Houston Grand Opera News

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, has announced the recipients of the 2012 National Opera Trustee Recognition Award.

The Atlanta Opera is set to host their 24-Hour Opera Project Showcase. Audience can attend for free or tune in via a live webcast on Saturday, January 21 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

The Atlanta Opera's 24-Hour Opera Project Showcase! features selected composers, lyricists, stage directors and opera singers -- randomly put into teams - who have 24 hours to compose, stage and rehearse a 10-minute opera.

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will present the world premiere of Jones' "Story/Time" at Peak Performances at Montclair State University, January 21-22 & 26-29. "Story/Time" marks Jones' third commission from Peak.

The Atlanta Opera's 24-Hour Opera Project Showcase! features selected composers, lyricists, stage directors and opera singers -- randomly put into teams - who have 24 hours to compose, stage and rehearse a 10-minute opera.

The Glimmerglass Festival will hold GLIMMERATA!, the 2012 Spring Gala, on April 10 at The Metropolitan Club in Manhattan to benefit the company's Young Artists and Summer Internshipprograms. The evening will feature music, dinner and dancing, as well as performances by 2012 Glimmerglass Artist in Residence Eric Owens, David Daniels, Dwayne Croft, Sean Panikkar, Elizabeth Futral, Young Artist Dominick Rodriguez and more.

Patricia Racette will return to the title role of Puccini's Tosca, which she sang at the Met to great acclaim in the 2009-10 season, for six performances beginning January 10.

The Atlanta Opera is set to host their 24-Hour Opera Project Showcase. Audience can attend for free or tune in via a live webcast on Saturday, January 21 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, has announced that it has awarded nearly $200,000 in Audience Development grants, as part of The Opera Fund, to 16 U.S. opera companies.

In the first of several high-profile appearances this season, Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni earned universal acclaim for his star turn as Leporello in the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni, which ran from October 13-November 11. He sang alongside such talents as Peter Mattei and Mariusz Kwiecien (as Don Giovanni), Barbara Frittoli (Donna Elvira) and Ramón Vargas (Don Ottavio), led by Met principal conductor Fabio Luisi.

The Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni will take another featured turn on the Met stage as Caliban, alongside Placido Domingo and Joyce DiDonato, in The Enchanted Island - the company's freshly conceived Shakespearean tableau of music by Handel, Vivaldi, and Rameau, conducted by renowned Baroque authority William Christie (Dec 31-Jan 30).

Seattle Opera today announced its 2012/13 season, featuring six operas that explore the infinite variety of love: obsession, true love, false love, love at first sight, marital love, and love born of hatred.

In February 2012 The New York Philharmonic This Week - the weekly radio series of concerts by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by Alec Baldwin - begins with an encore performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah from November 2010 led by Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, with soprano Carolyn Sampson, mezzo-soprano Alice Coote, tenor Allan Clayton, bass-baritone Gerald Finley, and the New York Choral Artists, Joseph Flummerfelt, director. The second program - from the Orchestra's EUROPE / WINTER 2010 tour - is also led by Mr. Gilbert and includes EXPO by The Marie-Josee Kravis Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg; Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, with Yefim Bronfman as soloist; and Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 and Valse triste as performed in Cologne, Germany.

Patricia Racette will return to the title role of Puccini's Tosca, which she sang at the Met to great acclaim in the 2009-10 season, for six performances beginning January 10.

The Opera Orchestra of New York continues its 41st season with an opera-in-concert performance of Wagner's Rienzi conducted by Music Director Laureate, Eve Queler at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. The opera, based on the life of Cola di Rienz (1313-1354), the Italian medieval politician and popular leader of the Roman people whose goal was to transform society by raising the power of the people, stars tenor Ian Storey in the title role, with soprano Elisabete Matos as Irene and mezzo-soprano Geraldine Chauvet in her US debut as Adriano. All three artists will be making their Opera Orchestra of New York debuts.

Stephen Wadsworth's new production of Terrence McNally's Master Class starring Tyne Daly as the legendary opera soprano Maria Callas is to transfer to the Vaudeville Theatre following its critically acclaimed, sell-out run on Broadway. Joining Daly are Gerard Carey (Stagehand), Jeremy Cohen (Emmanuel Weinstock), Naomi O'Connell (Sharon Graham), Dianne Pilkington (Sophie De Palma) and Garrett Sorenson (Anthony Candolino).

The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company will present the world premiere of Jones' "Story/Time" at Peak Performances at Montclair State University, January 21-22 & 26-29. "Story/Time" marks Jones' third commission from Peak.

The New York Times reports today that a FINDING NEVERLAND musical has been greenlighted by The Weinstein Company for further development following successful readings in London last week. The project was last workshopped in New York this past spring and was scheduled to premiere at the La Jolla playhouse this fall. The Weinstein's pulled the project at the last minute (which was replaced at La Jolla by the Startford Festival's Jesus Christ Superstar, currently running) to develop further. Tony Award winner Rob Ashford helms the project, which has Broadway apsirations. The project marks the first musical on which the Weinstein company is lead producer.

The second event in the FRESHLY BREWED series at OPERA America will be held this weekend on Sunday December 18th at 1:00 PM. Tickets are now on sale for The Art of the Aria with Mark Adamo.

As part of HGOco's cross-cultural East + West initiative, Houston Grand Opera has commissioned two chamber operas to be premiered in spring and summer 2012.