Houston Grand Opera News

In honor of Houston Grand Opera's 60th anniversary season, the Houston Grand Opera is holding a special concert featuring Joyce DiDonato with Patrick Summers, the HGO Orchestra, and HGO Studio Artists. I got the chance to ask DiDonato a few questions about her ties to Houston and the HGO.

The winners of the 44th annual George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers were announced at the conclusion of the competition's final round this evening, which took place in a front of a capacity audience at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

Kansas City Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Eric Rosen announced today the casting for HAIR: Retrospection, under his direction.

Lyric Unlimited presents the world premiere of The Property, a klezmer opera by composer Wlad Marhulets and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann. It opens tonight, February 25, with five performances through Thursday, March 5. World premiere presentations of The Property are presented in partnership with the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood Feb. 25, 26, 27, with additional performances at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in suburban Skokie Mar. 4-5.

Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, today announced Memory and Reckoning, a confluence of activities related to the Chicago premiere of Mieczysaw Weinberg's The Passenger, on stage at Lyric tonight, February 24 through March 15. This poignant and gripping 20th-century masterpiece portrays the story of the Holocaust from the perspectives of both victim and perpetrator, and was only recently rediscovered after more than 40 years of suppression.

Ailyn Pérez will sing the role of Micaëla in this evening's performance of Bizet's Carmen, replacing Hei-Kyung Hong, who is ill.

DALLAS, FEBRUARY 20, 2015 – The Dallas Opera is preparing to whisk audiences away to the Latin Quarter of Paris for the blockbuster opera of the season: Giacomo Puccini's 1896 masterpiece, LA BOHÈME, based on Henri Murger's newspaper serial-turned-novel, Scènes de la vie de bohème.

Acclaimed contemporary opera company Opera Parallèle will open its 2015 season with the premiere of a new production of Jake Heggie's landmark work Dead Man Walking-marking the 15th anniversary of one of the most widely performed operas of the 21st century-in three performances this weekend, February 20 and 21, 2015 at 8 pm and February 22, 2015 at 2 pm at YBCA Theater in San Francisco.

New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) presents an afternoon with six-time Tony Award and two Grammys winner Audra McDonald Sunday, April 19, 2015 at 3PM in Prudential Hall.

The Sheryl Kaller helmed musical adaption of the Aldous Huxley classic BRAVE NEW WORLD will present two presentations onFebruary 23rd at 3PM and February 24th at noon following the culmination of a two week experimental AEA Lab.

Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) in conjunction with Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Fund hosted an open house to LGBT teens who have experienced homelessness and housing instability. These teens came from Covenant House, Legacy and Fresh Start Community Center to receive 'the complete musical theatre experience.'

Appearing for the first time in concert together, Grammy Award winning coloratura soprano Laura Claycomb and renowned counter-tenor David Daniels join Mercury for a blockbuster evening of arias and duets by Handel and Monteverdi. Mercury Musical Director Antoine Plante says, “What a pleasure it is to work with such wonderful artists. I'm really pleased to present great music performed by two international stars and our exceptional orchestra.” To purchase tickets or for more information visit www.mercuryhouston.org or call 713.533.0080. Photos and bios available upon request.

I am taken back to the first Opera I saw as a kid and the pomp and circumstance with wearing a tux and walking to the lavish theatre; this was when I fell in love with classical music. Often times we hear opera and other classical art forms are inaccessible to the people, but Houston Grand Opera's English translation of Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE (Die Zauberflote) proved that opera isn't a stuffy, highbrow art form for the bourgeois. THE MAGIC FLUTE premiered on September 30, 1791 at Emanuel Schikaneder's theatre, the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, and Mozart conducted the orchestra. The MAGIC FLUTE often referenced as a singspiel, is an opus with spoken dialogue which lends itself to the elements of classical musical theatre. The heart of this new work was an excerpt from the oriental genie tales collected by poet Christoph Martin Wieland but transitioned to have Masonic elements from the novel Sethos by Abbe Jean Terrasson.

Audra McDonald has earned Tonys, Grammys and other accolades for her work on stage and screen. Soon, the multitalented performer will add another accomplishment to her extensive resume.

One of the world's leading 18th-century music specialists, Japan's Masaaki Suzuki, makes his Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) debut leading the Orchestra in an all-Mozart program, Thursday, March 12 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore, and Friday, March 13 at 8 p.m. andSaturday, March 14 at 8 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Featuring the composer's Don Giovanni Overture and Violin Concerto No. 5, performed by young German violinist Augustin Hadelich, the concert culminates with Mozart's Mass in C minor, otherwise known as the “Great” Mass. Please see below for complete program details.

Carnegie Hall presents acclaimed composer and singer Meredith Monk in four concerts this winter and spring, continuing her season-long residency as holder of the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair.

One of the world's leading 18th-century music specialists, Japan's Masaaki Suzuki, makes his Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) debut leading the Orchestra in an all-Mozart program, Thursday, March 12 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore, and Friday, March 13 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, March 14 at 8 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Featuring the composer's Don Giovanni Overture and Violin Concerto No. 5, performed by young German violinist Augustin Hadelich, the concert culminates with Mozart's Mass in C minor, otherwise known as the 'Great' Mass. Please see below for complete program details.

Pacific Symphony, in partnership with Bowers Museum, presents 'A Feast for the Senses,' an enchanting evening of Chinese music, dining and discovery surrounding the Bowers' current special exhibition, 'China's Lost Civilization: The Mystery of Sanxingdui.'

I found myself rapt when Chicago-born soprano Nicole Heaston spoke. She was warm, passionate and driven about her art, and generous and unguarded with her thoughts and opinions. Heaston is Pamina to David Portillo's Tamino in Houston Grand Opera's production of THE MAGIC FLUTE.

Houston, TX - February 4, 2015: Houston Grand Opera announced today the finalists for the annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, to be presented in the Cullen Theater at the Wortham Theater Center on Thursday, February 5, at 7 p.m. This year's finalists are: