Franz Lehár News

From February 21 to March 16, 2014, Carnegie Hall presents Vienna: City of Dreams, a three-week citywide festival featuring more than 90 events, all inviting audiences to discover the extraordinary artistic legacy of Vienna. The festival features symphonic and operatic masterpieces, chamber music, and lieder, as well as new sounds emerging from this historic cultural capital. In addition to music, Vienna: City of Dreams shines a spotlight on Vienna's visual art, film, architecture, politics, science, and history, creating an extensive look at a city that for centuries has drawn artists, dreamers, and innovators from all corners of the world to its dazzling intellectual and artistic life.

SCU•PRESENTS will feature the Faculty, Staff and Students at Santa Clara University in the Fall 2013 Music Season, which includes FOLKSONGS, RITUALS AND RITES OF PASSAGE, featuring SCU faculty member, Teresa McCollough on the piano with special guest artist, Michael Boyd. SCU•PRESENTS is also proud to announce three new Music Directors and Conductors joining the Department of Music; John Kennedy, Music Director & Conductor, of the Santa Clara University Orchestra, Dr. Douglas Harris, Director of Bands, Santa Clara University Wind Symphony and Jazz Band and Scot Hanna-Weir, Music Director and Conductor, Santa Clara University Concert Choir and Chamber Singers.

SCU•PRESENTS will feature the Faculty, Staff and Students at Santa Clara University in the Fall 2013 Music Season, which includes FOLKSONGS, RITUALS AND RITES OF PASSAGE, featuring SCU faculty member, Teresa McCollough on the piano with special guest artist, Michael Boyd. SCU•PRESENTS is also proud to announce three new Music Directors and Conductors joining the Department of Music; John Kennedy, Music Director & Conductor, of the Santa Clara University Orchestra, Dr. Douglas Harris, Director of Bands, Santa Clara University Wind Symphony and Jazz Band and Scot Hanna-Weir, Music Director and Conductor, Santa Clara University Concert Choir and Chamber Singers.

As a ballet, THE MERRY WIDOW is an adaptation of Franz Lehar's popular romantic operetta Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow), which premiered in 1905. In the process of adapting the score for ballet, John Lanchbery and Alan Abott retained the style of Franz Lehar's orchestrations and included several of the well-known tunes from the operetta. Their score premiered in 1975 when The Australian Ballet, under the Musical Direction of John Lanchbery, produced the World Premiere production with choreography by Ronald Hynd and Scenario and Staging by Sir Robert Helpmann. This grandiose and radiant ballet of THE MERRY WIDOW had its Houston Ballet Premiere on September 17, 1995 in the Brown Theater. The Houston Ballet also performed it in 1999 and 2007. Now, in 2013, the lavish production is serving as Mireille Hassenboehler's gorgeous swan song and letter of admiration to the audiences of the Houston Ballet.

From tonight, September 19-29, 2013, Houston Ballet presents Ronald Hynd's comic and enchanting The Merry Widow.Adapted from Franz Lehar's beloved operetta, the internationally-admired British choreographer Ronald Hynd adds a new layer of lavish spectacle and choreography to the original story of The Merry Widow to create an irresistibly charming and intoxicating tale of high jinks, finance, romance, and intrigue. The production features magnificent scenery and costumes by Italian designer Roberta Guidi di Bagno. The company will give seven performances at Wortham Theater Center in downtown Houston.

From September 19-29, 2013, Houston Ballet presents Ronald Hynd's comic and enchanting The Merry Widow. Adapted from Franz Lehar's beloved operetta, the internationally-admired British choreographer Ronald Hynd adds a new layer of lavish spectacle and choreography to the original story of The Merry Widow to create an irresistibly charming and intoxicating tale of high jinks, finance, romance, and intrigue. The production features magnificent scenery and costumes by Italian designer Roberta Guidi di Bagno. The company will give seven performances at Wortham Theater Center in downtown Houston. Tickets start at $19, and may be purchased at www.houstonballet.org or by calling 713 227 ARTS (2787).

From September 19-29, 2013, Houston Ballet presents Ronald Hynd's comic and enchanting The Merry Widow.Adapted from Franz Lehar's beloved operetta, the internationally-admired British choreographer Ronald Hynd adds a new layer of lavish spectacle and choreography to the original story of The Merry Widow to create an irresistibly charming and intoxicating tale of high jinks, finance, romance, and intrigue. The production features magnificent scenery and costumes by Italian designer Roberta Guidi di Bagno. The company will give seven performances at Wortham Theater Center in downtown Houston. Tickets start at $19, and may be purchased at www.houstonballet.org or by calling 713 227 ARTS (2787).

A SALUTE TO VIENNA is one of the most lavish song and dance gala concert specials ever produced for public television featuring the superstars of Viennese operetta. The visually spectacular special is hosted by world-famous mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade and Academy Award-winning actor andVienna native Maximilian Schell. Special guests include The Vienna Boys' Choir; Russell Watson, Great Britain's largest-selling, classical-crossover tenor; dancers from the Association of the Vienna State Opera Ballet; the Symphony Orchestra of the Volksoper Vienna under the direction ofinternationally-knownStrauss Conductor Peter Guth; an international cast of top singing stars including sopranos Daniela Fally, Iva Milhanovic and Alexandra Reinprecht; tenors Dmitry Korchak and Tilmann Unger; baritone, Daniel Serafin, as well as many leading stars from the acclaimed Budapest Operetta Theater. A SALUTE TO VIENNA is part of special programming premiering on PBS stations beginning today, August 3, 2013 (check local listings).

A SALUTE TO VIENNA is one of the most lavish song and dance gala concert specials ever produced for public television featuring the superstars of Viennese operetta. The visually spectacular special is hosted by world-famous mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade and Academy Award-winning actor andVienna native Maximilian Schell. Special guests include The Vienna Boys' Choir; Russell Watson, Great Britain's largest-selling, classical-crossover tenor; dancers from the Association of the Vienna State Opera Ballet; the Symphony Orchestra of the Volksoper Vienna under the direction ofinternationally-knownStrauss Conductor Peter Guth; an international cast of top singing stars including sopranos Daniela Fally, Iva Milhanovic and Alexandra Reinprecht; tenors Dmitry Korchak and Tilmann Unger; baritone, Daniel Serafin, as well as many leading stars from the acclaimed Budapest Operetta Theater. A SALUTE TO VIENNA is part of special programming premiering on PBS stations beginning August 3, 2013 (check local listings).

Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch has announced the company's 2013-2014 season. Eight new works enter Houston Ballet's repertoire, including world premieres by James Kudelka, Garrett Smith and Melissa Hough in September 2013; the North American premiere of David Bintley's Aladdin in February 2014; company premieres of Jiri Kylian's Sechs Tanze, Christopher Bruce's Intimate Pages and Stanton Welch's Of Blessed Memory as well as a world premiere A Young Person's Guide to Orchestra by Mr. Welch in March 2014.

If the Broadway revival of a few years back demonstrated the deadly results that can occur when overthinking and underplaying a quality farce, the new Paper Mill mounting is a fast a furious example of Ken Ludwig's madcap Lend Me A Tenor done right.  Director Don Stephenson doesn't throw any fancy curveballs with the material, but he and his perfectly cast company of Broadway vets nail every door slam and verbal ping-pong volley with hilarious aplomb.

The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music presents The Merry Widow, the famous operetta by Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár, at the Ward Recital Hall, Catholic University, tonight, Nov. 15 to 18.

The Benjamin T. Rome School of Music presents The Merry Widow, the famous operetta by Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár, at the Ward Recital Hall, Catholic University, Nov. 15 to 18.

Light Opera Works' 2012 season continues in the fall with OPERETTA'S GREATEST HITS (October 5-14) and OLIVER! (December 22-31). To purchase tickets call (847) 920-5360 or order online at www.LightOperaWorks.com.

Matinee 'Das Ensemble stellt sich vor': Rachel Frenkel und Carlos Osuna

Matinee 'Das Ensemble stellt sich vor': Rachel Frenkel und Carlos Osuna

To kick off the 2011-12 season, Susan Graham - 'America's favorite mezzo' (Gramophone magazine) - makes her much-anticipated Canadian Opera Company debut on Thursday, September 22, headlining the company premiere of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride with the role that has become her 'calling card' (New York Times).

Florida Grand Opera has announced the productions for the 2011-2012 season, which will be the Company's 71st consecutive season of producing grand opera in South Florida. The season includes two important 'firsts' for FGO: the first presentation of a zarzuela, Torroba's Luisa Fernanda, and the first production of Puccini's La rondine. The season will also include Verdi's Rigoletto and Gounod's Rom o et Juliette.

The Joffrey Ballet presents the Midwest premiere of Ronald Hynd's The Merry Widow for its Winter program in the current 2010-2011 Stars season. Hynd originally choreographed the three-act story ballet for The Australian Ballet in 1975, set to an adaptation of Franz Lehár's 1905 romantic operetta The Merry Widow. This evening-length work, also a company premiere, will be performed for the final time at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 East Congress Parkway, February 27, 2011.