Houston Grand Opera News

"The Maltese-born Calleja…has matured into one of the finest lyric tenors before the public today," declared the Associated Press last month following his stellar performance in Houston Grand Opera's new, season-opening production of Madama Butterfly.

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

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is pleased to announce the commercial DVD release of its 23rd world premiere, Little Women, by the American composer Mark Adamo on the Naxos label.

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.'

LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & MC COY RIGBY ENTERTAINMENT are thrilled to present the second production of their 2010-2011 season of shows - a brand new musical event from the Tony and Olivier Award-winning director of Les Misérables and the creator of Jane Eyre, DADDY LONG LEGS, based on the novel by Jean Webster, with music and lyrics by Paul Gordon (Jane Eyre), book and direction by Tony and Olivier Award-winner John Caird (Les Miserables), original musical direction by Laura Bergquist, musical direction by Julie McBride and starring Megan McGinnis and Robert Adelman Hancock.

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.

"The Maltese-born Calleja…has matured into one of the finest lyric tenors before the public today," declared the Associated Press last month following his stellar performance in Houston Grand Opera's new, season-opening production of Madama Butterfly.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its forty-first world premiere, To Cross the Face of the Moon / Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, commissioned by HGO through its Song of Houston project.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its forty-first world premiere, To Cross the Face of the Moon / Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, commissioned by HGO through its Song of Houston project. Music by José 'Pepe' Martinez, music director of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, with libretto by acclaimed Broadway director and author Leonard Foglia, the opera will be performed in concert by a cast that includes mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte, baritone and HGO studio alumnus Octavio Moreno, and Martinez, together with Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, on Saturday, November 13, 2010, at the Wortham Theater Center in Houston, Texas. This will be Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán's only Houston performance in 2010.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its forty-first world premiere, To Cross the Face of the Moon / Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, commissioned by HGO through its Song of Houston Project.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) continues its 2010-11 season with Peter Grimes, British composer Benjamin Britten's masterful opera about the human struggle of the individual versus the masses against the backdrop of the raging sea. Following HGO's acclaimed productions of Billy Budd (2008), A Midsummer Night's Dream (2009) and The Turn of the Screw (2010), Peter Grimes is the fourth opera in HGO's highly successful and innovative Benjamin Britten series. 'Peter Grimes is an opera that delivers a punch like no other,' explained HGO General Director Anthony Freud. 'It's an opera that has a visceral power, an emotional impact and an immediacy that is truly overwhelming.' HGO will present a series of Britten operas through the 2012-13 season, which marks the centennial of the composer's birth.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) announced today that, due to popular demand, an additional performance of its new production of Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly has been scheduled for Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 7:30 pm in the Wortham Theater Center's Brown Auditorium.

Sonnet Repertory Theatre presented their annual Benefit & Cabaret last night, November 8th. Sonnet Repertory Theatre brought together a diverse and talented group of performers and composers at Joe's Pub to honor multi Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning director Jack O'Brien. Jerry Mitchell served as the evening's host.

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.

Sonnet Repertory Theatre announced their Ninth Annual BENEFIT & CABARET HONORING JACK O'BRIEN to be held Monday, November 8th at Joe's Pub, to be hosted by Jerry Mitchell with Musical Direction by Dan Lipton and featuring performances by John Behlmann, Kerry Butler, Michael Cerveris, Victor Garber, Ethan Hawke, Carly Jibson, Andrew Lippa, Duncan Sheik, Joe Allen Players.

LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & MC COY RIGBY ENTERTAINMENT are thrilled to present the second production of their 2010-2011 season of shows - a brand new musical event from the Tony and Olivier Award-winning director of Les Misérables and the creator of Jane Eyre, DADDY LONG LEGS, based on the novel by Jean Webster, with music and lyrics by Paul Gordon (Jane Eyre), book and direction by Tony and Olivier Award-winner John Caird (Les Miserables), original musical direction by Laura Bergquist, musical direction by Julie McBride and starring Megan McGinnis and Robert Adelman Hancock.

LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & MC COY RIGBY ENTERTAINMENT are thrilled to present the second production of their 2010-2011 season of shows - a brand new musical event from the Tony and Olivier Award-winning director of Les Misérables and the creator of Jane Eyre, DADDY LONG LEGS, based on the novel by Jean Webster, with music and lyrics by Paul Gordon (Jane Eyre), book and direction by Tony and Olivier Award-winner John Caird (Les Miserables), original musical direction by Laura Bergquist, musical direction by Julie McBride and starring Megan McGinnis and Robert Adelman Hancock.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its forty-first world premiere, To Cross the Face of the Moon / Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, commissioned by HGO through its Song of Houston project. Music by José 'Pepe' Martinez, music director of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, with libretto by acclaimed Broadway director and author Leonard Foglia, the opera will be performed in concert by a cast that includes mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte, baritone and HGO studio alumnus Octavio Moreno, and Martinez, together with Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, on Saturday, November 13, 2010, at the Wortham Theater Center in Houston, Texas. This will be Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán's only Houston performance in 2010.

LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & MC COY RIGBY ENTERTAINMENT are thrilled to present the second production of their 2010-2011 season of shows - a brand new musical event from the Tony and Olivier Award-winning director of Les Misérables and the creator of Jane Eyre, DADDY LONG LEGS, based on the novel by Jean Webster, with music and lyrics by Paul Gordon (Jane Eyre), book and direction by Tony and Olivier Award-winner John Caird (Les Miserables), original musical direction by Laura Bergquist, musical direction by Julie McBride and starring Megan McGinnis and Robert Adelman Hancock.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director), in association with Tracy Aron, announced that two time Tony® Award-winner Donna Murphy will star in the new Broadway musical THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE, directed by Leonard Foglia. THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE features book & lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart and music by Mike Stoller and Artie Butler.