Lucas Meachem News

Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co. and Houston Grand Opera (HGO) reunite for a happy hour to celebrate the opening of Rossini's The Barber of Seville on Jan. 26 and Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, FIIIGAAARO beer (Figaro for short). This beer was originally brewed in collaboration with HGO to celebrate the opening night of The Barber of Seville in 2011. When Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company first started testing this creative collab, they knew it needed a secret ingredient as dark, sweet, and tricky as Figaro himself. Hence Figaro, a Belgian quad brewed with Turkish figs, was born.

Houston Grand Opera ( HGO ) presents Richard Strauss's chilling one - act drama, Elektra, January 19 February 2, the first HGO performances in 25 years. The Sir David McVicar production stars internationally acclaimed soprano Christine Goerke, who owns the title role as one of the most fearless and formidable dramatic sopranos of the day ( New York Times ).

San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald today announced the eleven recipients of the 2018 Adler Fellowship. Eight singers, two pianist/apprentice coaches and one director will take part in the program. The multi-year performance-oriented residency offers advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching and professional seminars, as well as a wide range of performance opportunities. Adler Fellows are selected from the artists who have participated in the Merola Opera Program. The prestigious fellowship has nurtured the development of more than 175 young artists since its inception.

The Salzburg Festival has invited the Orchestre symphonique de Montr al / Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) and Kent Nagano to perform the opening concert of the 2018 Festival. On July 20, 2018, at the Festival's Felsenreitschule, OSM will perform Krzysztof Penderecki's epic St Luke Passion, for chorus, soloists and orchestra. As part of the composer's 85th birthday celebrations, this concert will also be performed in the context of the Ouverture spirituelle series dedicated to sacred music and religiously inspired works.

Houston Grand Opera will open its 63rd season with a new production of Verdi's most romantic opera, La traviata, October 20 November 11 in the new HGO Resilience Theater at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.

Giacomo Puccini's LA BOHEME will play at The Metropolitan Opera through March of 2018, and the critics are weighing in!

Puccini's La Boh me, the most-performed opera in Met history, returns to the repertory this season with 15 performances of Franco Zeffirelli's production from October 2, 2017 to March 10, 2018. Initial performances feature soprano Angel Blue making her Met stage debut as Mim , with the role sung later in the season by Anita Hartig and Sonya Yoncheva. Three acclaimed tenors, Dmytro Popov, Russell Thomas and Michael Fabiano, share the role of Rodolfo. Sopranos Brigitta Kele and Susana Phillips play Musetta with baritones Lucas Meachem and Michael Todd Simpson as Marcello.

The 2017 national radio broadcast series of San Francisco Opera performances on the WFMT Radio Network begins on Saturday, September 2 with a 1979 archival broadcast of Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda. The cast features soprano Renata Scotto in the title role and tenor Luciano Pavarotti as Enzo Grimaldi, each singing their role for the first time on any stage.

Tickets go on sale today for the Met's Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning Live in HD series' 2017-18 season, which begins on October 7 with the company's new production of Bellini's Norma.

The Dallas Opera is delighted to announce the winner of the 2017 "Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year" Award: luminous Italian-American soprano Marina Costa-Jackson.

In connection with its twenty-year commitment to address a long-standing gender imbalance at podiums throughout the opera world, The Dallas Opera is delighted to announce that this year's annual reunion of the Fellows of the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors at The Dallas Opera will take place at the famed War Memorial in San Francisco, California, in partnership with the San Francisco Opera.

The Dallas Opera is thrilled to present the block-buster of the season, Giacomo Puccini'sheart-wrenching MADAME BUTTERFLY. With its poignant melodies, memorable characters, and intriguing storyline, it's the must-see opera for newcomers a perennial favorite of aficionados. The stellar international cast features one of today's most famous interpreters of the role of Cio-Cio-San, (Butterfly), the extraordinary Chinese soprano Hui He, as well as Italian tenor Gianluca Terranova (Lt. B.F. Pinkerton); each in their Dallas Opera debuts.  Renowned Italian conductor Donato Renzetti will be at the podium in this San Francisco Opera production directed by the distinguished British stage director, John Copley.

San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program present the 34th season of the Schwabacher Debut Recitals, opening on March 26 and continuing through April 30.

San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program present the 34th season of the Schwabacher Debut Recitals, opening on March 26 and continuing through April 30. The four-recital series offers music lovers an opportunity to hear opera's next generation of stars in the intimate and state-of-the-art Taube Atrium Theater in San Francisco.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2017-18 season will feature 220 performances of 26 works, including two Met premieres, one co-commissioned by the company and one an older masterpiece having its first Met performances; a variety of repertory favorites, three in new productions; and performances of Verdi's towering concert work for soloists, orchestra, and chorus, the Requiem. Of note, Broadway star Kelli O'Hara is set to return to the Met in Così fan tutte this season.

The 2017 Grammy Awards were announced this past Sunday in Los Angeles.  The complete list of winners and nominees of classical music is below! 

The Dallas Opera is thrilled to present the block-buster of the season, Giacomo Puccini's heart-wrenching MADAME BUTTERFLY. With its poignant melodies, memorable characters, and intriguing storyline, it's the must-see opera for newcomers a perennial favorite of aficionados.

LA Opera Music Director James Conlon's world premiere recording of composer John Corigliano and librettist William M. Hoffman's The Ghosts of Versailles, released on the PentaTone label, today won two 2017 Grammy® Awards for Best Opera Recording and Best Engineered Album, Classical.

The Dallas Opera is thrilled to present the block-buster of the season, Giacomo Puccini'sheart-wrenching MADAME BUTTERFLY. With its poignant melodies, memorable characters, and intriguing storyline, it's the must-see opera for newcomers a perennial favorite of aficionados. The stellar international cast features one of today's most famous interpreters of the role of Cio-Cio-San, (Butterfly), the extraordinary Chinese soprano Hui He, as well as Italian tenor Gianluca Terranova (Lt. B.F. Pinkerton); each in their Dallas Opera debuts.  Renowned Italian conductor Donato Renzetti will be at the podium in this San Francisco Opera production directed by the distinguished British stage director, John Copley.

The Ghosts of Versailles features Patricia Racette in the leading role of Marie Antoinette and Broadway legend Patti LuPone as the Turkish entertainer Samira.