Thomas C. Hase News

American Symphony Orchestra has launched ASO Online, a new digital initiative in collaboration with Bard's Fisher Center. To stay in touch with its audiences and to help the community escape from stress through music during the COVID-19 pandemic, ASO will release a recording of a past performance for streaming on its website each Wednesday. Streaming content will alternate each week between a??live video recordings of operas from Bard's SummerScape festival featuring ASO as the orchestra-in-residence, and iconic symphonic audio recordings from the Orchestra's past seasons.

Engelbert Humperdinck's HANSEL AND GRETEL opened Saturday to an audience that included several dozen children, who followed their attention from beginning to end with color, movement, and singing backed by lushly orchestrated music. Even a five year-old girl sitting in front of me on a raised seat kept her eyes on the stage without a single fidget. Director Brenna Corner's playful production emphasized the fairy-tale nature of the story. During the overture a boy entered in front of the curtain, picked up a large book lying center stage and blew a cloud of dust from its cover. Fascinated, he dropped to the floor reading with a rapt expression while members of the San Diego Opera's children's chorus entered behind him, each with a letter on the front of their costumes. Once assembled the letters lit up to say, 'Once upon a time...,' and the story began. It continued after intermission with 'And then...' though not before a necessary rearrangement of the 'And...' brought a second laugh. The approving audience laughed again when the production closed with 'The end.'

San Diego Opera's 2019-2020 mainstage season continues with Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, which opens on Saturday, February 8, 2020 at the San Diego Civic Theatre for four performances.

Cincinnati Opera is pleased to announce the casting of principal roles for composer Gregory Spears and librettist Tracy K. Smith's new opera Castor and Patience, which will have its world premiere in Cincinnati, July 16 - 26, 2020, highlighting the company's 100th anniversary season.

San Diego Opera's 2019-2020 mainstage season continues with Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, which opens on Saturday, February 8, 2020 at the San Diego Civic Theatre for four performances.

Syracuse Stage and the Syracuse University Department of Drama is now enchanting audiences with their production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. The musical is under the always superb direction of Donna Drake and musical director Brian Cimmet, the creative team that brought the last two holiday favorites to Syracuse Stage. Like their past productions, Wizard of Oz and Elf their production of Beauty and the Beast kicks off the Holiday season with magical sets, costumes, and dazzling talent.

Actors Theatre of Louisville presents Fifth Third Bank's A Christmas Carol, beginning November 23 in the Pamela Brown Auditorium. Tickets are now available at ActorsTheatre.org. 

Actors Theatre of Louisville and Artistic Director Robert Barry Fleming announce the upcoming holiday season favorites: Fifth Third Bank's A Christmas Carol, beginning November 23 in the Pamela Brown Auditorium, and The Santaland Diaries, based on the essay by David Sedaris, beginning November 24 in the Victor Jory Theatre. Tickets are now available at ActorsTheatre.org.

Actors Theatre of Louisville presents Fifth Third Bank's A Christmas Carol, beginning November 23 in the Pamela Brown Auditorium. Tickets are now available at ActorsTheatre.org. 

San Diego Opera's 2019-2020 mainstage season continues with Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, which opens on Saturday, February 8, 2020 at the San Diego Civic Theatre for four performances. Additional performances are February 11, 14, and 16 (matinee), 2020.

Cincinnati Opera announces the casting of principal roles for composer Gregory Spears and librettist Tracy K. Smith's new opera Castor and Patience, which will have its world premiere in Cincinnati, July 16 - 26, 2020, highlighting the company's 100th anniversary season.

Geva Theatre Center's 46th Season concludes with the world premiere of Revival: The Resurrection of Son House, written and directed by Keith Glover, with music by Son House, Billy Thompson and Keith Glover, musical direction by Billy Thompson and choreography by Norwood Pennewell, in the Elaine P. Wilson Stage from May 1 through June 2, 2019.

Actors Theatre of Louisville announces Fifth Third Bank's A Christmas Carol, based on the book by Charles Dickens, adapted by Barbara Field and directed by Drew Fracher. Celebrate the warmth of the holidays with Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future. A beloved tradition for more than four decades and the nation's second-longest continuously running production of A Christmas Carol, Actors Theatre's rendition of Dickens' classic tale is brought to life with visual splendor and joyous music. A Christmas Carol will play November 20-December 23 in the Pamela Brown Auditorium.

Actors Theatre of Louisville announces Fifth Third Bank's A Christmas Carol, based on the book by Charles Dickens, adapted by Barbara Field and directed by Drew Fracher. Celebrate the warmth of the holidays with Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future. A beloved tradition for more than four decades and the nation's second-longest continuously running production of A Christmas Carol, Actors Theatre's rendition of Dickens' classic tale is brought to life with visual splendor and joyous music. A Christmas Carol will play November 20-December 23 in the Pamela Brown Auditorium.

ARIADNE is an opera that shows the beauty of great voices and this cast had plenty to offer. Amanda Echalaz, whose voice has significant heft to it, sang Ariadne with beautiful rose velvet tones. She was a bit of a witch in the prologue, but in the opera, her voice rolled out over the audience like waves in the ocean. Offering pathos at the beginning, Echalaz's use of a tapestry of vocal color made her transition to Bacchus's lover credible

Cincinnati Opera, today announced the repertoire and casting for Cincinnati Opera's 2019 Summer Festival, which will run from June 13 to July 28. The company's 99th season begins with a charming production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in Music Hall's Springer Auditorium.

Palm Beach Opera concludes the 2017-2018 mainstage season with a triumphant production of Mozart's poignant masterpiece Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), a new co-production between Palm Beach Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Philadelphia, and San Diego Opera. The popular opera will have three performances March 23-25 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts at 701 Okeechobee Blvd.

Even if it were just for its history lesson about the lavender scare of the '50s-- the witch hunt and the mass firings of gay men and women from the federal government during the McCarthy era--FELLOW TRAVELERS by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce would be well worth seeing. But there's so much more to the opera, which had its local debut at the New York PROTOTYPE 2018 this past weekend, directed by Kevin Newbury, at the Gerald Lynch Theatre--including some of the most gorgeous opera music in recent memory.

Lyric Unlimited has announced casting for the Chicago premiere of Fellow Travelers. Tenor Jonas Hacker and baritone Joseph Lattanzi will sing the lead roles of Timothy Laughlin and Hawkins Fuller, two men who fall in love during the height of the McCarthy era in 1950s Washington D.C. Devon Guthrie will sing the role of Mary Johnson, Hawkins's assistant and Timothy's confidante.

Palm Beach Opera recently announced its 2018 main stage opera season that will present three audience favorites at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach. Season subscriptions are now available for purchase.