Houston Grand Opera News

The Canadian Opera Company launches its 2013/2014 season with a new production of one of the world's greatest love stories, La Bohème. Puccini's masterpiece of youthful flirtation, passionate love and heartbreaking tragedy returns to the COC for 12 performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts tonight, October 3 and October 6, 9, 12, 16, 18, 19, 22, 25, 27, 29, 30, 2013.

For the first DG Conservatory event of the fall, the Dramatists Guild is thrilled to team up with the writers who created Behind the Music-al, Kyle Ewalt and Michael Ian Walker, on Tuesday, October 8, 2013, at 6:00 p.m. The event will take place at the Dramatists Guild's New York office, in the Frederick Loewe Room, 1501 Broadway (between 43rd and 44th Streets), Suite 710. This free seminar is opening a limited number of seats to the public and reservations are required.

Subscription tickets for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts 2013/2014 Inaugural Season go on sale on Tuesday, October 1 and are available by visiting www.thewallis.org.

The Collegiate Chorale announced its first concert of the season, Mefistofele, by Arrigo Boito on November 6, 2013 at 8pm at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, NYC. Tickets are available at www.carnegiehall.org or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800. Single tickets for this concert start at $15. The Collegiate Chorale will hold its Annual Fall Gala immediately following the concert. (For more information or tickets to the Gala, please contact Mariane Lemieux at mlemieux@collegiatechorale.org or 646-435-9052.)

Mezzo Soprano Kate Lindsey, a veteran of the Metropolitan Opera, and Michael Spyres, called 'one of today's finest tenors' by French Opera magazine join the Utah Symphony tonight and tomorrow, September 27 and 28 at Abravanel Hall in Hector Berlioz's dramatic interpretation of Goethe's tale of Faust and his fateful deal with the devil, The Damnation of Faust.

Tony Award-winner and vocalist Audra McDonald is coming to Houston Saturday, Oct. 19, at 8 p.m. in the Brown Theater at the Wortham Theater Center, presented by Society for the Performing Arts. Accompanying her on stage will be Houston native Andy Einhorn.

The Dallas Opera has announced the opening production of their 2013-2014 “By Love Transformed” Season: Georges Bizet's colorful, sensual and passionate 19th century masterpiece, CARMEN, one of the most beloved and popular works in the entire opera canon.

The Georg Solti Accademia and The Juilliard School invite the public to attend an historic evening with one of the classical music world's acclaimed elder statesman, Australian conductor and pianist Richard Bonynge, celebrating the Georg Solti Accademia's 10th Anniversary and first master classes in New York City. Maestro Bonynge leads singers from Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts, The public master classes are also the first to be given by Mr. Bonynge in New York City, and the first collaboration between the Accademia and Juilliard.Tickets for this October 9 event are available to the public starting today, September 25, 2013, via the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office at Juilliard or via events.juilliard.edu.

Katherine Rohrer, newly appointed School of Music assistant professor of voice, presents her Ohio State debut recital tonight, Monday, September 23, at 8 pm in Weigel Hall Auditorium, 1866 College Rd. The performance will couple traditional repertoire with lesser-known works, including song cycles by Robert Schumann and Louis Aubert. Selections will highlight the passion of love with ultimate personal loss.

As Houston's leading performing arts presenter, Society for the Performing Arts (SPA) has announced its 2013-2014 season filled with music, dance and family entertainment from the world's best artists and companies.

Mezzo Soprano Kate Lindsey, a veteran of the Metropolitan Opera, and Michael Spyres, called “one of today's finest tenors” by French Opera magazine join the Utah Symphony on September 27 and 28 at Abravanel Hall in Hector Berlioz's dramatic interpretation of Goethe's tale of Faust and his fateful deal with the devil, The Damnation of Faust.

The American Theatre Wing (William Ivey Long, Chair; Heather Hitchens, Executive Director) announced today that its annual gala, held last night at the Plaza Hotel, was the most successful in the organization's history, raising nearly $700,000 (besting the previous record, which was set in 2012, by approximately $100,000). All proceeds from the evening will benefit the education and outreach programs of the American Theatre Wing, which include SpringboardNYC, the Theatre Intern Group, the National Theatre Company Grants and the Jonathan Larson Grants, and will also support free access for students, aspiring professionals, and the general public to programming on AmericanTheatreWing.org, including the long running television show "Working in the Theatre."

The Collegiate Chorale announces its first concert of the season, Mefistofele, by Arrigo Boito on November 6, 2013 at 8pm at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, NYC. Tickets are available at www.carnegiehall.org or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800. Single tickets for this concert start at $15. The Collegiate Chorale will hold its Annual Fall Gala immediately following the concert. (For more information or tickets to the Gala, please contact Mariane Lemieux at mlemieux@collegiatechorale.org or 646-435-9052.)

The American Theatre Wing honors legendary director and producer Harold Prince tonight, Monday, September 16 at its annual Gala at the Plaza Hotel (Fifth Avenue at Central Park South). Anki Leeds and CeCe Black will serve as Gala co-chairs.

The October broadcasts of The New York Philharmonic This Week — the weekly radio series of concerts and recordings by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by Alec Baldwin — begin with two programs featuring The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Yefim Bronfman. In the first, Lorin Maazel leads Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1, with Mr. Bronfman as soloist, and Sibelius's Symphony No. 2. The following week Music Director Alan Gilbert conducts Ravel's Alborada del gracioso; Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story; and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, again with Mr. Bronfman as soloist.

The Dallas Opera is privileged to announce an extraordinary and unprecedented experiment in twenty-first century opera: “The Dallas Opera's Global Interactive Simulcast” of acclaimed American composer Tod Machover's DEATH AND THE POWERS, scheduled to take place in Dallas on Sunday, February 16th at 2:00 p.m. Central Time, originating in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center and being simulcast to as many as ten locations in Europe and the U.S.

Stephen Costello's 2013-14 season sees the Philadelphia native set to realize more of that potential than ever with high-profile performances on the concert stage and in the opera house, along with appearances on TV and recordings.

The editors of Opera News are pleased to announce the honorees for the ninth annual Opera News Awards, paying tribute to five superb artists who have made invaluable contributions to the art form: director Patrice Chéreau, tenor Juan Diego Flórez, mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, bass-baritone James Morris and soprano Nina Stemme. The Opera News Awards ceremonywill take place on Sunday, April 13 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. All the winners - and a host of the city's cultural, civic, and social luminaries - will be present at the gala awards dinner, which will feature celebrity presenters speaking about the awardees and introducing video performance clips.

Today, Camp Broadway has announced its roster of guest artists visiting its three-day musical theater dance intensive geared towards dancers ages 14-18, occurring over the Columbus Day weekend, October 12-14, 2013.

The Canadian Opera Company has announced that Mexican tenor David Lomeli, who was scheduled to perform the role of Rodolfo in the upcoming production of Puccini's La Boheme, has had to withdraw for health reasons. Lomeli was scheduled to sing eight of the production's 12 performances. In his place, the COC has cast two of the most exciting young tenors in the opera world today: Dimitri Pittas (October 3, 6, 9, 12) and Michael Fabiano (October 16, 19, 27, 30). They share the role of Rodolfo with the previously announced Italian-American tenor Eric Margiore (October 18, 22, 25, 29).