Neal Goren News

More than 400 opera aficionados and performers – including opera stars Alice Coote, Jennifer Rowley and Laurent Naouri – were among those who attended the 13th Annual OPERA NEWS Awards at The Plaza Hotel last night.

The Center for Contemporary Opera has announced its season of five operas, including two world premieres and three U.S. premieres, to take place this fall throughout New York City and Brooklyn.  

The Merola Opera Program presents Conrad Susa's Transformations, led by conductor Neal Goren and director Roy Rallo, in two performances Today, July 21 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, July 23 at 2 pm at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in San Francisco.

(San Francisco, June 9, 2016) The Merola Opera Program presents Conrad Susa's Transformations, led by conductor Neal Goren and director Roy Rallo, in two performances Thursday, July 21 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, July 23 at 2 pm at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in San Francisco.

What happens when a good-looking, double-crossing cross-dresser meets her match(es) in beautiful costumes designed by leading French artist Annette Messager ("a bold messenger of feminist art," The New York Times)? The very French La Double Coquette, Ensemble Amarillis' charming update of an opera comique by Antoine Dauvergne, first presented in 1753. Glorious voices bring Dauvergne's gorgeous score to life, with 32 additions - supplements, asides, codas, and new harmonies that seamlessly complement the original score -- by contemporary French composer Gerard Pesson, and a cheeky, updated libretto by French poet Pierre Alferi. In a plot reminiscent of a farce by Marivaux, two women compete for the same fickle lover. The acoustic heaven of the Alexander Kasser Theater is the perfect place to hear this lovely baroque classic (sung in French with English and French supertitles) performed by a gifted cast and the superb musicians of the 11-member Ensemble Amarillis. Amarillis is now one of Europe's most original Baroque ensembles, known for its fine sound and excellent instrumental technique. Fresh from the Spoleto Festival, this is the NY/NJ area premiere of this saucy chamber opera produced by Festival d'Automne a Paris.

What happens when a good-looking, double-crossing cross-dresser meets her match(es) in beautiful costumes designed by leading French artist Annette Messager ("a bold messenger of feminist art," The New York Times)? The very French La Double Coquette, Ensemble Amarillis' charming update of an opera comique by Antoine Dauvergne, first presented in 1753. Glorious voices bring Dauvergne's gorgeous score to life, with 32 additions - supplements, asides, codas, and new harmonies that seamlessly complement the original score -- by contemporary French composer Gerard Pesson, and a cheeky, updated libretto by French poet Pierre Alferi. In a plot reminiscent of a farce by Marivaux, two women compete for the same fickle lover. The acoustic heaven of the Alexander Kasser Theater is the perfect place to hear this lovely baroque classic (sung in French with English and French supertitles) performed by a gifted cast and the superb musicians of the 11-member Ensemble Amarillis. Amarillis is now one of Europe's most original Baroque ensembles, known for its fine sound and excellent instrumental technique. Fresh from the Spoleto Festival, this is the NY/NJ area premiere of this saucy chamber opera produced by Festival d'Automne a Paris.

BroadwayWorld has just received the official word that Gotham Chamber Opera is ceasing operations and will be closing. The Board of Directors of Gotham Chamber Opera voted today to shut down the organization.

Gotham Chamber Opera announces Edward Barnes as the company's new Executive Director, effective June 1, 2015. Mr. Barnes will succeed Gotham's previous executive director, David Bennett, who will become general director of the San Diego Opera. In addition, David Rubeo has been promoted to Associate Director.

Through it's grant-making to thousands of nonprofits each year, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) promotes opportunities for people in communities across America to experience the arts and exercise their creativity.

Gotham Chamber Opera announces its 15th Anniversary Season, which will begin in the fall of 2015 with a 15th Anniversary Celebration Concert (date and venue tba). The season continues in February 2016 with Alessandro Stradella's 1675 San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist)in a co-production with the Netherlands Nationale ReisOpera, and a concert at (le) poisson rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, NYC, featuring a new work by David Hertzberg, winner of the Catherine Doctorow Prize for Music. The season concludes with the New York premiere of Charlie Parker's Yardbird, a co-production of the Apollo Theater, Gotham Chamber Opera and Opera Philadelphia, at the world famous Apollo Theater in May/June 2016.

Gotham Chamber Opera presents the final production of the 2014/2015 season, The Tempest Songbook, comprised of incidental music for The Tempest composed in 1695 and attributed to Henry Purcell and Kaija Saariaho's 2004 Tempest Songbook for soprano, baritone and period instrument ensemble, in its U.S. and World Stage Premieres.A co-production with The Martha Graham Dance Company, The Tempest Songbook will be performed in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with three performances from March 27 - 29, 2015. Performances: Friday and Saturday at 7pm, Sunday at 3pm. Tickets range from $30 to $175 and are available at metmuseum.org/tickets.

Tickets are now on sale for Gotham Chamber Opera's final production of the 2014/2015 season, The Tempest Songbook, comprised of incidental music for The Tempest composed in 1695 and attributed to Henry Purcell and Kaija Saariaho's 2004 Tempest Songbook for soprano, baritone and period instrument ensemble, in its U.S. and World Stage Premieres.A co-production with The Martha Graham Dance Company, The Tempest Songbook will be performed in The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with three performances from March 27 - 29, 2015. Performances: Friday and Saturday at 7pm, Sunday at 3pm. Tickets range from $30 to $175 and are available at metmuseum.org/tickets.

Gotham Chamber Opera announces the revival of the 2010 production El gato con botas (Puss in Boots) from December 6-14, 2014 at El Teatro at El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street, NYC. Tickets are $30-$175 (discounts available for children) and are available online at www.ticketcentral.com, by phone at (212) 279-4200, or by visiting the Ticket Central box office at 416 W. 42nd Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues) in the lobby of Playwrights Horizons. For more information, visit www.gothamchamberopera.org.

Gotham Chamber Opera announces the final production of the 2014/2015 season, The Tempest Songbook, comprised of incidental music for The Tempest composed in 1695 and attributed to Henry Purcell, and Kaija Saariaho's 2004 Tempest Songbook for soprano, baritone and period instrument ensemble, in its U.S. and World Stage Premieres.A co-production with The Martha Graham Dance Company, The Tempest Songbook will be performed in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with three performances from March 26 - 28, 2015 at 7pm. Tickets range from $30 to $175 and will be available at ?metmuseum.org/tickets.

Gotham Chamber Opera, in collaboration with the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, presents a double bill of Alexandre bis & Comedy on the Bridge, both by Bohuslav Martinu, from today, October 14 - 18, 2014 at Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 524 West 59th Street.

Gotham Chamber Opera, in collaboration with the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, presents a double bill of Alexandre bis & Comedy on the Bridge, both by Bohuslav Martinu, from October 14 - 18, 2014 at Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 524 West 59th Street.

Gotham Chamber Opera, in collaboration with the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, presents a double bill of Alexandre bis & Comedy on the Bridge, both by Bohuslav Martinu, from October 14 - 18, 2014 at Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, 524 West 59th Street, NYC. Performances: Opening Night gala on Tuesday at 7:30pm; Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30pm. Tickets are $30-$175 and are available online at www.ticketcentral.com, by phone at (212) 279-4200, or in person at 416 W. 42nd Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues) in the lobby of Playwrights Horizons.

Gotham Chamber Opera announces the 2014/2015 season, which begins with Alexandre bis/Comedy on the Bridge, both by Bohuslav Martinu, from October 14 - 18, 2014, followed by the revival of Gotham's 2010 production El gato con botas (Puss in Boots) in December at El Museo del Barrio.

Gotham Chamber Opera and the Jarvis & Constance Doctorow Family Foundation have announced that David Hertzberg will be the inaugural winner of the Catherine Doctorow Prize for Music, a competitive prize awarded to a composer to support the creation of a new concert work for voice and chamber ensemble. For more information on the award and its requirements, visit www.gothamchamberopera.org/registration. The Prize Jury found Mr. Hertzberg's music to offer 'an extraordinarily beautiful sound world with a unique and distinguishing vocabulary,' containing 'deeply affecting emotional content,' and felt that Mr. Hertzberg has the potential to contribute a new work of substance to the concert repertoire for voice.

When New York's Gotham Chamber Opera--in collaboration with the Gerald Lynch Theatre at John Jay College--presented Toshio Hosokawa's THE RAVEN in its US premiere last week, as part of the NY Philharmonic Biennial, the composer could not have wished for a production that made a better case for it. Yet, despite the company's best efforts--and a wonderful concert opener based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, “Mask of the Red Death”--this was a less-than-fulfilling evening.