a??a??a??a??a??a??a?? The Atlanta Opera announces the formation of the Atlanta Opera Company Players, featuring twelve world-class singers, all resident in Atlanta and the southeast, who will collaborate with the company's leadership team to reimagine its 2020a?'21 season.
'Coming off its finest season in a decade... Chicago Opera Theater may be entering a golden age in its history,' writes Chicago Classical Review. This resurgence of artistic quality and audacious programming has been driven by the company's Orli and Bill Staley Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya and Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson General Director Ashley Magnus, who announced the 2020/21 season on Wednesday evening via a digital reveal on Facebook and YouTube.
From May 18 until May 25, Music of Remembrance will be streaming composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer's compelling musical drama about the persecution of gays during the Holocaust – https://www.musicofremembrance.org/watch-and-listen/look-or-touch.
INDECENT by Paula Vogel is equal parts demanding and rewarding for both performers and audience members alike. Theatrical Outlet's cast steps up to that demanding challenge without reservation and leans into the emotionally complicated story with palpable respect and admiration.
Theatrical Outfit continues its groundbreaking 2019 a?" 2020 Season with the ATLANTA PREMIERE of Indecent by Paula Vogel a?" the critically acclaimed Tony Award winning smash hit. Indecent runs March 4 a?"29, 2020 only at The Balzer Theater at Herren's in the heart of Downtown Atlanta.
For over 40 years, an unlikely place has been ground zero for the professional development of young singers with their sights set on careers in opera, musical theater and classical music. Central City, Colo., a small mountain town 35 miles west of Denver, is typically known for its mining history and casino resorts. However, during the summer months it becomes a performing arts mecca, with select rising stars traveling to Colorado for the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program during Central City Opera's annual Festival.
Houston Grand Opera has announced its 2020a?"21 season, featuring a repertoire of beloved classics, company premieres, and a much-anticipated world premiere. The 66th season opens with audience favorite Carmen. American mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard makes her HGO and role debut as Carmen in the revival of Rob Ashford's acclaimed 2014 production of Bizet's classic. She is joined by tenor Andrea Caré as Don José, bass-baritone Christian Pursell as Escamillo, and Anita Hartig as Micaela, all making their HGO debuts. The production will be conducted by HGO Principal Guest Conductor Eun Sun Kim.
The Atlanta Opera will launch the new year with a new mainstage production of Salome, Richard Strauss's still unsettling 1905 take on Oscar Wilde's twisted biblical tale of incest, seduction and power (Jan 25, 28, 31; Feb 2).
Baritone Michael Mayes steps in to sing the title role in Verdi's Rigoletto at Houston Grand Opera. He performs the opening night performance on 18, and two additional performances on October 20 and 26. The Boston Musical Intelligencer lauded his debut in the role in 2014 with Boston Lyric Opera: 'His baritone, powerful yet fully controlled, shifted seamlessly in color between expressions of terror, pleading, and angry vengeance.' He returns to the role later this season with Nashville Opera.
Horizon Theatre Company is continuing its outstanding 35th Anniversary Season with one of the most critically acclaimed plays of the past decade, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Winner of 7 Olivier Awards and 5 Tony Awards including 'Best Play,' the show brings Mark Haddon's beloved best-selling novel to thrilling life on stage, adapted by two-time Olivier Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens. Horizon Theatre Company's Atlanta premiere starts performances September 20, 2019 (Press Opening September 27, 2019) and runs until October 27, 2019 at Horizon Theatre in Little Five Points/Inman Park (1083 Austin Avenue N.E., Atlanta, GA 30307) Atlanta. This show is a co-production between Horizon Theatre Company and Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, Georgia. This production will move to Aurora for a run from January 9 through February 9, 2020. The play is sponsored in part by The Marcus Autism Center, a subsidiary of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and Osiason Educational Foundation.
Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) opens the 2019/20 Season with its first production of Ruggero Leoncavallo's indelible and enduringly popular 1892 Italian opera, PAGLIACCI, running September 27 to October 6, 2019 and starring tenor Rafael Rojas (in BLO's Werther and La Traviata, 1998, and Madama Butterfly, 2000) as Canio, and soprano Lauren Michelle making her company debut as Nedda.
Every so often, a production comes around that leaves you pondering about the show when it is done. For me, it's usually a jarring show that asks the audience to think about how we see things in the world, and if the way we see things can be adjusted or not. Des Moines Metro Opera's (DMMO) production of 'WOZZECK' was a production that will leave you thinking about a topic that is very prevalent in our world today, mental illness. This production deals with a character that is dealing with insanity. What this production does well is having the idea of insanity prevalent in multiple aspects of the show.
The Atlanta Opera broke new records this season. Even before its final presentation Francesca Zambello's new take on La traviata, which closed this past weekend 2018-19 was already guaranteed to be the company's highest-grossing season of the past decade, highlighted by last fall's West Side Story, the highest-selling production in the Atlanta Opera's 39-year history (Opera News).
Puccini's Madame Butterfly will launch Nashville Opera's 2019-20 season, which is described as "a compelling mix of beloved favorites and important 20th century works."
Proving the enduring vibrancy and relevancy of the art form (while celebrating a milestone for its leader), Boston Lyric Opera's 2019/20 Season of new productions spans three centuries of composers -- focusing on works that reflect the highs and lows of power and politics, bringing passionate opera installations to new neighborhoods, and introducing audiences to rising stars from diverse backgrounds. Among the season highlights, Russian-born soprano Elena Stikhina returns to BLO, where she made her 2017 American debut, to sing the lead role in NORMA. Stanford Calderwood General & Artistic Director Esther Nelson marks her 10th programming season, which the company will commemorate throughout the year.
"Dangerous liaisons" is the overarching theme of The Atlanta Opera's landmark 40th anniversary season. From Puccini's Cio-Cio San to Rodriguez's Frida Kahlo, most of the featured protagonists share a propensity for self-destructive relationships that threaten to bring about their downfall.
On May 19, 2019 in Seattle, and four days later in San Francisco, Music of Remembrance (MOR) will present the premiere of The Parting, a new opera it has commissioned from Tom Cipullo with a libretto by poet David Mason. MOR will unveil this stunning new work as part of its program on Sunday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Tickets are $55 and available online at www.benaroyahall.org. They will bring the same program to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on Thursday, May 23 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $60-$75 and available online at www.musicofremembrance.org.
This winter, The Atlanta Opera presents the company premiere of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's Dead Man Walking in an original production "of the very highest level" (Opera News) from General & Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun. Georgia native Jamie Barton - winner of the Beverly Sills Artist Award, Richard Tucker Award, and BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition - makes her eagerly anticipated role debut as Sister Helen Prejean, and Michael Mayes reprises the iconic portrayal of condemned murderer Joseph De Rocher that the composer himself has called "definitive," anchoring an all-star cast that also features Maria Zifchak, Wayne Tigges, Kevin Burdette, and Jay Hunter Morris. Marking the second presentation in Atlanta's mainstage season, the opera will be mounted in four performances led by Kentucky Opera principal conductor Joseph Mechavich at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre (Feb 2-10).