Houston Grand Opera News

Playwrights Horizons announced in December that it had commissioned FAR FROM HEAVEN, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, The Grapes of Wrath).

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) continues its 2010-11 season with a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, Gaetano Donizetti's bel canto masterpiece, opening on Friday, January 28, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. in the Brown Theater of the Wortham Theater Center.

Houston Grand Opera announces the launch of Song of Houston: East + West, a series of new operas that celebrate Houston as a meeting place for Eastern and Western cultures.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) continues its 2010-11 season with the company premiere of Dead Man Walking, American composer Jake Heggie's masterful opera about compassion and redemption.

An intimate evening of talk and song celebrating the male roles from the musical songbook of 5-time Tony nominated composer, Michael John LaChiusa, whose works include Little Fish, Marie Christine, See What I Wanna See, Hello Again, and The Wild Party, will be presented at a one-night-only event on Monday, January 10 at 7 PM at Playwrights Horizon.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) announced today that it has commissioned FAR FROM HEAVEN, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, The Grapes of Wrath). The musical is being adapted from the acclaimed, award-winning 2002 Focus Features/Vulcan Productions motion picture Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes.

Lynn Wyatt, Houston Grand Opera Life Trustee and longtime member of the Board of Directors, was recently named a recipient of the 2011 National Opera Trustee Recognition Award. Sponsored by OPERA America, the national service organization for opera, in partnership with Bank of America, this award honors trustees of U.S. opera companies for exemplary leadership, generosity and audience-building efforts on behalf of their respective opera companies.

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) announced today that it has commissioned FAR FROM HEAVEN, a new musical with book by Tony Award winner and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens) and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens, The Grapes of Wrath). The musical is being adapted from the acclaimed, award-winning 2002 Focus Features/Vulcan Productions motion picture Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes.

This season, along with Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story of Christmas, which runs on the Hubbard Stage, the Alley Theatre will once again present a second holiday production, David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries on the Neuhaus Stage. Alley Artist Todd Waite will reprise his role as 'Crumpet the Elf' in the outlandish, and true, chronicles of David Sedaris' experience as a worker in Macy's SantaLand display. Also this season, for select performances Alley Artist Paul Hope will appear as 'Crumpet the Elf': December 8 at 7:30 PM, December 9 at 7:30 PM, December 10 at 6:00 PM and Saturday, December 11 at 2:30 PM.

The New York Philharmonic will present Stephen Sondheim's groundbreaking Company, with an all-star cast led by Neil Patrick Harris, star of the hit television series, How I Met Your Mother, on April 7-9, 2011. The award-winning musical will be produced and directed by Lonny Price, who directed and co-produced last season's SONDHEIM: The Birthday Concert!, and will be conducted by Sondheim specialist Paul Gemignani, with the original orchestrations for a 35-piece orchestra by Jonathan Tunick. More details will be announced at a later date.

Opera San José continues its 27th Season with Rossini's delightful comic opera, The Barber of Seville. The charming tale of a clever young woman, her eager lover, and their resourceful accomplice, Figaro, The Barber of Seville is a tuneful testament to all that's wonderful about fun and romance. Eight performances are scheduled from February 12 through 27 at the California Theatre, 345 South First Street in downtown San José. Tickets are on sale at the Opera San José Box Office, by phone at (408) 437-4450 or online at www.operasj.org. This production of The Barber of Seville is made possible, in part, by a Cultural Affairs Grant from the City of San José. The madcap story unfolds fast and furious in 18th-century Seville, Spain. Young Rosina is a wealthy orphan and the ward of a grasping old codger, Dr. Bartolo, who is plotting to marry her not only for her beauty, but for her substantial dowry. However, Rosina has two things on her side: the handsome Count Almaviva, who has fallen in love with her, and the town barber, Figaro, her conniving accomplice, who through clever disguises and quick wit succeeds in securing victory for the young couple.

At its meeting on December 8, 2010, the Houston Grand Opera Association Board of Directors unanimously elected Beth Madison to succeed Glen Rosenbaum as its chair. Rosenbaum, whose term expires on July 31, 2011, has been Chairman since September, 2009.'It has been an inspiration and a delight to get to know Beth over the last few years,' says HGO General Director and CEO Anthony Freud. 'I am thrilled that the Board of Directors has elected her as its new chair to succeed Glen Rosenbaum next August, and I look forward, with eager anticipation, to working with her'.

On December 9, "peerless American mezzo"* Susan Graham joins Maestro Edo de Waart and the Orchestra of St. Luke's for a performance of Berg's Seven Early Songs at Carnegie Hall. Graham continues the holiday season on December 15-16 in "Christmas at the Basilica" with the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal, a concert that will be nationally televised in Canada.

This season, along with Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story of Christmas, which runs on the Hubbard Stage, the Alley Theatre will once again present a second holiday production, David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries on the Neuhaus Stage. Alley Artist Todd Waite will reprise his role as 'Crumpet the Elf' in the outlandish, and true, chronicles of David Sedaris' experience as a worker in Macy's SantaLand display. Also this season, for select performances Alley Artist Paul Hope will appear as 'Crumpet the Elf': December 8 at 7:30 PM, December 9 at 7:30 PM, December 10 at 6:00 PM and Saturday, December 11 at 2:30 PM.

San Francisco Opera today announced details of Heart of a Soldier, a new opera by composer Christopher Theofanidis with a libretto by Donna DiNovelli, starring baritone Thoma

Two stars of the stage - Kelli O'Hara and Nathan Gunn -will join the New York Philharmonic for an evening of songs and duets from the Golden Age of Broadway, conducted by Tony Award winner Ted Sperling, Monday, March 21, 2011, at 7:30 p.m. Ms. O'Hara, fresh off her highly successful run as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific at Lincoln Center Theater, returns to the New York Philharmonic following two previous appearances, including her acclaimed starring role as Eliza Doolittle in the Orchestra's 2007 production of My Fair Lady. Baritone Nathan Gunn returns after winning hearts as the swashbuckling Sir Lancelot in the Philharmonic's 2008 Camelot production and his featured role in last season's SONDHEIM: The Birthday Concert! The two stage luminaries will perform selections from classic Broadway musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, and Stephen Sondheim, ranging from Carousel to Follies.

It's already been a red-letter autumn for the American mezzo-soprano, with DiDonato winning two prestigious 2010 Gramophone Awards - 'Artist of the Year' and 'Recital of the Year', as well as Germany's 2010 Echo Klassic 'Singer of the Year' Award. She continues her illustrious 2010-11 season with a December full of performances in another of her key roles, that of Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, at Madrid's Teatro Real. On her debut as Octavian in 2007 at San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Chronicle extolled her vocal art and dramatic verity: 'The evening's signal triumph belonged to Joyce DiDonato, undertaking Octavian for the first time and turning the role into something tender and strong. Her singing was robust and full of feeling, and she brought the technical precision and alertness of her finest Rossini and Handel performances to this very different stylistic strain. . . The result was a performance that seemed to breathe, displaying all the headstrong charm and mutability of this 17-year-old aristocrat still finding his way through the worlds of love and honor in 18th-century Vienna.'

Opera Grows in Brooklyn Sunday, December 5th - 7:00 p.m. Galapagos Art Space 16 Main Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) presented its forty-first world premiere, To Cross the Face of the Moon / Cruzar la Cara de la Luna in a sold-out concert performance on Saturday, November 13, 2010.

On December 9, "peerless American mezzo"* Susan Graham joins Maestro Edo de Waart and the Orchestra of St. Luke's for a performance of Berg's Seven Early Songs at Carnegie Hall. Graham continues the holiday season on December 15-16 in "Christmas at the Basilica" with the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal, a concert that will be nationally televised in Canada.