Stephen Powell News

The San Diego Opera's 2018-19 season will feature three grand operas at the city's Civic Center and three smaller-scale productions at other venues. Seasoned opera buffs are likely to fill the 3000-seat Civic Center for The Marriage of Figaro, Rigoletto, and Carmen. But elaborate three-hour productions are a hard-sell for inexperienced listeners, many of whom believe that 45-seconds is about right for 'in-depth' news reporting. That's where the opera company's highly successful 'Detour Series' of shorter and more contemporary-feeling performances comes in. The two operas in that series next season are an English adaption of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, and Three Decembers, a chamber work by Jake Heggie, one of today's most successful operatic composers. The Detour series and the season conclude with 'One Amazing Night,' a recital devoted largely to Puccini and Verdi.

At the vanguard of Boston's classical music scene, Odyssey Opera and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) present the world premiere of the live performance of The Trial at Rouen by Norman Dello Joio. A semi-staged, English-language production led by conductor Gil Rose, The Trial at Rouen unites Odyssey Opera (one of the nation's most innovative opera companies), BMOP (the nation's premier orchestra dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new orchestral music), and internationally renowned singers Heather Buck (Joan of Arc) and Stephen Powell (Pierre Cauchon). This marks the third and most condensed opera of Odyssey Opera's Trial by Fire: Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years' War, a season-long exploration of operatic works inspired by martyr, saint, and military leader Joan of Arc.

At the vanguard of Boston's classical music scene, Odyssey Opera and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) present the world premiere of the live performance of The Trial at Rouen by Norman Dello Joio.

At the vanguard of Boston's classical music scene, Odyssey Opera and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) present the world premiere of the live performance of The Trial at Rouen by Norman Dello Joio. A semi-staged, English-language production led by conductor Gil Rose, The Trial at Rouen unites Odyssey Opera (one of the nation's most innovative opera companies), BMOP (the nation's premier orchestra dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new orchestral music), and internationally renowned singers Heather Buck (Joan of Arc) and Stephen Powell (Pierre Cauchon). This marks the third and most condensed opera of Odyssey Opera's Trial by Fire: Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years' War, a season-long exploration of operatic works inspired by martyr, saint, and military leader Joan of Arc.

Performances of Carl Orff's perennially popular choral showpiece Carmina Burana and Leonard Bernstein's hope-filled plea for brotherhood, Chichester Psalms, will open the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 54th concert season on Saturday, September 23 at 2 PM and Sunday, September 24 at 7 PM in Walt Disney Concert Hall. Tickets start at $29 and are available online from lamasterchorale.org, by calling the Box Office at 213.972.7283, or in person from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office, Monday - Friday, 10 AM to 6 PM.

Single tickets for the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 2017/18 season are now on sale. The season opens on September 23 and continues through to June 2018 in Walt Disney Concert Hall with nine concert programs presented over this time. Tickets start at $29 and are available to purchase online from lamasterchorale.org, by phone from 213-972-7282, or in person from the box office at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at The Music Center, of which the Master Chorale is a resident company. It will be the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 54th concert season and Grant Gershon's 17th season as the Kiki and David Gindler Artistic Director.

The Minnesota Orchestra announces plans today for Sommerfest 2017, unveiling a celebratory summer festival in which the Orchestra salutes two of its artistic leaders: Doc Severinsen on his 90th birthday, and Sommerfest Artistic Director Andrew Litton, who has announced that this summer will mark his final season as the head of the festival. Running from July 3 to August 5, Minnesota Orchestra's summer season includes two tribute concerts to Pops Conductor Laureate Severinsen; performances by Litton and his friends André Watts, William Wolfram and New York City Ballet dancers; and culminates with the opera Litton has long wanted to conduct in Minnesota, Strauss' Salome. The summer season also involves the annual Symphony for the Cities concerts, two previously announced regular season programs and the return of the Minnesota Orchestra Fantasy Camp.

New works, multimedia presentations, performances of choral masterworks, and an expansive state-wide community singing project that will have global reach comprise the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 54th season announced today by Artistic Director Grant Gershon and President and CEO Jean Davidson.

The partnership between San Francisco Opera and the Bay Area's Classical KDFC continues with monthly broadcasts of performances captured during the Fall 2016 Season, including the world premiere of Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang's Dream of the Red Chamber, and a historic broadcast from the Company's archives. All performances were recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House and feature the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus (Ian Robertson, Chorus Director).

The 2017 SaraSolo Festival, the third annual celebration of theatre and solo artists returns to Sarasota over two weekends, January 28 & 29 and February 4 & 5, 2017. As one of Sarasota's newest and most exciting arts festivals, performances are again at Sarasota's Pioneer Park historic site venue, the Crocker Memorial Church, 1260 12th Street, Sarasota FL 34236.

Seattle Opera rings in the New Year with some of the most glorious music in all of opera: Verdi's La traviata, the original Moulin Rouge. German Stage Director Peter Konwitschny has created an "excitingly rebellious" (A Younger Theater) production that takes an uncompromising look at moral hypocrisy. In this story, practically all of Paris rushes in as voyeurs to watch the demise of the town's dying "It Girl"-a modern-day courtesan named Violetta. The crowd, withmore concern for their entertainment than her health, foists a new admirer on her: a young, socially awkward bookworm named Alfredo. While love seems like it could be a distraction, there's ultimately no denying the darkness that descends on Verdi's heroine. Presented without intermission, the "non-stop music keeps the audience riveted throughout" (Express, UK).  

More than one hundred solo performers, festival supporters, special guests, and members of the theatre community took part in the United Solo Closing Gala.

San Francisco Opera presents Leoš Jana?ek's V?c Makropulos (The Makropulos Case), a suspenseful lyric drama about the quest for eternal youth, in five performances at the War Memorial Opera House from October 14-29.

San Francisco Opera presents Leoš Jana?ek's V?c Makropulos (The Makropulos Case), a suspenseful lyric drama about the quest for eternal youth, in five performances at the War Memorial Opera House from October 14-29. Director Olivier Tambosi returns to oversee his imaginative staging, a co-production with Finnish National Opera, which premiered at San Francisco Opera in 2010 to considerable praise.

San Francisco Opera presents Leoš Jana?ek's V?c Makropulos (The Makropulos Case), a suspenseful lyric drama about the quest for eternal youth, in five performances at the War Memorial Opera House from October 14-29. Director Olivier Tambosi returns to oversee his imaginative staging, a co-production with Finnish National Opera, which premiered at San Francisco Opera in 2010 to considerable praise.

San Francisco Opera presents Leoš Jana?ek's V?c Makropulos (The Makropulos Case), a suspenseful lyric drama about the quest for eternal youth, in five performances at the War Memorial Opera House from October 14-29. Director Olivier Tambosi returns to oversee his imaginative staging, a co-production with Finnish National Opera, which premiered at San Francisco Opera in 2010 to considerable praise.

San Francisco Opera today announced cast updates for the upcoming productions of Leoš Jana?ek's The Makropulos Case and Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The role of Albert Gregor in The Makropulos Case will now feature American tenor Charles Workman in his Company debut, replacing Scott Quinn who has withdrawn due to personal reasons. Italian tenor Vincenzo Costanzo will make his United States opera debut as Lt. B. F. Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly in lieu of Maxim Aksenov who has withdrawn for personal reasons.

Planet Connections Theatre Festivity, the country's premier socially-conscious, eco-friendly arts festival, is proud to announce its eighth season of plays, musicals & staged readings, with all shows taking place at The Paradise Factory, 64 East 4th St, between 2nd Avenue & Bowery.

?Planet Connections Theatre Festivity is pleased to announce the world premiere of A Stopping Place, a new one-man show written and performed by Stephen Powell, directed by Clara Pagone, and produced by Leonie Ettinger. A Stopping Place, the first original play by Stephen Powell, brings to the stage a riveting exploration of the lasting effects that trauma inflicts on the individual, told through the personal meditations of a lone, anonymous character. Tickets are $18 for general admission and can be purchased at www.planetconnections.org. A Stopping Place benefits MCCNY Homeless Youth Services supporting New York City's young LGBT population in crisis.

?HOUSTON (April 20, 2016) – Renowned maestro David Zinman will appear with the Houston Symphony and Chorus to conduct the Fauré Requiem at 8 p.m. April 28 and 30 and at 2:30 p.m. May 1. Zinman is the only American conductor to appear on this season's classical series.