Monday Night Opera

This week’s Monday Night Opera is a casual discussion with HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers and HGO Dramaturg Jeremy Johnson. Join them for a thought-provoking dialogue on historical singers, the different schools of singing technique, and how they trace over the generations to opera’s stars today. 

This week’s Monday Night Opera is a rescheduled program, cancelled during Winter Storm Uri. This program takes a look at one reason why artists do what they do, in a contextual look at our February release of Jake Heggie and Margaret Atwood’s new song cycle for baritone Joshua Hopkins. Join HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers as he interviews the Executive Director of the Rothko Chapel, David Leslie, and the Director of the Menil Collection, Rebecca Rabinow, about the life and activism of Dominique de Menil, and the role art plays not just in our lives, but in our communities. 

This week’s Monday Night Opera is a lunchtime special where we spotlight two of the greatest singers in opera’s history, Frederica von Stade and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Join HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers as he interviews these opera greats on their lives and careers. 

Meet this year's Concert of Arias finalists. 

This Monday Night Opera is a casual discussion with HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers and HGO Dramaturg Jeremy Johnson with breakout rooms and lively conversation about an opera topic Patrick and Jeremy enjoy pondering. Join them for a thought-provoking and interactive dialogue on the nature of grand opera versus chamber opera. 

This Monday Night Opera previews January’s digital release of our second annual Giving Voice concert. Join HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers as he interviews special guests Nicole Heaston, Karen Slack, and Donnie Ray Albert on their careers, Black music and artistry in the opera industry, and HGO’s commitment to equity and diversity. 

This Monday Night Opera continues our Opera History 100 series. Join HGO Dramaturg Jeremy Johnson as he discusses the aesthetics and characteristics of the Romantic period of opera composition, and how the operatic tradition evolved from the Classical era into the 19^th-century classics that make up much of opera’s standard repertoire. 

This week’s Monday Night Opera is a special interview about the life and work of composer Joel Thompson, the brilliant young composer of HGO’s upcoming world premiere, The Snowy Day. Join HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers as he interviews Joel on the creation of his first opera, the choral works that started Joel’s path as a composer, and what Joel has coming up in his skyrocketing career.  

The Snowy Day, the beloved children’s book by Ezra Jack Keats, broke barriers when it was published in 1962. The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, led by its director Deborah Pope, has continued Keats’s legacy and tradition, in part by promoting diversity in children’s literature through the Ezra Jack Keats Award for writers and illustrators. Deborah is joined by The Snowy Day librettist and children’s book author Andrea Davis Pinkney and her husband, illustrator Brian Pinkney, in this interview with HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. 

Mozart’s one-act Singspiel The Impresario has been translated, re-translated, and updated dozens—if not hundreds—of times over the last 250 years. Join HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers as he interviews playwright Jim Luigs and director E. Loren Meeker on this brand-new script and story created specifically for HGO Digital. 

This Monday Night Opera features two special guests, alums of the HGO Studio and superstar singers Jamie Barton and Ryan McKinny. The two teamed up to design the release of Bon Appetit!, a monodrama sung by Jamie and directed for film by Ryan. Join HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers as he interviews them about this project and their careers since leaving the HGO Studio. 

Take a look at our next digital release: a double bill of Mozart’s The Impresario in a new script by Jim Luigs, and Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appétit!, a one-woman masterpiece about Julia Child baking the perfect chocolate cake.

HGO Dramaturg Jeremy Johnson takes an in-depth look at the late 18th-century Classical repertoire and how it bridges the era between Baroque opera and Romantic opera.

This session focuses on David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s comic one-act, Vinkensport, which aired on HGO Digital on Oct. 23. HGO Artistic & Music Director Patrick Summers interviewed David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s about their uproarious piece. For more information on Vinkensport, click here. 

Patrons put their opera knowledge to the test at HGO Opera Trivia Night.

Join HGO Dramaturg Jeremy Johnson as he continues his Opera History series, this time looking at the late Baroque operas of the late 17^th- and early 18^th-centuries and their transition to the Classical repertoire. 

Preview the September 25 HGO Digital release of our popular annual event, Studio Showcase, an evening of operatic scenes highlighting the special talents of each of our 2020–21 Studio artists. Join HGO Artistic & Music Director Patrick Summers as he interviews StudioDirector Brian Speck and newly-appointed Studio Music Director Miah Im during a conversation about young artist training.

Patrons put their opera knowledge to the test at HGO Opera Trivia Night.

Join Perryn Leech and HGO Artistic & Music Director Patrick Summers for a preview of HGO Digital – Sarah and Ernest Butler Performance Series, the virtual series we’re planning for the upcoming season. Following a brief preview of the season, Patrick and Perryn will open the floor to the questions and comments you have for HGO.   

Patrick Summers talks with a panel of music directors on the various roles they play in season planning, casting, and conducting throughout the country.

Jeremy Johnson lectures on the origins of opera in the Early Baroque and the first major opera composer, Claudio Monteverdi.

Perryn Leech talks about the magic of live theater with a panel of technical artists that specialize in bringing opera to life on stage.

Jeremy Johnson hosts an Opera Unwrapped style lecture on the next four operas in HGO’s weekly radio broadcasts: The Merry Widow, Lucia di Lammermoor, Ariadne auf Naxos, and A Masked Ball.

Patrick Summers interviews world-renowned soprano Ana María Martínez on her long and storied history with HGO—from Studio artist to her current position as Artistic Advisor, she has performed the highest number of leading roles in the company’s history.

Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers talks about the art of conducting and the influence of his late friend and mentor, Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras.

Perryn Leech sits down with members of HGO’s Health Advisory Committee to discuss the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the opera industry.

Dramaturg Jeremy Johnson hosts an Opera Unwrapped style lecture on the next four operas in HGO’s weekly radio broadcasts: La Traviata, Falstaff, Arabella, and Samson and Delilah.

Featuring the President of Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization Ted Chapin

Featuring composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek

Featuring composer Nell Shaw Cohen and librettist Megan Cohen

Featuring Emily D’Angela (Cinderella) and Jack Swanson (Prince Ramiro)

Featuring HGO Director of Artistic Operations/Chorus Master Richard Bado, hosted by Patrick Summers

Featuring composer Joel Thompson and librettist Andrea Davis Pinkney, hosted by Patrick Summers

Featuring HGO Technical and Safety Director Josh McIntosh and Assistant Technical Director Joey Farley, hosted by Perryn Leech

Featuring director Rob Ashford and soprano Isabel Leonard (Carmen), hosted by Perryn Leech and Patrick Summers