Ken Howard News

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) will celebrate its 75th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, beginning with the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek's 27, specially adapted for MasterVoices, on October 20 and 21, 2016 at 8pm at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, New York City. Get a sneak peek at the production in St. Louis below!

Although '27'--the opera by Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek about the lives of Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and their circle of friends--had its world premiere at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) in 2014, its upcoming performances at City Center in New York, on October 20-21, are a debut of a different color. As part of the 75th anniversary season of MasterVoices, formerly The Collegiate Chorale, 27 has had some interesting changes since the performances seen in St. Louis.

When the Met's production of Rossini's L'ITALIANA IN ALGIERI made its debut in 1973, it must have seemed a welcome laugh riot. Think of it as a kind of Hope-Crosby “Road” picture from the '40s. Flip forward 43 years to last week, and the world has changed much--for better and worse--but “The Road to Algiers” keeps rolling along. Thank heavens for that.

Currently playing at The Georgetown Palace Theatre, 1776 THE MUSICAL, has a new concept on the popular, patriotic show that succeeds on every level. Director Clifford Butler has assembled a top notch cast with an added bonus. He chose to blind cast the roles in the musical, making fully half of the traditionally male roles, female.

For the sheer magnitude of its singing, there hasn't been anything like the Met's ecstatic new production of TRISTAN UND ISOLDE--seen a week after it opened the season on September 26--in a very long time.

Roberto Devereux comes to THIRTEEN'S Great Performances at the Met Sunday, August 28 at 12 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). (In New York, THIRTEEN will air the opera on Sunday, September 4 at 12:30 p.m.)

When South African soprano Elza van den Heever made her debut at the Met, as Elizabeth I in Donizetti's MARIA STUARDA, it was something that was totally memorable in every way--not only for her intelligent and gorgeous bel canto singing but for the lurching gait that helped show her character as unbalanced. What does she have in mind for her role debut as Leonore, in Beethoven's FIDELIO, at the Caramoor Festival?

The late Anthony Minghella's critically acclaimed production of Puccini's classic Madama Butterfly comes to THIRTEEN'S Great Performances at the Met Friday, August 19 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings).

Olive Films, a boutique theatrical and home entertainment distribution label dedicated to bringing independent, foreign, and classic films to DVD and Blu-ray, has just announced that August 16th will be the Blu-ray debut of Liza Minnelli's Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970).

As America celebrates its 240th Birthday today, let's talk about what is probably one of the greatest musicals ever written, and it only came about 46 years before Hamilton. 1776 dramatizes the story of how John Adams was able to persuade his colleagues to vote for American independence as well as signing the Declaration of Independence. While the musical does dramatize the most important event in American history, the story behind the musical is probably just as interesting.

'ARIADNE ON NAXOS' balances wondrously between classic beauty and parody.

Salman Rushdie's tale of love and vengeance becomes a powerful opera in this commissioned work at Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

Opera Theatre of St. Louis continues its forty-first season with another remarkably fine production-Verdi's Macbeth.

OTSL has opened a delicious 'La boheme'.

The Lambs, America's oldest professional theatrical organization, a social club, was originally founded in London in 1868, then founded in New York Christmastime 142 years ago in 1874. The Lambs formerly incorporated in New York state on May 9th, 1877.

I wonder whether James Levine imagined that Mozart's DIE ENFUHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL (THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO) would be his swan song as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera. I think he might have chosen better.

Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which has not been seen on the Met stage in almost a decade, opens April 22 led by James Levine, who recently announced that he would assume the new title of Music Director Emeritus at the conclusion of the Met's current season.

After a sold-out run at the 1998 Lincoln Center Festival, the opera PATIENCE & SARAH returns to New York as a staged concert performance for two nights only - Thursday, June 23rd and Friday, June 24th at 7PM at the Players Theatre (115 MacDougal Street). Considered the first opera to portray an openly romantic relationship between two self-affirming women, PATIENCE & SARAH is composed by Paula Kimper with libretto by Wende Persons.  The work is based on the novel of the same title by Isabel Miller. Paula Kimper is conducting with Douglas Moser directing. Baritone Michael Kelly is featured in the cast of seven.  Tickets are $42- $62 and can be purchased through https://web.ovationtix.com/ or by calling 866-811-4111.

Good morning, BroadwayWorld! Because we know all our readers eat, sleep and breathe Broadway, what could be better than waking up to it? Today's big news: SAG-AFTRA remembers Ken Howard, and galas, galas, galas!

As BroadwayWorld reported last month, Kenneth Joseph 'Ken' Howard, Jr., a Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor and president of the performers union SAG-AFTRA died on March 23rd at his home near Los Angeles. He was 71. A celebration of his life will be held today, April 11, 2016 and will be live-streamed at SAGAFTRA.org.