Carlisle Sessions Floyd was an American composer primarily known for his operas. These stage works, for which he wrote not only the music but also the librettos, typically engage with themes from the American South, particularly the Post-civil war South, the Great Depression and rural life. His best known opera, Susannah, is based on a story from the Biblical Apocrypha, transferred to contemporary rural Tennessee, and written for a Southern dialect. It was premiered at Florida State University in 1955, with Phyllis Curtin in the title role. When it was staged at the New York City Opera the following year, the reception was initially mixed; some considered it a masterpiece, while others degraded it as a 'folk opera'. Subsequent performances led to an increase in Susannah's reputation and the opera quickly became among the most performed of American operas.
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is an American opera company located in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1955 by German-born impresario Walter Herbert and three local Houstonians, the company is resident at the Wortham Theater Center. This theatre is also home to the Houston Ballet. In its history, the company has received a Tony Award, two Grammy Awards, and three Emmy Awards, the only opera company in the world to win these three honours. Houston Grand Opera is supported by an active auxiliary organization, the Houston Grand Opera Guild, established in October 1955.
Jake Heggie is an American composer of opera, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. He is best known for his operas and art songs as well as for his collaborations with internationally renowned performers and writers.
Susannah is an opera in two acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote the libretto and music while a member of the piano faculty at Florida State University. Floyd adapted the story from the Apocryphal tale of Susannah and the Elders, though the latter story has a more positive ending. The story focuses on 18-year-old Susannah Polk, an innocent girl who is targeted as a sinner in the small mountain town of New Hope Valley, in the Southern American state of Tennessee.
Willie Stark is an opera in three acts and nine scenes by Carlisle Floyd to his own libretto, after the 1946 novel All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, which in turn was inspired by the life of the Louisiana governor Huey Long. The opera was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, which premiered it on April 24, 1981, in a production directed by Harold Prince and conducted by John DeMain. The original production was dedicated to the American radio journalist Lowell Thomas. Floyd made cuts to the score for a television presentation of the opera, and the edited version was shown on US public television in September 1981.
Patricia Lynn Racette is an American operatic soprano. A winner of the Richard Tucker Award in 1998, she has been a regular presence at major opera houses internationally. Racette has enjoyed long-term partnerships with the San Francisco Opera, where she has been a regular performer since 1989, and with the Metropolitan Opera, where she has performed since 1995. Also active on the concert stage, Racette has appeared with many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. She also received the award for Best Opera Recording for her performance in the Los Angeles Opera's production of The Ghosts of Versailles at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
Anthony Dean Griffey is an American opera tenor. He is a regular presence on the stages of opera houses and concert halls around the world. Griffey has also been noted for his acting talent in addition to his voice.
Margaret Lloyd is an American soprano who is particularly known for her performances in contemporary operas and concert works. She has sung in the world premieres of several operas, most notably portraying the role of Lightfoot McClendon in the premiere of Carlisle Floyd's Cold Sassy Tree at the Houston Grand Opera in 2000. She has also sung in the world premieres of several works by composer Michael Torke.
HGO Trust (HGO) was founded in 1990 by Roy Budden as an evening class at the Hampstead Garden Institute, London. Its objectives are to advance public education in the art and science of music with emphasis on operatic music.
Robert Moulson was an American classical tenor who had an active international career in operas and concerts from the late 1950s through the 1980s. He became particularly associated with the role of Lenny Small in Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men; a role which he recorded and portrayed in its original production at the Seattle Opera in 1970.
Mark A. Thomsen is an American operatic tenor. He is also a professor and artist in residence at Florida Southern College. His performance repertoire includes the history of opera, from Cavalli, Bach, and Mozart, to Puccini, Verdi, and Richard Strauss, and the premieres of operas by composers such as Dominick Argento, Leonard Bernstein, Carlisle Floyd and Lowell Liebermann.
Bilby's Doll is an opera in three acts composed by Carlisle Floyd. The libretto is based on the 1928 American novel A Mirror for Witches by Esther Forbes.
Michael Ching is an American composer, conductor, and music administrator. A prolific and eclectic composer, he is best known nationally as the composer of innovative operas, including his a cappella adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (2011). His other major operas include Buoso's Ghost (1996), Corps of Discovery (2003), Slaying the Dragon (2012), Speed Dating Tonight! (2013), and Alice Ryley (2015). He has written the librettos of many of his own operas, and has done so for all of his operas composed after 2012.
Patrick Summers is an American conductor best known for his work with Houston Grand Opera (HGO), where he has been the artistic and music director since 2011, and with San Francisco Opera, where he served as principal guest conductor, 1999–2016.
Harvey Milk is an American opera with music by Stewart Wallace and libretto by Michael Korie, based on the life and death of the American gay activist and politician Harvey Milk, who was assassinated along with San Francisco mayor George Moscone on 27 November 1978. The opera was originally in 3 acts, and was a joint commission by Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, and San Francisco Opera, and received its premiere on 21 January 1995 by Houston Grand Opera. A revised version in 2 acts received its premiere on 11 June 2022 by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
Carroll Freeman is an American operatic tenor, opera director, and music educator. He began his career as a prominent boy soprano in the 1960s. From the late 1970s through the mid 1990s he performed widely as a tenor with opera companies and orchestras in the United States. After that he worked as a director of opera productions with opera companies throughout North America. He is the former director of the opera program at the University of Tennessee and currently directs the opera program at Georgia State University. He is also the former Artistic Director of Mississippi Opera, Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point, and opera studios at Knoxville Opera and Des Moines Metro Opera.
The Passion of Jonathan Wade is a musical drama, or opera, in three acts by the American composer Carlisle Floyd, who wrote both libretto and music. Commissioned by the Ford Foundation, it was Floyd's most epic opera, set in South Carolina during the Reconstruction era. It was premiered at the New York City Opera on October 11, 1962, directed by Allen Fletcher and conducted by Julius Rudel. Floyd revised it in 1989 for performances at four major opera houses in the U.S., beginning at the Houston Grand Opera.
Craig Bohmler is an American composer who specializes in opera and musical theater. His musicals include Gunmetal Blues (1991), which has had well over 100 professional productions; Enter the Guardsman (1997), which won the international Musical of the Year award and received an Olivier Award nomination; and Mountain Days (2000), celebrating the life of John Muir. His operas include Riders of the Purple Sage (2017), an adaptation of Zane Grey's book of the same title which was broadcast nationwide in November 2017 and internationally in 2018.
Joaquin Fidel Romaguera was an American tenor and actor. A longtime performer with the New York City Opera from the 1960s through the 1980s, he notably created the role of Professor Risselberg in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's The Most Important Man in 1971. On Broadway he originated the role of Adolfo Pirelli in the original Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979). He was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Teddy in the 1987 off-Broadway revival of Cole Porter's Gay Divorce. Other career milestones included portraying Nicolas Orsini in the world premiere of Alberto Ginastera's Bomarzo with the Opera Society of Washington, and appearing as Captain Pirzel in the United States premiere of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten with conductor Sarah Caldwell and the Opera Company of Boston in 1982.
Sheri Greenawald is an American soprano and music educator who had an active performance career in concerts and operas during the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century. She has portrayed principal roles in the world premieres of several operas, including works by composers Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Catán, Carlisle Floyd, Thomas Pasatieri, and Stephen Paulus. She has performed leading roles with opera companies in the US and abroad, including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Bavarian State Opera, La Fenice, and Paris Opera. She was particularly active as a performer with the Santa Fe Opera and San Francisco Opera. A former member of the voice faculty at the Boston Conservatory, she served as director of the San Francisco Opera Center from 2002 through 2020.
