News & Notes

Friday, May 11, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

Patrick Summers Conducts Don Carlos and Mary Stuart in Houston ...
By admin
Patrick Summers continues his stellar first season at the helm of the Houston Grand Opera this spring, leading performances of Verdi's Don Carlos (April 13-28) and Donizetti's Mary Stuart (April 21-May 4). Summers – named HGO's Artistic and ...
Opera Music Broadcast.com - Streaming...

Fashion icon Zandra Rhodes faces a tall challenge to dress a 10m puppet
Metro
In 2001, the San Diego Opera commissioned her to design the costumes for The Magic Flute; later, she designed for Verdi's Aida at the Houston Grand Opera and English National Opera. 'For Aida, I went straight to my collection from 1986 and decided that ...
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Welsh classical performers scoop major prizes
BBC - Wales - Welsh Music (blog)
Natalya comes from Swansea and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, receiving the coveted gold medal in her final year. She is currently associate artist with the Classical Opera Company and joins Houston Grand Opera'sprestigious Young ...
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General Opera News

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

Arts Education an Operatic Tragedy
Huffington Post (blog)
Believe it or not, this Saturday the Pittsburgh Opera is planning to honor Gov. Corbett with a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to... wait for it... EDUCATION! I kid you not. The Operaannounced that Corbett "will be honored for his ...
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Teens raise money to bring opera to schools
MiamiHerald.com
Pictured left to right are: Junior Opera Guild Members Libby Evans, Camille Gladieux, Katie Flinn, Julie Salzinger, Megan Fields and Kendall Armstrong. By Christina Mayo When moms volunteer, their children usually do too. The girls of Junior Opera ...
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English National Opera chief attacks live cinema broadcasts
The Guardian
English National Opera's artistic director has hit out against broadcasting live performance into cinemas, bucking the trend of major arts organisations who are experimenting with new digital broadcasts. John Berry told the Stage: "This obsession about ...
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Opera world hits back over criticism of cinema screenings
Telegraph.co.uk
A claim by John Berry, the artistic director of the English National Opera, that opera is harming itself by screening live performances at cinemas has been queried by other arts organisations. By Telegraph staff Speaking to The Stage newspaper, ...
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The Opera Librettos of Maurice Sendak
Sequenza21
While Sendak's work in opera and ballet has been praised, I don't feel that enough attention has been paid to the two operas he worked on with Oliver Knussen. The first, Where the Wild Things Are, is the best children's opera of our time; the second, ...
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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

Heggie: Dead Man Walking – review
The Guardian
Frederica von Stade is devastating as De Rocher's desperate mother, while Patrick Summers' conducting is exceptional in its passion and commitment.

'Veltman's Drinking/Songs' an international toast
San Francisco Chronicle
Room with a view David Gockley, general director of the San Francisco Opera, and composer Carlisle Floyd were in Houston recently to see their names affixed to two studios at the Houston Grand Opera, where they have had an extremely fruitful three- ...
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Opera Festival Time
FWWeekly
Based on the Terrence McNally play Some Christmas Letters, the opera premiered at the Houston Grand Opera in 2008. Gene Scheer wrote the libretto, which explores the anguished family of a famous actress who communicates over the years in letters with ...
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INSIDE Jovanovich Withdrawal
By CrewMantle
Photo Credit: Mr Gary Fountain courtesy of the Houston Grand Opera. The announced withdrawal ...Above is a photograph of Mr. Jovanovich three weeks ago essaying the role of Don Carlo at theHouston Grand Opera. A source within the ...
COMMANDOpera

Jerry Doggett - Legacy.com
Jerry loved music and was a long time Patron of the Houston Grand Opera. ... Jerry fondly supported, among others, Houston Grand Opera, his church, and ...
www.legacy.com/obituaries/.../obituary.aspx?n=Jerry...pid...

General Opera News

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

Experiments in Opera: Under Deconstruction
Huffington Post
It seems to me that one's relationship to the monolithic Opera -- with a capital "O" -- is rarely love at first sight. It's often much more akin to a slow courtship. Such was certainly the case for the three composers that comprise the core of the ...
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Talk Like An Opera Geek: Pioneering An American Sound
NPR (blog)
by Tom Huizenga John Adams' Nixon in China, produced at the Metropolitan Opera in January 2011. Left to right: Janis Kelly as Pat Nixon, Teresa S. Herold as the Second Secretary to Mao, James Maddalena as Richard Nixon, Ginger Costa Jackson as the ...
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Everything you need to know about crapping at the opera before 1830
io9
In case you were wondering how people evacuated their bowels at the London theater in the 19th century, Dr. Michael Burden of the University of Oxford has you covered with his new paper, "Pots, privies and WCs; crapping at the opera in London before ...
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Betty G. Hocker, opera singer and composer
Baltimore Sun
By Frederick N. Rasmussen, The Baltimore Sun Betty G. Hocker, a retired Baltimoreopera singer and composer who wrote the "Fort McHenry March" at the time of the nation's bicentennial, died Saturday from complications of dementia at Stella Maris ...
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Opera Theatre of St. Louis adds a 'Carmen'
STLtoday.com
Sales are going so well at Opera Theatre of St. Louis that a tenth performance of Georges Bizet's “Carmen” has been added, OTSL announced today. Less than two weeks before the May 19 start of the 2012 season, fewer than four percent of the center ...
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At Seattle Opera, a <em>Madama Butterfly</em> to Convert the Haters
The SunBreak (blog)
To be honest, I have a history with Opera In General, which tends to color my opinions. And my opinion of Butterfly was that I didn't like it so much. Okay, actually, I love–love–the music; it's the story I'm not so fond of.
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S.A. Opera files for bankruptcy
San Antonio Express
By David Hendricks The curtain fell on the San Antonio Opera this week with its expected liquidation bankruptcy filing after the organization canceled its last two performances for the current season. The San Antonio Opera listed assets of $1500 in ...
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Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

Classical Music Fueled Maurice Sendak's Creative Muse
WQXR Radio (blog)
His version of Mozart's The Magic Flute for the Houston Grand Opera (1980) was rented out to smaller companies so frequently that the backdrops needed to be painstakingly restored when Houston revived it in 2004. The company also hired Sendak to design ...
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Maurice Sendak, author of splendid nightmares, dies at 83
Anchorage Daily News
With theater director Frank Corsaro, he also created sets for several venerable operas, among them Mozart's "Magic Flute," performed by the Houston Grand Opera in 1980, and Leos Janacek's "Cunning Little Vixen" for the New York City Opera in 1981.
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RIP Maurice Sendak
A.V. Club New York
Sendak also dabbled in TV production, as the creator of the children's series Seven Little Monsters, and indulged his theater jones by designing sets for many operas and ballets, including Mozart's The Magic Flute for the Houston Grand Opera and Leoš ...
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Husband and Wife Stephen Costello and Ailyn Pérez Headline La ...
By admin
Conducted by Patrick Summers, music director of the Houston Grand Opera, and featuring a strong supporting cast, the new revival is staged by director Gregory A. Fortner. Pérez and Costello spent the holiday season on the other side of the ...
Opera Music Broadcast.com - Streaming..

Jodi Bobrovsky- The Tempest Set Designer - YouTube
For Houston Grand Opera, sculptural projects for Julius Caesar; The Little Prince; and Jenufa ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tthgk3kASPs

General Opera News

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

Opera strike threatens Friday's 'Show Boat' at Saroyan
Fresno Bee
By Donald Munro - The Fresno Bee There's a new development in the ongoing strike by local musicians against Fresno Grand Opera. National leadership for the Actors' Equity Association, the union for professional actors, voted Monday to support the ...
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Composer in row with the Opera House
Evening Standard
Composer Michael Nyman, who wrote the music for Jane Campion's 1993 film The Piano and is a long-term collaborator with Peter Greenaway, is furious that the RoyalOpera House has rebuffed his approaches to stage a work in Covent Garden — and he has ...
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Was Bianca Jagger wrong to take flash photos at the opera?
The Guardian
Last Friday, the theatre critic Mark Shenton was distracted from a five-hour performance of Philip Glass's opera Einstein on the Beach by a woman in his row taking photographs with a flash. It turned out to be Bianca Jagger.
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An edgy opera company gives it a go in Los Angeles
Los Angeles Times - ‎
The new opera is a coming-out party for his new company, the Industry. Cast members during rehearsal of "Crescent City.

Pittsburgh opera fans jeer plan to honor governor
Beaver County Times - ‎
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ( http://bit.ly/JeGvsZ) reports Wednesday that opera fans are protesting the Pittsburgh Opera's plan to give Corbett a Lifetime Achievement Award this Saturday. The paper says some opera fans think it is "deplorable" to ...

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Houston Grand Opera

HGO's 'Don Carlos' surpasses hopes
Daily News - Galveston County
The HGO Orchestra was conducted by Patrick Summers, and I could watch him carefully from my seat. His expressive use of his baton, hands and arms brought ...

Review: Houston Grand Opera's Mary Stuart : Arts + Culture ...
By admin
Patrick Summers leads the orchestra through Donizetti's score, and his deft handling gives us music that rises up in argument and indignation, and falls to the softness of a lullaby. Donizetti's score captures the very real drama of the age in a ...
Arts + Culture Magazine Houston

The Art Car Parade, all grown up
Houston Chronicle
Megan Freemantle helps Brianna Giraldo get into the Houston Grand Opera's Art Car, "Bromhilda," for a picture in 2010. Holly Beretto, of the Houston Grand ...

BBC to Broadcast LIVE from the Port of Houston with Energy Debate ...
Newshour will also visit the Houston Grand Opera to examine how the arts world has come to rely on the philanthropy of the oil tycoons. During the special ...
app1.kuhf.org/.../1335799379-BBC-to-Broadcast-LIVE-from-...

“Resurrection” Will Air May 6 « Opera of the Future
By operaofthefuture
... performance recording, DiDonato is featured alongside baritone Scott Hendricks (Prince Nekhlyudov), tenor Raymond Very (Peter Simonson) and the superb Houston Grand Opera orchestra and chorus under the baton of Patrick Summers.
Opera of the Future

General Opera News

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

Don't Sing With Your Mouth Full
New York Times
And that's just a sample of this season's menu at the Metropolitan Opera. Opera, of all the art forms, is singularly associated with food, whether because of the appetites of well-girthed singers or the sensual pleasures celebrated in its rich ragout ...
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Portland Opera's Candide, Jonathan Boyd, talks about his career, including his ...
Oregon Music News
by James Bash on May 7, 2012 Starting this Friday at Keller Auditorium, PortlandOpera will present Leonard Bernstein's Candide, which is based on Voltare's satirical novella of the same name. Part musical, part operetta, part opera, ...
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IT WOULDN'T BE OPERA WITHOUT THE DRAMA
U-T San Diego
Renée Fleming was the centerpiece of the San Diego Opera's marketing campaign, but ticket sales didn't meet expectations. Andrew Eccles • Decca 2/16//2012 San Diego, Ca.. San Diego Operaproduction of Moby Dick. Captain Ahab played by Ben Heppner Photo ...
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The Rant: Why turn opera into karaoke?
Washington Post
A response to Anne Midgette's review of “Nabucco” at the Washington National Opera: It struck me that the director [Thaddeus Strassberger] has little respect for the intelligence of the audience, which is too stupid to appreciate the opera without the ...
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Encircling the “Ring”
New Yorker (blog)
Anthony Tommasini, in the Times, called it “the most frustrating opera production I have ever had to grapple with.” Justin Davidson, in New York, wrote, “There's hardly a moment in any of the four episodes when you sense the director's passionate ...
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For opera singer Robert Orth, 4 decades and many stages
The Republic
The baritone is working on a complicated bit of staging with Portland Opera's artistic director Christopher Mattaliano for the company's upcoming production of Leonard Bernstein's "Candide," and Orth has plenty to juggle.
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David Gockley on SF Opera's experiments with HD streaming
San Jose Mercury News
By Richard Scheinin San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley in his office at the War Memorial Opera House. Photo by Ray Chavez, Staff. David Gockley, general director of San Francisco Opera, says it's a no-brainer" for opera companies to ...
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Carousel, Opera North, Leeds Grand Theatre, review
Telegraph.co.uk
Opera North's production of Carousel at Leeds Grand Theatre does great honour to a rich piece of musical theatre. By Rupert Christiansen Although I can think of more immediately exhilarating musicals than Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel – and ...
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Einstein on the Beach, Barbican, London
Financial Times
It has taken over 35 years for Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach to arrive in London and the long wait was surely right for an opera, five hours in duration and devoid of a story or anything resembling “action”, that seeks to challenge conventional ...
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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