Houston Grand Opera Opens Season with THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO Tonight

Houston Grand Opera (HGO) opens its 2016 winter repertory on January 22with an inventive staging by multiple-award-winning theater director Michael Grandage of Mozart's genial farce, The Marriage of Figaro. Performances continue through February 7.

Co-produced by HGO and the Glyndebourne Festival and premiered at Glyndebourne in 2012, this production, set in 1970s Spain with sets and costumes by award-winning designer Christopher Oram, was hailed for its beauty and for affirming "Mozart's comic masterpiece as both of its time and perennially modern" (Sunday Times). HGO is delighted to bring this elegant staging to Houston under the direction of Ian Rutherford, who worked with Grandage and toured the production following its Glyndebourne run.

For this Figaro, HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers has assembled a cast of rising stars, starting with Glyndebourne's 2013 Figaro, Czech baritone Adam Plachetka, who makes his HGO debut after success in the role both at Glyndebourne and recently at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he delivered a "firm-toned...sympathetic Figaro" (Chicago Tribune). Singing the Count, also from the Glyndebourne production, is the versatile HGO Studio alumnus Joshua Hopkins, who "unfurled a robust and polished baritone" (Houston Chronicle) for his HGO portrayal of the Pilot in Rachel Portman and Nicholas Wright'sThe Little Prince in December 2015.

Soprano Ailyn Pérez appears as the Countess, returning to HGO after a moving portrayal of Desdemona in Otello and rave reviews for her performances as the opportunistic young soprano Tatyana Bakst in Jake Heggie's Great Scott at The Dallas Opera in the fall of 2015. In an unusual approach to Cherubino, the role will be sung by soprano Lauren Snouffer (rather than the usual mezzo-soprano), an HGO Studio alumna who gave a "resplendent" (New York Times) performance as Agnes in Tanglewood's 2013 concert version of George Benjamin's Written on Skin. This will be a professional role debut. Soprano Heidi Stober, also an HGO Studio alumna, who Opera News recently called "one of today's most exciting singers," will take the role of Susanna.

Early music specialist Harry Bicket, artistic director of The English Concert and chief conductor of Santa Fe Opera, will make a much anticipated HGO debut on the podium. He will concurrently lead HGO'sRusalka.

On January 29, HGO presents Dvo?ák's lyrical fairy tale, Rusalka, for the first time since 1991, in a new production by the Tony and Olivier nominated theater director Melly Still that premiered at Glyndebourne in 2009. Set and costume designer Rae Smith and lighting designer Paule Constable created the supernatural environment of an enchanted lake and surrounding forest in which the eerie story, rooted in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale "The Little Mermaid," comes to life.

The Glyndebourne production featured Houston favorite soprano Ana María Martínez (Lynn Wyatt Great Artist 2010-11) as the ill-fated water nymph Rusalka, a role she reprised last year at Lyric Opera of Chicago and will now perform at HGO. Critical to the performance is the character's ability to hold the stage after surrendering her power of speech in exchange for becoming human. Opera News declared Martínez's Chicago portrayal to be "one of the great soprano performances of the present era" in that house.

The Prince will be sung by the American tenor Brian Jagde in his HGO debut. A winner of the Birgit Nilsson Prize at the Operalia competition, he is an alumnus of San Francisco Opera's Merola and Adler young artist programs. Richard Paul Fink, the Grammy Award-winning HGO Studio alumnus who was last seen at HGO in Lohengrin (2009), will sing Vodník, the water sprite. Ježibaba the witch will be sung by mezzo-soprano and HGO Studio alumna Jill Grove, who recently performed the role at Lyric Opera of Chicago and New Orleans Opera. Soprano Maida Hundeling, a frequent guest at Prague State Opera, will make her HGO debut in the role of the Foreign Princess.

English director Donna Stirrup is the Revival Director, with Harry Bicket on the podium.

This season also includes the world premiere of Prince of Players by eminent American composer Carlisle Floyd (Lynn Wyatt Great Artist 2015-16), opening March 5, three months before Mr. Floyd's 90thbirthday. Wagner's Siegfried, the third installment of La Fura dels Baus's imaginative Ring cycle featuring a new generation of Wagnerians, including tenor Jay Hunter Morris in the title role and star soprano Christine Goerke as Brünnhilde, opens April 16, and the Houston debut of Broadway sensation Rob Ashford's take on the classic Rogers & Hammerstein musical Carousel rounds out the main-stage season beginning April 22. Through its community collaboration program HGOco, the company will present in May the world premiere of The Root of the Wind Is Water, a chamber opera by composer David Hanlon and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann about the impact of hurricanes on the Texas Gulf coast.

The full list of events for the HGO season is provided below. More information is available at HGO.org.

Since its inception in 1955, Houston Grand Opera has grown from a small regional organization into an internationally renowned opera company. HGO enjoys a reputation for commissioning and producing new works, including 57 world premieres and seven American premieres since 1973. In addition to producing and performing world-class opera, HGO contributes to the cultural enrichment of Houston and the nation through a diverse and innovative program of performances, community events, and education projects that reaches the widest possible public. HGO has toured extensively, including trips to Europe and Asia, and has won a Tony, two Grammy awards, and two Emmy awards-the only opera company to have won all three honors.

Through HGOco, Houston Grand Opera creates opportunities for Houstonians of all ages and backgrounds to observe, participate in, and create art. The NEXUS Initiative is HGO's multi-year ticket underwriting program that allows Houstonians of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy world-class opera without the barrier of price. Since 2007 NEXUS has enabled more than 200,000 Houstonians to experience first-quality opera through discounted single tickets and subscriptions, subsidized student performances, and free productions.

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