Press Releases

Houston Grand Opera Present The Turn of the Screw
In this operatic thriller two children are pulled toward the world of the dead by the ghosts of their prior governess Miss Jessel and her lover Peter Quint. Internationally acclaimed soprano Amanda Roocroft plays the governess whose obsessive efforts to protect the children may prove more of a threat than the spirits themselves.
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Houston Grand Opera Presents Tosca
Renowned soprano Patricia Racette makes her role debut as the passionate Floria Tosca in Puccini’s timeless drama. Tenor Alexey Dolgov is the painter Mario Cavaradossi, whom Tosca adores and Raymond Aceto sings the menacing Baron Scarpia who will stop at nothing to destroy the object of Tosca’s affections.
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HGO Wins Award from The National MultiCultural Institute
HGO has received the 2009 Leading Lights Diversity Award in Arts and Culture from the National MultiCultural Institute (NMCI) for its Song of Houston series, the first time in NMCI’s twenty-six year history that this national award has been presented to an opera
company.
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Food for Thought...or Just for Fun!
HGO and Recipe for Success Foundation are creating a community table for all of Houston to share traditions of food, culture, and stories in an event that is the culmination of Houston’s Citizenship Week. Food for Thought… or Just for Fun! is a free event
on Grace Event Lawn at Discovery Green Park in Downtown Houston on Saturday, November 21, 2009 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.
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Houston Grand Opera Presents Lohengrin
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) continues the 2009–10 season with Wagner’s mystical romantic opera Lohengrin with performances in the Brown Theater of the Wortham Theater Center October 30 – November 15, 2009. HGO launches a return to German opera with this co-production with Grand Théâtre de Genève.
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Houston Grand Opera Presents The Elixir of Love
HGO launches the 2009-2010 season with Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love. “We kick off the season with a truly grand evening of opera,” explained HGO’s General Director and CEO Anthony Freud. This comic love story, called a “playful melodrama” by the composer,
runs in the Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Auditorium from October 23 – November 9, 2009.
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Glen Rosenbaum to Replace Gloria Portela as Chairman of the Houston Grand Opera Board of Directors
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) today announced the resignation of Board of Directors Chairman Gloria Portela, due to ill health. At their meeting today, the Directors elected Vinson & Elkins partner Glen Rosenbaum to serve a full two-year term as Chair.
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Rigoletto at Miller Outdoor Theatre
Houston Grand Opera reprises performances of its much acclaimed production of Verdi’s Rigoletto – with free public performances on May 15-16, 2009 at the Miller Outdoor Theatre.
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HGO and the Economy
Houston Grand Opera General Director Anthony Freud and members of the company’s Senior Management Team met today with company members to discuss the impact of the economic downturn. This was a follow-up to a company meeting in October, at which Mr. Freud announced the approach that management and company would adopt during the downturn.
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Maria Callas Exhibit
The Hellenic Parliament Foundation for Parliamentarism and Democracy, The General Consulate of Greece, Houston and The General Consulate of Italy, Houston in cooperation with Houston Grand Opera present a tribute to one of the most renowned opera singers of the twentieth century- Maria Callas, beginning April 11, 2009 and closing on May 11 in the lobby of the Wortham Theater Center in Houston, Texas.
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Previn's Brief Encounter
HGO presents its 39th world premiere with André Previn’s second opera Brief Encounter, an opera in two acts, based on the play Still Life and the screen play to the 1945 David Lean film Brief Encounter, both by Noël Coward. Brief Encounter opens May 1, 2009 with performances through May 9.
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Verdi's Rigoletto
HGO continues its 54th season with Verdi’s haunting and tragic tale Rigoletto. Rigoletto, which was last performed at HGO in 2001, returns to the Wortham Theater Center with a powerful new staging of Michael Yeargan’s classic production that was inspired by Italian
painter Giorgio di Chirico.
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Houston Grand Opera Announces Winners of the 20th Annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers
HGO held its annual Concert of Arias, the final round of the twentieth annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, on February 8, 2007 at the Wortham Theater Center in downtown Houston.
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Houston Grand Opera Announces the 2009/2010 Season
Houston Grand Opera General Director and CEO Anthony Freud today announced details of the company’s 2009-10 season, which runs from October 23, 2009 to May 14, 2010 with thirty-one performances of six operas.
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Houston Grand Opera Presents CityCast: A Free HD Simulcast
HGO’s First Live HD Simulcast to Discovery Green and Five HISD School Locations
On February 7, 2009, for the first time in four years, Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will offer a free live simulcast of its newest production, Chorus! from the stage of the Wortham Theater Center in downtown.
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Three Decembers CD
HGO is pleased to announce the commercial release of its 38th world premiere, Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers, on the Albany label, December 1, 2008. Three Decembers, which had its premiere on February 29, 2008 at the Wortham Center in Houston, has been called “a touching ‘peeling back’ of family secrets” by The Houston Chronicle and “a score filled with pleasures” by Opera Today.
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HGO Presents Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream
HGO Continues its Britten Cycle with a new production by award winning director Neil Armfield. Opens Friday, January 23, 2009. Download Press Release.

Houston Grand Opera Presents Chorus!
HGO continues its 2008-2009 season with Chorus!, a new work conceived by award winning director David Poutney featuring various composers, opening January 30, 2009 with performances through February 13. Download Press Relase.

Houston Grand Opera Presents A Midsummer Night's Dream
HGO continues its multi-year Benjamin Britten cycle and its 2008-2009 season with Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, opening January 23, 2009 with performances through February 6. Download Press Release.

Houston Grand Opera to Present its Premiere Staging of Berlioz's Beatrice and Benedict
HGO) continues the 2008–2009 season with Berlioz’s Beatrice and Benedict, based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, in the Brown Theater at the Wortham Theater Center. The production opens on October 30, 2008, with performances continuing
through November 14, 2008. Download Press Release.

HGO Opens 2008/2009 Season with Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci
The double bill of verismo operas plays at the Wortham Theater Center October 17 – November 1, 2008.
“We kick off the season with a truly grand evening of opera,” explained HGO’s General Director and CEO Anthony Freud, OBE. “These two highly accessible and realistic works come together to provide the audience with two love affairs, two centuries, and a fantastic night of passion.” Download Press Release.