Houston Grand Opera News

Now it its 19th season, Crested Butte Music Festival (CBMF) continues its bold new approach in presenting music that is elevating, entertaining and transforming. Opera In Paradise (July 15-26), one of four 'mini' festivals taking place during the Festival, is no exception, as some of the biggest names on the opera world, along with top-tier emerging talent through CBMF's acclaimed training program, the Crested Butte Opera Studio, join the Festival for a six-week residency.

The Chorale was previously honored with the organization's ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming three times in 1995, 2003 and 2010, the Education and Community Engagement Award twice in 2000 and 2008, and also earned Chorus America's prestigious Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence in 2012.

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, New York Live Arts' Resident Dance Company, today announced the launch of a new partnership with Loyola Marymount University (LMU). The partnership with the Los Angeles based university marks the first of its kind, adding to the Company's existing collegiate education programs. Spanning a total of four years, the partnership will bring the Company's works and their pedagogical and performative philosophy to LMU's campus and the Los Angeles area.

The Collegiate Chorale announces that Ron Rifkin will join the cast of the US Premiere of Kurt Weill's The Road of Promise tonight, May 6, 2015 at 8pm and May 7, 2015 at 7pm at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019.

The Oratorio Society of New York is in its 142nd season as the city's standard for grand choral performance, and its tenth with its current music director, Kent Tritle. Celebrating the culmination of their landmark season together and, as it happens, emergence from a frigid and stormy winter, Tritle and the OSNY will present two life-affirming works for their spring concert: the ardent, hopeful Chichester Psalms of Leonard Bernstein, which will be conducted by the OSNY's associate conductor, David Rosenmeyer (also marking his tenth season with the group), and Carl Orff's spirited, bawdy Carmina Burana. Soloists Jennifer Zetlan, soprano; Peter Tantsits, tenor; Takaoki Onishi, baritone, and the Choristers of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine join the OSNY tonight, May 5, 2015, at 8:00 pm, at Carnegie Hall.

Pittsburgh Opera concludes its 76th season with a colorful, charming production of Donizetti's comic opera DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT (La fille du régiment). On stage tonight, May 2, 5, 8, and 10, and sung in English, DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT brings a bit of whimsy and plenty of vocal fireworks to the Benedum Center.

BNY Mellon Grand Classics: The Sound of a Modern Symphony highlights the power and range of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on May 15-17 under the baton of British conductor Michael Francis. This program features the Pittsburgh Symphony premiere of Mason Bates' Alternative Energy and the orchestral world premiere of Jake Heggie's The Work at Hand, a Pittsburgh Symphony co-commission for principal cellist Anne Martindale Williams.

Mercury closes out the 2014-15 season with an all-Beethoven concert led by Artistic Director Antoine Plante featuring the composer's beloved Eighth Symphony and Triple Concerto on Friday, May 16 at 8 PM at the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater.  The rarely heard Triple Concerto will feature Mercury concertmaster Jonathan Godfrey, principal cellist Kevin Downs and guest pianist, Wendy Chen, playing on an 1832 Bosendorfer 80-key fortepiano, on loan from the Moores School of Music.  The Eighth Symphony is the penultimate performance in Mercury's cycle of Beethoven symphonies, which started in 2009 and will conclude next May in Mercury's 15th Anniversary Season finale with Symphony No. 9, "Choral".  This concert is sponsored in part by Haynes and Boone with underwriting support from Hans and Lili Kirchner, Vey and Brigid Spin, and Stephen and Kristine Wallace.  Tickets start at $18, to purchase or for more information visit www.mercuryhouston.org or call 713.533.0080.  

Audra McDonald performs tonight, April 29, 2015 in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. She will be joined by music director and pianist Andy Einhorn, bassist Mark Vanderpoel, and drummer Gene Lewin.

Theatre Development Fund, the not-for-profit service organization for the performing arts, will honor three of the organization's "Unsung Heroes" - Ted Chapin, Jeffrey Gural and Robert Zukerman at TDF's Gala on Monday, June 15 at the Edison Ballroom (240 West 47th Street).  TDF is honoring these "heroes," as they have assisted the organization in fulfilling its mission of supporting works of artistic merit and helping to make theatre accessible to all.

Mama Drama will play The Duplex on Sunday May 3 at 3:00 and Friday May 8 at 6:30. The Duplex is located at 61 Christopher St.  Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online at www.purplepass.com.    

Guest soprano Camille Zamora will perform double roles as the leads in both La Voix Humaine (Elle) and Pagliacci (Nedda) as Opera Columbus presents an all-locally produced double bill.

The Houston Symphony will present the world premiere concert featuring music from the Emmy-Award winning TV series Schoolhouse Rock! for orchestra. The animated musical educational short film and TV series debuted in 1970 and has become a pop culture phenomenon.

The Fifth Annual Houston Arts Partners Conference is expected to draw hundreds of educators, artists, and community leaders to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on Sept. 11 - 12, 2015.

In this taut 2013 theatrical adaptation of Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela's award winning-book, the apartheid regime's most notorious assassin and head of its death squad, Eugene de Kock (played by Matthew Marsh), sits opposite psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (played Noma Dumezweni) in Pretoria Central Prison in 1997. Gobodo-Madikizela is a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission determined to understand his actions. She questions de Kock, who is sentenced to two life terms plus 212 years for crimes against humanity, murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, and fraud.

Bass-Baritone Jake Gardner discusses the continued resonance of SWEENEY TODD, his approach to acting and performance, and being scared sh-tless by the infamously cut self-flagellation scene.

Tony winner Brian Stokes Mitchell joins more than 100 children at Young At Arts (YAA), a community-based performing arts program that gives out scholarships to deserving young students, to celebrate YAA's 10th anniversary via its annual benefit titled 'Broadway to Bronxville' today, April 20, at Christ Church (17 Sagamore Road, Bronxville, N.Y.) at 6:30 p.m.

?The New Jersey State Repertory Opera (SRO) will present its spring benefit concert, “Princesses and Heroes In Opera,” on Sunday, April 26, 2015 at the Van Vleck House and Gardens in Montclair, NJ from 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present performances of Mozart's The Magic Flute at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands on Friday, May 15, at 8 p.m. and at Miller Outdoor Theatre on Friday, May 22, and Saturday, May 23, at 8 p.m. The Magic Flute matches a comic yet wise fairy tale with some of the most stunningly beautiful music ever written. HGO's performances on the outdoor stages offer free admission and access for new audiences to experience the acclaimed production, which the company presented to full houses earlier this season.

Toronto – Audiences will discover love has a sense of humour with the Canadian Opera Company's new production of Rossini's TheBarber of Seville from the Spanish theatre troupe Els Comediants. Scottish-born Rory Macdonald, one of Britain's most talented and dynamic young conductors, returns to lead the COC Orchestra, Chorus and a cast of the most exciting young stars in opera today through Rossini's veritable hit parade of a score, filled with showstoppers and sparkling tunes. Sung in Italian with English SURTITLESTM, The Barber of Seville runs for 13 performances on April 17, 19, 21, 26, 29, May 2, 7, 9, 13, 15*, 19, 21, 22, 2015 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.