Houston Grand Opera News

Houston Grand Opera, with Music Director Patrick Summers and Managing Director Perryn Leech, announces its 2012-13 season, headlined by four new productions. The first of these is Puccini's La boheme, which launches the new season with a new staging by award-winning British director John Caird. To honor 2013's joint bicentennials of Wagner and Verdi, the coming season juxtaposes Tristan und Isolde - starring Ben Heppner and Nina Stemme in a new contemporary staging by Christof Loy - with a revival of Steven Lawless's unforgettable take on Il trovatore. British conductor Trevor Pinnock leads a strong international cast in Mozart's ensemble masterpiece Don Giovanni, while Francesca Zambello's new production of Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat brings together stars of Broadway and the opera house in a celebration of America's own contribution to the art. For a more intimate experience, Daniela Barcellona and Lawrence Brownlee star in Rossini's dramma giocoso, The Italian Girl in Algiers.

Houston Grand Opera opens its 2012-13 season in grand style on October 19, with a brand-new production of Puccini's La boheme starring Dimitri Pittas and Katie van Kooten.

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation holds its 37th annual gala, one of the most highly anticipated events of the opera season, on Sunday, November 11 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York's Lincoln Center. Soprano Ailyn Perez, winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award and the first Latina singer to be so honored, joins a dazzling array of special guests - including baritones Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Gerald Finley; mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina; tenor Marcello Giordani; bass Ildar Abdrazakov; bass-baritone Erwin Schrott; and many more - in a program of favorite arias and ensembles, including selections by Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Massenet, Mascagni, Handel, and Wagner. Maestro Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director of Houston Grand Opera, leads the lineup of luminaries, supported by members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the New York Choral Society.

The Collegiate Chorale announces its upcoming performance with the American Symphony Orchestra, Beatrice di Tenda by Vincenzo Bellini on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 6pm at Carnegie Hall, 881 7th Avenue, NYC. Tickets start at $12.50 and are available at www.carnegiehall.org.

Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre, in association with Castillo Theatre, will present Sowa's Red Gravy by Diane Richards at Castillo Theatre (543 West 42nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues.). Performances begin tomorrow, October 18th with Opening Night set for Sunday, October 28th. Performances continue through November 18th only. Get a first look at the production in the photos below!

The November 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 back-to-back programs led by Spanish conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos. Broadcast details inside!

Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre, in association with Castillo Theatre, will present Sowa's Red Gravy by Diane Richards at Castillo Theatre (543 West 42nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues.). Performances begin Thursday October 18th with Opening Night set for Sunday, October 28th. Performances continue through November 18th only.

LA BOHÈME opens this week at Houston Grand Opera. It runs from October 19 to November 10, 2012. Busy with rehearsals and putting the final touches on this perennial favorite, Heidi Stober who is portraying Musetta took a few moments to chat about the character, the show, and herself.

The 2:30 matinee performance of LUZ -- Catherine Filloux's new play about gender-based violence and human rights violations in different parts of the world -- will be followed by a discussion with members of the human rights community, including Kate Doyle of The National Security Archive and winner of the ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism, along with Dr. Marcia Esparza, who has conducted research in areas including state violence, genocide and memory-silence in the aftermath of mass killings.

Following a hugely acclaimed and record-breaking sell out run at Hampstead Theatre, Neil Armfield's production of David Hare's The Judas Kiss will transfer to the West End.

Yale Repertory Theatre, in a co-production with American Repertory Theater, presents the world premiere of Marie Antoinette by David Adjmi, directed by Rebecca Taichman. Marie Antoinette will be performed at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street) October 26 through November 17. Opening Night is Thursday, November 1. The cast includes Fred Arsenault, Hannah Cabell, David Greenspan, Marin Ireland, Vin Knight, Jo Lampert, Polly Lee, Steven Rattazzi, Jake Silbermann, Teale Sperling, Brian Wiles, and Ashton Woerz.

Robert Adelman Hancock and Megan McGinnis will reprise the roles of Jervis Pendleton and Jerusha Abbott in John Caird's production of Daddy Long Legs, the second production at London's newest theatre complex, the St. James Theatre. Daddy Long Legs will run at the St. James Theatre from 31 October to 8 December, with press night on 7 November 2012. Get a first look at Hancock and McGinnis in character below!

LUZ-a new play by Catherine Filloux (DOG AND WOLF, LEMKIN'S HOUSE)-will be given its world-premiere production this fall, with previews beginning tonight, September 28 prior to an official press opening October 4 at La MaMa's First Floor Theatre (74A E. 4 St.) in Manhattan. LUZ is a Watson Arts Project, which presents original theater with a particular emphasis on women. LUZ is scheduled to run through October 14.

Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre, in association with Castillo Theatre, will present Sowa's Red Gravy by Diane Richards at Castillo Theatre (543 West 42nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues.). Performances begin October 18th with Opening Night set for Sunday, October 28th. Performances continue through November 18th only.

Houston Grand Opera announced today that the award-winning Broadway legend Tommy Tune and style icon Lynn Wyatt will join the cast of HGO's new production of Show Boat, January 18 - February 9, 2013.

According to the Houston Chronicle, nine-time Tony Award winner, Broadway performer, choreographer and director Tommy Tune is set to play 'Cap'n Andy Hawks' in the Houston Grand Opera production of Show Boat, opening January 18, 2013.

Washington National Opera (WNO) presents American baritone Nathan Gunn in concert as part of its Celebrity Series today, September 23 at 4 p.m. in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Accompanied by the WNO Orchestra under the baton of Tony Award winner Ted Sperling, Gunn will perform selections from operas by Mozart, Rossini, and Bizet, plus songs by Sondheim and other Broadway composers. American tenor William Burden will join him for a few duets. All three artists will make their WNO debuts with this performance.

After a 29-year absence from the Lyric Opera of Kansas City repertoire, the Company presents Verdi's Il Trovatore November 3, 7, 9, 11, 2012 at the Kauffman Center of the Performing Arts.

The Grammy-nominated early music ensemble Ars Lyrica Houston today releases Domenico Scarlatti's La Dirindina, its newest recording on the Sono Luminus label. The title piece, a musical farce, features mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, baritone Brian Shircliffe and tenor Joseph Gaines with the Ars Lyrica ensemble, conducted by its artistic director, harpsichordist Matthew Dirst. Scarlatti's cantata, Pur nel Sonno is the companion piece, featuring soprano Celine Ricci; and Dirst partners with Richard Savino on two of Scarlatti's virtuosic sonatas for mandolin and harpsichord to complete the recording.

Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, and the Houston Symphony are delighted to announce that longtime arts supporter and philanthropist Kitty King Powell has honored these organizations with gifts of $500,000 each. Marian P. Harrison and Nancy Powell Moore, daughters of Mrs. Powell, announced the gifts in a meeting with the leadership of the three arts organizations on August 27. The gift to Houston Ballet is intended to help support the new Houston Ballet Center for Dance, which opened in April 2011; monies directed toward the Symphony are to be used for the orchestra's $15 million Sustainability Fund; and the gift to Houston Grand Opera is unrestricted.