Ryan McKinny News

Houston Grand Opera, with Music Director Patrick Summers and Managing Director Perryn Leech, announces its 2012-13 season, headlined by four new productions. The first of these is Puccini's La boheme, which launches the new season with a new staging by award-winning British director John Caird. To honor 2013's joint bicentennials of Wagner and Verdi, the coming season juxtaposes Tristan und Isolde - starring Ben Heppner and Nina Stemme in a new contemporary staging by Christof Loy - with a revival of Steven Lawless's unforgettable take on Il trovatore. British conductor Trevor Pinnock leads a strong international cast in Mozart's ensemble masterpiece Don Giovanni, while Francesca Zambello's new production of Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat brings together stars of Broadway and the opera house in a celebration of America's own contribution to the art. For a more intimate experience, Daniela Barcellona and Lawrence Brownlee star in Rossini's dramma giocoso, The Italian Girl in Algiers.

Over three days of preliminary auditions on February 13-15, 2012, ninety of the best young American and Canadian opera singers will compete to reach the final round of the 41st annual George London Foundation Awards Competition.

The young American theater director Arin Arbus will direct an opera for the first time when she leads a new production of Benjamin Britten's intimate but intensely gripping chamber opera The Rape of Lucretia at Houston Grand Opera, on February 3-11, 2012.

Houston Grand Opera's new production of Benjamin Britten's intimate but intensely gripping chamber opera The Rape of Lucretia takes place on February 3-11, 2012 and features the young American theatre director Arin Arbus in her operatic debut.

Los Angeles Philharmonic Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale and soloists in the world premiere of the PROLOGUE TO ORANGO, Shostakovich's unfinished opera, at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Friday and Saturday, December 2 and 3, at 8 p.m., as well as Sunday, December 4, at 2 p.m. The satirical opera about a half-man, half-ape, was sketched in 1932, and discovered in 2006, at Moscow's Glinka Museum by Russian musicologist Olga Digonskaya. At the request of Shostakovich's widow and Digonskaya, British composer Gerard McBurney developed the orchestration of ORANGO in 2009.

When the Houston Grand Opera's 2011-12 season - its 57th - opens officially on October 21 with a new production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville, the company begins a new era under the leadership of Patrick Summers.

Acclaimed American bass-baritone Ryan McKinny performs Franz Schubert's Winterreise, accompanied by pianist Elizabeth Buccheri, Sunday, April 10 at 3 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston.

Acclaimed American bass-baritone Ryan McKinny performs Franz Schubert's Winterreise, accompanied by pianist Elizabeth Buccheri, Sunday, April 10 at 3 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston.

Houston Grand Opera General Director and CEO Anthony Freud announced the company's 2011-2012 season today. Opening on October 21, 2011, the season offers thirty-two performances of six operas. 'We've chosen an exciting array of operas that will thrill, stimulate and entertain,' says Freud. 'From celebrated masterpieces to rarely-performed operatic gems, our 2011-12 season features world-renowned directors, beloved productions and acclaimed singers.

Houston Grand Opera Studio artist, Nathaniel Peake won the Zarzuela prize and Studio alumnus Ryan McKinny won the Birgit Nilsson prize at Placido Domingo's Operalia competition on Sunday, May 2. The weeklong worldwide competition took place this year at famed Milanese opera house Teatro alla Scala- this was the first time the contest has been hosted in Italy.