Mark Campbell News

For one night only, on Sunday September 11, 2016 at 8 p.m., One Voice Orlando: A Celebration in Song will be performed in the Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 445 South Magnolia Avenue in downtown Orlando, FL. The benefit concert will feature some of opera's brightest national stars and musicians from throughout Florida. Internationally-renowned David Charles Abell will conduct and legendary baritone Sherrill Milnes will be one of the evening's hosts. Tickets are $25-$125 and will be available beginning August 19 at www.operaorlando.org or by calling 844-513-2014.                 

For one night only, on Sunday September 11, 2016 at 8 p.m., One Voice Orlando: A Celebration in Song will be performed in the Walt Disney Theater at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 445 South Magnolia Avenue in downtown Orlando, FL. The benefit concert will feature some of opera's brightest national stars and musicians from throughout Florida. Internationally-renownedDavid Charles Abell will conduct and legendary baritone Sherrill Milnes will be one of the evening's hosts. Tickets are $25-$125 and will be available beginning August 19 at www.operaorlando.org or by calling 844-513-2014.   More info HERE.        

The 2016-17 season is an exceptional year for Robert Paterson, the New York-based composer whose music has been praised for its elegance, wit, rhythmic vitality, and wonderful sense of color that 'often seems to shimmer.' He will have the first evening-length, fully-staged opera production of his career: Three Way, a trio of comic operas with libretto by David Cote 'about craving and connection,' co-produced by Nashville Opera and American Opera Projects, will have its world premiere in Nashville and its New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Houston Grand Opera will present four pinnacles of the operatic repertoire during the company's 2016-17 season, which also features the highly anticipated world premiere of It's a Wonderful Life by composer Jake Heggie with libretto by Gene Scheer, and much-loved comedies by Donizetti and Mozart. Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers will lead Gotterdammerung, the final installment of Wagner's epic Ring cycle, featuring a new generation of leading Wagnerians includingSimon O'Neill as Siegfried and Christine Goerke as Brunnhilde. HGO will bring back its popular production of Gounod's Faust, with the HGO debut of international star tenor Michael Fabiano in the title role partnered by Houston favorite Ana Maria Martinez as Marguerite, along with the role debut of prominent bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni as Mephistopheles. The company will celebrate the 30thanniversary of HGO's world premiere of John Adams's pivotal Nixon in China by presenting James Robinson's production, of which HGO is a co-producer, with HGO Studio alumnus Scott Hendricks as Richard Nixon and soprano Andriana Chuchman as his wife, Pat. Patrick Summers will conduct Verdi'sthrilling Requiem, which critics at the time termed "an opera in ecclesiastical robes," with soloists Angela Meade, soprano, in her HGO debut; Sasha Cooke, alto; Alexey Dolgov, tenor; and Peixin Chen, bass; and the HGO Orchestra and Chorus. HGO's 62nd season will open with a whimsical production of Donizetti's buoyant The Elixir of Love, featuring tenor Dimitri Pittas as Nemorino and HGO Studio alumna Nicole Heaston as Adina and led by the eminent English conductor Jane Glover, HGO's 2016-17 Lynn Wyatt Great Artist, in her first HGO appearance. Mozart's zany yet deeply emotive comedy TheAbduction from the Seraglio-featuring Russian coloratura soprano and HGO Studio alumna Albina Shagimuratova as Konstanze and leading American tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Belmonte in HGO's inventive 2002 co-production-will close the main-stage season.  

On August 22, award-winning opera educator, administrator, researcher and stage director Carleen Graham assumes the position of Director of HGOco, the Houston Grand Opera's community outreach program.

Central City Opera complements its two mainstage productions this summer with two one-act operas-Mozart's The Impresario and John Musto's Later the Same Evening-performed in smaller venues in Central City and in creative spaces in Colorado Springs, Boulder, and Denver. Both of these shorter operas are performed by members of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program.

Mozart's The Impresario—  (July 27 & August 3 in Central City; July 28 in Boulder) John Musto's Later the Same Evening— (July 28 in Colorado Springs; July 30 at the Denver Art Museum; August 5 in Central City Denver, Colo. (July 7, 2016)—Central City Opera complements its two mainstage productions this summer with two one-act operas—Mozart's The Impresario and John Musto's Later the Same Evening—performed in smaller venues in Central City and in creative spaces in Colorado Springs, Boulder, and Denver. Both of these shorter operas are performed by members of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program.

 OPERA America, the national service organization for opera and the nation's leading champion for American opera, is pleased to announce that Timothy O'Leary, general director of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, has been elected the new chairman of OPERA America's board of directors. He has been involved with OPERA America since 2006, when he participated in Leadership Advance, one of the organization's professional development programs. He joined OPERA America's board in 2011. O'Leary was elected chairman at OPERA America's recent annual business meeting — held during Opera Conference 2016 in Montreal — where eight new members were also elected to the board and three current members were re-elected to three-year terms. 

NEW YORK FESTIVAL OF SONG (Steven Blier, Artistic Director; Michael Barrett, Associate Artistic Director) has announced its 2016-17 season, including Hot-off-the-press premieres by Adam Guettel, Gabriel Kahane, William Bolcom; A performance of Paul Bowles and James Schuyler's surrealistic and witty Picnic Cantata, a rare, mid-century modern gem;Sumptuous songs of Tchaikovsky and his circle, part of the New York Philharmonic's 'Beloved Friend-Tchaikovsky and his World' Festival; Dazzling comic turns by singer-actors Mary Testa, Lauren Worsham, Hal Cazalet; Two brilliant baritones just entering their prime, American balladeer John Brancy and Russian titan Alexey Lavrov; National Sawdust welcomes the moveable, modern salon NYFOS Next with performances curated by Christopher Cerrone, Gabriela Lena Frank, Kyle Jarrow, Lauren Worsham.

Opera Philadelphia looks forward to launching the 2016-17 season with the world premiere of a new company co-commission, Breaking the Waves (Sep 22-Oct 1).

In collaboration with New York's Music-Theatre Group, Opera Philadelphia is proud to announce that Rene Orth has been selected as its sixth Composer-in-Residence. Orth, whose music is 'whimsical, spiky, sometimes show-bizy, always dramatic, reflective, rarely predictable, and often electronic' (Musical America), was chosen for the three-season position from a national field of applicants, and now has the opportunity to follow a personalized development track focused on the advancement of her skills as an operatic composer.

Although Kevin Newbury has directed operas by some of history's greatest composers--Donizetti and Bellini, Strauss and Mozart among them—he makes no bones about it: He prefers his composers to be living. (Librettists, too, of course)

Opera Philadelphia, in collaboration with Music-Theatre Group in New York, is proud to announce that composer Rene Orth, whose music “is whimsical, spikey, sometimes show-bizy, always dramatic, reflective, rarely predictable, and often electronic” (Musical America), has been selected as its sixth Composer in Residence (CIR). Orth was chosen from a national field of applicants for the position and now has the opportunity to follow a personalized development track focused on the advancement of her skills as an operatic composer.

Artistic and General Director Andreas Mitisek today announced Long Beach Opera's (LBO) 2017 season. “LBO's  38th season will offer four operas new to Southern California,” said Mitisek. “We'll bring stories that play against the tide of conventions and that are also quintessentially American.  And, we'll work alongside a broad range of collaborators to tell these stories.  As always, to paraphrase Robert Frost, we take the road less travelled, and that makes all the difference.

American Opera Projects (AOP) announces it is the recipient of several recent grants to support the creation of new operas in partnership with various producing organizations.

Dixon Place's new commission SPERMHOOD, will open today, May 13th at 7:30 pm. Based on his Amazon Kindle bestseller, Spermhood: Diary of a Donor, writer and performer Mike Albo, returns to Dixon Place with his hilarious account of the year he spent donating sperm for his friends.

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $82 million to fund local arts projects and partnerships in the NEA's second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2016.  Included in this announcement is an Art Works award of $40,000 to American Lyric Theater (ALT) in support of the Composer Librettist Development Program. The Art Works category supports the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing work, lifelong learning in the arts, and public engagement with the arts through 13 arts disciplines or fields.

The highly anticipated world premiere of The Shining - a new opera based on Stephen King's 1977 best-selling novel - by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, was presented by the Minnesota Opera on May 7th, at the Music Theater at the Ordway in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

On May 7th, the highly anticipated world premiere of The Shining - a new opera based on Stephen King's 1977 best-selling novel - by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, will be presented by the Minnesota Opera, at the Music Theater at the Ordway in St. Paul, Minnesota. With less than three weeks to go before the curtain rises, all 7,056 seats across The Shining's four performances are sold out and only standing room tickets remain for the production which runs through May 15th.

Asolo Rep, in collaboration with Tony Award® winner Kenneth Waissman (Grease, Torch Song Trilogy) presents the world premiere of the new, Broadway-bound musical JOSEPHINE. Opening tonight, Friday, May 6 at 8pm, the production runs at the Mertz Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, through May 29. Grammy® nominated, multi-platinum selling recording artist Deborah Cox (Broadway's Aida, Jekyll & Hyde; vocals for the Whitney Houston Lifetime movie Whitney) stars as the legendary African-American performer Josephine Baker. Check out a first look at the cast on stage below!