Houston Grand Opera News

Richard Wagner's Die Walküre is opera at its most epic with incredible vocal demands, a 110-piece orchestra and a story about gods and mortals, all played out to one of opera's most powerful and iconic scores. This immense work returns to the Canadian Opera Company this winter with a critically acclaimed production by renowned Canadian director Atom Egoyan, with COC Music Director Johannes Debus conducting, and one of the most hotly anticipated role debuts of the opera world this season: Grammy Award-winning soprano Christine Goerke as the Valkyrie Brünnhilde. Die Walküre is sung in German with English SURTITLESTM and runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on January 31, February 4, 7, 10, 13, 19, 22, 2015.

You'll still find atmospheric Victorian sets by scenic designer Tony Straiges, Alejo Vietti's elaborate ornate costumes, and dramatic sound design by John Gromada. The plot change does not unfairly ground or overly explicate this ghost drama. That's what I'm here for.

North Carolina Opera is thrilled to bring a cutting-edge opera experience to Triangle patrons this January with Approaching Ali, a 50-minute contemporary chamber opera. In his operatic debut, Richmond-based composer D.J. Sparr's Approaching Ali stunned and delighted Kennedy Center audiences last year in a performance that the Washington Times called “intensely emotional.”

?North Carolina Opera will bring a cutting-edge opera experience to Triangle patrons this January with Approaching Ali, a 50-minute contemporary chamber opera. In his operatic debut, Richmond-based composer D.J. Sparr's Approaching Ali stunned and delighted Kennedy Center audiences last year in a performance that the Washington Times called 'intensely emotional.'

Maestro Nicholas McGegan and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) will ring in the New Year with a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 on Friday, January 2 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, January 4 at 3 p.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and Saturday, January 3 at 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore. McGegan will lead the Orchestra in Beethoven's final symphony with the well-known "Ode to Joy," along with Beethoven's rarely performed Opferlied, his King Stephen Overture and Haydn's The Storm. Please see below for complete details.

American tenor Jay Hunter Morris will replace Anthony Dean Griffey in Houston Grand Opera's world premiere production of A Christmas Carol, it was announced today by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. Mr. Griffey has withdrawn for health reasons. The 90-minute opera, commissioned by HGO from composer Iain Bell and librettist Simon Callow, is written for a single singer performing the role of The Narrator. A Christmas Carol runs from tonight, December 5 through 21, 2014, at the Wortham Theater Center, and is suitable for ages 12 and up.

Houston Grand Opera will partner with Houston organizations for a public book signing with esteemed English actor, director, and author Simon Callow; and for a children's book drive during the run of the company's world premiere production ofA Christmas Carol this December.

Serrano NY, LLC is thrilled to present the World Premiere of SERRANO THE MUSICAL, book and lyrics by Madeline Sunshine, music by Robert Tepper, musical direction by Jeff Rizzo (Sunset Blvd. The Wizard of Oz), choreography by Tony nominee Peggy Hickey (A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder) and directed by Tony nominee Joel Zwick (Dance With Me, 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding').

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will hold a special fundraising day today, December 2, as part of#GivingToday, an international movement to create a day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. The program celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support nonprofit organizations. It was launched in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y in New York and the United Nations Foundation, and has been adopted by organizations around the globe. HGO is one of the first performing arts groups in the U.S. to hold its own #GivingToday campaign.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City continues its 57th season with a very special event, Vinson Cole & Friends, on Sunday, January 11, 2015 at 4pm at the historic Folly Theatre. This benefit for Lyric Opera will include Christine Brewer and Daniel Belcher for an evening of opera classics. All have strong Missouri ties: Daniel Belcher called Kansas City home for several years and performed with Lyric Opera of Kansas City several times. Christine Brewer began her career with the St. Louis Symphony Chorus and performed several times with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Vinson Cole, a beloved Kansas City treasure, received his training at University of Missouri-Kansas City and is currently a member of the faculty of their Conservatory of Music and Dance.

The universally renowned and acclaimed Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan will perform for one night only tonight, November 29 at 8 p.m. at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, located at 615 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa. Internationally acclaimed as 'the best mariachi in the world,' the group comes to the Center for a rare Orange County appearance.

Today, November 26 from 11:00 AM-12:30 PM, the holiday season will officially begin as hundreds of Houston children celebrate at the 27th annual Wortham Theater Center Tree Lighting Ceremony - a joyous festival held in the Grand Foyer of Wortham Theater Center downtown. This event is FREE and open to the public.

On February 6, Richard Tucker and Plácido Domingo Award-winner Ailyn Pérez makes her house debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera in a star-studded production of Bizet's Carmen. This marks a major milestone for the American soprano, and comes at a key moment in her burgeoning career. Having achieved star status in Europe with a string of successes at the opera houses of London, Vienna, Milan, Berlin, and Moscow - her title role performance in Verdi's La Traviata this past spring at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden made history with the company's first live streaming of a complete opera, and she made her debut at La Scala opposite Plácido Domingo in Simon Boccanegra - Pérez recently scored twin triumphs closer to home. This past summer, her Warner Classics album debut, Love Duets, was an 'irresistible' (Gramophone) Billboard bestseller, and earlier this fall she took Houston by storm in her house and role debuts as Desdemona in Houston Grand Opera's Otello, where she supplied 'white hot passion...in spades' (Houston Press).

Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Atlanta presents the Atlanta premiere of Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage at the Fox Theatre, beginning tonight, November 25.

San Francisco, November 24, 2014 – 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 Friday and Saturday, February 20 and 21, 2015 at 8 pm and Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 2 pm at YBCA Theater in San Francisco. Based on Sister Helen Prejean's memoir and passionate statement against capital punishment of the same title, Dead Man Walking plumbs the depths of human emotion, resilience, fortitude, hope, and redemption, making it an ideal subject for the operatic stage and for Opera Parallèle's brand of story-telling, exploring the human experience in provocative and intense stagings. The premiere will be followed by the Company taking to the road for the first time to present a concert version of Dead Man Walking at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, CA, March 7 and 8, 2015.

Houston Grand Opera will partner with Houston organizations for a public book signing with esteemed English actor, director, and author Simon Callow; and for a children's book drive during the run of the company's world premiere production ofA Christmas Carol this December.

General Director Plácido Domingo has announced final details for LA Opera's first revival of Florencia en el Amazonas, an enchanting and romantic opera by composer Daniel Catán. Co-commissioned by LA Opera in 1995, the opera returns to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for six performances from tonight, November 22 through December 20, 2014. In the exquisitely beautiful opera, inspired by the fiction of Gabriel García Márquez, a steamboat passage along the fabled Amazon becomes a poignant voyage of discovery for all seven travelers on board.

On Wednesday, November 26 from 11:00 AM-12:30 PM, the holiday season will officially begin as hundreds of Houston children celebrate at the 27th annual Wortham Theater Center Tree Lighting Ceremony - a joyous festival held in the Grand Foyer of Wortham Theater Center downtown. This event is FREE and open to the public.

On Wednesday, November 26 from 11:00 AM-12:30 PM, the holiday season will officially begin as hundreds of Houston children celebrate at the 27th annual Wortham Theater Center Tree Lighting Ceremony -- a joyous festival held in the Grand Foyer of Wortham Theater Center downtown. This event is FREE and open to the public.

NEW YORK –– The Juilliard Opera season opens with a production of Gioachino Rossini's Il Turco in Italia (The Turk in Italy), a drama buffo in two acts with a libretto by Felice Romani. Juilliard alumnaSperanza Scappucci conducts the Juilliard singers and the Juilliard Orchestra in her conducting debut at Juilliard in the production directed by John Giampietro. Performances take place tonight, November 19, 2014 and Friday, November 21, 2014 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, November 23, 2014 at 2 p.m., in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Tickets for Juilliard Opera's production of Il Turco in Italia are $30 and available at events.juilliard.edu or at the Juilliard Box Office. Juilliard students may attend for free; non-Juilliard students with valid ID may purchase tickets at $15 at the Juilliard Box Office.