Press Releases

Houston Grand Opera Studio Announces New Studio Artists for 2012-13
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) today announced that six new artists will join its prestigious young artist development program in the 2012-13 season.
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Houston Grand Opera Studio Showcase
The annual Houston Grand Opera Studio Showcase shines a spotlight on HGO Studio Artists in scenes and selections representing the range of operatic repertoire.
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Houston Grand Opera Presents its 46^th World Premiere: The Bricklayer
As Part of HGOco's Song of Houston: East + West initiative, Houston Grand Opera presents its 46^th world premiere, The Bricklayer, March 15 - 21 2012. Based on a short story by renowned Iranian-American author Farnoosh Moshiri, The Bricklayer tells the real-life story of a family torn apart by the Iranian Revolution.
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HGOco Issues Invitation to Houston Area Composers and Writers
Houston Grand Opera today issued an invitation to Houston-area composers and writers to submit creative proposals for "Houston Artists Respond," a set of musical-storytelling projects to be commissioned by HGOco.
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Houston Grand Opera Announces Winners of 24th Eleanor McCollum Competition
Three Singers Triumph at Annual “Concert of Arias"
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Houston Grand Opera 2012–13 season announced
Company Adds Seventh Production, Subscription Series; Audience Growth Cited. Important Debuts Include Stemme, Heppner in Tristan and Isolde. Two New Operas commissioned for Song of Houston: East + West.
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Houston Grand Opera Announces Substitution
Tenor Bryan Hymel to replace David Lomelí in early performances of La traviata.
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Houston Grand Opera’s Box Office is Now Mobile!
Houston Grand Opera today launched a new version of its InstantEncore Mobile Suite, which allows users to purchase tickets using their mobile devices. This new integration offers a fast, easy-to-use interface to browse event listings, choose seats, and purchase tickets instantly from smartphones supporting mobile Internet, including Android, Blackberry, iPhone, and Palm Pre.
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Houston Grand Opera Opens 57th Season on a High Note
Houston Grand Opera announced that it will open its 57th season this Friday with record-breaking ticket sales and a surplus from the just-closed fiscal year 2011 on the books.
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Houston Grand Opera announces new production team for Mary Stuart
In lieu of a previously-announced new production of Donizetti's Mary Stuart, Houston Grand Opera will present the Minnesota Opera production of that opera, directed by Kevin Newbury, with sets designed by Neil Patel and costumes by Jessica Jahn. Conducted by Patrick Summers and starring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role, with Katie Van Kooten as her cousin, Elizabeth I.
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Houston Grand Opera receives ArtPlace Grant
In an innovative development that is affecting Houston as well as some two dozen other cities and towns across the nation, National Endowment of the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesmann today announced that Houston Grand Opera has received a grant of $250,000 from a new private-public collaboration, ArtPlace (www.artplaceamerica.org).
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Houston Grand Opera commissions Pieces of 9/11 - Memories from Houston, a new song cycle by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer honoring 9/11 victims and responders
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Houston Grand Opera Appoints Solti Award-winner Eric Melear as Associate Music Director.
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Houston Grand Opera Supernumerary Audition:
Houston Grand Opera is holding an open casting call for Supernumeraries on Saturday, August 13 @ 10 a.m.
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HGO's Banner Year
At the company’s annual meeting on June 2, 2011, Houston Grand Opera Board Chairman Glen Rosenbaum reported that the company expects to end the fiscal year on July 31, 2011 on balance. “Despite the continued instability of the economy, 2011 has been one of the most successful years in the company's history,” stated Mr. Rosenbaum. “Thanks to the generosity of our many loyal subscribers and donors and the company's strong management of its resources, and a great year at the box office, Houston Grand Opera is thriving.”
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HGO Announces Executive Leadership Team
HGO's Board of Directors today named Patrick Summers as the Margaret Alkek Williams Artistic and Music Director. Chief Operating Officer Perryn Leech will become the company's Managing Director. Chief Advancement Officer Greg Robertson completes the executive leadership team.

HGO Chairman of the Board Glen Rosenbaum said, "Mr. Summers, Mr. Leech and Mr. Robertson all possess extensive knowledge and strong entrepreneurial skills - qualities that are essential to managing a complex and innovative enterprise like HGO."

Patrick Summers said, "My initial attraction to Houston Grand Opera has greatly deepened during my years here. In this precarious time for the arts in the United States, HGO has managed to constantly re-define what an arts company could look like in a young and growing American city."

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Read about Patrick Summers.
Read about Perryn Leech.

HGO presents Madame Butterfly at Miller Outdoor Theatre
On May 20 and May 22, join HGO for one of Houston’s best loved traditions, Opera at Miller Outdoor Theatre. A warm summer night, glorious music and storytelling sets the scene for one of the world’s most romantic, moving and tragic operas, Madame Butterfly. 
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HGO opens season at Théâtre du Châtelet  in Paris
Houston Grand Opera General Director Anthony Freud today announced that Houston Grand Opera will open the 2011-12 season at the prestigious Théâtre du Châtelet with six performances of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (To cross the Face of the Moon) from September 23 - 27, 2011. 
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HGO Presents Your Name Means the Sea
Houston Grand Opera presents its 43rd world premiere, a newly commissioned chamber opera by Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Alizadeh. Your Name Means the Sea opens on May 21, 2011 at the Cullen Theater in the Wortham Theater Center, with additional performances on May 24 and 26.
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Houston Grand Opera General Director Anthony Freud to take Lyric Opera of Chicago post effective October 2011.
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HGO Presents Ariadne auf Naxos
Marvel at some of the most spectacular coloratura arias in the repertoire when Houston Grand Opera presents Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, April 29 – May 10, 2011, featuring three glamorous and acclaimed sopranos; Christine Goerke (Prima Donna / Ariadne)  Susan Graham (Composer) and Laura Claycomb (Zerbinetta).
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HGO Studio Present Cosi fan tutte
Classical opera meets contemporary style in this ever-popular operatic gem. Houston Grand Opera Studio presents Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at the Emery Weiner School on March 11 and 13, 2011.
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Houston Grand Opera Announces Winners of the 23rd Annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers
Eight finalists competed and two baritones, a soprano and a bass were named winners in the final round of the twenty-third annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers at the Wortham Center in downtown Houston.
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Houston Grand Opera Announces Finalists for the 23rd Annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers
Eight Finalists to Compete Legendary Mezzo-Soprano Frederica von Stade to Serve as Guest Judge
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HGO Announces 2011-12 Season
Houston Grand Opera General Director and CEO Anthony Freud announced the company’s 2011–2012 season today. Opening on October 21, 2011, the season offers thirty-two performances of six operas.
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Joyce DiDonato Named as the 2011–12 Lynn Wyatt Great Artist at Houston Grand Opera
Lynn Wyatt, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Houston Grand Opera (HGO) and a Life Trustee of the organization, together with Anthony Freud, HGO General Director and CEO, today announced that mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will be the Lynn Wyatt Great Artist at Houston Grand Opera for the 2011–12 season.
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HGO Celebrates Houston’s Eastern Communities with Song of Houston: East+West
Houston Grand Opera announces the launch of Song of Houston: East + West, a series of new operas that celebrate Houston as a meeting place for Eastern and Western cultures.
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Lynn Wyatt to Receive an Opera America 2011 National Opera Trustee Recognition Award
Lynn Wyatt, Houston Grand Opera Life Trustee and longtime member of the Board of Directors, was recently named a recipient of the 2011 National Opera Trustee Recognition Award. This award honors trustees of U.S. opera companies for exemplary leadership, generosity and audience-building efforts on behalf of their respective opera companies.
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Beth Madison Elected Chair of the Houston Grand Opera Board of Directors
At its meeting on December 8, 2010, the Houston Grand Opera Association Board of Directors unanimously elected Beth Madison to succeed Glen Rosenbaum as its chair. Rosenbaum, whose term expires on July 31, 2011, has been Chairman since September, 2009.
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HGO Presents Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
The volatile religious and political conflicts of two ancient Scottish clans fuel the drama of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor.
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HGO Presents Fully Staged Performances of To Cross the Face of the Moon/Cruzar la Cara de la Luna at Talento Bilingüe de Houston, December 3-5, 2010
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Houston Grand Opera’s 23rd World Premiere Released on Naxos DVD: Mark Adamo’s Popular Setting of Little Women
HGO is pleased to announce the commercial DVD release of its 23rd world premiere, Little Women, by the American composer Mark Adamo on the Naxos label.
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HGO Presents Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking
HGO continues its 2010-11 season with Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, opening January 22, 2011 with performances through February 6.
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Houston Grand Opera Celebrates National Opera Week with Community Activities
HGO is celebrating with community and educational events that will take opera outside the Wortham walls and bring new audiences into the opera house.
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HOUSTON GRAND OPERA’S OPENING NIGHT DINNER KICKS OFF 56th SEASON
Houston Grand Opera kicked off its 56th season with the Opening Night Dinner Celebration following the season-opening production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly on October 22, 2010.
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HGO ANNOUNCES AN ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCE OF PUCCINI'S MADAME BUTTERFLY
HGO announced today that, due to popular demand, an additional performance of its new production of Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly has been scheduled for Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 7:30 pm in the Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Auditorium.
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HOUSTON GRAND OPERA PRESENTS BRITTEN'S PETER GRIMES

HGO continues its 2010-11 season with Peter Grimes, British composer Benjamin Britten’s masterful opera about the human struggle of the individual versus the masses against the backdrop of the raging sea.
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HOUSTON GRAND OPERA BOARD EXTENDS ANTHONY FREUD'S CONTRACT
At its meeting today, the Board of Directors of Houston Grand Opera Association, Inc., extended Anthony Freud's contract as General Director and CEO through July 31, 2015.
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HOUSTON GRAND OPERA ENDS FISCAL YEAR WITH SURPLUS
HGO reports that the company had ended its Fiscal year on July 31, 2010, with a slight surplus.
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HOUSTON GRAND OPERA ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR RING CYCLE
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) today confirmed plans to coproduce a complete Ring cycle with Opera Australia, which will bring Wagner's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen to Houston for the first time in the company's history.
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Houston Grand Opera Presents World's First Mariachi Opera
HGO will present its forty-first world premiere, To Cross the Face of the Moon / Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, featuring Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán on Saturday, November 13, 2010 at the Wortham Theater Center.
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Houston Grand Opera Opens 2010-2011 Season with Puccini’s Madame Butterfly
HGO launches its 56th season with Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, a new production by the Tony award-winning creative team of Broadway's Red. Puccini’s tragic love story runs in the Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Auditorium from October 22 – November 05, 2010.
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Tony Award Winners Create New Madame Butterfly for HGO
Director Michael Grandage, designer Christopher Oram and lighting designer Neil Austin – the creative team responsible for Houston Grand Opera’s (HGO) new production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly – swept the prestigious Tony Awards Sunday night in New York City with six awards for their Broadway production of John Logan’s Red.
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