Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde poses more than the usual challenges of opera presentation. The new production by the Dallas Opera, which opened Thursday night at Winspear Opera House, answers all of those challenges, rendering that masterpiece from the 19th century as meaningful as ever in the 21st.

Based on a medieval romance, Tristan und Isolde is essentially a four-hour rumination on the nature of romantic love. Traditional staging of Wagner can be tricky at best: neither quasi-realism nor fantastical backdrops are ..read more

The Washington Post looks into the growing trend of performing arts organizations broadcasting their productions to movie theaters around the world. The National Theatre does it. The Los Angeles Philharmonic will broadcast its Mahler’s Eighth, performed by more than 1,000 musicians in Caracas, Venezuela. And at the Angelika this week, you can go and watch a guided walk through of the Leonardi da Vinci exhibition at the National Gallery in London.

New York’s Metropolitan Opera, of course, was the pioneer in movie theater performance, and despite initial skepticism from critics, the company has turned the broadcasts, along with accompanying DVDs and recordings, into a profitable business model.

Critics have had to eat their words, since the HD broadcasts are the most successful single element of Gelb’s tenure, and have proved truly visionary. They have raised the profile of opera, created excitement where there was none, and rather than bankrupting the company, as many predicted, they have made money. In 2010-11 they netted an impressive $11 million.

But the Met has a particular brand and audience, built over decades of international radio broadcasts, so the model isn’t exactly replicable for other groups. That has not stopped ballet, theater, music, and other companies from trying. What many have found, though, is  is that not unlike their actually live performances, theater broadcasts require a good deal of marketing to sell tickets. And the competition – deep-pocketed movie studies – is steep.

Photo Marcello Giordani and Angela Meade will perform in the Met’s upcoming broadcast of Verdi’s Ernani.

Well, I’ll give the opera this: Cowboys Stadium has a mighty large TV. It is also a really large building. And opera, it’s kind of a large art form, right? And all sorts of classical music groups seem to be testing waters these days, figuring out how to dust off that stuffy feeling and get out to new audiences. And Texans love football. Oh, and Cowboys Stadium already has some visual art. So, why not broadcast a simulcast of the ..read more

We knew that the Dallas Opera was going to tighten its belt while being led by fiscal watchdog Keith Cerny, but perhaps few anticipated it was going to get this tight. Back in September 2011, he told Willard Spiegelman that the company has been running in the red, and Cerny’s plan to right the ship anticipates being back in the black by the 2014-2015 season. Earlier in 2011, the opera canceled one of its planned performances for 2011-2012, cutting the ..read more

Jake Heggie, the composer of Moby-Dick and Dead Man Walking, and Terrence McNally, who wrote the libretto for Dead Man, will team up again for a new opera based on a story written by McNally for the Dallas Opera. The annoucnement came yesterday evening that the Dallas Opera had commissioned Heggie for a second work, bringing the librettist on board for an opera that will premiere at the opening of the company’s 2015-2016 season. In addition, mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato ..read more

The Fort Worth Opera has a reputation for its commitment to staging bold, new work. Now the company looks to further that reputation with “Frontiers,” a new addition to its annual Fort Worth Opera Festival that will showcase unpublished work by composers from the Americas. As explained in a release, the program hopes to expose new composers through live performance while also helping to network these new talents with industry professionals. The inaugural program will take place in 2013, and ..read more

The Dallas Opera’s General Director’s Roundtable series continues next Monday, December 5 with a panel discussing the role of new art works – both operatic and in other musical forms – in the context of the life of a performance arts group. Joining the Dallas Opera’s General Director Keith Cerny on the panel will be Moby-Dick librettist Gene Scheer; Ann Williams, founder and artistic director of the Dallas Black Dance Theater; and baritone Robert Orth. And the panel will again ..read more

In late 2009, the Dallas Opera announced that an anonymous donor put up a challenge grant of $10 million to establish a “Cultural Renaissance Endowment Fund,” intended to help secure the opera’s long-term financial stability. That initial generosity aside, it then fell on the opera to raise an equivalent $10 million right in the thick of one of the worst economic periods in United States history.

So, if you had any doubt that Dallas enjoys at least some modicum of insularity from the ..read more

In a year of cutbacks and budget crises, the Dallas Opera proves once again, with the current production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at Winspear Opera House, that the ability to cast great singers is that company’s single greatest asset. As so often in the past, the combination of instinct and skill—the eye and ear for a great performer—on the part of the folks in charge resulted in the American premiere of a singer likely to enter the ranks of ..read more

The Dallas Opera kicks off its new season this weekend, and the good news for the opera company is that, unlike last year, their opening night simulcast will not conflict with the World Series.

But scheduling conflicts are not the only obstacle the opera has had to contend with ahead of the opening. Scott Cantrell writes over on the Dallas Morning News site (sub. req.) that there are, in fact,  some parallels between the Dallas Opera, as a company, and Donizetti’s opera. For ..read more

Theater does wonders depicting the classic conundrum of crossed lovers. But for this Thursday’s giveaway we’re letting the Dallas Opera showcase their version. We’ve got two tickets to the October 26th performance of Lucia di Lammermoor, the story of fragile Lucia (Romanian soprano Elena Mosuc), who is tricked into trading love for familial duty. To get your hands on them all you have to do is answer the question in the form below: What year, and in what city, did ..read more

When the Dallas Opera announced that it was cutting a production from its 2011-2012 season, it was pretty clear about where it laid at least some of the blame:

While this move benefitted the company in important ways and contributed significantly to both the critical and popular success of our subsequent productions in the new, purpose-built venue, the change also had a dramatic impact on the number of patrons who could be accommodated at any given performance, falling from more than 3,400 to a seating capacity of 2,200.

In other words, “Thanks for our new, pretty opera, but it’s killing us.”

Those concerns have been picked up upon in an article in Fastco Design which looks at the architect Norman Foster’s string of “unlucky” projects in America. The opera’s problems, the article reminds us, are not the architect’s fault. The size of the theater was determined by a steering committee which oversaw the development. The decision to perform in repertory was made possible by the new house, but ultimately it was one made by the Dallas Opera. And it is hard to sympathize with complaints over the cost of operating the new building considering the opera has been dreaming of moving out of Fair Park and into a “world class” facility for decades. “World class” venues carry “world class” costs.

But the Winspear is only one of Foster’s troublesome projects in the United States. Some projects, such as a proposed Globe theater redo for New York’s Governors Island, never got off the ground. A Seattle project has fallen victim to the financial crisis. And his Hearst Tower project in New York has made it into the running for one of the ugliest buildings in that city.

When discussing the potential of the Arts District and the new AT&T Performing Arts Center, it is not long before you get to the idea of inter-institutional collaboration. One of the most intriguing collaborations the Arts District has given birth to so far is the upcoming partnership between the Dallas Opera and the Dallas Theater Center, which will co-present chamber operas in the Wyly Theatre beginning in the 2011-2012 season.

“Collaboration in the Arts” is the topic of conversation for the next Dallas Opera General Director’s Roundtable, a program launched earlier this year by new opera head Keith Cerny. The next program installment will bring together Cerny, the DTC’s Kevin Moriarty, and general director of Opera Company of Philadelphia, David Devan, on Sept 19 for a conversation about collaboration within the performing arts. The panel will be hosted by yours truly, and it is presented in partnership with D Magazine.

You have to be a Dallas Opera subscriber to attend, but you hardly needed more of an excuse for that. Hope to see you there.

I have a sinking feeling that this isn’t going to be the last of these kinds of announcements. The Dallas Opera has just announced that “as part of a careful, multi-year plan to balance and stabilize company finances as rapidly and prudently as possible” they will be canceling the planned production of Katya Kabanová, which was part of the company’s 2011-2012 season.

“The Dallas Opera is committed to preserving its proud legacy through careful balancing of artistic goals with sound financial management,” says Dallas Opera Chairman Dr. Kern Wildenthal.  “Although our General Director and CEO, Keith Cerny, assumed this role little more than a year ago, he has repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to cutting costs while enhancing the company’s artistic reputation.  He has the full backing of the Board of Directors as we navigate this challenging period in the company’s history.”

The elimination of the production will take the opera’s season down to four full operas, with the new chamber opera series taking up the fifth spot. In addition, the production of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde will be an opera in concert and not a full staging of the German giant’s work. And the opera came close to loosing the fifth production as well:

Urgent appeals for an infusion of cash necessary to preserve the fifth production garnered an immediate response from more than a dozen generous donors, including Crow Holdings—which led the effort with a remarkable pledge of $500,000.

Here’s the full release:

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Any Dallas parent knows the health risks that accompany allowing their child to run and play outside all summer. Luckily Dallas offers plenty of theater and arts programs throughout the summer.

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Baroque opera is an acquired taste, and Fort Worth Opera’s production of Handel’s Julius Caesar, which opened Saturday at Bass Performance Hall, gives plenty of incentives for opera buffs to learn to love this special corner of the operatic repertoire.

For the modern audience member, the most obvious attribute of Julius Caesar (and virtually all other baroque operas) is its stately pace. Even a drama packed with murder, revenge, war, and love moves patiently, with the events themselves taking up about ..read more

Friends, Dallasites, Countrymen, lend me your eyes. I come to provide tickets, not to sell them. This Thursday’s giveaway will take you back to 44 BC with conspiring politicians, assassinations, and the ghost of Julius Caesar. We have a pair of opening night tickets to giveaway for The Fort Worth Opera Festival’s third installment, Julius Caesar, this Sunday. To get your hands on them answer the question in the form below: Who did Mark Antony claim was the only man to act for the good of Rome? We’ll pick a winner after 3pm.

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Tuesday night at Sanders Theatre, Fort Worth Opera presented what is surely this year’s most significant area operatic event—and possibly the most significant theatrical event as well—with the opening performance of a new production of Philip Glass’s Hydrogen Jukebox.

The most significant element in the production is, of course, the opera itself, a setting of an arrangement of pre-existing texts by Allen Ginsberg (1926-97). Some composers have a gift for setting the words of a particular poet, and for making that ..read more

Sure George Steel only headed up the Dallas Opera for a few weeks before jetting back to New York to take over the struggling New York City Opera. Since that public spurn, some followers of the Dallas Opera have indulged in not a small amount of Schadenfreude, watching the fire-to-frying pan jumping Steel navigate the troubled waters of the once-fabled, now nearly bankrupt New York City Opera.

The latest news: Steel is leading the opera company out of Lincoln Center, where it has lived since 1966. The move is controversial, in part because in 2006 Steel’s predecessor, the Belgian Gerard Mortier, sunk millions into renovating the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, where the opera performs. Nonetheless, says Steel, “Not everyone is built to be at Lincoln Center.”

The New York City Opera is currently built for a nomadic existence, it would seem. Though they do not have repertoire, dates, or venues set for their next season (troublesome considering opera singers are often booked three to five years in advance of performances), Steel is emphatic that there will be a next season for the New York City Opera, which was at one point in doubt.

The situation has also inflamed Alan Gordon, the head of the American Guild of Musical Artists, who said Steel’s desire to hire musicians from performance to performance is like, “an old-fashioned shape-up on the waterfront.”

Gordon continued:

“Steel’s approach is out-and-out stupid and it’s designed to assure that City Opera goes out of business.”

So, how’s that New York weather treating you, George?

Verdi’s Il Trovatore is a singers’ opera: it demands great singers, and, when great singers are present, it can become a powerful experience.

Fort Worth Opera’s current production, which opened Saturday night at Bass Performance Hall, has, in its four principals, a dream cast. First among equals, as Leonora, is soprano Marjorie Owens, a Virginia native and Baylor graduate who is clearly headed toward operatic superstardom.

Owens owns a particularly spectacular upper range. She has volume to spare, and, apparently, the lungs ..read more

The Dallas Opera has announced that their annual Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year award will go to Laura Claycomb, the soprano who sang Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto. It is a choice our critic Wayne Lee Gay won’t be disappointed with. In his review of Rigoletto, he wrote:

Soprano Laura Claycomb was beyond reproach as Gilda. With conductor Rizzo’s sure support, she produced goose bumps and won the loudest cheers of the evening with her rendition of “Caro nome.”

Here’s the full release.

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The current tough fundraising climate for the arts is an opportunity, not a challenge. That’s the upbeat early word from Mark J. Weinstein, who’s been appointed the new president and CEO of the AT&T Performing Arts Center effective June 1.

A veteran arts executive, Weinstein, 55 (“a young 55,” he jokes), most recently served as executive director of the Washington National Opera alongside artistic director Placido Domingo. Prior to that he spent 10 years with the Pittsburgh Opera, where he was general director, and 13 years with the New York City Opera, the last three as executive director.

We reached Weinstein by phone this afternoon at the Park Place Motorcars offices of Ken Schnitzer—the Dallas auto executive headed up the PAC’s CEO search–where Weinstein was meeting people and making calls.

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Gilbert and Sullivan’s lively digs at 19th-century British society in particular, and human folly in general—thinly disguised as a fairy-tale version of Japan in the operetta The Mikado—shot headlong into the 21st century Saturday night as the opening item on the Fort Worth Opera’s 2011 Festival at Bass Performance Hall.

As a long-time opera-goer who had just about given up on anybody anywhere having anything meaningful and new to say about Gilbert and Sullivan, I’ll admit I was won over the ..read more

The annual Fort Worth Opera Festival kicks off Friday, and while the opera world’s eyes turn to Cowtown, the opera company has announced its 2012 season. Next year will bring two of the most performed works in the repertoire, Tosca and The Marriage of Figaro, presented along side Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers and Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata. Here are details on the lineup.

Scott Cantrell rolls the significance of Darren Woods’ impact on North Texas music into this one lean paragraph:

That gift of gab has helped Woods transform a dysfunctional provincial organization into an opera festival drawing national and even international attention. That plus skills at raising dollars and pinching pennies and just getting a community to rally around a new and daring artistic vision.

Woods’ Fort Worth Opera festival kicks off this Friday with Gilbert and Sullivan’s popular favorite, Mikado, but per usual with the Fort Worth Opera, there are some challenging pieces mixed among the classic works. The rest of the lineup includes a Verdi classic (Il Trovatore), a Baroque opera (Handel’s Julius Cesar), and a contemporary chamber opera based on the poetry of Allen Ginsberg (Philip Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox).

Promo image for the Fort Worth Opera’s Il Trovatore.