Jamie Barton News

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) announced at its annual meeting today that its 2017-18 season, dramatically relocated after Hurricane Harvey, closed on a strong financial footing despite nearly $15 million of losses due to the storm and related costs. Lower sales income than in previous seasons was significantly offset by a Harvey recovery fundraising campaign that has raised more than $9.5 million to date. HGO presented its entire 63rd season in the HGO Resilience Theater, a temporary venue the company built in Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center after its home in the Wortham Theater Center was seriously damaged by flooding. The company will return to the Wortham in the fall with a gala benefit concert featuring Placido Domingo and Ana Maria Martinez on September 26.

Complementing the highly-anticipated performances of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House (June 12-July 1), San Francisco Opera presents its ongoing Ring Festival of ancillary events and activities. Designed to deepen public engagement and provide informative, fun ways to explore Wagner's profound masterwork, the Ring Festival offers a diverse schedule of lectures, exhibitions, film screenings, musical programs and opportunities to hear from artists, production team members and Wagner experts.

German soprano Evelyn Herlitzius, scheduled to make her San Francisco Opera debut as Brunnhilde in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), has withdrawn from the upcoming engagement due to health reasons. While San Francisco Opera regrets this casting change, the Company is honored to welcome in her stead the equally acclaimed Swedish soprano Irene Theorin as Brunnhilde, the pivotal heroine of Wagner's magnum opus. A celebrated Brunnhilde, Theorin's engagement will mark her first complete Ring in the United States with three cycles of the work at the War Memorial Opera House, June 12-July 1, 2018.

After many months of competitions at the district, regional, and national levels, five singers have been named as the winners of the nation's most prestigious vocal competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Each winner receives a $15,000 cash prize and the exposure that comes with winning the competition that launched the careers of many of opera's biggest stars.

Beginning Tuesday, May 1 at 10 a.m., tickets to individual performances within Richard Wagner's four-opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), will be available for purchase. Previously offered only as complete cycle packages, tickets for Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung will go on sale for the first time.

Soprano Nadine Sierra has been named the winner of the 13th annual Beverly Sills Artist Award for young singers at the Metropolitan Opera. The $50,000 award, the largest of its kind in the United States, is given to extraordinarily gifted singers between the ages of 25 and 40 who have already appeared in featured solo roles at the Met. The award, given in honor of Beverly Sills, was established in 2006 by an endowment gift from the late Agnes Varis, a managing director on the Met board. In 2009 Sierra became the youngest ever winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has gone on to make her mark at the Met with memorable performances in Verdi's Rigoletto, and Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Idomeneo and Don Giovanni. In the Met's 2018-19 season, Sierra will reprise the role of Gilda in Rigoletto.

Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI)-one of North America's premiere summer training programs for young musicians-announces its 2018 programs and events today. The 2018 BUTI summer season, which will take place at Tanglewood and on the BUTI campus in Lenox, MA, June 17-August 11, features concert and recital programming throughout the Berkshires; workshops led by distinguished performers and teachers from Boston University College of Fine Arts and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO); Visiting Artists conductor Teddy Abrams (BUTI '03) and bassist Joseph Conyers (BUTI '98); Artist-in-Residence Nico Muhly (BUTI '96, '97); and rich programs of learning and performance for students ages 10-20. Led by Executive Director Hilary Field Respass, BUTI is the only program of its kind associated with one of the world's great symphony orchestras, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. BUTI's 2018 Summer Concert Series is generously sponsored by M&T Bank.

Following today's highly competitive semi-final competition, nine young singers will advance to the final phase of the Metropolitan Opera's 2018 National Council Auditions, America's most prestigious vocal competition. The selected finalists, chosen by a panel of experts from the classical music industry, will compete on the Met stage on Sunday, April 29 at 3 p.m. The winners will receive individual cash prizes of $15,000 and the prestigious—and potentially career-launching—title of National Council Auditions Winner. The Grand Finals Concert will be hosted by Joyce DiDonato, who will perform during the judges' deliberations. The finalists will sing two arias, with Bertrand de Billy conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Artistic Advisor at Large Renee Fleming today announce the schedule of performances for the 2018-2019 Renee Fleming VOICES series, marking its third season celebrating the power of the voice across a wide range of genres.

Twenty-five young opera singers who have won regional auditions around the United States will arrive at the Met this month to compete in the next phase of the country's leading vocal competition: the semi-final round of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Giuseppe Verdi's epic opera is being staged for the first time in two decades at WNO and features a sterling cast in a grand production.

Renowned experimental, often-controversial opera and theater director Peter Sellars will join Debbie McNulty, director of Mayor Turner's Office of Cultural Affairs, and Patrick Summers, artistic director of Houston Grand Opera, in a public conversation about art and activism moderated by the Rothko Chapel's executive director, David Leslie, on Tuesday, March 20, 7-8:30 p.m. at the Rothko Chapel, 3900 Yupon St., Houston. The "pay what you can" event has a suggested value of $20. Registration is advised; visit rothkochapel.org or call 713-524-9839.

Juilliard announces the appointment of tenorWilliam Burden to Juilliard's voice faculty in Juilliard's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts. Mr. Burden's appointment will begin in fall of 2018. Mr. Burden has performed at the world's greatest opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Glyndebourne, Santa Fe Opera, and the Bayerische Staatsoper, among many others.

The Met: Live in HD, the Metropolitan Opera's award-winning series of live high-definition cinema simulcasts, will begin its 13th season on October 6, with the Met's grand production of Verdi's Aida, starring one of the world's most acclaimed sopranos, Anna Netrebko.

Accelerating his arrival as Music Director by two seasons, Yannick Nezet-Seguin will take up the post in time for the start of the Metropolitan Opera's 2018-19 season, it was announced today.

A season filled with unforgettable music, thrilling singers from around the world, and stirring new productions goes on sale via subscription Wednesday, February 7 at 10am.  Seven new and new-to-Chicago productions, including four Lyric premieres, will engage and entertain audiences from October 2018 through June 2019. 

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) announced today the winners of the 30th annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers that took place at Stude Concert Hall at Rice University. For the second time, the Concert of Arias was streamed live on Facebook, as well as on YouTube for the first time. The livestream was hosted by award-winning soprano and HGO Studio alumna Tamara Wilson. The winners were announced during the second portion of the program.

The Atlanta Opera presents its most exciting season to date in 2018-19. The mainstage season will be bookended by two of the greatest blockbusters in the repertoire, as well as the most performed American opera of the 21st century, and Tchaikovsky's timeless masterpiece. The Discoveries series features two distinct styles in a jazz-infused 'Be-Bopera' and a tango opera presented at beloved local venue, the red velvet cabaret Le Maison Rouge.

San Francisco Opera presents Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) in three complete cycles, each presented over the course of one week as the composer originally intended, from June 12 through July 1 at the War Memorial Opera House. Encompassing four operas-Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung-and more than 17 hours, the story and music of Wagner's Ring are the acme of the operatic artform and one of the most ambitious works of music, theater and stagecraft ever created. In anticipation of the performances, San Francisco Opera today announced a schedule for its Ring Festival events designed to provide the public, from first-timers to experienced Ring-goers, with enriching activities including lectures, symposia, film screenings, musical programs, public discussions and a Ring Community Day for families.

Houston Grand Opera presents Bernstein's West Side Story (April 20 - May 6), Bellini's Norma (April 27 - May 11), and return of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (May 17, 19, 20) at HGO Resilience Theater World's first mariachi opera returns after New York triumph Houston, January 29, 2018 - Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present the first major American opera house production of Leonard Bernstein ' s landmark musical West Side Story, April 20 - May 6, and Bellini's vocal powerhouse Norma, April 27 - May 11, in the HGO Resil i ence Theater at the George R. Brown Convention Center.