Heidi Stober News

The Glimmerglass Festival has released the details of its 2018 schedule. For a second year, the Festival's programming will explore themes of home and country.

Gianandrea Noseda makes his highly anticipated first appearances as the seventh music director of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in July with two performances: Friday, July 28, at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts and Saturday, July 29, on the National Mall (between 4th and 7th Streets) with a free concert for the community as part of the day's celebration of Music and Movement: The National Symphony Orchestra and National Dance Day.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) today announced plans for Seeking the Human Spirit (STHS), a six-year multidisciplinary initiative designed to highlight the universal spiritual themes raised in opera and to expand and deepen Houstonians' connections to opera and to art. Launching in the fall of 2017, STHS comprises three mainstage operas each season-one of which will be a new work-united by a single theme, and complementary projects by HGO and partner organizations created to enhance and enrich the community's experience of the themes. Some of these activities will be available to the public; others will offer personal access to opera and HGO artists and staff for groups such as hospital patients, women who are rebuilding their lives after homelessness, and young people pursuing interfaith projects. 

The partnership between San Francisco Opera and the Bay Area's Classical KDFC continues with monthly broadcasts of performances captured during the Fall 2016 Season, including the world premiere of Bright Sheng and David Henry Hwang's Dream of the Red Chamber, and a historic broadcast from the Company's archives. All performances were recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House and feature the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus (Ian Robertson, Chorus Director).

Nine of Tucson's leading arts organizations will showcase outstanding vocalists ranging from Broadway favorite Bernadette Peters to dynamic new-music advocate Tony Arnold in the fifth annual Tucson Desert Song Festival from January 18, through February 5, 2017.

Houston Grand Opera expands its commitment to broadening the audience for opera with a 2017-18 season that includes the first presentations of Leonard Bernstein's classic musical West Side Story by a major American opera house and the world premiere of composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek's holiday opera The House without a Christmas Tree. HGO will present its first performances in a quarter century of two iconic works: Richard Strauss's revenge-filled Elektra with virtuoso sopranoChristine Goerke in the tempestuous title role and 2016 Richard Tucker Award-winner and HGO Studio alumna Tamara Wilson in her role debut as Chrysothemis, under the baton of HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers; and Bellini's grand-scale tragedy Norma showcasing the debut of stellar dramatic soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska in the notoriously difficult title role, with 2015 Tucker winner and HGO Studio alumna Jamie Barton as Adalgisa.

Houston Grand Opera expands its commitment to broadening the audience for opera with a 2017-18 season that includes the first presentations of Leonard Bernstein's classic musical West Side Story by a major American opera house and the world premiere of composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek 's holiday opera The House without a Christmas Tree.

MasterVoices raised over $200,000 at its 2016 Fall Galain support of its artistic and outreach programs on October 20. The event featured the New York premiere performance of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek's opera 27 starring Metropolitan Opera mezzo Stephanie Blythe as Stein, Heidi Stober, Theo Lebow, Tobias Greenhalgh, and Daniel Brevik directed by James Robinson and conducted by MasterVoices' Artistic Director Ted Sperling with 150 singers of MasterVoices and Orchestra of St. Luke's. The evening featured Scenic Design by Allen Moyer, Costumes by James Schuette and Lighting by James. F. Ingalls.

In many ways, '27'--the 90-minute the chamber opera about Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and their circle, composed by Ricky Ian Gordon to a Royce Vavrek libretto--is an old-fashioned love story. It just happens to be about two women who entertained and collected (in all senses) some of the most important visual artists and writers of the first half of the century. And it happens to take place when Paris was still the hub of the artistic world and 27 rue de Fleurus, the women's home, was its epicenter.

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) will celebrate its 75th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, beginning with the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek's 27, specially adapted for MasterVoices, on October 20 and 21, 2016 at 8pm at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, New York City. Get a sneak peek at the production in St. Louis below!

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) will celebrate its 75th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, beginning with the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek's 27, specially adapted for MasterVoices, on October 20 and 21, 2016 at 8pm at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, New York City.

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) will celebrate its 75th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, beginning with the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek's 27, specially adapted for MasterVoices, on October 20 and 21, 2016 at 8pm at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, New York City. Get a sneak peek at the production in St. Louis below!

Although '27'--the opera by Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek about the lives of Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and their circle of friends--had its world premiere at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) in 2014, its upcoming performances at City Center in New York, on October 20-21, are a debut of a different color. As part of the 75th anniversary season of MasterVoices, formerly The Collegiate Chorale, 27 has had some interesting changes since the performances seen in St. Louis.

San Francisco Opera's 2016-17 Season continues with Donizetti's Don Pasquale in six performances from September 28-October 15, 2016. After a 32-year absence from the Company's repertory, the sparkling comedy of cruel games and young love returns in Laurent Pelly's fanciful staging, which is a co-production with Santa Fe Opera and Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu.

MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) will celebrate its 75th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season, beginning with the New York premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek's 27, specially adapted for MasterVoices, on October 20 and 21, 2016 at 8pm at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th Street, New York City.

American Lyric Theater (ALT) - founded by Lawrence Edelson in 2005 to build a new body of operatic repertoire by nurturing composers and librettists and providing an incubator for their collaborations - announces its 2016-2017 Season. The season begins with the InsightALT series, providing an insider's look at how new operas are made, featuring concert readings of operas in development at ALT, including The Halloween Tree, The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing, and Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant. The season concludes with the return of the critically acclaimed ALT Alumni: Composers & Librettists in Concert, celebrating the success of prominent alumni of American Lyric Theater's innovative Composer Librettist Development Program. Tickets are available at www.altnyc.org.

New York City's famed MasterVoices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) - founded in 1941 by legendary conductor Robert Shaw - will celebrate its 75th anniversary during the 2016-2017 season.

San Francisco Opera's 2016-17 Season continues with Donizetti'sDon Pasquale in six performances from September 28-October 15, 2016. After a 32-year absence from the Company's repertory, the sparkling comedy of cruel games and young love returns in Laurent Pelly's fanciful staging, which is a co-production with Santa Fe Opera and Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu. Maestro Giuseppe Finzi conducts the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Chorus and a cast including bass-baritone Maurizio Muraro in the title role, soprano Heidi Stober as Norina, tenor Lawrence Brownlee in his Company debut as Ernesto and baritones Lucas Meachem and Edward Nelson as Dr. Malatesta.

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will host ¡Viva Rudy!, honoring HGO's late director of patron services, Rudy Avelar, who served the company for almost 40 years until his passing in June. Rudy represented everything HGO stands for: dedication, excellence, and service. This commemorative event will be held on Monday, September 19, 2016.

San Francisco Opera's partnership with the Bay Area's Classical KDFC continues with a fall season of opera radio broadcasts beginning August 7 with the star-studded, June 16, 2016 gala concert celebrating San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley. The Company's highly acclaimed 2016 Summer Season productions of Bizet's Carmen, Verdi's Don Carlo and Jana?ek's Jen?fa, along with a special 1982 'From the Archives' broadcast of Handel's Julius Caesar, will air each month through December 4. All performances were recorded live at the War Memorial Opera House and feature the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and San Francisco Opera Chorus.