Michael Mayes News

The Young Texas Artists gala, Bach, Beethoven & Barbecue, is returning this March after two years of pandemic-related cancellations and promises to deliver all of the Lone Star sparkle attendees have come to love.

The Opera Orlando ENCORE! series returns for the 2021-22 season with the co-stream of the new song cycle Unknown available Thursday, November 11, through Thursday, November 18. Commissioned by UrbanArias, this original dramatic work honors the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery, happening this Veteran's Day, November 11. 

Reflecting its deep commitment and connection to the veteran community, The Atlanta Opera will honor veterans in November with the release of two works centered on Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied, a distinctly American saga about the nation's longest-held prisoner of war, who returns from the jungles of Southeast Asia to a suburban home he barely recognizes.

Baritone Michael Mayes returns to London in November to sing the title role in Bela Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle with new opera company Theatre of Sound. He shares the role with bass-baritone Gerald Finley in alternate performances, with sopranos Susan Bullock and Gweneth Ann Rand sharing the role of Judith.

For one of the most popular operas in the traditional repertoire--ABC in the opera world means AIDA, BOHEME and CARMEN--the work by Bizet has had to have more lives than the proverbial cat to get there. The version, now called THE THREEPENNY CARMEN, by the Atlanta Opera’s General and Artistic Director and frequent stage director Tomer Zvulun--now available as a film with subtitles, from Zvulun and filmmaker Felipe Barral. It is current proof that opera doesn’t have to stand still like a statue in an art museum to show that it is alive and well and, this time around, living in Texas.

From May 25 to May 30, musicians KC Groves, Megan Marino, Jason Hicks and Michael Mayes join forces to perform as the new band known as The Midnight Cricket Club. The multi-genre group announced a week-long residency at the historic Creede Hotel, nestled in the San Juan Mountains.

My Favorite Things: Songs from The Sound of Music will feature selections from the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein II musical, performed by members of the principal cast from HGO's originally planned full production of The Sound of Music, which had been set for this spring before the company canceled it due to the pandemic.

Next Thursday, April 15, sees the launch of The Atlanta Opera’s live, in-person spring season, highlighted by the world premiere productions of new adaptations of two iconic operas, both deconstructed for our challenging times by General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun.

Houston Grand Opera has announced the company's return to live, in-person performance at a special outdoor event, as well as the extension of HGO Digital, the Sarah and Ernest Butler Performance Series, with new virtual content. HGO Digital is available to stream on Marquee TV, an on-demand streaming platform dedicated to global arts and culture.

The Glimmerglass Festival, the summer opera and musical theater festival in Cooperstown, New York, has announced plans for the summer of 2021 in the wake of its 2020 season cancelation due to COVID-19. The 2021 season will run July 15 through August 17.

After the success of its acclaimed fall offerings, now The Atlanta Opera presents an equally innovative spring lineup of live, in-person events, highlighted by the world premiere productions of new adaptations of two iconic operas.

The Atlanta Opera has now released the first three Love Letters to Atlanta. Hailed as “a series of affecting short films” (Wall Street Journal), this new video series gives individual members of the Atlanta Opera Company Players – twelve world-class singers hired for the duration of the season, all of whom are resident in Atlanta and the southeast – the chance to celebrate the Georgia capital and its inhabitants by singing a song of personal significance at an iconic Atlanta venue.

Los Angeles Opera’s Modulation, presented in collaboration with the Prototype Festival, adapts opera and theater to a new interactive format. The voices of extraordinary artists show us the irrepressible power of music to provide comfort and instigate contemplation of ourselves, our art, our world. Access to Modulation, available January 8–16, 2021, costs $25 per viewing household. Access will enable you to enjoy Modulation for one week.

Des Moines Metro Opera's (DMMO) General and Artistic Director, Michael Egel, announced today the organization's inaugural virtual holiday program, the Merry & Bright Holiday Concert, which premieres Friday, December 18 at 7:00pm (CST).

Next month marks the launch of Atlanta Opera Spotlight Media. Already available for pre-order, this digital subscription service will give home audiences around the world long-term access to exclusive new video content from The Atlanta Opera.

We start at the L A Opera website with a ”Living Room Recital.” Michael J. Hawk, baritone, sings a program entitled “Shakespeare in France and on Broadway.” He performs “Mab! la reine des mensonges” (“Mab, Queen of Lies”) from Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod and three arias from Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet.

When the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus folded its tent for the last time, I’m not sure whether they held on to its title of “the Greatest Show on Earth.” But Atlanta is showing that there’s still a big tent around with some great shows to be seen. It’s the Atlanta Opera, headed by General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun, which starts its six-opera season with I PAGLIACCI on October 22.

The Atlanta Opera reinvents its business model for the 2020-21 season with the a?oeBig Tenta?? series.

As Songs of Summer, a free, 15-performance recital series concludes this week, Seattle Opera unveils its Fall Season. With a variety of free performances and programming to enjoy at home, the Fall Season was created with both artistic innovation-and public safety-in mind, said General Director Christina Scheppelmann.

Terrence McNally, the legendary American playwright, screenwriter, and librettist will posthumously receive The Dallas Opera's most prestigious honor, 'The Maria Callas Award,' in recognition of his contribution to two landmark events in the company's history.