Michael Mayes News

In honor of its 60th Season, The Dallas Opera is elated to present Celebrate 60: Past, Present, and Future, a week of public performances and special events designed to pay tribute to the company's founding and illustrious history, to celebrate six decades on the national and international stage, and to demonstrate TDO's commitment to the highest levels of artistic excellence and innovation.

Central City Opera's 2017 Summer Festival, which runs from July 8 through August 6, features Bizet's Carmen and Mozart's Così fan tutte performed in repertory in the historic Central City Opera House, and three one-act operas with limited runs—Britten's The Burning Fiery Furnace, Douglas Moore's Gallantry, and Amy Beach's Cabildo—performed in smaller venues located around the town of Central City. Complementing these five widely different operas are pre-performance lectures and talkbacks, staged opera scenes, elegant opening night dinners, and post-performance socials, which make for a full and enriching experience of entertainment and culture in one of Colorado's most historic mountain settings.  

Fort Worth Opera (FWOpera), in partnership with Telemundo, celebrates the first year of its bold new initiative, Noches de Ópera (Nights of Opera), with Fiesta Fort Worth, a family-friendly party in Sundance Square Plaza featuring a simulcast of the smash-hit mariachi opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna for thousands of spectators.

Today's subject Michael Mayes is living his theatre life playing a murderer on death row in the Washington National Opera production of Dead Man Walking. Michael has performed the role of Joseph De Rocher in multiple productions –including one at Central City Opera in Denver, Colorado – and now local arts aficionados can see him play it at the Kennedy Center's Opera House through March 11th.

Rooted in the moral conflict between society's thirst for justice and Christianity's tenet of forgiveness, the modern American opera DEAD MAN WALKING is an apt selection for the Washington National Opera this season. With a moving score by Jake Heggie and an honest, straightforward libretto by Terrence McNally, it is based on Sister Helen Prejean's 1993 memoir of her work as a spiritual advisor to death row inmates, including one in particular, Joseph De Rocher. The Kennedy Center production directed by Francesca Zambello marks the 50th international production of DEAD MAN WALKING, and it's a bold and haunting one.

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2016-2017 season with the company premieres of two modern American masterworks of opera: Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's Dead Man Walking, February 25-March 11, 2017 in the Opera House, and Terence Blanchard and Michael Cristofer's Champion, March 4- 18, 2017 in the Opera House. Both operas explore the theme of social justice which is often associated with John F. Kennedy and are presented as part of JFKC, the Kennedy Center's season-long celebration of President Kennedy's centennial. Using many of the same designers and scenic elements, the directors of each opera have worked collaboratively to create two distinct worlds in each new production to showcase the issues of Justice, Courage, and Freedom at the heart of these two compelling stories. An additional special event will continue the exploration of these themes: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will headline Justice at the Opera on Thursday, March 9, 2017 in the Opera House.

Fort Worth Opera (FWOpera) announced today the names of the eight composer and librettist teams whose unpublished works have been selected for the company's fifth annual, critically acclaimed new works series, Frontiers - funded in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Des Moines Metro Opera, in an historic partnership with the Iowa National Guard and Camp Dodge, will open its 45th Anniversary Season with a production of David T. Little's poignant and chilling one-act opera Soldier Songs in late January 2017.

Des Moines Metro Opera, in an historic partnership with the Iowa National Guard and Camp Dodge, will open its 45th Anniversary Season with a production of David T. Little's poignant and chilling one-act opera Soldier Songs in late January 2017.

The Atlanta Opera will present the first-ever production of From Opera to Opry: Liquor, Love and the Lord on Today, December 7 at The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse. The concert event, in collaboration with ADA Ovations, will feature renowned professional opera singers... as well as the bluegrass and country stylings of Cletus McHatfield and the McHatfield Fambly Singers. The evening will include an entertaining blend of country music, bluegrass, opera arias, and humor that gets right to the heart of the striking similarity between the themes and inspiration that drove both legendary opera composers and iconic country songwriters to write the music that speaks to us all.

The Atlanta Opera will present the first-ever production of From Opera to Opry: Liquor, Love and the Lord on Wednesday, December 7 at The Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse. The concert event, in collaboration with ADA Ovations, will feature renowned professional opera singers... as well as the bluegrass and country stylings of Cletus McHatfield and the McHatfield Fambly Singers. The evening will include an entertaining blend of country music, bluegrass, opera arias, and humor that gets right to the heart of the striking similarity between the themes and inspiration that drove both legendary opera composers and iconic country songwriters to write the music that speaks to us all.

Central City Opera's 2017 Summer Festival, which runs from July 8 to August 6, 2017, features Bizet's Carmen and Mozart's Così fan tutte in repertory, along with Benjamin Britten's The Burning Fiery Furnace, Douglas Moore's Gallantry, and Amy Beach's Cabildo in shorter runs. Celebrating the company's 85th season, the festival's productions offer a diverse and broad gamut of styles and time periods.

Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) opens its 40th season with Calixto Bieito's bold staging of Georges Bizet's Carmen, the largest production the company has mounted in its four decades. Set in the arid earthiness of post-Franco Spanish North Africa, Carmen is a powerful account of a defiantly free-spirited woman and her obsessive lover. With the familiar story and iconic score that opera buffs and casual opera-goers alike know and love, BLO's Carmen opens September 23 for four performances through October 2. The run marks the company's debut at the Boston Opera House whereCarmen will be the first professional opera produced at the venerable theater since 1991.

Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) opens its 40th season with Calixto Bieito's bold staging of Georges Bizet's Carmen, the largest production the company has mounted in its four decades. Set in the arid earthiness of post-Franco Spanish North Africa, Carmen is a powerful account of a defiantly free-spirited woman and her obsessive lover. With the familiar story and iconic score that opera buffs and casual opera-goers alike know and love, BLO's Carmen opens September 23 for four performances through October 2. The run marks the company's debut at the Boston Opera House whereCarmen will be the first professional opera produced at the venerable theater since 1991.

Denver, Colo. (July 1, 2016)—On July 16, 1932, Central City Opera Summer Festival, as it is known today, was launched with a performance of Alexandre Dumas' Camille, starring Lillian Gish. The weeklong run completely sold out. On July 16, 2016, 84 years later, Central City Opera continues its 2016 summer festival with the opening of a new production of Tosca, Puccini's powerful thriller of passion, seduction, and deceit, running in repertory in the Central City Opera House through August 7. 

Denver, Colo. (July 1, 2016)—On July 16, 1932, Central City Opera Summer Festival, as it is known today, was launched with a performance of Alexandre Dumas' Camille, starring Lillian Gish. The weeklong run completely sold out. On July 16, 2016, 84 years later, Central City Opera continues its 2016 summer festival with the opening of a new production of Tosca, Puccini's powerful thriller of passion, seduction, and deceit, running in repertory in the Central City Opera House through August 7. 

The Dallas Opera is delighted to announce the winner of the 2016 'Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year' Award: transcendent American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato.

San Diego Opera is proud to continue its tradition of presenting new or rarely performed works when it presents the west coast premiere of Great Scott, the new opera from composer Jake Heggie (Moby-Dick, Dead Man Walking, Three Decembers) and librettist Terrence McNally (Dead Man Walking, Three Decembers, and the plays Mother and Sons, Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Fully Monty). They are joined by veteran stage director and former director of San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, Jack O'Brien, who will stage the opera. Great Scott opens on Saturday, May 7, 2016 at 7 PM for four performances at the San Diego Civic Theatre and is a co-production with The Dallas Opera. The opera received its world premiere in Dallas on October 30, 2015.  BroadwayWorld has a first look below!

The Dallas Opera is proud to present one of the most eagerly anticipated new operas of the year: Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's GREAT SCOTT, featuring a once-in-a-lifetime cast headed by America's favorite mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonato, in the title role of Arden Scott; also starring soprano Ailyn Pérez, mezzo-sopranoFrederica von Stade, baritone Nathan Gunn, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, bassKevin Burdette, tenor Rodell Rosel and baritone Michael Mayes.  Check out the interview below with mezzo-soprano Frederica Von Stade!

FORT WORTH, TX – Fort Worth Opera (FWOpera) announced today details of the second phase of the company's landmark 10-year initiative Opera of the Americas, as well as the bold and exciting productions scheduled for the 2017 Festival season, running April 15 - May 7. The 2017 FWOpera Festival will include a time-honored classic, Bizet's incendiary tale of tragic seduction, Carmen; a vibrant, contemporary mainstage production unlike anything in FWOpera's repertoire, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna; and the riveting regional premiere of 2015 Frontiers winner, Voir Dire. The Festival will also usher in the fifth year of Fort Worth Opera's critically-acclaimed new works showcase, Frontiers.