Related Research Articles
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the libretti written by Charles-Guillaume Étienne for the opera Cendrillon (Isouard), with music by Nicolas Isouard and by Francesco Fiorini for Agatina o La virtù premiata, with music by Stefano Pavesi. All these operas are versions of the fairy tale Cendrillon by Charles Perrault. Rossini's opera was first performed in Rome's Teatro Valle on 25 January 1817.
Houston Grand Opera (HGO), located in Houston, Texas, was founded in 1955 by German-born impresario Walter Herbert and Houstonians Elva Lobit, Edward Bing, and Charles Cockrell. HGO's inaugural season featured two performances of two operas, Salome and Madama Butterfly. David Gockley succeeded Walter Herbert as general director in 1972 and remained in the post until accepting the general directorship at San Francisco Opera in 2005.
Stacey Tappan is an American coloratura soprano.
Mark Adamo is an American composer, librettist and professor of music composition at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. He was born in Philadelphia.
Little Women (1998) is the first opera written by American composer Mark Adamo to his own libretto after Louisa May Alcott's 1868-69 tale of growing up in New England after the American Civil War, Little Women. The opera also includes text by John Bunyan, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Alcott herself.
Joyce DiDonato is an American lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano. She is notable for her interpretations of operas and concert works in the 19th-century romantic era in addition to works by Handel and Mozart.
Alan Titus is an internationally celebrated baritone.
Jackie O is a chamber opera in two acts composed by Michael Daugherty to a libretto by Wayne Koestenbaum. The 90-minute work, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera in 1995 and premiered in 1997, is inspired by American musical and popular culture of the late 1960s and episodes in the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Stephanie Novacek is an American operatic mezzo-soprano who has appeared at many of the world's opera houses. A regular performer at the Houston Grand Opera and Opera Atelier, Novacek is especially known for her performances in contemporary operas and in obscure operas, particularly baroque works, outside of the standard repertory. Opera News has described her voice as a "rich, seamless flow of solid silk" and an actress "with always a strong presence on stage".
Chad Shelton is an American operatic tenor. Particularly associated with the Houston Grand Opera (HGO), Shelton has excelled in performances of contemporary American operas and in the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi. He has appeared in numerous world premieres with the HGO including Laurie in Mark Adamo's Little Women (1998), Nico in Adamo's Lysistrata (2005), and Ulises in Daniel Catán's Salsipuedes: a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies (2004) among others. He also sang the role of Brigadier General Edward Porter Alexander in the world premiere of Philip Glass's Appomattox at the San Francisco Opera (2007).
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.
Frances Lillian Bible was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had a thirty-year career at the New York City Opera between 1948 and 1978. She also made a fair number of opera appearances with other companies throughout the United States, but only made a limited number of appearances abroad. Martin Bernheimer wrote in Opera News that, "Frances Bible was cheated by destiny. She never quite achieved the international recognition she deserved. Bible had it all—a mellow, wide-ranging mezzo-soprano, an attractive stage presence, genuine theatrical flair, a probing mind and a technique that allowed her to sing bel-canto filigree one night, Verdian drama the next. She was one of the rare American singers who savor the English language. She understood the value of economy, never stooping to easy effects. Perhaps she was too versatile, too tasteful and — dare one say it? — too intelligent for her own good."
Regina Sarfaty, later "Regina Sarfaty Rickless" after her marriage to Elwood A. Rickless in 1963, is an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active career during the 1950s through the 1980s. Sarfaty first rose to prominence through her work at the Santa Fe Opera and the New York City Opera during the late 1950s. She later enjoyed international success in the 1960s and 1970s, and had a particularly lengthy career singing with the Zurich Opera.
Martin Gantner is a German operatic baritone. He made his professional opera debut in Koblenz as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro. He soon after joined the roster of singers at the Deutsche Oper Berlin where he notably portrayed one of the gang members in the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze's Das verratene Meer in 1990; a part he reprised for his debut at La Scala. Engagements with other important houses soon followed, including the Semperoper and Theater Basel. He has been a member of the Bavarian State Opera since 1993. Other companies with whom he has appeared as a guest artist include the Berlin State Opera, the Cologne Opera, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, La Monnaie, the Liceu, the Los Angeles Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Vienna State Opera, and the Zurich Opera among others.
Jennifer Aylmer is an American operatic soprano noted for significant performances with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and as an oratorio soloist with major ensembles such as the National Symphony, and the Oratorio Society of New York.
Peter Coleman-Wright is an Australian baritone from Geelong. He began his career at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where he sang Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, winning the Touring Prize. Subsequently, he sang Sid in Albert Herring and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Pizzaro in Fidelio.
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.
Tonio di Paolo is an American opera singer. He began his career in the 1970s as a baritone but since the late 1970s has portrayed roles as a leading tenor. His performance credits include appearances with the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Hamburg State Opera among other companies. He has created roles in the world premieres of operas by composers Samuel Adler, David Carlson, John Harbison, and Augusta Read Thomas. He retired from the stage in 2010.
Jennifer Rivera is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active international performance career in operas and concerts since the early 2000s.
Heidi Stober is an American operatic soprano who has performed leading roles in major opera houses internationally, including the Dutch National Opera, the Garsington Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, the Municipal Theatre of Santiago, the Semperoper, and the Vienna State Opera. She has been particularly active with the Houston Grand Opera where she has performed in more than a dozen operas since 2004, including the world premieres of Daniel Catán's Salsipuedes: a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies (2004), Mark Adamo's Lysistrata (2005), and Ricky Ian Gordon's The House without a Christmas Tree (2017). She has also performed in more than ten operas with the San Francisco Opera since 2010. Since 2008 she has been a resident artist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin where she has primarily performed roles from the lyric soprano repertoire. Also active as a concert soprano on the international stage, she has performed with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, and the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest among other orchestras. She is particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of George Frideric Handel and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
References
- 1 2 "William Jewell College, Achieve Spring 2006". Archived from the original on 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2009-03-29.
- ↑ Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Program Alumni Archived February 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ HGO's Arabella
- ↑ HGO Archives, 1999
- ↑ New York Times, August 26, 2001
- ↑ Denver Westword, July 12, 2001
- ↑ New York Times, March 26, 2003
- ↑ San Francisco Opera archives
- ↑ http://www.grammy.com/nominees?year=2010&genre=5
- ↑ "The Long Walk – World Premiere". Opera Saratoga. Retrieved 2020-10-29.
