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.
The Seagull is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. The Seagull is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatizes the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the famous middlebrow story writer Boris Trigorin, the ingenue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, and her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Treplev.
Amy Irving is a retired American actress and singer, who worked in film, stage, and television. Her accolades include an Obie Award, and nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award.
Thomas Walter Hampson is an American lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in major opera houses and concert halls and made over 170 musical recordings.
Theodor Uppman was an American operatic baritone. He is best known for his creation of the title role in Benjamin Britten's opera Billy Budd.
Miss Julie is an opera by Ned Rorem to an English libretto by Kenward Elmslie, based on the play, Miss Julie (1888), by Swedish playwright August Strindberg. It explores the subject of the intersection of social class and illicit sexual relations in late 19th-century Sweden.
The Dangerous Liaisons is an opera in two acts and eight scenes, with music by Conrad Susa to an English libretto by Philip Littell. It is based on the 1782 novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The opera has set numbers with recitative and spoken dialog. It is set in France in the 18th century. The opera received its first performance by the San Francisco Opera on 10 September 1994, with stage direction by Colin Graham and Donald Runnicles as the conductor. The world-premiere cast included Thomas Hampson as Valmont, Frederica von Stade as Merteuil, David Hobson as Chevalier de Danceny, Renée Fleming as Tourvel and Mary Mills as Cécile de Volanges. The opera was performed at Washington Opera in March 1998. It was also aired on the American PBS television network's Great Performances, a video recording of which was also made. Albany Records released an audio recording of a performance by Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater in 2016.
Donato Cabrera is an American conductor with an active international career. He is the Artistic and Music Director of the California Symphony, and was the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2009-2016.
Thomas Pasatieri is an American opera composer.
Jonathan Kent CBE is an English theatre director and opera director. He is known as a director/producer alongside Ian McDiarmid at the Almeida Theatre from 1990 to 2002.
Kenward Gray Elmslie was an American author, performer, editor and publisher associated with the New York School of poetry.
Catherine Malfitano is an American operatic soprano and opera director. Malfitano was born in New York City, the daughter of a ballet dancer mother, Maria Maslova, and a violinist father, Joseph Malfitano. She attended the High School of Music and Art and studied at the Frank Corsaro Studio and Manhattan School of Music, graduating in 1971. She often mentions that she was rejected from The Juilliard School.
Dicapo Opera Theatre was co-founded in 1981 by General Director Michael Capasso and Artistic Director Diane Martindale. It suspended operations in 2013.
Daniel Okulitch is a Canadian bass-baritone. He first came to attention on Broadway as Schaunard in Baz Luhrmann's production of La bohème in 2002/03 – a role he repeated when the production traveled to Los Angeles the following year, for which he received the Ovation Award for Best Ensemble Performance from the Los Angeles Stage Alliance. He has since begun an international career with opera companies and orchestras throughout Europe and North America, and is admired for both his singing and powerful stage presence. He is sought after for many contemporary operas and world premieres, as well as the roles of Mozart, including Figaro and Don Giovanni.
Detroit Opera is the principal opera company in Michigan, US. The company is based in Detroit, where it performs in the Detroit Opera House. Prior to February 28, 2022, the company was named Michigan Opera Theatre.
The Opera Company of Brooklyn (OCB) is an opera company founded in 2000 which performs in a variety of venues in New York City. It is a non-profit organization operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Lauren Flanigan is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the 1980s. She enjoyed a particularly fruitful partnership with the New York City Opera, appearing with the company almost every year since 1990. She has sung more than 100 different opera roles on stage during her career, often appearing in contemporary works or more rarely staged operas. Opera News stated that, "Flanigan has enjoyed one of the most distinctive careers of any artist of her generation, one marked by a high volume of contemporary works. Modern composers love her because of her innate musicality, dramatic power and lightning-fast skills and instincts."
Michael Capasso is an American opera impresario and stage director. Formerly the General Director of Dicapo Opera Theatre in New York City which he founded in 1981, he is presently the General Director of New York City Opera.
Signor Deluso is an opera buffa in one act composed by Thomas Pasatieri. The English-language libretto, written by the composer, is loosely based on Molière's 1660 comedy Sganarelle, ou Le Cocu imaginaire. It premiered on 27 July 1974 at the Madeira School auditorium in McLean, Virginia performed by the Wolf Trap Opera Company. It has been subsequently performed many times by various small opera companies in the United States and Europe. In a review of a 2008 revival in Washington, D.C., Anne Midgette described it as "an exuberant sendup of over-the-top comic opera plots, filled with effusive lovers leaping with alacrity to wrong conclusions in floods of extreme vocalism."
Sheri Greenawald is an American soprano and music educator who had a 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.
