Houston Grand Opera News

Natalya Romaniw has been called 'the outstanding soprano her generation'. Recent work includes the lead roles in Scottish Opera's Tosca and English National Opera's Madame Butterfly, plus making her BBC Proms debut singing Rachmaninov's The Bells with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She talks to BroadwayWorld about her remarkable career, upcoming album Arion, and keeping the music going during the shutdown.

The Met on Demand had another week of exciting performances, from the divine [Rossini's IL  BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA] to the, well, the divine [Adams's NIXON IN CHINA].

Ars Lyrica Houston recommits to its mission of serving Houston's diverse community through music with new virtual content. Pairing stories of its musicians and artists with live and pre-recorded performances, two series, Concert & Conversations and Musical Moments, reinvent the connection between audiences and performers. Virtual a?oebackstage accessa?? is granted through interviews, music, discussion, lessons, and learning.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has announced that all performances of Salome and The Magic Flute, as well as all events associated, have been cancelled. Working in compliance with the recommendations of the City of Houston and local health authorities, HGO has made this decision to cancel all events to protect the health of its artists, staff, creative team, and audiences.

After an international search ending last month with the 32nd Annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, a?oeConcert of Arias,a?? Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has announced five new singers and one new pianist for the 2020a?"21 HGO Studio.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has elected Allyn Risley as chairman of its board of directors. He will serve a two-year term beginning August 1, succeeding current Board Chair Janet Carrig.

San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawalda?"the brilliant lyric soprano, artistic director, insightful teacher and tireless champion of young artistsa?"will retire from the Company at the close of 2020, capping a distinguished career including nearly two decades at the helm of San Francisco Opera's acclaimed young artist training programs and as artistic director of the Merola Opera Program.

Zachary James, Bass-Baritone, and Charity Wicks, pianist, will offer a recital of works composed by women at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Monday, November 30, 2020 at 7:30pm.

Returning guest conductor David Robertson leads a stellar cast of vocal soloists, the Houston Symphony, and the Houston Symphony Chorus in two performances of John Adams' celebrated and contemporary musical telling of the nativity story, El Niño, Saturday, Mar. 14, 8 p.m. and Sunday, Mar. 15, 2:30 p.m. at Jones Hall.

MasterVoices continues its 2019-20 season on Thursday April 2, at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Artistic Director Ted Sperling will lead a concert staging of Bizet's Carmen in its original Opéra Comique version, with dialogue rather than recitative, sung in English translation by award-winning Broadway lyricist Sheldon Harnick. His translation of Carmen was commissioned and premiered by the Houston Grand Opera in 1981 and served as the English text for Peter Brook's ingenious 90-minute La tragédie de Carmen which was performed at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in New York in 1984. The MasterVoices performance will mark the New York premiere of the full translation.

R. Strauss's powerful psychodrama Salome returns to Houston Grand Opera for the first time in 20 years in a production directed by Francisco Negrin. The revolutionary score reinvents Oscar Wilde's biblical drama of a deeply disturbed princess who has fallen in love with Jokanaan (John the Baptist). After he denies her, she performs the infamous and seductive a?oeDance of the Seven Veilsa?? for King Herod in exchange for John's head.

San Francisco Conservatory of Music continues to invest in its Vocal and Opera & Musical Theatre programs, with five new high-profile faculty and guest appointments announced today. In the 2020-21 season, SFCM students will benefit from top-tier mentorship from opera superstar Marilyn Horne and world-renowned collaborative pianist Martin Katz, who will join SFCM as Artists-in-Residence; Grammy Award-winning conductor Joel Revzen, a Metropolitan Opera assistant conductor who will lead the spring opera production; and San Francisco Opera coaches Peter Grunberg and César Cañón, who will join SFCM's collaborative piano faculty. 

Houston Grand Opera's HGOco has announced four unique summer opera camps designed for specific age groups and experiences, in partnership with American Festival for the Arts (AFA) and special sessions by DACAMERA. All camps are held at Houston Grand Opera located in the Wortham Theater Center. Registration is now open. For grades K - 2, there are options of one-week or two-week sessions, while the camps for grades 3 - 12 are two weeks long.

Ars Lyrica Houston has announced its 16th season, which introduces a new chamber series at Rienzi alongside its popular mainstage subscription series at the Hobby Center. Highlights of the 2020/21 season, entitled Turning Points, include two operas, one a contemporary work for solo voice and historic instruments and the other a full-dress Baroque opera with period dancing and poignant drama. Timeless stories and transcendent music animate Ars Lyrica's 2020/21 programming, as this Grammy-nominated ensemble continues to offer Houston audiences the finest in live period-instrument performance.

a?oeI have known for three generations how difficult the career of an opera singer remains,a?? said George London Foundation President Nora London at the announcement of the 2020 George London Award winners. a?oeThis all started because George wanted to help a?" and now we have been giving these awards for almost 50 years.a??

Pittsburgh Festival Opera has released the details of its 2020 schedule. Productions this season include classic opera, one world premiere, one Pennsylvania premiere and the conclusion of Pittsburgh's Ring Cycle with scenes from Siegfried and Twilight of the Gods in concert. The Festival also presents a wider breadth of programming in different venues to include lectures, a poetry reading, two concerts by its Young Artists Program and festival favorite Daphne Alderson. The Festival runs from July 11 until July 26, 2020.

Twelve outstanding Music Academy of the West musicians have been selected by audition to travel to London this April for ten days of intensive training with the London Symphony Orchestra [LSO] and its Music Director Sir Simon Rattle, as part of the second year of the Linda and Michael Keston Music Academy of the West Exchange (Keston MAX) with the LSO.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its 68th world premiere Marian's Song, composed by Damien Sneed to a libretto by Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton, Houston's poet laureate emeritus. The opera will run for two nights only, March 5 and 6 in the Cullen Theater of the Wortham Theater Center, both at 7 p.m.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) announced today the winners of the 32nd annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, which took place in the Cullen Theater of the Wortham Theater Center. This is the fourth year the Concert of Arias was streamed live on Facebook, and the third for livestreaming on YouTube. The livestream was hosted by HGO Studio alumna Jamie Barton. She is currently performing the title role in La favorite and placed third in the 2007 Concert of Arias. The winners were announced during the second portion of the program. 

Inspired by Tudor-era English history, Roberto Devereux finds Queen Elizabeth I clinging onto her power, influence and heart in the final year of her reign. Her younger lover Devereux-fighting charges of treason-is discovered to have a secret affection for another woman. As Elizabeth searches for her rival, she soon realizes the 'other woman' is much closer to her than she ever could have imagined, while Devereux is left to fight for his freedom-and his head-all on his own.