Houston Grand Opera News

Lyric Opera of Kansas City closes its 56th season with Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus today, April 26, 30 and May 2 and 4, 2014 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the West Coast premiere of A Coffin in Egypt, a new chamber opera in one act, based on the play, A Coffin in Egypt by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote, for three performances only, from April 23, 25 and 27 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater. A Coffin in Egypt stars mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, one of opera's most beloved figures, whose formidable bravura has won her wide acclaim. Ricky Ian Gordon, the composer, has also composed The Grapes of Wrath, Rappahannock County, and Orpheus and Euridice. Leonard Foglia, librettist and director, directed Master Class on Broadway and Jake Heggie's opera Last Acts. Check out a look back at opening night and the after party at Flemings Steakhouse below!

Each of Wolfgang Amade Mozart's vast number of compositions is considered a musical gem. Join Music Director Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as they celebrate Mozart's extensive catalog of masterpieces during the BNY Mellon Grand Classics Mozart Festival, a two-week exploration of the five pillars of Mozart's music - symphony, concerto, chamber music, opera and sacred music.

Opera Colorado announced today that it will present Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly(November 2014), W.A. Mozart's The Magic Flute (May 2015), Giuseppe Verdi's Aida (November 2015), and the world premiere of Lori Laitman's The Scarlet Letter (May 2016) starring Elizabeth Futral as Hester Prynne. A vital presence in Denver's cultural ecology, Opera Colorado is the Rocky Mountain region's preeminent grand opera company. The Opera's programming includes mainstage productions, artist development initiatives, and education and community engagement programming.

Nathan Gunn has made a reputation as one of the most exciting and in-demand baritones of the day. He has appeared in internationally renowned opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Paris Opera, and Teatro Real in Madrid.

Tonight, April 24, the Houston Symphony will perform their annual Spec's Charitable Foundation Salute to Educator's Concert at Jones Hall. The concert celebrates local educators - music and classroom teachers alike - while spotlighting young musicians. Led by Houston Symphony Associate Conductor Robert Franz, the orchestra will open the evening's festivities with Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante for Cello and Orchestra, featuring 18-year-old Charles Seo, Houston native and Gold Medal winner of the 2013 Houston Symphony League Concerto Competition. Following intermission, the orchestra will be joined by the Houston Youth Symphony in a special side-by-side performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the West Coast premiere of A Coffin in Egypt, a new chamber opera in one act, based on the play, A Coffin in Egypt by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote, for three performances only tonight, April 23 and April 25 and 27 in the Bram Goldsmith Theater.

On Thursday, April 24, the Houston Symphony will perform their annual Spec's Charitable Foundation Salute to Educator's Concert at Jones Hall. The concert celebrates local educators - music and classroom teachers alike - while spotlighting young musicians. Led by Houston Symphony Associate Conductor Robert Franz, the orchestra will open the evening's festivities with Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante for Cello and Orchestra, featuring 18-year-old Charles Seo, Houston native and Gold Medal winner of the 2013 Houston Symphony League Concerto Competition. Following intermission, the orchestra will be joined by the Houston Youth Symphony in a special side-by-side performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor.

The Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF), in partnership with Lyric Opera of Chicago, is pleased to present five-time Grammy Award-winning opera singer Jessye Norman on May 19, 2014 at 6 p.m. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (112 S. Michigan Ave.). Legendary soprano Jessye Norman will be in conversation with opera dramaturg Colin Ure to discuss her new memoir titled Stand Up Straight and Sing!, set to release on May 6. Tickets to the program are on sale now for $25-35 and can be purchased online at chicagohumanities.org or at 312-494-9509.

On Thursday, April 24, the Houston Symphony will perform their annual Spec's Charitable Foundation Salute to Educator's Concert at Jones Hall. The concert celebrates local educators - music and classroom teachers alike - while spotlighting young musicians. Led by Houston Symphony Associate Conductor Robert Franz, the orchestra will open the evening's festivities with Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante for Cello and Orchestra, featuring 18-year-old Charles Seo, Houston native and Gold Medal winner of the 2013 Houston Symphony League Concerto Competition. Following intermission, the orchestra will be joined by the Houston Youth Symphony in a special side-by-side performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor.

Ben Edquist, of Houston, won the $15,000 First Prize in the finals of the 2014 Lotte Lenya Competition, sponsored by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and held on April 12, 2014, in Kilbourn Hall of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. Arlo Hill, of New York, won the Second Prize of $10,000, and the Third Prize of $7,500 was awarded to Natalie Ballenger, also of New York.

Houston Grand Opera, which opened a lavish production of DAS RHEINGOLD this past weekend, is proudly kicking off their first Ring Cycle by Richard Wagner. Like any modern production of Wagner's Ring Cycle, Houston Grand Opera is sparing no expense. At Sunday's matinee, the audience leapt to their feet for curtain call and clamored excitedly about this show and what's still to come in the cycle.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Derek Bermel and Music Director George Manahan, American Composers Orchestra's (ACO) 2014-2015 season strengthens the orchestra's commitment to serve as a catalyst for the creation of new orchestral music, providing unprecedented opportunities for American composers to create new work and for audiences to discover it. Now in its 11th year at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, Orchestra Underground continues as ACO's subversive and entrepreneurial redefinition of the orchestra as an elastic ensemble, and this year features the rarely performed orchestral music of pioneering composer and performer Meredith Monk, holder of the 2014-2015 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair at Carnegie Hall (Monk's Sphere, November 21). Orchestra Underground brings cabaret, pop, and jazz traditions into the concert hall in a program featuring Kurt Weill's cabaret cult classic The Seven Deadly Sins sung by Shara Worden (Sin & Songs, February 27). For the first time in several seasons, ACO returns to performing with full symphonic forces outside of Carnegie Hall - the orchestra's April concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center will showcase the New York premiere ofWynton Marsalis' Blues Symphony.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation has announced that Michael Fabiano - 'the tenor that we have all been waiting for' (San Francisco Classical Voice) - is the winner of the 2014 Richard Tucker Award.

Each of Wolfgang Amade Mozart's vast number of compositions is considered a musical gem. Join Music Director Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as they celebrate Mozart's extensive catalog of masterpieces during the BNY Mellon Grand Classics Mozart Festival, a two-week exploration of the five pillars of Mozart's music - symphony, concerto, chamber music, opera and sacred music.

Tomorrow, April 11, Houston Grand Opera presents Das Rheingold, launching the American debut of a visionary and groundbreaking treatment of Der Ring des Nibelungen by La Fura dels Baus. As the first staging of Wagner's epic cycle in HGO history, the event marks an important company milestone-one that HGO follows two weeks later with a new take on Carmen from Broadway sensation Rob Ashford. These two productions come at a time when HGO has once again been making headlines, not only for the world premiere of A Coffin in Egypt and an acclaimed revival of A Little Night Music, but by successfully appealing to new audiences. 'The most recent NEA survey shows that only 2% of Americans go to the opera each year. Yet HGO is bucking the trend. Since the 2009-10 season it has seen its attendances grow by 24 percent,' reported the Economist last month. As Houston History noted in a recent feature article, 'many arts programs across the nation are shutting down due to financial failure, [but] HGO has succeeded in remaining relevant.'

Mezzo-soprano star Joyce DiDonato will sing her first Met performances of one of her signature roles, the winsome heroine of Rossini's adaptation of the Cinderella story, La Cenerentola, beginning April 21.

Houston Grand Opera presented the 2014 Opera Ball, Fleurs de l'Opera, Saturday, April 5, at 7 p.m. in the Wortham Theater Center. With more than six hundred guests in attendance, the sold-out gala raised $2 million to support the company's internationally renowned performances and community programs that distinguish HGO as one of America's great opera companies.

For the first time in 40 years Vancouver audiences will experience the magnificence of Verdi's spectacular masterpiece, Don Carlo, the emotionally gripping drama of a king's brutal power and a son's brash rebellion. With formidable orchestral forces, a massive chorus and a powerhouse international cast, VO's final – and biggest – production of 2013-2014promises to be this season's most explosive experience yet!