Mark Campbell News

The Atlanta Opera has announced its 41st season. True to the vision of Tomer Zvulun, the company's Carl W. Knobloch, Jr. General & Artistic Director, the 2020-21 lineup boasts major new productions of three critically important works: Das Rheingold, one of the most iconic in the canon; The Sound of Music, one of the best-loved classics of musical theater; and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, one of contemporary opera's most palpable hits, now receiving its Southeast premiere. Together with the Atlanta premiere of As One, Steve Jobs is one of two topical and much talked-about new operas in Atlanta's award-winning Discoveries series, which breaks down barriers between artists and their audience by providing intimate, immersive experiences in nontraditional spaces.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced the Company's 98th season, which opens on September 11, 2020 with an Opening Night Celebration featuring soprano Albina Shagimuratova and tenor Pene Pati in concert with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by Music Director Designate Eun Sun Kim. Opening Night festivities include San Francisco Opera Guild's Opera Ball, BRAVO! CLUB's annual Opening Night Gala and two new events: the Opera Supper in the Veterans Building's elegant Green Room and, for the entire audience, a celebratory, post-concert toast to the season.

a??a??a??a??a??a??a??Opera Philadelphia scored a hit at O19, a?oeits increasingly essential September festivala?? (New Yorker), with the world premiere of Denis & Katya. A timely and immersive multimedia chamber opera by composer Philip Venables and librettist-director Ted Huffman, the new work was recognized with the 2019 FEDORA-GENERALI Prize for Opera and by inclusion in the New York Times's a?oeBest Classical Music of 2019.a?? Commissioned and produced in collaboration with Music Theatre Wales and Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, now Denis & Katya makes its European debut with a tour of Wales (Feb 27a?"March 27) and dates at London's Southbank Centre (March 13 & 14), underscoring Opera Philadelphia's role as a?oea hotbed of operatic innovationa?? (New York Times) that represents a?oeone of North America's premier generators of valid new operasa?? (Opera News).

The Dramatists Guild Opera Committee's Librettist Initiative premieres the short film a?oeCredit the Librettist: Conversations with Today's Opera Makersa?? at Opera America's New Works Forum on Thursday, January 16 at 10am at the National Opera Center, 330 7th Avenue, 7th Floor, New York.

It may surprise you to learn that Stephen King didn't write 'The Shining' and Sister Helen Prejean didn't write 'Dead Man Walking.' Even more, you may be startled to learn that Herman Melville didn't write 'Moby Dick' and Louisa May Alcott didn't have a hand in 'Little Women.' Well, of course they did--except when it came to turning the works into operas. Then, respectively, Mark Campbell and Terrence McNally took over, as did Gene Scheer and Mark Adamo.

Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, will present Lincoln Center Theater: Intimate Apparel by Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage with Bartlett Sher on Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 7:30pm.

I admit this is an absolutely personal, totally one-sided view of what gave one man opera thrills last year and what I will look back on with delight. Some are old works, some are new, some are individual performers, some are ensembles, some are complete productions, some are merely the highlight of an evening, most are domestic, a few are foreign. In any case, as the new decade begins, I recall that these are the vocal highlights that made my heart beat a little faster and made me look forward to the year ahead.

The Second City is proud to announce casting for The Second City e.t.c.'s 44th Revue. This year's ensemble includes returning cast members Atra Asdou, E.J. Cameron, Mark Campbell, Laurel Krabacher, and Chuck Norment. Terrence Carey will join the veteran cast in his first resident stage revue, and e.t.c. alumnus Frank Caeti will direct his first resident stage revue. Elise Wattman will take the lead as musical director, and Laura Hum will return as stage manager.

Opera America will feature a public discussion with The Dramatists Guild's Opera Committee's Librettist Initiative at their New Works Forum on Thursday, January 16 at 10am at the National Opera Center, 330 7th Avenue, 7th Floor, New York.

The 2018 world premiere performance by the Oratorio Society of New York of the Paul Moravec/Mark Campbell work Sanctuary Road is now a Naxos Records release (January 10, 2020). Based on the writings of William Still, a 'conductor' on the Underground Railroad who chronicled 'the death struggles of slaves in their efforts of freedom,' the oratorio was led at its premiere by OSNY Music Director Kent Tritle, and featured soloists Laquita Mitchell, Raehann Bryce-Davis, Joshua Blue, Malcolm J. Merriweather, and Dashon Burton.

Witness rare and poignant moments of humanity during the world's most brutal war in this stunning musical depiction of the legendary Christmas truce of 1914. a?oeSilent Night,a?? one of the most performed American operas of our time, is based on the 2005 screenplay a?oeJoyeux Noëla??. Tomer Zvulun will direct the production, and Robert Tweten will conduct the cast, Utah Opera Chorus, and Utah Symphony.

Come ring in the new year at The Second City's NYE Celebration with special performances of Do You Believe in Madness, Grinning from Fear to Fear and Deck the Hallmark: A Greeting Card Channel Original.

OPERA America has awarded $220,000 in Repertoire Development Grants to The American Opera Project (New York, NY) in consortium with Seagle Music Colony (Schroon Lake, NY), Beth Morrison Projects (New York, NY), Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Diego Opera and The Dallas Opera. The grants provide technical and financial support to OPERA America Professional Company Members and their producing partners to enhance the quality, quantity and creativity of new American opera and music theater.

Since it's highly unlikely that the Met will take on Carl Maria von Weber's DIE FREISCHUTZ (frequently translated as THE MARKSMAN) anytime soon--or even in the lifetime of any baby born this year--we should be grateful to Heartbeat Opera for bringing it to New York audiences through December 15, in a rootin' tootin' version that resets the piece from 16th-century Bohemia to contemporary Texas.

In 1874, a one-year-old organization called the Oratorio Society of New York performed Handel's Messiah on Christmas night at Steinway Hall, then on East 14th Street. Earlier that year, New York City made its first move to grow beyond Manhattan by annexing the 'West Bronx.'

General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced that an innovative new work celebrating the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and a cabaret-style favorite that returns by popular demand comprise the 2020 Explorations series. The series leads audiences on a delightful journey of musical discovery through eclectic works performed in Lyric Opera's Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building in the Crossroads District.

THE NEW YORKER NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG presents a new show that sheds light on Harlem's gay underground: Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do: Songs from Gay Harlem

In 1874, a one-year-old organization called the Oratorio Society of New York performed Handel's Messiah on Christmas night at Steinway Hall, which was then on East 14th Street. Earlier that year, New York City made its first move to grow beyond Manhattan by annexing the 'West Bronx.'

a?oeI am very optimistic about opera in America,a?? says OPERA America President/CEO Marc A. Scorca. a?oeWhen I entered the industry decades ago, new American operas were rarely commissioned or performed. Today, the flow of creativity from American composers, librettists, directors and designers has generated an American opera repertoire that spans the gamut of styles and subject matter.a??