Industry News
Houston Grand Opera Announces Plan for Ring Cycle
August 24, 2010 – HOUSTON TX Houston Grand Opera (HGO) today confirmed plans to co-produce a complete Ring cycle with Opera Australia, which will bring Wagner's complete Der Ring des Nibelungen to Houston for the first time in the company's history. Pending the successful conclusion of a fundraising campaign, the new production will be led by Australian director Neil Armfield – well known in Houston as well as in the US due to his work on HGO's ongoing series of productions of the operas of Benjamin Britten and to the success of Exit the King on Broadway – and conducted by the company's music director, Patrick Summers.
Anthony Freud, OBE, General Director and CEO of Houston Grand Opera, noted that Opera Australia and HGO have collaborated on several important initiatives in recent seasons, including the acclaimed production of Peter Grimes which HGO presents as part of its 2010/11 season: "It is a thrill to work with Opera Australia on a groundbreaking new production of these important operas, and we look forward to bringing Houston Grand Opera's first-ever Ring to the stage," he said.
HGO will present the operas over the course of four seasons beginning in 2014, pending the successful conclusion of its fundraising campaign. "Bringing the Ring to Houston for the first time is an important step for the company artistically and for our audience as well. It will require significant resources,” added Freud. “We are visiting with all of our stakeholders to ensure that we can take this step securely and that our mission to produce opera of the highest quality is fulfilled.”
“It is particularly gratifying to contemplate a Ring that brings together such a distinguished director and our own music director, Patrick Summers,” Freud continued, adding that Summers's leadership and development of the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra since joining the company in 1999 was one of the major factors in the decision to mount a Ring in Houston. Just last season, Summers conducted Lohengrin, the company's acclaimed first entrée into Wagnerian repertoire in a decade; reviewing the performance in Opera News, critic Gregory Barnett stated, “Under Summers's ever-alert and sensitive direction, the eighty-piece Orchestra – at times commenting with crispness and agility, at times shaking the walls with sweeping, transcendent climaxes – took its rightful place beside the singers as a narrative instrument...(and) the Houston audience could bask in Wagner's orchestral detail without losing a note of the singing.”
Summers and Armfield have collaborated on all of the company's Britten operas, most recently on an acclaimed production of The Turn of the Screw (2010), and will join forces for Peter Grimes this season. The Ring cycle marks Armfield's first encounter as director with the operas of Richard Wagner.
Casting for the Ring operas has not yet been announced. They will be performed at Houston Grand Opera over the course of four seasons, as follows: 2014 - Das Rheingold; 2015 - Die Walkure; 2016 - Siegfried; and 2017 - Götterdämmerung.
Anthony Freud, OBE, General Director and CEO of Houston Grand Opera, noted that Opera Australia and HGO have collaborated on several important initiatives in recent seasons, including the acclaimed production of Peter Grimes which HGO presents as part of its 2010/11 season: "It is a thrill to work with Opera Australia on a groundbreaking new production of these important operas, and we look forward to bringing Houston Grand Opera's first-ever Ring to the stage," he said.
HGO will present the operas over the course of four seasons beginning in 2014, pending the successful conclusion of its fundraising campaign. "Bringing the Ring to Houston for the first time is an important step for the company artistically and for our audience as well. It will require significant resources,” added Freud. “We are visiting with all of our stakeholders to ensure that we can take this step securely and that our mission to produce opera of the highest quality is fulfilled.”
“It is particularly gratifying to contemplate a Ring that brings together such a distinguished director and our own music director, Patrick Summers,” Freud continued, adding that Summers's leadership and development of the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra since joining the company in 1999 was one of the major factors in the decision to mount a Ring in Houston. Just last season, Summers conducted Lohengrin, the company's acclaimed first entrée into Wagnerian repertoire in a decade; reviewing the performance in Opera News, critic Gregory Barnett stated, “Under Summers's ever-alert and sensitive direction, the eighty-piece Orchestra – at times commenting with crispness and agility, at times shaking the walls with sweeping, transcendent climaxes – took its rightful place beside the singers as a narrative instrument...(and) the Houston audience could bask in Wagner's orchestral detail without losing a note of the singing.”
Summers and Armfield have collaborated on all of the company's Britten operas, most recently on an acclaimed production of The Turn of the Screw (2010), and will join forces for Peter Grimes this season. The Ring cycle marks Armfield's first encounter as director with the operas of Richard Wagner.
Casting for the Ring operas has not yet been announced. They will be performed at Houston Grand Opera over the course of four seasons, as follows: 2014 - Das Rheingold; 2015 - Die Walkure; 2016 - Siegfried; and 2017 - Götterdämmerung.
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