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.
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!
Following its sold-out co-production with SFJAZZ of Terence Blanchard's Champion, Opera Parallèle will conclude its 2015-2016 season with an innovative new production of the late Peter Maxwell Davies' brooding three-singer, six-character tour-de-force The Lighthouse, based on the true story of mysterious disappearances off the Hebrides islands in 1900. Conducted by Opera Parallèle founder and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement and with a production headed by Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel, The Lighthouse will be given three performances: Today, April 29, at 8 pm; Saturday, April 30, at 8 pm; and Sunday, May 1, at 4 pm, at Z Space theater, 450 Florida Street in San Francisco. Tickets are priced from $45-$90 and may be purchased atwww.operaparallele.org.
The American Composers Forum (ACF) Board of Directors has voted to present its 2016 “Champion of New Music” award to four outstanding recipients: Pianist and Contemporary Chamber Ensemble founding member Gilbert Kalish; Opera Parallèle's artistic director, conductor, and founder Nicole Paiement; new music writer, blogger and New Yorker magazine columnist Alex Ross; and conductor, pianist, composer and pedagogue Robert Spano at public ceremonies this year. The “Champion of New Music” award was established by ACF in 2005 as a national mark of recognition to honor individuals or ensembles that have made a significant contribution to the work and livelihoods of contemporary composers. ACF President and CEO John Nuechterlein will present the awards at three events in the coming months:
Following its sold-out co-production with SFJAZZ of Terence Blanchard's Champion, Opera Parallèle will conclude its 2015-2016 season with an innovative new production of the late Peter Maxwell Davies' brooding three-singer, six-character tour-de-force The Lighthouse, based on the true story of mysterious disappearances off the Hebrides islands in 1900. Conducted by Opera Parallèle founder and Artistic Director Nicole Paiement and with a production headed by Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel, The Lighthouse will be given three performances: Friday, April 29, at 8 pm; Saturday, April 30, at 8 pm; and Sunday, May 1, at 4 pm, at Z Space theater, 450 Florida Street in San Francisco. Tickets are priced from $45-$90 and may be purchased atwww.operaparallele.org.
Working to address a long-standing career issue in the opera world, The Dallas Opera is delighted to announce that applications are now being accepted for a unique residential program designed to provide training and career support for distinctively talented women conductors: The Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors at The Dallas Opera.
San Francisco's Opera Parallele and SFJAZZ will present their first collaboration: a new, fully staged production of Champion: An Opera in Jazz by Terence Blanchard, SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director, with eight performances to be given tonight, February 19, through February 28, 2016 at SFJAZZ Center. Based on the life of African-American, bisexual boxing champion Emile Griffith (1938-2013), the production marks both Opera Parallele's first foray into an operatic jazz idiom and SFJAZZ's first opera. Performances will be given at 7:30 pm Today--Sunday, February 19, 20 and 21; Tuesday and Wednesday, February 23 and 24; Today and Saturday, February 26 and 27; and at 4 pm Sunday, February 28 and tickets are priced $30-$185. For more information, visit www.operaparallele.org and www.sfjazz.org .
The Dallas Opera is proud to announce its spectacular 2016-2017 Season, consisting of five brilliant mainstage productions, including two repertoire classics never before performed by this company.
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