News & Notes

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

Conductor Patrick Summers is seen at curtain call during the ...
View the photo Conductor Patrick Summers is seen at curtain call during the opening night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center in downtown ...
news.yahoo.com/.../conductor-patrick-summers-seen-curtain-c...

Dallas Opera Announces New Commission, Collaboration Between ...
By Peter Simek
These works include a piece, commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11, and a lyric drama for Seattle's “Music of Remembrance” about Krystyna Zywulska, an Auschwitz survivor, and the song cycle, ...
FrontRow

General Opera News

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

Daughter slams Korp killing opera
Ninemsn - ‎
Victorian Opera's Midnight Son, which premiered in Melbourne last night, is based on the true story of Joe Korp, who allegedly plotted to kill his wife with mistress Tania Herman. Did you see the opera? Let us know what you think by sending an email to ...

Susan Graham Announces Upcoming Appearances
Broadway World
Graham, who has received word that she is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award presented by San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program, is gearing up for her return to the Met in December and for a recital tour with Renée Fleming that stops ...
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Widow of Pavarotti Hits Some Low Notes
Wall Street Journal
In September Ms. Mantovani put up for sale one of the three cooperative apartments that the storied opera singer used to own on the 23rd floor of the Hampshire House, at 150 Central Park South. But it's been slow going. Ms. Mantovani originally put the ...
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Sweeney Todd, With Rod Gilfry and Karen Ziemba, to Stalk Opera Theatre of St ...
Playbill.com
By Adam Hetrick Rod Gilfry and Karen Ziemba will share a devious duet in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Tony-winning musical Sweeney Todd at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis this summer. Ron Daniels will direct Sweeney Todd, which is conducted by ...
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A Deadly Night in the Boxing Ring Is Grist for an Evening at the Opera
New York Times (blog)
His story is now moving from the ring to the opera stage. The jazz trumpeter, band leader and composer Terence Blanchard is composing an opera based on Griffith's life called “Champion,” with a libretto by the playwright Michael Cristofer.
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Dallas Opera Announces New Commission, EVEREST, for 2015
Broadway World
The Dallas Opera today announced the commissioning of a new original one-act opera by renowned British composer Joby Talbot (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and the critically acclaimed American librettist ...
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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

1987: The year Houston became a more livable, more interesting city because . . .
It became the home for the Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera and a host of other performing arts groups. The first official Art Car Parade debuted in April 1988 with 40 cars. Why it remains special today: As this weekend's 25th anniversary ...
culturemap.com 

Audra McDonald: Shaping 'Bess' On Broadway - WNYC
Her parents owned several recordings of Porgy and Bess, including one by the Houston Grand Operaand another featuring Leontyne Price. They also had a record of Sarah Vaughan singing Gershwin tunes. "She sang 'My Man's Gone Now,' ...
The latest stories from www.wnyc.org

College of Fine Arts Announces Barbara Smith Conrad as Spring 2012 ...
University of Texas at Austin News
Conrad performed with the Metropolitan Opera for eight years, from 1982 to 1989, and has performed leading operatic roles with the Vienna State Opera, Teatro Nacional in Venezuela, the Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and many ...
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San Francisco Opera to present three operas in its Summer 2012 Season
The works to be presented, in the order of the opening performances, is as follows: Nixon in China by John Adams: This opera was first performed 25 years ago by the Houston Grand Opera under the leadership of David Gockley. Gockley is now ...
Examiner 

General Opera News

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

Lyric Opera draws on fiscal reserves to break even for year
Chicago Tribune
Compared with just about every other company in the business, Lyric Opera of Chicago continues to ride above the economic turbulence that is buffeting so many of the nation's other not-for-profit performing arts organizations. Not soaring, but riding.
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Sir Andrew Davis Extends Contract as Lyric Opera of Chicago's Music Director ...
Broadway World
Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, announced today that the company is reporting a breakeven operating performance for fiscal year 2012. Lyric has operated in the black for 24 of the past 25 years—a record among the country's ...
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Filling in the Missing Links of an Opera Donizetti Never Finished
New York Times
“One can no longer speak of the opera houses of Paris, but only of the opera houses of M. Donizetti.” Of the operas Berlioz mentioned, “Le Duc d'Albe,” set in 16th-century Flanders during Spanish domination of the Low Countries, must have looked ...
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Humphrey resigns post over honor to Corbett
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
By Marylynne Pitz / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Charlie Humphrey resigned Monday from the board of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, a move prompted by GPAC's explanation for the PittsburghOpera's honoring of Gov. Tom Corbett and his wife, Susan, ...
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More funds, more diversity, says Australia Council review
Sydney Morning Herald
THE Australia Council needs $21 million more in funding and should overhaul its grants application process to welcome emerging art forms, reversing the perceived prejudice towards big arts organisations such as theatres and opera companies.
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Three hours later, an opera fan is born!
Concord Monitor
By Mike Alberici / For the Monitor This is how opera fans are born. I made it through the first episode of The Ring (Das Rheingold) at the Capitol Center for the Arts last Thursday, and I was incredibly impressed. There were only about 60 people who ...
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My Favorite Records: Ruth Bader Ginsburg
New Yorker (blog)
Justice Ginsburg's love for opera is well known, her experience going back at least as far as Leontyne Price's legendary début at the Met, in 1961. Her son, James Ginsburg, is the proprietor of Cedille Records, an independent classical label based in ...
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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

Applause for "Pink at the Brown"
Houston Chronicle
... Da Camera's Sarah Rothenberg; Houston Symphony brass artists Mark Hughes, Tony Prisk, Brian Thomas, Phillip Freeman and Dave Kirk; Houston Grand Opera's Cecilia Duarte, Vanessa Cerdo-Alonzo and Ana Maria Otamendi; and Alley Theatre Young Artists.
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Behind the opera's curtain
Behind the opera's curtain. Article. Loading ... life_lysistrata_2. Courtesy of Houston Grand Opera/Brett Coomer · arts_jake_heggie_3. Ellen Appel · Opera life 3 ...
www.dfw.com/2012/05/09/.../behind-the-operas-curtain.html

Nonprofits: A Cross-Country Tour | American University Washington ...
Appalachian Trail Conservancy · Houston Grand Opera · Lighthouse International · Network for Good · New York Women's Foundation · Shane's Inspiration ...
www.american.edu/.../20110509-Nonprofits-A-Cross-Country...

profile of Lyric Opera's young artist development program, the Ryan ...
... Center, has taken its place in the top tier of these programs, alongside those of the Metropolitan and San Francisco operas, and the Houston Grand Opera.
articles.chicagotribune.com/.../ct-ent-0509-classical-ryan-2012...

General Opera News

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

Going for Baroque on a Tight Budget
Wall Street Journal
By HEIDI WALESON For its fourth and final outing this season, the scaled-back, itinerant New York City Opera is presenting a rarity, Georg Philipp Telemann's "Orpheus," in El Museo del Barrio's charming 600-seat theater.
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Should’ve stayed dead and buried
New York Post
By JAMES JORDEN New York City Opera at El Museo del Barrio, 1230 5th Ave.;212-870-5600. Next performance tomorrow; others through Sunday. About the only good thing that can be said for New York City Opera's “Orpheus,” which opened Saturday night, ...
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No tragedies in Opera Australia's annual report
Limelight Magazine
Opera Australia has something to sing about this financial year, posting an operating surplus for 2011 – its first after two successive deficits. The company's reported profit of $319189 in 2011 is a significant turnaround from the previous year's ...
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Opera Review: Jake Heggie's Three Decembers Tackles Family Tension Sung ...
D Magazine
By Wayne Lee Gay After opening on Saturday night at Bass Performance Hall with one grand old favorite opera about a diva—Puccini's Tosca—Fort Worth Opera's spring festival moved on to a contemporary one-act chamber opera—also centered around a diva ...
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Portland Opera closes season with evocative Candide
Oregon Music News
by James Bash on May 14, 2012 Portland Opera closed out its season with a very strong performance of Leonard Bernstein's Candide on Friday evening (May 11) at Keller Auditorium. After its premiere in 1956, Candide has undergone a number of revisions, ...
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Cheer Up, Emo Boy: Werther at Washington National Opera, Reviewed
Washington City Paper (blog)
Opera audiences have a higher tolerance for melodramatics than most. Some forlorn fool spends two hours bemoaning his unrequited love before killing himself and nobody bats an eye. So when the audience starts giggling as the title character in Werther ...
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An Opulent Production Kicks Off Opera Festival And Brings Fort Worth's Tosca ...
D Magazine
By Wayne Lee Gay Whilst heading into one of the most admirably up-to-date opera festivals in the world—with two works by living composers in a four-production season—Fort Worth Opera opened its annual spring festival Saturday night at Bass ...
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Experiments in Opera Reopens its Laboratory with Some Mad Musical Scientists
WQXR Radio (blog)
By Olivia Giovetti Often the biggest challenge for an upstart opera company isn't the maiden voyage, but subsequent performances. Like new works themselves, much money and effort is funneled into the debut, often at the expense of guaranteeing ...
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Verdi opera venue change due to slow ticket sales
Waterbury Republican American
BY BRYNN MANDEL | REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN Faced with a too-meager audience that made its staging at the 2640-seat Palace Theater economically challenging, the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and the Connecticut Lyric Opera reached a mutual agreement ...
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Monday, May 14, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

Thank you to Coughing Man, Unknown Amateur Photographer & others who disrupt ...
CultureMap Houston
By Leslie Loddeke Thank you, Unknown Coughing Man, for that remarkable barking-Rottweiler counterpoint you projected from the audience to diva Joyce DiDonato's silvery swan song at the end of Houston Grand Opera's Mary Stuart last weekend.

Review: LA Opera's 'La Boheme' has young cast in old production
Los Angeles Times
Summers, who is artistic and music director of Houston Grand Opera and is here making his LA Opera debut, conducted as though he had a number of agendas. His basic style is incisive and propulsive. He catapults vividly through action.
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Pasadena ISD names Teachers of the Year
Your Houston News
Lupold has built and maintained learning relationships with NASA, the Houston Symphony, the Society for the Performing Arts and Houston Grand Opera. Her students have performed in a variety of ways and in a variety of venues, including Jones Hall and ...

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Play, sing, dance, recite — Pink at the Brown celebrates the best of H-Town's ...
CultureMap Houston
Da Camera of Houston, Houston Ballet, the Alley Theatre, Society for the Performing Arts, Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Symphony each contributed to the evening's entertainment and program that saluted three individuals and one foundation.

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Personal History: Ethan Greene « The FADER
By THE FADER
Two years ago, the Houston Grand Opera approached me about writing an opera for middle and high school-aged audiences. When I asked them if they had a particular style or sound in mind, they told me they'd rather see Wozzeck (Alban ...
The FADER

Play, sing, dance, recite — Pink at the Brown celebrates the best of H-Town's ...
CultureMap Houston
Da Camera of Houston, Houston Ballet, the Alley Theatre, Society for the Performing Arts, Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Symphony each contributed to the evening's entertainment and program that saluted three individuals and one foundation.

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Billevesées: Fort Worth Opera Festival 2013 to Include Me
In last year's production of Ariadne at Houston Grand Opera, Jon Kolbet (left) played the Major-Domo. Here, he's joined by Rodell Rosel as the Dancing Master ...
billmadison.blogspot.com/.../fort-worth-opera-festival-2013-to...

Coast to Coast Selections of French Opera Performances May 2012 ...
Joyce DiDonato is Vocally and Dramatically Convincing in Donizetti's “Maria Stuarda” – Houston Grand Opera, April 27, 2012 “Orphee” at the Lobero – Jose ...
www.operawarhorses.com/.../coast-to-coast-selections-of-frenc...

Madison Symphony Season Closes with Gobs of Gershwin
Madison Magazine (blog)
A young DeMain laid a cornerstone of his reputation in 1976, when Houston Grand Opera produced the first uncut staging of Gershwin's masterpiece as part of their American bicentennial celebrations — over forty years after the work's premiere.
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General Opera News

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

Three charged with murder; opera singer shot on I-205 speaks; sad Shar-Peis ...
OregonLive.com
By Larry Bingham, The Oregonian View full sizeCourtesy, Hacienda, CDCYou can help build the Hacienda covered futsal court in the Cully community by taking part in two upcoming fundraisers. • Safeway customers and employees have donated $500000 to...
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Dresser experienced opera in special way
The Doings Western Springs
Gleason worked as a dresser for the Lyric Opera of Chicago but is now retired and volunteers her time with gardening and at Mayslake.| Michelle LaVigne~Sun-Times Media As a young girl, Western Springs resident Jacqui Gleason ironed clothes for extra ...
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Opera Theatre prepares for 'Carmen,' cannibalism, Mozart and Mad Hatter
STLtoday.com
Soprano Ashley Emerson plays Alice in the 2012 Opera Theatre St. Louis production of Alice in Wonderland. Gypsies, cannibalism, a set of airheads and the Mad Hatter: Combine them with stirring stories and great music, performed by a world-class ...
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6 Ways MIT's Media Lab Envisions the Opera of the Future
BostInno
Throughout the course of the past year, one group, “Opera of the Future,” also known as “Hyperinstruments,” has been examining how musical composition, performance and instrumentation can lead to new forms of expression, learning and health.
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Bookkeeper gets 20 months for stealing from Opera Lyra, Council of Archives
Ottawa Citizen
By Andrew Seymour, The Ottawa Citizen May 11, 2012 4:02 PM OTTAWA — A “manipulative” bookkeeper who defrauded cash-strapped Opera Lyra Ottawa after stealing from the non-profit Canadian Council of Archives was sentenced Friday to 20 months in jail.
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Eugene Opera switches gears after money-losing season
The Register-Guard
By Bob Keefer Eugene Opera finished its season $100000 in the red after a lightly attended spring production of “Nixon in China,” its general director said Thursday. As a result, Mark Beudert said, theopera is changing course next season and bringing ...
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Church members outraged over Bolshoi's unorthodox opera
Tne Moscow News
by Alina Lobzina at 12/05/2012 12:13 Russia's famed Bolshoi Theater has had to defend itself from attacks by disgruntled Orthodox Church members demanding that it remove a controversial staging of a classical opera from its repertoire.
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Utah Opera: Of Mice & Men
Salt Lake City Weekly
Opera-goers wouldn't have stood for it then, and they shouldn't stand for it now, despite the current passion for sing-songy tunes. Yes, Floyd's score is challenging. Of Mice & Men is not a Rossini, Puccini or any other “-ini” crowd-pleaser.
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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