Nicole Paiement News

The Dictator's Wife stumbles like a badly engineered coup with the fault lying solely with the opera's librettist Mohammed Hanif.

Washington National Opera (WNO) presents the fifth season of its acclaimed American Opera Initiative, a comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists.

Opera Parallele (OP) has named national non-profit arts leader Debbie Chinn as its new Executive Director, Board of Directors Chairman Robert Rippshas announced. Ms. Chinn comes to Opera Parallele having served as Executive Director of the prestigious Carmel Bach Festival since 2012 and following previous positions at organizations including the San Francisco Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, California Shakespeare Theater (CalShakes) and others.

Washington National Opera (WNO) presents the fifth season of its acclaimed American Opera Initiative, a comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists.

The Dallas Opera is privileged to announce that TDO will present the United States Premiere of composer Michel van der Aa's critically acclaimed contemporary masterpiece, SUNKEN GARDEN, "a fantastical tale to set the ears and eyes popping" (New York Times headline) during the Texas company's 2017-2018 Season.

As part of its unique annual Hands-on-Opera education and youth performance program, Opera Parallele (OP) will present the world premiere of Xochitl and the Flowers, by OP composer-in-residence Christopher Pratorius. Based on the children's book of the same name by Jorge Argueta and with a libretto by Opera Parallele's Roma Olvera, three free performances will be presented November 17 and 19 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco.

As part of its unique annual Hands-on-Opera education and youth performance program, Opera Parallele (OP) will present the world premiere of Xochitl and the Flowers, by OP composer-in-residence Christopher Pratorius. Based on the children's book of the same name by Jorge Argueta and with a libretto by Opera Parallele's Roma Olvera, three free performances will be presented November 17 and 19 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco. The fully staged and costumed production will be developed during an innovative eight-week residency with third grade students of the Alvarado Elementary School Spanish Immersion Program in San Francisco, assisted by the Opera Parallele creative team and professional singers. Performances will be given Today, November 17, at 6 pm and Saturday, November 19, at 11 am and 1 pm at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission Street in San Francisco. Admission is free, but past Hands-on-Opera performances have filled up quickly, so audience members are encouraged to arrive early. For more information, visitwww.operaparallele.org .

If "satire is what closes on Saturday night" (according to the great playwright and wit George S. Kaufman), then contemporary opera is usually not far behind. That is, unless it's Kevin Puts' and Mark Campbell's prize-winning SILENT NIGHT, which actually opened on Saturday night (this past weekend) at Atlanta's Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, in a moving new production by the company's General and Artistic Director Tomer Zvulun that doesn't go for the heart strings but gets there anyway.

"Art isn't easy," Stephen Sondheim wrote famously in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. Some artists, however, make it look simpler than others--like composer Kevin Puts, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for SILENT NIGHT, with Mark Campbell's libretto, for his first try at the notoriously difficult art form. (The Southeast premiere is opening at Atlanta Opera on November 5.) Easy? Well, looks can be deceiving.

As part of its unique annual Hands-on-Opera education and youth performance program, Opera Parallele (OP) will present the world premiere of Xochitl and the Flowers, by OP composer-in-residence Christopher Pratorius. Based on the children's book of the same name by Jorge Argueta and with a libretto by Opera Parallele's Roma Olvera, three free performances will be presented November 17 and 19 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco.

Florida Grand Opera (FGO) is pleased to announce the promotion and addition of new members to its music staff. Katherine Kozak, continuing in the position of Chorus Master at Florida Grand Opera and celebrating 20 years in the opera industry, will be promoted to also serve as Head Coach of the company's Young Artist Program. Howard Lubin will serve as Senior Coach, and Paul Schwartz and Paul Kovacovic will fill the roles of staff accompanists.

As part of its unique annual Hands-on-Opera education and youth performance program, Opera Parallele (OP) will present the world premiere of Xochitl and the Flowers, by OP composer-in-residence Christopher Pratorius. Based on the children's book of the same name by Jorge Argueta and with a libretto by Opera Parallele's Roma Olvera, three free performances will be presented November 17 and 19 at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco. The fully staged and costumed production will be developed during an innovative eight-week residency with third grade students of the Alvarado Elementary School Spanish Immersion Program in San Francisco, assisted by the Opera Parallele creative team and professional singers. Performances will be given Thursday, November 17, at 6 pm and Saturday, November 19, at 11 am and 1 pm at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission Street in San Francisco. Admission is free, but past Hands-on-Opera performances have filled up quickly, so audience members are encouraged to arrive early. For more information, visitwww.operaparallele.org .

Washington National Opera (WNO) today announced full programming details for the fifth season of the American Opera Initiative, its comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. For the first time, all of the program's world premiere operas will be presented during an American Opera Initiative Festival weekend, January 13-15, 2017 in the Kennedy Center Family Theater.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) today announces the details of its 2016-17 season. Continuing the trend set in recent years by SFCM's intrepid approach to programming and curricular focus, this season offers events devoted to interlinking themes that stretch from academics to performance. The fall semester covers music, politics, and social justice, investigating aspects of social and political change in musical commentary from Beethoven's political influences to nineteenth-century French opera to the activism of Lou Harrison. The spring semester concentrates on folk elements and regional traditions in music and literature throughout the repertoire. These domains are explored in the contexts of history, theory, the humanities, and performance.

The Glimmerglass Festival, which presents four mainstage productions of opera and musical theater as well as many events every summer, has released the details of its 2017 schedule.

 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. 

 The Dallas Opera is pleased to announce that single tickets for its eagerly-anticipated 2016-2017 '60th' Season and popular Family Performances Series will go on sale to the general public on Monday, July 11, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. 

The Dallas Opera is proud to announce the names of the six distinguished professionals selected to participate in the second annual session of the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors at The Dallas Opera taking place November 26 - December 11, 2016 in Dallas, Texas.

Although the solstice doesn't officially appear for another week or so, the summer opera clock is already ticking. There's a plethora of performances going on all over New York City, in addition to interesting, entertaining and fascinating productions that are just a hop, skip and jump away. Among them: Lincoln Center's Lincoln Center Festival and Mostly Mozart and On Site Opera's West Village venue, to the more bucolic realms of Bard SummerScape in Dutchess County (NY) for Mascagni and Caramoor in Katonah (NY) for Rossini and Beethoven.

Three-day Arena and Grounds Ticket Packages for the 59th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, September 16–18 go on sale Monday, May 9. Tickets can be purchased online at montereyjazzfestival.org or by calling 888.248.6499.