John Caird’s brand new production of a perennial favorite, Puccini’s La bohème, opens the season on October 19. An Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Principal Guest Director of Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Theatre, Caird’s numerous honors include two Tony Awards, two Laurence Olivier Awards, and three Outer Critics Circle Awards. American soprano Katie Van Kooten stars as Mimì, the role in which she made her Covent Garden debut, impressing the Telegraph as “a major operatic talent” with “a winning stage personality.” Opposite her as Rodolfo is New York native Dimitri Pittas – “a huge talent, with a ringing, easy tenor voice…like a young Plácido Domingo” (Opera News). With designs by Olivier Award-winner David Farley, the new production will be conducted by young American Evan Rogister, former Kapellmeister of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

The second of Houston’s upcoming new productions is Show Boat, which opens on January 18, 2013. Summers, who will lead from the pit, explains:

“Show Boat is one of a handful of the classic American musicals that greatly benefit from the resources of an opera company. It was Kern and Hammerstein’s wish that it bridge the worlds of opera and musical theater – I view it as the moment that operetta got an American accent.”

Filled with such memorable hits as “Ol’ Man River” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” the new production will be directed by Francesca Zambello, General Artistic Director of the Glimmerglass Festival. Since making her operatic debut at HGO in 1984, Zambello’s direction has been internationally recognized with France’s Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, the Russian Federation’s medal for Service to Culture, three British Olivier Awards, Germany’s Palme d’Or, Australia’s Helpmann Award, and many more. Perfectly cast as Magnolia Hawks is American mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, whose “fresh, vital portrayal” and “luminous tone” (New Yorker) recently caused a sensation at the Metropolitan Opera. Canadian tenor Joseph Kaiser, a winner in the 2005 Plácido Domingo International Opera competition, is cast as Gaylord.

Houston Grand Opera’s 2012 winter season continues with Don Giovanni, which opens on January 25 in a revival of the popular and “perceptive staging” (Gramophone) by the late Göran Järvefelt, one of Sweden’s greatest directors. Austrian baritone Adrian Eröd makes his HGO debut as the incorrigible titular playboy, with American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen as his long-suffering servant Leporello, HGO Studio alumna soprano Rachel Willis-Sorensen as Donna Anna, and Swedish soprano Malin Christensson as a “heartbreaking, beguiling Zerlina” (Independent). With designs by Carl Friedrich Oberle, the production is led by British conductor Trevor Pinnock, founder of The English Concert. Honored as both a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and as an Officier des Arts et des Lettres, Pinnock makes his long-awaited HGO debut.

April 18 sees the premiere of Christof Loy’s contemporary new production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Winner of the “Faust”-Theaterpreis and Musikpreis der Stadt Duisburg, Loy has also been nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award, and was twice named Director of the Year by Germany’s Opernwelt. His new staging features set and costume design by Johannes Leiacker, whose credits include the Metropolitan Opera, Dresden Semperoper, and English National Opera. The title roles will be sung by Canadian tenor Ben Heppner and Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, both making their HGO debuts. Heppner, whose Tristan has already graced the Met, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Salzburg Easter Festival, is widely recognized as “one of the best Wagnerian tenors around” (New York Times), while Stemme’s most recent Isolde at Covent Garden and Glyndebourne proved “magnificent…thrilling…radiant” (Telegraph). Wagner’s groundbreaking score will be conducted by Patrick Summers, who observes: “Tristan und Isolde is one of the greatest operas ever written. It totally changed the course of Western music.”

To complete the season, Il trovatore, one of Verdi’s early blood-and-thunder operatic warhorses, opens on April 26, in a revival of Steven Lawless’s thought-provoking Los Angeles Opera production. Critic S. James Wegg described Lawless’s treatment as “a sumptuous feast for the ear and the eye…that resonates with modern times.” HGO Studio alumna Tamara Wilson, whose soprano impressed the Houston Chronicle as “a voice of steely beauty and great power,” will sing Leonora, opposite Italian tenor Marco Berti, winner of the Giuseppe Verdi Gold Medal, as Manrico. Leading dramatic mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick – “a force of operatic nature” (Los Angeles Times) sings the gypsy Azucena, with Icelandic baritone Tómas Tómasson making up the quartet as Count di Luna, Manrico’s rival. Once again, Patrick Summers will conduct.

For full details of Houston Grand Opera’s 2012-13 season, click here. Meanwhile, some additional information is provided below.

 

Houston Grand Opera: 2012-13 season

La bohème (new production)

Oct 19 – Nov 10, 2012 

Rodolfo: Dimitri Pittas

Mimi: Katie Van Kooten

Marcello: Joshua Hopkins

Musetta: Heidi Stober

Colline: Vuyani Mlinde

Schaunard: Michael Sumuel

Conductor: Evan Rogister

Director: John Caird

Set and Costume Designer: David Farley

Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus / Richard Bado, Chorus Master

 

The Italian Girl in Algiers (new production)

Oct 26 – Nov 11, 2012

Isabella: Daniela Barcellona

Lindoro: Lawrence Brownlee

Mustafà: Patrick Carfizzi

Taddeo: Daniel Belcher

Haly: Robert Pomakov

Conductor: Carlo Rizzi

Director: Joan Font

Set and Costume Designer: Joan Guillén

Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus / Richard Bado, Chorus Master

A co-production with Teatro Real, Madrid; Maggio Musicale, Florence; and Opera National Bordeaux

 

Show Boat (new production)

Jan 18 – Feb 9, 2013

Magnolia Hawkes: Sasha Cooke

Gaylord Ravenal: Joseph Kaiser

Julie La Verne: Melody Moore

Joe: Morris Robinson

Queenie: Marietta Simpson

Parthy Hawkes: Cheryl Parrish

Director: Francesca Zambello

Set Designer: Peter Davison

Costume Designer: Paul Tazewell

 

Don Giovanni

Jan 25 – Feb 10, 2013

Don Giovanni: Adrian Eröd

Leporello: Kyle Ketelsen

Donna Anna: Rachel Willis-Sorensen

Donna Elvira: Veronika Dzhioeva

Don Ottavio: Joel Prieto

Zerlina: Malin Christensson

Masetto: Michael Sumuel

The Commendatore: Morris Robinson

Conductor: Trevor Pinnock

Director: Harry Silverstein

Set and Costume Designer: Carl Friedrich Oberle

 

Tristan und Isolde (new production)

April 18 – May 5, 2013

Isolde: Nina Stemme

Tristan: Ben Heppner

Brangäne: Claudia Mahnke

Kurwenal: Ryan McKinny

King Marke: Christof Fischesser

Melot: Roger Honeywell

Conductor: Patrick Summers

Director: Christof Loy

Set and Costume Designer: Johannes Leiacker

Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus / Richard Bado, Chorus Master

 

Il trovatore

April 26 – May 11, 2013

Leonora: Tamara Wilson

Manrico: Marco Berti

Azucena: Dolora Zajick

Count di Luna: Tómas Tómasson

Ferrando: Vuyani Mlinde

Conductor: Patrick Summers

Director: Steven Lawless

Set Designer: Benoit Dugardyn

Costume Designer: Martin Pakledinaz

Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus / Richard Bado, Chorus Master

Production co-owned by Los Angeles Opera and Washington National Opera