 22, 2015 at Tokyu Theatre Orb in Tokyo, Japan and November 28-December 10, 2015 at Umeda Arts Theater, Main Hall, in Osaka, Japan. Now, the show's official website has unveiled the Act I song list. Check it out below!

WASHINGTON)—Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced details for the fourth season of the American Opera Initiative, its comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. Three pairings of new opera composers and librettists—Christopher Weiss and John de los Santos, David Clay Mettens and Joshua McGuire, and Sarah Hutchings and Mark Sonnenblick—will premiere new one-act operas, each based on a contemporary American story, in a semi-staged concert performance on December 2, 2015 in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Composer Luna Pearl Woolf and librettist Caitlin Vincent, an alumnus of the program's second season, will present their new hour-long work Better Gods—based on the life of Queen Lili'uokalani, the last monarch of Hawaii—on January 8 and 9, 2016 in the Terrace Theater.

Los Angeles is in for a treat next month! Tony and Grammy-winner Audra McDonald comes to the Hollywood Bowl to sing classics from Broadway and the American Songbook with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Bramwell Tovey, Tuesday and Thursday, September 1 and 3, at 8 pm. Audiences on both nights will be entertained by McDonald singing famous tunes by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Mancini and Mercer, and others. The evenings also feature gifted American Ballet Theatre dancers on stage to bring Bernstein's Fancy Free to life performing Jerome Robbins' 1944 choreography.

Houston, August 17, 2015—Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) 2015–16 season showcases the vibrant and diverse artistic mix that marks HGO as a leading 21st-century American opera company: Wagner's Siegfried, the third installment of La Fura dels Baus's imaginative Ring cycle featuring a new generation of Wagnerians; the world premiere of Prince of Players by eminent American composer Carlisle Floyd, the Lynn Wyatt Great Artist for 2015–16; Dvoák's fairy tale rarity Rusalka; a holiday revival of family favorite The Little Prince from the award-winning composer Rachel Portman and librettist Nicholas Wright; a new production of The Marriage of Figaro; a new-to-Houston Eugene Onegin; a beloved core production, Tosca; and the Houston debut of Broadway sensation Rob Ashford's take on the classic musical Carousel. Through its community collaboration program HGOco, the company will present two additional world premieres: O Columbia, a chamber opera by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Royce Vavrek that examines the past, present, and future of the American spirit of exploration; and The Root of the Wind is Water, a chamber opera by composer David Hanlon and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann about the impact of hurricanes on the Texas Gulf coast.

Among them, the company can claim 18 Tony Awards, 4 Pulitzer Prizes, 6 Pulitzer finalist distinctions, 3 Emmy Awards, and 2 Academy Awards; to list all their honors would take several pages.

Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company opens its 2015/2016 season with a work of dazzling beauty, Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata.  This operatic classic returns to the COC stage in a lush new production for 11 performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on October 8, 13, 16, 17, 21, 24, 29, 30, November 1, 4, 6, 2015.

The RRazz Room New Hope, 6426 Lower York Road New Hope PA, presents Happily Ever Laughter featuring LIZ CALLAWAY and JASON GRAAE and Alex Rybeck, Musical Director, tonight, August 15.

Stephen Sondheim's macabre musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street receives its highly anticipated San Francisco Opera premiere in a production featuring a cast of notable operatic stars and performed with Sondheim's original score for the lyric stage.

As previously reported, the World Premiere of PRINCE OF BROADWAY, a new musical celebrating the extraordinary six decade Broadway career of producer-director Harold Prince, will play from October 23-November 22, 2015 at Tokyu Theatre Orb in Tokyo, Japan and November 28-December 10, 2015 at Umeda Arts Theater, Main Hall, in Osaka, Japan. Now, the show's official website has unveiled the Act I song list. Check it out below!

Upcoming Non-Equity Auditions from Sunday, August 9, 2015.

The RRazz Room New Hope, 6426 Lower York Road New Hope PA, presents Happily Ever Laughter featuring LIZ CALLAWAY and JASON GRAAE and Alex Rybeck, Musical Director, Saturday, August 15.

What: The Houston Grand Opera Studio, one of the most highly respected young artist programs in the country, will offer its fall Studio Showcase at 8:00 p.m. on September 10 and 12.

Upcoming Non-Equity Auditions from Sunday, August 2, 2015.

Broadway husband and wife Will Swenson and Audra McDonald recently filmed themselves singing a seemingly random duet- the theme song from the hit '70s show LAVERNE AND SHIRLEY. Check out the fun a capella performance, made for Broadway Sleepout, below!

HOUSTON (July 28, 2015) – The Houston Symphony announced today that it has successfully recruited four new string musicians to be part of an initiative announced earlier this year to embed musicians more deeply in the community. The four musicians/educators will focus on enhancing the orchestra's growing education and community engagement activities while also performing on stage for select Houston Symphony performances.

Sarasota, FL – Sarasota Opera is proud to announce casting for the 2015-2016 fall and winter season, truly the most climactic in the company's 57 year history. The season will feature the final two installments of the 28 year Verdi Cycle – The Battle of Legnano and Aida- in a grand spectacle of music, vocal prowess, awe-inspiring choruses, sumptuous scenery, and luxurious costumes. In addition, the company will present Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, and Mozart's comedic Così fan tutte.