Houston Grand Opera Opens 2008-2009 Season with Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci

HOUSTON—Houston Grand Opera (HGO) launches the 2008 – 2009 season with Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. The double bill of verismo operas plays at the Wortham Theater Center October 17 – November 1, 2008.

“We kick off the season with a truly grand evening of opera,” explained HGO’s General Director and CEO Anthony Freud, OBE. “These two highly accessible and realistic works come together to provide the audience with two love affairs, two centuries, and a fantastic night of passion.”

Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, which were last performed together at HGO in 1990, return to the Wortham Theater Center under the stage direction of Leslie Halla Grayson, who directed HGO’s production of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen in 2007. Oleg Caetani, winner of the RAI Turin competition and Karajan competition in Berlin, will make his HGO conducting debut. Brandon Jovanovich makes his HGO debut as Cavalleria rusticana’s caddish Turiddu. Recently touted as the “reigning American mezzo-soprano” by the Washington Post, Dolora Zajick (HGO’s Aida 2007) returns to sing her signature role of Santuzza. In Pagliacci, Vladimir Galouzine (HGO’s Manon Lescaut 2006) returns to HGO as the titular clown Canio—the wronged husband whose jealousy escalates to insanity—with HGO Studio alums Ana María Martínez and Scott Hendricks as his unfaithful wife Nedda and her paramour Silvio. Sets and costumes by Tony Award-winning American designer Michael Yeargan.

A NEXUS Initiative matinee performance will be held on Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. With the leadership of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, underwriting is provided by a consortium of Houston corporations including Chevron, KPMG, Andrews and Kurth, Schlumberger, Nabors Industries Ltd. and Houston Endowment Inc., so that thousands of Houstonians can attend live HGO performances at the Wortham Center for a price of $10.00 (plus WCOC and Theater District fees). Last season, the NEXUS Initiative premiere at HGO’s performance of Puccini’s La bohème allowed almost 2000 curious audience members to experience their first opera for only $10 a seat.

“The NEXUS initiative is designed to introduce opera to a very broad new audience,” stated Anthony Freud. “Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci provide the ideal event for the first time opera-goer: a spectacular, melodramatic evening with great tunes, stirring choruses and powerful stories of love, jealousy and revenge. It is irresistible, roof-raising music theater that delivers a powerful punch: the epitome of great opera.”

Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci open on Friday, October 17, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. in the Brown Theater at the Wortham Theater Center. All other performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. for Sunday matinees. Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci will be performed in Italian with English supertitles.

Performance Dates

Friday, October 17, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. * †

Sunday, October 19, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. **

Friday, May 2, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 4, 2008 at 2:00 p.m.

Friday, May 9, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.

*ON for Young Professionals reception and performance

† Opening Night Dinner following performance

** NEXUS Iniative performance

Ticket Information:

· Season tickets are on sale now starting at $67.50 for all six operas. Individual tickets for Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci go on sale October 1, 2008 and start at $20 (inclusive of all city surcharges)

· Student and senior citizen rush tickets are available day of performance at the ticket window only and are very limited.

· The Wortham Theater Center features wheelchair access to both theaters, with a choice of seating locations and ticket prices. An infrared listening system, underwritten by Shell Lubricants, is available and free of charge at all performances. Disabled access and TDD: 713-228-OPERA (6737) or 1-800-62-OPERA (800-626-7372); Descriptive Services: 713-546-0675.

· The Wells Fargo Pre-Curtain Lecture Series takes place forty-five minutes before each performance. Guest speakers present a twenty-minute informal lecture in the orchestra level of the Brown Theater. These lectures, free and open to all ticket holders, are intended to enhance the audience’s enjoyment by preparing them for the opera they are about to attend.

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