News & Notes

HGO was honored and delighted to receive an ArtPlace Grant. Click here to read the editorial from HOUSTON CHRONICLE which covers the ArtPlace grant and Cruzar la Cara de la Luna at Théâtre du Châtelet.

OPERA NEWS Articles:

Eric Owens former Houston Grand Opera Studio Member

Barber of Seville Review

David Lomeli make his Houston Grand Opera debut in La Traviata

The Rape of Lucretia joins the repertory of Houston Grand Opera next month

Friday, February 3, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

A Courtesan's Triumph
Concertonet
The night, however, truly belongs to Shagimuratova. From her zippy run through "Sempre libera"--capped by an ecstatically extended, perfectly pitched high E-flat--to her truly hollow, eery iterations of "Prendi, quest' è l'immagine," she integrates flawless vocal technique, risky and convincing interpretive choices and star-quality acting. 

The Rape of Lucretia throws a challenging, controversial test at the Houston ...
CultureMap Houston
By Joseph Campana Challenges abound with Houston Grand Opera's ambitious new production of Benjamin Britten's 1946 The Rape of Lucretia, which follows hard upon the heels of the company's masterfully performed La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi.
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Operagasmic Production of the Week | Operagasm
Houston Grand Opera Orchestra. * HGO debut ** HGO Studio Artist *** Former HGO Studio Artist. Britten's first chamber opera, for eight solo singers and an ...
operagasm.com/2012/.../operagasmic-production-of-the-week...

Houston Grand Opera - The Rape of Lucretia
Mezzo-soprano Michelle de Young [pictured], baritone Jacques Imbrailo and conductor Rory Macdonald preview Houston Grand Opera's production of The ...
www.houstonpublicradio.org/.../1328133216-Houston-Grand-...

Houston Grand Opera goes through three tenors in La Traviata: Day saved with ...
CultureMap Houston
By Whitney Radley Young Mexican tenor David Lomelí was slated to play Alfredo Germont in Houston Grand Opera's production of Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata. But just days before the opening, Lomelí succumbed to illness, and the HGO scrambled for a ...
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The Rain Queen of Balobedu - La Triviata - The Fallen Woman
By brijeana
My friend Crystal invited me to the opera this month for the two shows going on in repertory at theHouston Grand Opera. Last night's show was La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Maria Piave. La Triviata by Guisseppe Verdi. So Vivian's ...
The Rain Queen of Balobedu

Your weekly guide to Houston: The ultimate foodie film, sprouting, Flamart and ...
CultureMap Houston
Houston loves its opera, evident by the openings of Houston Grand Opera's La Traviata, Opera in the Heights' Anna Bolena and Moores Opera Center's Amelia and Tartuffe. But enough about last week. On tap this week: I'll be the first to admit that I have ...
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AMA Houston Announces MarketingEDGE 2012 Speaker Line-up ...
By Tara Johnson
Elizabeth Baisley, Director of Communications, Houston Grand Opera. - David Bunch, Sr. VP Shell Lubricants. - Daniel Cotlar, CEO blinds.com. - Paul Galvani, VP Marketing, Riviana Foods. AMA Houston also recently added luncheon keynote ...
AMA Houston

General Opera News

“OPERA MUSIC MATTERS” ( This link contains rumors, gossip,  reviews, and other fun stuff )

Barcelona's opera house closes for two months in wake of economic crisis
Telegraph.co.uk
The Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona's opera house, has become the latest victim of the economic crisis in Spain as it announced it will close for two months in a bid to cuts costs. By Fiona Govan, Madrid The renowned Gran Teatro del Liceu, ...
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Fort Worth Opera Extends Darren Woods' Contract

TheaterJones Performing Arts News in North Texas - ‎26 minutes ago‎

by Mark Lowry The Fort Worth Opera has announced that the contract for General Manager Darren Woods have been extended for two years, meaning he'll be there at least through June 2018.

Camilla Williams, Barrier-Breaking Opera Star, Dies at 92
New York Times
Miss Williams, a lyric soprano who began her career as a concert singer, had never been in an opera. The New York City Opera, the young upstart company with which she was making her debut, had never before staged “Madama Butterfly.
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Opera: The Times-Picayune covers 175 years of New Orleans history
NOLA.com
By Laura McKnight, The Times-Picayune The majestic French Opera House opened its doors at Toulouse and Bourbon streets on Dec. 1, 1859, an elegant manifestation of New Orleans' longtime love affair with this musical art form.
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LA Opera to Stage Free Shows
LA Downtown News Online
Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Opera. DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - The LA Opera today announced that it will present two family-oriented performances of the medieval music drama The Festival Play of Daniel at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in March.
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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

Michelle DeYoung in HGO's The Rape of Lucretia
Houston Press (blog)
And, she adds, this Houston Grand Opera production has "an amazing cast." Asked why she took the role, she said: "Vocally it's a beautiful thing; It kind of has everything in it. But it's really the acting challenge; it's so dramatic and really ...
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Houston Grand Opera Debuts The Rape of Lucretia Directed by ...
Houston Grand Opera presents the latest installment in the work of Benjamin Britten, the 20th century's most important operatic composer, who was also gay.
outsmartmagazine.com/.../houston-grand-opera-debuts-the-rap...

Review: HGO and its star do justice to La Traviata | Houston Art | 29 ...
Soprano Albina Shagimuratova on the set of Houston Grand Opera's La Traviata. : Felix Sanchez photo. Dramatically, La Traviata is the tightest of Giuseppe ...
www.29-95.com/art/story/review-hgos-la-traviata

'Lift Every Voice' at GSU Center Celebrates African American Vocal Tradition
eNews Park Forest
Both Jones and Johnson appeared in Houston Grand Opera's international production of “Porgy and Bess,” which graced the stages of the Opera Bastille in Paris, La Scala in Milan, and the Bunkamura Theater, with the Tokyo Philharmonic.
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General Opera News

“OPERA MUSIC MATTERS” ( This link contains rumors, gossip,  reviews, and other fun stuff )

Talk Like An Opera Geek: Musical Signposts
NPR (blog)
by Tom Huizenga (Talk Like An Opera Geek attempts to decode the intriguing and intimidating lexicon of the opera house.) Know your rallentando from your accelerando? Opera singers must follow the composer's musical road signs.
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Russia's shiny new Bolshoi grappling with gripes
Reuters
By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya | MOSCOW (Reuters) - When Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre threw open its doors after a six-year renovation, a gilded handle broke off in a reporter's hand during the first dress rehearsal for the opening opera.
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Clayton will sing title role of Utah Opera's first Spanish production
Salt Lake Tribune
Daniel Catán's 1996 opera “Florencia en el Amazonas,” the story of an opera singer who returns to her jungle homeland in search of her lost love, is the company's January 2013 offering. Soprano Cynthia Clayton, who has played tragic heroines such as ...
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Hanging on to a whale of a good time
Calgary Herald
Not exactly, says Scott Ingleson, who is describing a brief scene — and the only such episode — in the acclaimed opera vessel that sailed through a splashy Canadian premiere on Saturday at the Jubilee Auditorium. More like a way to pass time on the ...
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Joseph Colaneri appointed as Artistic Director of West Australian Opera
Australian Stage Online
Carolyn Chard, West Australian Opera General Manager, has announced the appointment of Joseph Colaneri as the company's new Artistic Director, succeeding Richard Mills AM who has held the position since 1997. Mr Colaneri was appointed following an ...
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Opera Love From Afar gets singers high
Toronto Star
No, the opera singer says he looked at the acrobats twirling around him and thought, “We look like beautifully arranged angels.” Braun is the only non-acrobat to fly in the Canadian Opera Company's production of Love From Afar, opening Thursday at the ...
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National Opera tenor Hector Lopez: Romanians are Europe's Mexicans. I feel I ...
Romania-Insider.com
Now, almost eight years since he moved to Romania and joined the Bucharest National Opera, he sees himself as more of a local. In very fluent Romanian, tenor Hector Lopez speaks to Romania-Insider.com about his life as an artist in Romania and about ...
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Patricia Neway, Operatic Soprano Who Won a Tony, Dies at 92
New York Times
Patricia Neway, an opera singer who won a Tony in 1960 for her role as the Mother Abbess in the original Broadway production of “The Sound of Music,” died on Jan. 24 at her home in East Corinth, Vt. She was 92. Her niece, Michal Twine, confirmed the ...
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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

HGO, soprano do 'La Traviata' justice
Houston Chronicle
By Everett Evans An angry Alfredo (Bryan Hymel) confronts the distraught Violetta (Albina Shagimuratova) in Houston Grand Opera's La Traviata. Photo: Feliz Sanchez / HC Albina Shagimuratova, the distinguished Russian soprano, stars as Violetta in ...
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General Opera News

“OPERA MUSIC MATTERS” ( This link contains rumors, gossip,  reviews, and other fun stuff )

How an opera house in France is turning darkness into light
Telegraph.co.uk (blog)
First time at the Lyon Opera (No 2 in France after Paris). And so far as I can recall, the first time I've ever spent half an opera interval queuing for the loo – a penance normally reserved for women at theatrical events, and I wish I could explain my ...
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The Dallas Opera Guild Presents 24th Annual Vocal Competition, 3/10
Broadway World
The Dallas Opera Guild is proud to present the 24th Annual “Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition,” an on-stage showcase for talented young opera singers with Texas connections on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 7:30pm in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera ...
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And So the World Ended
Wall Street Journal
At close to six hours, "Götterdämmerung," the final installment of Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle, is a long evening; the Metropolitan Opera's new production, featuring Robert Lepage's notorious "machine," felt even longer. There were flashes of magic, ...
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New York conductor joins WA Opera
The West Australian
US conductor Joseph Colaneri will replace Richard Mills as artistic director of WA Opera this year. A regular conductor with New York's Metropolitan Opera, Colaneri has visited Perth often to conduct operas at His Majesty's Theatre, most recently last ...
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Lyric Opera Guild Board puts on 'Fantasy' party fit for royalty
Chicago Sun-Times
Raffle chairman Allison Alexander (from left), Fantasy of the Opera co-chairmen Courtney Rosen and Nancy Temple, and silent auction chairman Julie Anne Benson. The annual fund-raising event attracted more than 400 attendees. The Lyric Opera's Guild ...
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'Meistersinger,' Wagner's Heart-Warming Opera
New York Times
To an appreciable degree, this Wagner opera is about art, and specifically German art, which leads directors to comment on the tradition of which they are a part, often critically. In a notorious 2002 staging for the Hamburg Staatsoper, ...
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Brundibar children's opera theme: triumph of good over evil
Oak Ridger
By Anonymous The triumph of good over evil and teamwork over bullying (a rampant problem in schools today) are themes of the Brundibar children's opera, to be performed in Oak Ridge at 8 pm Feb. 11 at the Oak Ridge High School Performing Arts Center.
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TheGrio's 100: Ryan Speedo Green, allowed opera to change the course of his life
The Grio
By Keosha Johnson Ryan Speedo Green is a 25-year-old rising bass baritone opera star who has received national acclaim after overcoming a life full of obstacles to pursue his dreams. Green endured a rough life growing up. He grew up in a trailer park ...
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Tuesday, January 31,2012

Houston Grand Opera

Houston Grand Opera's La Traviata Never Catches Fire
Houston Press (blog)
By DL Groover Mon., Jan. 30 2012 at 10:00 AM Giuseppe Verdi's operatic masterpiece about life and love in the demi-monde of 19th Paris, while tastefully sung in HGO's production, never fires up the necessary abandon nor the great passion needed to set ...
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NYC Opera Presents Jonathan Miller's La Traviata at BAM 2/12-18
Broadway World
The young native of New York City was a grand prize winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2004 and is an alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. She has sung Puccini under Plácido Domingo at Los Angeles Opera and starred as ...
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Houston Chamber Choir performs commissioned works including world premier at ...
Your Houston News
... known to Houston audiences for his celebrated work, The Refuge presented by Houston Grand Opera in 2007 – and “The Blue Estuaries” by noted Houston composer David Ashley White, Director of the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston.
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LONG BEACH OPERA BREAKS NEW GROUND…AGAIN
Santa Monica Dispatch
The opera had its US premiere at Houston Grand Opera in 1991. LBO staged the West Coast premiere in 2004, but the new production differs markedly from its 2004 version. Astor Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina and in 1925 moved with his ...
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General Opera News

“OPERA MUSIC MATTERS” ( This link contains rumors, gossip,  reviews, and other fun stuff )

Camilla Williams, black opera pioneer, dies at 92
Wall Street Journal
AP INDIANAPOLIS — Camilla Williams, believed to be the first African-American woman to appear with a major US opera company, has died. She was 92. Williams died Sunday at her home in Bloomington, her attorney, Eric Slotegraaf, said Monday.
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Beverly Sills Artist Award Announced
New York Times (blog)
By DANIEL J. WAKIN The soprano Angela Meade won the Beverly Sills Artist Award, a $50000 prize for singers from ages 25 to 40 who have already appeared in featured roles at the Metropolitan Opera, the company said on Monday. Ms. Meade, 34, made her Met ...
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Concert celebrates Philip Glass at 75
New York Daily News
Not bad for a composer who started in opera. Born in Baltimore, Glass worked as a New York City cabdriver before he made his breakthrough in the 1970s with two massive works: the five-hour “Music in 12 Parts” and the expansive opera “Einstein on the ...
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Opera review: 'Maria de Buenos Aires' by Long Beach Opera
Los Angeles Times
That revelation came during Long Beach Opera's stunning new production of Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer's “Maria de Buenos Aires,” which opened Sunday at the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro. Long Beach ventured “Maria” once before, in 2004, ...
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Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 30 January 2012
Musical Criticism
There was little doubt, though, that the evening's principal draw was not (pace the new Director of Opera) the phones and laptops of Miller's production, but the singers, and above all Allen. Fêted at the curtain call with flowers strewn from on high ...
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Minnesota Opera's 'Werther' makes the most of a flawed work
Pioneer Press
French composer Jules Massenet tapped Goethe with "Werther," an 1892 opera currently receiving its first production in the Minnesota Opera's almost-half-century history. If you read the list of ingredients, it seems ideal for opera: A young scholar ...
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Monday, January 30, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

Arts Week Review of La traviata
Russian-born soprano Albina Shagimuratova walked onto the Wortham Center stage as a singing actress, and left it close to three hours later as a star.

Rape of Lucretia wraps up HGO's Britten series
Zest Magazine
Houston Grand Opera concludes its five-season exploration of Benjamin Britten with the company premiere of The Rape of Lucretia.

Tenor Chad Shelton returns to Houston Grand Opera this February ...
Official Website for Opera Singer Tenor Chad Shelton; Including Biography, Schedule, Acclaim, Recordings, Repertoire, Contact Information.
www.chadshelton.com/artist.php?view=news&nid=2704

Out Smart Magazine interview of Arin Arbus
This dark tale is intriguing to the young avant-garde director, Arin Arbus, currently the associate artistic director at Theater for a New Audience, an off-Broadway classical theater company. While her previous experience with Shakespeare has informed her work on Lucretia, this first foray into opera

Call of the Roman Empire | Modern Luxury
But get ready, because Houston Grand Opera's new production of Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia seems to warrant the rare combination. Both the ...
www.modernluxury.com/houston/.../call-of-the-roman-empire

Extraordinary singing overcomes lackluster production in Houston Grand Opera's ...
CultureMap Houston
In the case of Verdi's La Traviata, the same unfolds in three acts (the second act in two scenes) and Friday night at Houston Grand Opera the unforgettable voice belonged to Russian soprano Albina Shagimuratova as Violetta Valéry.
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Barbara Cook, Michael Feinstein, Renee Fleming Set for Carnegie ...
TheaterMania.com
... Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Stanley, soprano Susanna Phillips as Stella, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's conducted by Patrick Summers (March 14, 2013).

Monster Mash: Dudamel to Carnegie Hall; Charlie Chaplin musical
Los Angeles Times
(New York Times) Eastern flavor: The Houston Grand Opera has announced the lineup for its 2012-13 season. (Houston Chronicle) Par avion: Camille Pissarro's painting "Le Marché aux Poissons" is finally heading home more than 30 years after it was stolen ...
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ARTSblog » Blog Archive » On the Road: Extolling the Virtue of the ...
By Tim Mikulski
The Houston Grand Opera sponsored an event at which seven previous companies awarded with BCA10 acclaim were honored for their support of local arts in order to draw attention to the uniqueness of this city's overwhelming business ...
ARTSblog

General Opera News

“OPERA MUSIC MATTERS” ( This link contains rumors, gossip,  reviews, and other fun stuff )

Opera review: 'Galileo' maps the universe of a scientist and philosopher
Wisconsin State Journal
From left, John Arnold as Younger Galileo, Allisanne Apple, Jamie-Rose Guarrine, and Saira Frank as the radiant ladies de'Medici in Madison Opera's "Galileo Galilei" in Overture Center's Playhouse. At the beginning and the end, Galileo turns in the ...
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'These people have never sung an opera in their lives'
The Independent
Opera, often thought of as the "highbrow" music of the cultured few, has never been immune to the populist touch. From Welsh warbler Charlotte Church to Simon Cowell's Il Divo and Popstar to Operastar favourite Joe McElderry, it is now firmly in the ...
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Dallas Opera debuts kid-friendly show
Pegasus News
The Dallas Opera (TDO) is making big strides to attract people who have never seen an operabefore. TDO announced Thursday that it will simulcast The Magic Flute in Cowboys Stadium -- the first time an opera will be shown in a sports complex in North ...
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People's Diva Sets Her Course
New York Times
In interviews Ms. Fleming said that she would probably sing fewer staged operaproductions in favor of concerts and develop special projects, largely organizing them herself. Finally, in December, she accepted a five-year appointment as the first ...
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Alice Goodman: The furore that finished me
The Guardian
I'll write another opera! And another! And another!' That's what it felt like." Her libretto told the story of the real-life murder of Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly Jewish American, by Palestinian terrorists on an Italian cruise liner in 1985.
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Robert Lepage's 'Götterdämmerung' at the Met — Review
New York Times
“Götterdämmerung,” the final installment in the Metropolitan Opera's new production of Wagner's “Ring” cycle, which opened on Friday, is the most theatrically effective staging of the four works in this epic series, and the clearest representation of ...
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Heppner owns his role in this whale of an opera
Globe and Mail
Most Januarys, Calgary Opera gives its audience a surprise. Sometimes it is its own new commission; as often, it is a Canadian premiere of an American opera that has gained a foothold in the standard repertoire. This January, the company staged its ...
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Calgary Opera wrestles with Moby Dick
Calgary Herald
But what happens if you take that famous opening to Herman Melville's epic novel, Moby-Dick, and use it as the closing line of the opera based on the book? An aha! moment — “a big turning point,” says Jake Heggie, composer of the leviathan music drama ...
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Verdi's first opera, 'Oberto,' gets rare airing
San Francisco Chronicle
By MIKE SILVERMAN, For AP The year was 1839, and a young, unknown Italian composer was having his first opera produced at La Scala. Though only a modest success, "Oberto" launched the career of a man who over the next half-century would turn out nearly ...
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