Houston Grand Opera News

In December 2010, The New York Philharmonic This Week - the two-hour, national, weekly radio program of concerts by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by actor Alec Baldwin - begins with conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos leading the Orchestra in Glinka's Overture to Ruslan and Ludmila; Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, with Leonidas Kavakos as soloist; Debussy's Nocturnes, with the Women of the New York Choral Artists; and Stravinsky's 1919 Suite from The Firebird.

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.

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.

Film and television icon Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) will bring his signature brand of hilarious mayhem to Broadway for a special six-week limited engagement of the acclaimed stage play, The Pee-wee Herman Show. The production will begin previews October 26 at the Sondheim Theatre.

Mikael Eliasen, artistic director of the Curtis Opera Theatre and Hirsig Family Head-of-Department Chair in Vocal Studies, will lead a week of master classes at Longwood Gardens from June 14 through 19.

On the heels of his success this summer at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where, almost 'steal[ing] the show' (Independent), he proved himself a 'thrilling Adorno' (Financial Times) opposite Plácido Domingo in Simon Boccanegra, Joseph Calleja begins the 2010-11 season with his Houston Grand Opera debut in a new, opening-night production of Madama Butterfly. Calleja sings B.F. Pinkerton opposite soprano Ana Maria Martinez, who makes her role debut as the tragic Cio-Cio-San. The production team will be led by the renowned British director Michael Grandage, who received the 2010 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play for Red, and who is celebrated by theater audiences for his productions of Hamlet and Frost/Nixon. The cast of Madama Butterfly will work under HGO Music Director Patrick Summers. The first performance on October 22 marks the opening night of the company's 2010-11 season, and the production runs through November 5.

Director Michael Grandage, designer Christopher Oram and lighting designer Neil Austin - the creative team responsible for Houston Grand Opera's (HGO) new production of Puccini's Madame Butterfly - swept the prestigious Tony Awards Sunday night in New York City with six awards for their Broadway production of John Logan's Red.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) launches its 56th season with Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly. 'Madame Butterfly is all at once extraordinarily popular and heartbreaking,' explained HGO's General Director and CEO Anthony Freud.

Jo, Beth, Meg and Amy March will take to the stage of Indiana University's Musical Arts Center Oct. 22 for the opening of an operatic production inspired by Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel Little Women.

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.

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.

Jo, Beth, Meg and Amy March will take to the stage of Indiana University's Musical Arts Center Oct. 22 for the opening of an operatic production inspired by Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel Little Women.

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.

On the heels of his success this summer at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where, almost 'steal[ing] the show' (Independent), he proved himself a 'thrilling Adorno' (Financial Times) opposite Plácido Domingo in Simon Boccanegra, Joseph Calleja begins the 2010-11 season with his Houston Grand Opera debut in a new, opening-night production of Madama Butterfly. Calleja sings B.F. Pinkerton opposite soprano Ana Maria Martinez, who makes her role debut as the tragic Cio-Cio-San. The production team will be led by the renowned British director Michael Grandage, who received the 2010 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play for Red, and who is celebrated by theater audiences for his productions of Hamlet and Frost/Nixon. The cast of Madama Butterfly will work under HGO Music Director Patrick Summers. The first performance on October 22 marks the opening night of the company's 2010-11 season, and the production runs through November 5.

At its meeting today, the Board of Directors of Houston Grand Opera Association, Inc., extended Anthony Freud's contract as General Director and CEO through July 31, 2015. Freud, formerly the General Director of Welsh National Opera (UK) took the helm at HGO in 2006.

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.

The New York Choral Society(NYCS) will join the Opera Orchestra of New York (OONY) for its Fall Gala Concert at Carnegie Hall. Under the baton of the orchestra's new music director Alberto Veronesi, the concert features a star-studded double bill of Massenet's La Navarraise and Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana. The evening will feature accomplished tenor Roberto Alagna, distinguished soprano Maria Guleghina, and celebrated mezzo-sopranos El?na Garan?a and Mignon Dunn.

Logan is doing 'La Cage' for the third time in two years, but it's his first-ever show on Broadway!

The Opera Orchestra of New York announced today that philanthropist Dr. Agnes Varis has generously donated $250,000 to the Orchestra, founded by Music Director Eve Queler forty years ago this season.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) today confirmed plans to co-produce a complete Ring cycle with Opera Australia, which will bring Wagner's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen to Houston for the first time in the company's history.