Houston Grand Opera News

Francis Patrelle, founder of Dances Patrelle will be honored with the Kaatsbaan Award at the Starburst of Dance Gala tonight, November 15, 2014 at the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center. For more information on the gala, visit http://www.kaatsbaan.org/events.html.

Disguised lovers, tricky servants, and well-meaning parents cross and double-cross one another in Carlo Goldoni's 18th century slapstick filled, comic gem. The characters' search for a happy ending depends entirely on the wily servant Truffaldino, who is constantly on the lookout for a decent meal. Truffaldino's attempt to double his wages by being the servant to two masters unravels with delicious mayhem.

Houston, November 7, 2014—Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will hold a special fundraising day on Tuesday, December 2, as part of#GivingTuesday, 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 #GivingTuesday campaign.

San Francisco Opera presents Gioachino Rossini's La Cenerentola (Cinderella) in six performances November 9-26. French mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes makes her San Francisco Opera debut in the title role of Angelina (Cinderella), the gentle servant girl who catches the eye of a handsome prince.

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 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.

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 on Wednesday, 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.

Houston Grand Opera's HGOco, the company's community collaboration and education initiative, announced plans to produce a multiyear Veterans Songbook project to honor United States servicemen and servicewomen. Houston's veteran community is on track to become the largest in the United States. This compelling project will feature songs drawn directly from the stories of Houston-based veterans and their loved ones, with themes centered on conflict and courage as well as strength and sacrifice.

The new musical THE NINE FATHERS OF ARIEL is currently undergoing a New York workshop, concluding with invited rehearsals for industry members today and tomorrow, November 6 and 7.

A revival of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia will open at the Met November 18, withLawrence Brownlee as the lovestruck Count Almaviva; Isabel Leonard as Rosina, the feisty ward who captures his heart; andChristopher Maltman in his first Met performances of Figaro, the title barber whose skills extend far beyond hair-cutting.Michele Mariotti conducts the performance, which also stars Maurizio Muraro as Dr. Bartolo and Paata Burchuladze as Don Basilio. Bartlett Sher's acclaimed staging premiered at the Met in 2006. The November 22 matinee performance will be transmitted worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series, which is now seen in more than 2,000 movie theaters in 69 countries around the world.

Six-time Tony Award winner and Musical America's 2014 Musician of the Year Audra McDonald, returns to Carnegie Hall on Friday, December 12 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage.

Francis Patrelle, founder of Dances Patrelle will be honored with the Kaatsbaan Award at the Starburst of Dance Gala on November 15, 2014 at the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center. For more information on the gala, visit http://www.kaatsbaan.org/events.html.

Before Victoria Clark returns to Broadway next season as 'Mamita Alvarez' in Gigi, she heads back to school as the artist in residence at Pace University. Clark directs The Light in the Piazza, the show for which she picked up a Tony Award in 2005, running through November 8 at the Loretto Theatre at The Sheen Center. The Light in the Piazza, by Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas, is based on the novella of the same name by Elizabeth Spencer. Taking place in Italy in the late summer of 1953, it is the story of an American woman Margaret Johnson, who travels to Florence with her daughter Clara, who falls in love with a young Florentine man. As details emerge about Clara's past, their trip turns out to be very much a romantic and psychological journey as Margaret must decide what is best for her daughter, her family, and for herself. The winner of six Tony Awards in 2005, The Light in the Piazza has become one of the great classics of the American Musical Theater, with its lush score and cliff-hanger story. Clark took the time out of her busy schedule to update BroadwayWorld on her adventures in directing, revisiting PIAZZA, preparing for GIGI and more. Check out the full interview below!

Today, November 1, embark on the first concert of the Houston Symphony's Family Concert Series as Associate Conductor and audience favorite Robert Franz leads the orchestra in a program entitled African Safari with Music from The Lion King.

The Dallas Opera's explosive second production of the 2014-2015 'Heights of Passion' Season is SALOME by Richard Strauss (whose libretto was based on Hedwig Lachmann's German translation of Oscar Wilde's play). SALOME, generally regarded as one of the masterpieces of the Late Romantic Era, opens tonight, October 30, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. in theMargot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center located in the Dallas Arts District.

Verdi's Egyptian tragedy Aida, one of the most-performed operas in company history, will return to the Met stage October 30 for a 16-performance revival with rotating casts of acclaimed artists and rising stars. The initial performances will star Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska, who made a notable Met debut in the role in 2012, as Aida; Olga Borodina in one of her best-known portrayals as the jealous princess Amneris; Marcello Giordani as the war hero Radamès, a role he first sang at the Met in 2012; Željko Lu?i? in his first-ever Met performances as Amonasro, Aida's father; Ukrainian bass Dmitri Belosselskiy in his Met role debut as the high priest Ramfis; and American bass Soloman Howard in his Met debut as the King. Italian tenor Antonello Palombi will make his Met debut as Radamès on November 22.

St. Ann's Warehouse welcomes back the National Theatre of Scotland, director John Tiffany and associate director Steven Hoggett for the American Premiere of Let the Right One In, which Jack Thorne adapted for the stage from John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel and screenplay, and which garnered tremendous acclaim on London's West End earlier this year.

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 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.

Mama Drama will play the Metropolitan Room today, October 25 at 1:00pm. The Metropolitan Room is located at 34 West 22 St. Tickets are $25 and can be purchase by phone at 212-206-0440, or online at www.metropolitanroom.com.

Richard Tucker and Plácido Domingo Award-winner Ailyn Pérez makes her hotly anticipated Houston Grand Opera debut this Friday (Oct 24), in what also marks her role debut as Desdemona in Otello. Under the baton of Patrick Summers, Houston's artistic and music director, she stars opposite Simon O'Neill as Otello and Marco Vratogna as Iago in the company's staging of John Cox's hit production of the Shakespearean tragedy, which runs through November 7.

Join Houston Grand Opera for an evening of celebration as it opens its 60th anniversary season with a dramatic production of Verdi's Otello followed by an evening of entertainment and fundraising at the Opening Night Dinner Celebration at the Wortham Theater Center. Otello is sung by an internationally acclaimed cast, led by Simon O'Neill, Ailyn Pérez, Marco Vratogna, Norman Reinhardt, Victoria Livengood, and Morris Robinson.