Houston Grand Opera News

AOP (American Opera Projects) and Poets House present a discussion with award-winning poet and librettist J. D. McClatchy followed by a reading of his latest opera libretto The Leopard, based on the acclaimed novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and directed by James Robinson. The discussion will be joined by The Leopard's composer Michael Dellaira and will feature a performance of music from the opera-in-development and a mid-event reception with the artists. The event will take place on Saturday, November 8 at 3 pm at Kray Hall in Poets House (10 River Terrace, New York, NY 10282 in Battery Park City). Tickets are $10, $7 for students and seniors, free to Poets House members and can be purchased at operaprojects.org.

Brandon Jovanovich has agreed at short notice to step into the role of Don José in this evening's performance of Carmen, replacing Aleksandrs Antonenko, who is ill. Jovanovich is currently rehearsing for next month's revival of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Met. He sang the October 13 performance of Carmen substituting for Antonenko as well.

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

On 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.

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 Griffey has withdrawn for health reasons.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 December 5 through 21, 2014, at the Wortham Theater Center, and is suitable for ages 12 and up.

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 Griffey has withdrawn for health reasons.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 December 5 through 21, 2014, at the Wortham Theater Center, and is suitable for ages 12 and up.

Tenor Norman Reinhardt will sing the role of Ferrando in Houston Grand Opera's production of Così fan tutte, it was announced today by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. He replaces Stephen Costello, who has withdrawn due to illness. Mr. Reinhardt is in Houston to perform the role of Cassio in Verdi's Otello and will play Ferrando concurrently. Otello opens October 24, and Cosi fan tutte opens October 31.

Mama Drama will play the Metropolitan Room on Saturday, 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.

Pat Barker's Booker-nominated novel, REGENERATION, has been adapted for the stage by Olivier Award-winning playwright Nicholas Wright (His Dark Materials, Vincent in Brixton), it opened at Royal & Derngate, Northampton on 29 August 2014 prior to a national tour. The production plays Wolverhampton Grand Theatre from 4 - 8 November 2014.

Brandon Jovanovich has agreed at short notice to step into the role of Don José in this evening's performance of Carmen, replacing Aleksandrs Antonenko, who is ill. Jovanovich is currently at the Met rehearsing for next month's revival of Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

Soprano Amanda Majeski is a 2009 George London Award winner who just made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the Met's season-opening presentation of Le nozze di Figaro, and bass-baritone Ryan McKinny is a 2011 George London Award winner who this past summer sang the roles of Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire with the Los Angeles Opera and Billy Bigelow in Carousel at Glimmerglass Opera. Together, they will open the 2014-15 season of the George London Foundation for Singers with a joint recital at Gilder Lehrman Hall at The Morgan Library and Museum on Sunday, November 9, 2014, at 4:30 PM, with pianist Ken Noda. The event is Mr. McKinny's New York recital debut.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City continues its 57th season with Gioachino Rossini's hilarious opera, The Italian Girl in Algiers, November 8-16, 2014 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The production will be sung in Italian with English and Italian titles.

Opera Saratoga announces its 2015 Summer Festival season, which will run from July 2 - July 26, 2015 at multiple venues throughout Saratoga Springs, New York.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present El Pasado Nunca Se Termina/The Past Is Never Finished, an opera featuring the internationally renowned ensemble Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitla?n, on May 13, 16, and 17, 2015 in the Wortham Theater Center, it was announced by HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers and Managing Director Perryn Leech. HGO's 2010 mounting of the world's first mariachi opera, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna/To Cross the Face of the Moon, with Mariachi Vargas, not only captivated audiences in Houston, but went on to hit runs in Paris, San Diego, Chicago, and Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. HGO brought Cruzar back to Houston in 2013 for three sold-out performances. Now the company will present a second mariachi opera from the same creative team of Jose? “Pepe” Marti?nez and Leonard Foglia, fresh from its March 2015 world premiere at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Set on a Mexican hacienda in 1910, just prior to the Mexican Revolution, the story traces how the country's cultural conflicts and nationalistic struggles shape one family across generations. El Pasado Nunca Se Termina/The Past Is Never Finished will be sung in Spanish and English with projected translations.

The New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera, the only grand opera company in Bergen County, New Jersey, concludes its 25th anniversary season, Vive la France, with Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme. Artistic Director Lucine Amara invites the public to see Puccini's renowned, romantic score on Sundays, October 19 and 26, 3:00 p.m., at the Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC), located at 30 North Van Brunt Street, in Englewood, New Jersey.

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 on Thursday, 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.

Broadway stars Nat Chandler (Scarlet Pimpernel, The Phantom of The Opera) and Teri Dale Hansen (Boys from Syracuse, Show Boat) will be appearing with the Pueblo Symphony Orchestra (under conductor Dr. Jacob Chi) in MANCINI AND MOONLIGHT tonight, October 4th at 7:30pm in Hoag Recital Hall on the campus of Colorado State University -- Pueblo.

San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley and San Francisco Opera Association President Keith Geeslin today announced that Gockley will retire in July 2016, concluding a ten-year, seven-month tenure with the Company and capping an internationally acclaimed and award-winning career spanning 44 years as one of America's most prominent opera impresarios. Gockley, who will be 73 at the end of the 2015–16 season, became the Company's sixth general director when he joined San Francisco Opera in January 2006. Today's announcement was made at a War Memorial Opera House press conference.

Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera Chicago, today announced the artists for El Pasado Nunca Se Termina (The Past Is Never Finished), the new mariachi opera commissioned by Lyric Unlimited that has its world premiere in Chicago in March 2015.

The Holocaust Museum Houston joins with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra on Sunday, October 19 to present an evening of music and discussion regarding the failed attempts to repress the creative spirit of Jewish artists during the era of Nazi Germany. The event includes an informative discussion about the work of degenerate artists in the areas of art, theater, film, fashion and music. The ROCO Wind Trio will then perform several selections from some of these composers during an event titled Regeneration: The Triumph of Music and Art.