Houston Grand Opera Announces its 2011-12 Season

Houston Grand Opera General Director and CEO Anthony Freud announced the company's 2011-2012 season today. Opening on October 21, 2011, the season offers thirty-two performances of six operas. "We've chosen an exciting array of operas that will thrill, stimulate and entertain," says Freud. "From celebrated masterpieces to rarely-performed operatic gems, our 2011-12 season features world-renowned directors, beloved productions and acclaimed singers."

HGO Music Director Patrick Summers takes the podium to conduct four of this season's six operas-Verdi's La Traviata and Don Carlos, Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, and Mary Stuart by Donizetti. "We are exceedingly fortunate to have such a distinguished Music Director as Patrick," noted Freud, adding, "The artistic care with which he has nurtured the HGO orchestra as an ensemble over the past decade, along with his absolutely magnificent ability to help a singer give his or her best, means that HGO has become a musical home for many wonderful operatic artists of our time. Every performance we give at HGO benefits from his exceptional gifts."

Summers, who is also principal guest conductor at San Francisco Opera and a frequent guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and Opera Australia, noted, "I am especially excited to be leading two such extraordinary Verdi operas this season, as well as a new production of The Rape of Lucretia and Donizetti's profoundly beautiful bel canto masterpiece, Mary Stuart. The breadth and depth of our season's repertoire presents exciting challenges for all of our artistic forces - chorus, orchestra, HGO Studio, and of course our wonderful principals -- which should be very rewarding, indeed, for our audience."

Grammy award-winning HGO Studio alumna Ana María Martínez will return to HGO to open the 2011-12 season as the clever Rosina in a spectacular new production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Following her performance at the Santa Fe Opera, The Dallas Morning News wrote "The dazzler is the Rosina of Ana María Martínez...she is every inch the feisty, hot-blooded Spanish girl." American baritone Nathan Gunn will sing the role of Figaro, which he has sung at Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Tenor Lawrence Brownlee (La Cenerentola, HGO 2007) whom Opera News calls "a Rossinian to watch" returns to HGO to sing Count Almaviva, a role he has sung to great acclaim at Berlin Opera, Teatro alla Scala, The Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera and Baden-Baden, Germany. Italian conductor Leonardo Vordoni, who will lead the Santa Fe Opera production of La bohème this summer, makes his HGO debut conducting this new production, created for HGO by the director/designer team of Joan Font and Joan Guillén (La Cenerentola, HGO 2007). "Our new production of The Barber of Seville bears a family resemblance to La Cenerentola, for which Joan Font and his team brought Rossini's comic style to life in a way that was both classical and innovative," said Freud. "It is a Commedia dell'arte fantasy world, with a witty, zany and eccentric contemporary edge, which is a wonderful way to portray Rossini for a modern audience."

The Fall repertory continues with Beethoven's Fidelio, a musical testament to the ideals of courage, justice and freedom. "Beethoven's masterpiece is one of the greatest, most moving, most elusive operas in the repertory," said Freud, "and we have gathered some of its most famous interpreters to sing in Houston." Celebrated Finnish soprano Karita Mattila (Manon Lescaut, HGO 2006) returns to HGO to sing the role of Leonore, the brave woman who risks her own life to save her lover. Of her performance in that role at The Metropolitan Opera, The New York Times wrote "Ms. Mattila's gleaming voice, with its cool Nordic colorings and carrying power, sent Beethoven's vocal lines soaring...her voice shimmers with defiance and intensity." Following his triumphant HGO debut in the title role of Lohengrin (2009), tenor Simon O'Neill returns to sing the role of the imprisoned Florestan, which he has previously sung at the Salzburg Festival and BBC Proms in London.

Icelandic bass Kristinn Sigmundsson will make his HGO debut as Rocco, while baritone Tómas Tómasson, who made his HGO debut last season as Count Tomsky in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, returns to sing Don Pizzaro. American bass Kyle Ketelsen will make his HGO debut singing the role of Don Fernando. Directed by the distinguished German director Jürgen Flimm with sets by American designer Robert Israel, the production originated at The Metropolitan Opera.

The season continues with Verdi's La Traviata. Making a major role debut as Violetta, HGO Studio Alumna Albina Shagimuratova has garnered critical acclaim and praise internationally ("Shagimuratova was...formidable and exciting - a songbird with teeth." - New York Sun). Mexican tenor David Lomeli, called "one of the greatest tenors of our time" by The Jerusalem Post, makes his HGO debut as Alfredo Germont, a role he has sung at Berlin Opera and San Francisco Opera. Fresh from his successes in the title role of Verdi's Rigoletto at The Metropolitan Opera, Giovanni Meoni joins the exciting cast as Giorgio Germont. Daniel Slater, who directed HGO's acclaimed Lohengrin in 2009, returns to direct the renowned, ornate and traditional production from Lyric Opera of Chicago. HGO Music Director Patrick Summers will conduct.

The winter repertory continues with The Rape of Lucretia, the fifth installment in HGO's Benjamin Britten series and an HGO premiere. "The Rape of Lucretia was written in the mid-forties, immediately after Peter Grimes," said Patrick Summers. "It is a lyrical, beautiful opera on a classical subject and is a must-have for the Britten series in Houston." Distinguished American mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung (Tannhäuser, HGO 2001), whom The New York Times has called "a powerful singer," will sing the title role. South African baritone Jacques Imbrailo, fresh from his successes as Billy Budd (directed by Michael Grandage) at last year's Glyndebourne Festival, makes his HGO debut as the arrogant young bully Tarquinius. The action of the opera is framed by a Male and Female Chorus, who, while they never participate in the action, observe and comment on it and are frequently moved by what they see. American tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, who starred in Peter Grimes last season at HGO, returns to sing the role of Male Chorus; current HGO Studio Artist Rachel Willis-Sørenson sings the Female Chorus. HGO Studio Alumni Ryan McKinny (Lohengrin, HGO 2009) and Joshua Hopkins (La bohème, HGO 2008) join the cast in the roles of Collatinus and Junius, respectively. A new production is to be created for HGO by American director Arin Arbus and French designer Jean-Guy Lecat. "I was enormously impressed by Arbus's productions of both Othello and Measure for Measure for Theater for a New Audience in New York City at the Duke Theater," said Freud. "I was particularly impressed by her narrative clarity and her ability to make two problematic and challenging plays seem utterly convincing. I am pleased that she will be making her operatic directing debut with HGO." Lecat is a designer of theatrical spaces who has worked for 30 years with many distinguished directors including Peter Brook. His set designs have been featured in theaters worldwide.

HGO's spring repertory will feature two great operas by Italian composers based on works by Schiller: Verdi's Don Carlos and Donizetti's Mary Stuart. "Both operas are inspired by historical characters but are dreams of history," explained Freud. HGO will present Verdi's sweeping drama Don Carlos in the full five-act 1886 version with several rarely heard sections from the 1867 Paris premiere added. It will be sung in French. "The archeology of Don Carlos is extremely complicated," said Freud. "For these HGO performances, we are presenting a full version of the work, including some very rarely heard, but magnificent passages. " American Tenor Brandon Jovanovich (Cavalleria rusticana, HGO 2008) returns to Houston in title role. San Francisco Classical Voice wrote that he "possesses a warm, virile voice in the manner of Plácido Domingo." Soprano Christine Goerke, who wowed HGO audiences in Lohengrin 2009, returns to sing the role of Princess Eboli. "Goerke will return to sing the role of Brünnhilde in the upcoming HGO Ring cycle," adds Freud. HGO Studio Alumni Scott Hendricks (Lucia di Lammermoor, HGO 2011) will sing the role of Rodrigue, and Tamara Wilson (The Turn of the Screw, HGO 2010) will sing Elisabeth de Valois. Powerhouse Ukrainian bass Vitalij Kowaljow, who recently sang the role of Wotan to great success in the Ring cycles at Los Angeles Opera and Teatro alla Scala, makes his HGO debut in the role of Philippe II. Legendary American bass Samuel Ramey rounds out the all-star cast in the role of the Grand Inquisitor- a role for which he is one of the greatest interpreters.

A grand new production of Donizetti's Mary Stuart crowns the 2011-12 HGO season, with a cast headlined by Joyce DiDonato (Dead Man Walking, HGO 2011) in her role debut as Mary Stuart, the Queen of Scots. Recently named the Lynn Wyatt Great Artist for 2011-12, DiDonato has been praised for a voice that is "nothing less than 24-carat gold" (The Times, London). She is joined by American soprano Katie Van Kooten (Peter Grimes, HGO 2010) singing the role of Queen Elizabeth I, regal cousin of Mary Stuart who imprisons Mary for treason. American tenor Eric Cutler (Rigoletto, HGO 2009) will sing the role of the Earl of Leicester, a role he has sung at Théâtre de Caen, Flemish Opera, Geneva Opera and the Canadian Opera Company. Canadian bass-baritone Robert Gleadow (Tosca, HGO 2010) and HGO Alumnus Oren Gradus (Lucia di Lammermoor, HGO 2011) join the starry cast as Talbot and Cecil, respectively. This new production marks the HGO debut of the French/Belgian directing duo Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser with sets by French designer Christian Fenouillat, costumes by Italian Agostino Cavalca and lighting by French designer Christophe Forey. The creative team's work has been seen in major opera houses worldwide: the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Switzerland (Wagner´s Ring cycle and Pelleas et Melisande), the Opéra de Lausanne (The Nose by Shostakovich), Royal Opera, Covent Garden, London (La Cenerentola), Welsh National Opera, Cardiff (Fidelio and Leonore) and the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris (Lucia di Lammermoor).

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