Jake Heggie News

In the third of Alan Gilbert's final four subscription weeks as New York Philharmonic Music Director, he will lead an enhanced concert production of Wagner's Das Rheingold. Soloists include bass-baritone Eric Owens as Wotan, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as Fricka (in her New York Philharmonic debut), baritone Christopher Purves as Alberich (debut), tenor Russell Thomas as Loge, mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor as Erda, bass Morris Robinson as Fasolt (debut), bass Stephen Milling as Fafner (debut), soprano Rachel Willis-Sorensen as Freia (debut), tenor Brian Jagde as Froh (debut), bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Donner (debut), tenor Peter Bronder as Mime (debut), soprano Jennifer Zetlan as Woglinde, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano as Wellgunde, and mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford as Flosshilde. The enhanced concert production will be directed by Louisa Muller with costume design - featuring character-based treatment of modern concert attire - by David C. Woolard. The performances will take place Thursday, June 1, 2017, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 3 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Ya se ha anunciado la programacion de la temporada 2017-2018 del Teatro Real de Madrid, y entre las producciones que se montaran este año destaca STREET SCENE, que podra verse en Madrid por primera vez entre el 13 y el 18 de febrero y entre el 26 de mayo y 1 de junio de 2018.

Laguna Playhouse has announced the final announced production of its 2017-2018 season of shows, written and directed by Hershey Felder, NATHAN GUNN, FLYING SOLO.

As part of the 2017 New York Opera Fest, SIGN & SING will present EXPLORATIONS, which examines three stories of love and travel, reimagining great works of classical music in sung English and American Sign Language (ASL).

Will the statue of Venus come alive? Can the vagabond find a travel companion? SIGN & SING'S "EXPLORATIONS" examines three stories of love and travel, reimagining great works of classical music in sung English and American Sign Language.

The Dallas Opera is thrilled to present—for the first time on our stage—Vincenzo Bellini's suspense-filled masterpiece of the bel canto repertoire, NORMA, starring the phenomenal South African-born soprano Elza van den Heever in the title role of a Druid priestess wronged by the man she loves.

American Lyric Theater (ALT) and The Morgan Library & Museum present ALT Alumni: Composers & Librettists in Concert on Sunday, April 23, 2017 at 3pm at The Morgan Library & Museum in the Gilder Lehrman Hall, 225 Madison Avenue, NYC. 

For the fifth year running, Opera Memphis will be in midtown for ten days of opera, concerts, parties, and more, including the reading of a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the US Army. Midtown Opera Festival takes place March 31-April 9 at Playhouse on the Square.  

Canada's Honens International Piano Competition is pleased to announce the appointment of pianist Jon Kimura Parker as Artistic Director. Mr. Parker assumes his new role in January 2018.

Asia Society Texas Center will host Representation and 21 st Century Responsibilities in the Performing Arts, a free panel discussion and public forum in collaboration with Houston Grand Opera (HGO) on Friday, March 31, at 7 p.m.

Three dazzling new opera productions are at the core of the inaugural Vancouver Opera Festival, April 28 to May 13, 2017.

The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, America's longest running festival of new orchestral music, celebrates the arrival of its brilliant new Music Director and Conductor, Cristian M?celaru, with a sensational series of commissioned works that continue the Festival's forward-looking tradition and opens creative doors for its dynamic young conductor.

Theatrical Outfit, Atlanta's second-oldest continually-operating professional theatre, aspires to create a compassionate, joyful and just community by starting the conversations that matter. From The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a timeless, epic musical co-production with Aurora Theatre (our third year in a row), to the conversation-starting new play Boy about gender reassignment, to the Atlanta premiere of GA native Lauren Gunderson's new, co-authored, Jane Austen-inspired holiday hit Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, to an intimate look at one of legend Billie Holiday's final solo appearances in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, to the Atlanta professional homecoming of Perfect Arrangement, local writer Topher Payne's mid-century gay-rights comedy, to a world premiere collaboration with Atlanta Opera, to T.O.'s non-traditional update on the sizzling Broadway classic 110 in the Shade, to year two of our Unexpected Play Readings, our 2017-2018 Season of Character truly offers something for everyone.

The story or Sister Helen and a convicted double murderer at Kauffman Center

Former Houston Symphony Music Director Christoph Eschenbach returns to Houston to conduct a spiritually-uplifting program of works by Austrian composer Anton Bruckner at8 p.m. March 3-4, and 2:30 p.m. March 5.

OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion for American opera, is pleased to announce it has awarded grants to 10 opera companies through The Opera Fund: Audience Development grant program, which promotes deep learning experiences about new or infrequently produced American operas and music-theater works. Each grant supports audience development activities associated with a specific work being produced by a Professional Company Member of OPERA America.

The Washington National Opera opened Dead Man Walking on February 25, which continues throughMarch 11, 2017 in the Opera House. It is based on Sister Helen Prejean's acclaimed 1993 memoir, which tells of her time working with death row inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary and of a particular relationship she developed with one of the inmates. The opera explores the human conflicts posed by society's demands for vengeance and the Christian imperative for forgiveness and love. The lyrical score by composer Jake Heggie (WNO's Moby-Dick, 2014) is widely regarded as a modern classic, while Terrence McNally's balanced libretto has been called one of the most perfect librettos of an American opera ever written.

Today's subject Michael Mayes is living his theatre life playing a murderer on death row in the Washington National Opera production of Dead Man Walking. Michael has performed the role of Joseph De Rocher in multiple productions –including one at Central City Opera in Denver, Colorado – and now local arts aficionados can see him play it at the Kennedy Center's Opera House through March 11th.

Rooted in the moral conflict between society's thirst for justice and Christianity's tenet of forgiveness, the modern American opera DEAD MAN WALKING is an apt selection for the Washington National Opera this season. With a moving score by Jake Heggie and an honest, straightforward libretto by Terrence McNally, it is based on Sister Helen Prejean's 1993 memoir of her work as a spiritual advisor to death row inmates, including one in particular, Joseph De Rocher. The Kennedy Center production directed by Francesca Zambello marks the 50th international production of DEAD MAN WALKING, and it's a bold and haunting one.