Stephen Lord News

Michigan Opera Theatre is pleased to announce the 2018-2019 Michigan Opera Theatre Studio Artists. The roster includes the return of tenor Michael Day and baritone Harry Greenleaf. Joining them are soprano Cheyanne Coss, mezzo-soprano Katherine DeYoung and bass Allen Michael Jones.

Michigan Opera Theatre CEO and President Wayne S. Brown and Principal Conductor Stephen Lord today announced the company's 2018-19 opera season.  MOT's 48th opera season will be the second under Lord's artistic leadership and celebrates masterworks of literature turned opera, with "Eugene Onegin" (Pyotr Tchaikovsky), "Candide" (Leonard Bernstein) and "The Grapes of Wrath" (Ricky Ian Gordon/Michael Korie). The season also includes a staple of the opera repertoire, "The Barber of Seville" (Gioachino Rossini) and a fairytale opera, "Hansel and Gretel" (Engelbert Humperdinck). The season begins Sept. 29 with a gala concert featuring opera superstar Renee Fleming.  

This spring, Grammy Award-winning mezzo Susan Graham revisits her signature interpretation of Ravel's Sheherazade in performances with the San Francisco Symphony under Yan Pascal Tortelier (April 19-21). She then makes her title role debut in Marc Blitzstein's Regina at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (May 26-June 24), in a production that marks the 30th anniversary of her company and leading-role debuts. After three glorious decades at the highest echelons of the opera world, there is still, as the New York Times put it, "no more satisfying singer than this eminent mezzo-soprano, with her rich, even voice, exquisite musicianship, and warm presence."

Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced the complete casting and programming for the company's 2018 Summer Festival, which will feature new productions of four operas at The Spa Little Theater in Spa State Park, along with a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events from May 26th through July 15th at venues throughout the region. Single tickets, as well as subscription packages, are on sale now at www.operasaratoga.org.

The 2018 McCammon Voice Competition judges have chosen the semi-finalists for the eighteenth biennial competition, to be held on March 16, 2018 at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The finals will be held March 17, 2018 at Bass Performance Hall. This year's competitors are David Araujo, Amanda Blue, Nicolette Book, Ryan Bradford, Rachael Braustein, Kathleen Buccleugh, Chelsea Coyne, Danielle Davis, Peter Scott Drackley, Helen Huang, Hao Hu, Emily Michiko Jensen, Abigail Kempson, Chonghwa Kim, Abigail Levis, Brandon Morales, Elizabeth Moran, Langelihle Mngxati, Chong Yoon Noh, Brittany Nickell, Yulan Piao, Anthony Reed, Michael St. Peter and Andrew Wannigman.

Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth today announced Utah Opera's 2018-19 season. Featuring two new productions by the company's in-house Production Studios, Utah Opera's 41st season runs from October 2018 to May 2019 and comprises three main-stage productions at Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre and a semi-staged production at Abravanel Hall.

Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth today announced Utah Opera's 2018-19 season. Featuring two new productions by the company's in-house Production Studios, Utah Opera's 41st season runs from October 2018 to May 2019 and comprises three main-stage productions at Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre and a semi-staged production at Abravanel Hall.

The Atlanta Opera presents its most exciting season to date in 2018-19. The mainstage season will be bookended by two of the greatest blockbusters in the repertoire, as well as the most performed American opera of the 21st century, and Tchaikovsky's timeless masterpiece. The Discoveries series features two distinct styles in a jazz-infused 'Be-Bopera' and a tango opera presented at beloved local venue, the red velvet cabaret Le Maison Rouge.

The Canadian Opera Company Orchestra Academy welcomes five student musicians to join its fifth annual training intensive, taking place January 7 26, 2018. Led by COC Music Director Johannes Debus, and in collaboration with The Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Schulich School of Music at McGill University and the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music, the program offers its student musicians one-on-one mentorship and practical experience in their pursuit of a career in an opera orchestra.

Fresh from a rapturously received account of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Charles Dutoit, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham reprises her 'vivacious and creamy-voiced' (New York Times) star turn as the wealthy widow Hanna Glawari in Susan Stroman's production of Leh r's The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera this winter (Dec 14-Jan 11).

Verdi's Rigoletto, a searing exploration of patriarchy, power, and commerce, returns to the Canadian Opera Company this winter with a production from acclaimed American director Christopher Alden. A tragedy on a Shakespearean scale, the opera is brought to life by an all-star cast and conducted by pre-eminent American maestro Stephen Lord. Ten performances take place at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on January 20, 27, February 1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 17, 21, and 23, 2018.

Fresh from a rapturously received account of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Charles Dutoit, Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham reprises her 'vivacious and creamy-voiced' (New York Times) star turn as the wealthy widow Hanna Glawari in Susan Stroman's production of Leh r's The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera this winter (Dec 14-Jan 11).

Michigan Opera Theatre has won a $45,000 grant to support its Take Me Out to the Opera initiative, exploring the role of arts and sports in improving racial equity and inclusion. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Knight Arts Challenge grant, awarded Wednesday at the Fillmore Detroit, funds ideas that engage and enrich Detroit through the arts.

Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham opens her 2017-18 season with a return to the Boston Symphony to star in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust under Charles Dutoit.

Opera Saratoga's Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson announced that the company's 2018 Summer Festival will feature new productions of four operas at The Spa Little Theatre in Spa State Park, along with a wide variety of free and ticketed concert events from May 26 through July 15 at venues throughout the region.

The Opera Theater of St. Louis has opened the fourth and last production of it's forty-second festival season. It's Mozart's final opera, La clemenza di Tito, or (as it's billed for this English-language performance) simply Titus. Everything about this production - from its glorious voices and orchestral display to the set, costumes, lights and sound - is as near perfect as could be imagined.

At a press conference held May 30 in the lobby of the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) announced 235 nominations for the 38th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards, which recognize excellence in the performing arts in Toronto.

Michigan Opera Theatre is pleased to announce the 2017-2018 Michigan Opera Theatre Studio Artists. The roster includes tenor, Michael Day; soprano, Monica Dewey; baritone, Harry Greenleaf; bass-baritone, Erik Van Heyningen; and returning Studio Artist mezzo-soprano, Briana Elyse Hunter.

The DiChiera Grand Salute, Michigan Opera Theatre's festive celebration honoring its retiring founder and artistic director David DiChiera, was a night full of highlights May 19.

Celebrating the third season of its successful Opera Residency Program, The Solti Foundation U.S. continues to offer young conductors hands-on opera experience with distinguished opera companies throughout the United States. Penny Van Horn, Chair of the Solti Foundation's Board of Directors announced that the organization will have completed 10 residencies by the end of this season, with more to take place in 2017-18.