Houston Grand Opera News

DACAMERA of Houston, together with Rice University's Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance and Holocaust Museum Houston, presents The Music of Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a free performance by pianist and DACAMERA Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg with DACAMERA Young Artists on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 6:30 p.m., at Holocaust Museum Houston, 5401 Caroline Street. The performance will be preceded by a panel discussion featuring Rothenberg in discussion with Patrick Summers (Houston Grand Opera music director) and Jeremy Eichler (critic, essayist and author of the forthcoming book Time's Echo: War, Modern Music and the Soundscapes of Memory). The performance and panel discussion are part of the Boniuk Institute's ongoing efforts to promote religious tolerance and literacy.

Actors Co-op (Ovation Winner 2018 Best Direction of a Musical - Intimate Theatre) is proud to present Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep - A Penny Dreadful, directed by Carla Cackowski, produced by Carly Lopez. This hilarious two-actor, multi-character comedic thriller is a nod to the classic Gothic melodramas and early fright flicks of the 30s and 40s. The play will run October 4 through November 10 at the Actors Co-op Crossley Theatre in Hollywood

Portland Opera is pleased to announce the artists joining the company's 2019/20 Resident Artist program: soprano Emilie Faiella, returning mezzo-soprano Camille Sherman, tenor Ricardo Garcia, and returning baritone Geoffrey Schellenberg. Portland Opera established the Resident Artist Program in 2005, providing a bridge from the conservatory world to the professional stage for talented emerging singers, who join the company for a two-year rigorous residency and training program.

Verdi's beloved opera Aida opens San Diego Opera's 2019-2020 season in an entirely new theatrical performance utilizing set elements, costumes, lighting, and featuring the San Diego Symphony and San Diego Opera chorus onstage, alongside some of the greatest interpreters of Verdi's music performing today. Aida opens on October 19, 2019 for four performances. Additional performances are October 22, 25, and 27 (matinee), 2019.

Playwrights Foundation's 1st Rough Reading of the season will be Derecho by Noelle Viñas, directed by Lauren Spencer. Derecho is an experimental play that explores how fragmented identity can tear you apart.

San Diego Opera's 2019-2020 season continues with a special one-night-only event on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 at 7:30 PM when soprano Ailyn Pérez and tenor Joshua Guerrero perform in concert at the Balboa Theatre.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is proud to announce the signing of new collective bargaining agreements (CBA) with three union groups that provide critical services for the company including American Federation of Musicians (AFM), Local 65-699, the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), and I.A.T.S.E. Theatrical Wardrobe Union (TWU), Local 896. These unions are key to the success of Houston Grand Opera providing the highest level of artistic excellence to its audiences.

The accomplished composer, producer, curator and arts administrator John Glover has been named Director of Artistic Planning at NYC's Kaufman Music Center. Vice President and Director of Orchestra of St. Luke's DiMenna Center for Classical Music since 2013, Glover is Artistic Director of the Look+Listen Festival and has produced numerous new music festivals and series including NYsoundCircuit, NOise, the UnCaged Toy Piano Festival and SONiC Festival.

The Houston Symphony honors Hispanic Heritage Month with its annual free Fiesta Sinfónica concert, which this year features Mexican soprano Yunuet Laguna and Portuguese-American conductor Jacomo Bairos in a program that highlights the vibrant music of Cuba, Sept. 15 at 6 p.m.

The Royal Opera House today announces its 2019/20 Cinema Season which will launch in October. 13 productions will be broadcast to 600 UK cinemas stretching the length of the UK from the Orkney Islands all the way to Jersey in the Channel Islands.   

Kansas City Repertory Theatre (KCRep), announced the full schedule for this season's popular Monday Night Playwright Series, which opened with BURIED ROOTS, its first play of the series, on Monday. The series features a line-up of new and returning playwrights including Michelle Tyrene Johnson, Darren Canady, James Still, Migdalia Cruz, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen and Ellen McLaughlin. These free public events take place on the UMKC campus at the Spencer Theatre Donor Lounge.  

The Florentine Opera Company is excited to announce its 2019-20 Baumgartner Studio Artists a?" soprano Kathryn Henry, mezzo-soprano Meghan Folkerts, tenor Luke Selker and baritone Samuel James Dewese. 

Houston Grand Opera opens the 2019a?'20 season with a new production of Verdi's Rigoletto under the direction of Tomer Zvulun, who returns to HGO after directing last season's haunting The Flying Dutchman. Featuring some of opera's most recognizable music, Rigoletto is a tragic story of jealousy, lust, and revenge. The antagonistic jester Rigoletto is cursed after a joke with the villainous Duke of Mantua goes too far. Despite his best efforts to protect his beloved daughter Gilda, Rigoletto is unable to keep her safe from the outside world and the curse's fulfillment. He most certainly will not have the last laugh. The dark undertones are reflected in the theme a?oea man who seeks revenge should dig two graves.a??

After a 15-year wait for music lovers, Puccini's Turandot returns to the Canadian Opera Company in a striking new production from visionary director Robert Wilson at the Four Season Centre for the Performing Arts. Princess Turandot has a fierce reputation that precedes her royal name thanks to a high-stakes challenge she has issued: answer her three riddles correctly and win her hand in marriage. Answer incorrectly and pay dearly a?" with your life. As a steady stream of admirers land face-to-face with the executioner, Prince Calaf takes on the deadly game and has a mystery of his own for Turandot to solve. Turandot runs for nine performances on September 28, October 4, 9, 15, 17, 19, 23, 25, 27, 2019.

Lincoln Center Theater, under the direction of André Bishop, has announced it will produce a new musical during its 2019-2020 season. FLYING OVER SUNSET, with a book and direction by James Lapine, music by Tom Kitt, and lyrics by Michael Korie, will feature choreography by Michelle Dorrance, and will begin previews March 12, 2020 and open on Thursday, April 16, 2020 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (150 West 65 Street). Carmen Cusack, Harry Hadden-Paton and Tony Yazbeck will head the cast with additional casting to be announced at a later date.

Opera Saratoga announced today the three operas that will be featured at the center of the company's 2020 Summer Festival, to be presented at The Spa Little Theatre in Spa State Park, from June 20th through July 5th, 2020.

Ted Sperling, Artistic Director of MasterVoices, announced details of the acclaimed ensemble's 78th season, celebrating the joy of choral singing and the power of the human voice to unite, inspire and connect since 1941. Highlights include three major musical presentations at top venues, including a New York premiere, and the World Premiere of a new work, commissioned by the Company. Throughout the season there will be collaborations with leading singers, artists, ensembles and organizations, some who are familiar with and others who are new to the Company.

Word for Word and Z Space stage an atmospheric production of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's legendary Rime of the Ancient Mariner  with press nights of Friday and Saturday September 20 & 21 at 8pm running through October 12 (Previews Sept 11-19).

General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced the selection of the artists for the Resident Artist Program for the 2019-2020 season.

San Francisco Opera announces Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman as the winner of the 2019 Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Emerging Stars Competition. Chuchman made her Company debut as Mary Hatch in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's It's a Wonderful Life last fall and was named a?oe2019 Emerging Star of the Yeara?? based on a popular vote conducted online at sfopera.com from July 9a?"July 31, 2019. As winner of the competition, now in its fourth year, Chuchman receives a $10,000 cash prize.