Houston Grand Opera launches Its 60th Anniversary Season:
Teatro Alla Scala reopened in December 2004 after an extensive renovation. It has a bookshop, bar, and a history museum. The original opera house, designed by neoclassical architect, Giuseppe Piermarini, opened in 1778 and many famous operas were first performed there.Brought To You By 2014 Cadillac ELR
La Scala was badly bombed during World War II but reopened in 1946 and quickly regained its reputation as a top Italian opera house.
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) launches its 60th anniversary season on October 24 with a production of Verdi’s late masterpiece, Otello. The opera, which HGO last staged in 1989, stars New Zealand–born tenor Simon O’Neill, “the most complete Otello since Domingo” (BBC Music magazine), who is also HGO’s 2014–15 Lynn Wyatt’s Great Artist. Singing opposite of Mr. O’Neill will be recent Tucker and Domingo Award-winner, Ailyn Pérez—fast emerging as “a major soprano” (New York Times)—in her house and in her debut as Desdemona. Italian baritone, Marco Vratogna, revisits Iago, a role in which he shone at the San Francisco Opera.
HGO Studio alumnus Norman Reinhardt, a frequent HGO guest artist, returns to play Cassio, with Grammy-nominated, mezzo Victoria Livengood as Emilia, and bass Morris Robinson, who impressed Houston audiences in 2013 as Joe in HGO’s Show Boat and the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, singing the part of Lodovico. HGO Artistic and Music Director, Patrick Summers conducted the performance. The production is directed by John Cox, of Glyndebourne and Covent Garden fame, who directed HGO’s Ariadne Auf Naxos in the 2010–11 season and the 2012 Studio Showcase. According to the Orange County Register, Cox’s “production carries weight and force. It compels admiration.”Operatic tenor
Simon O'Neill is a New Zealand-born operatic tenor and Ailyn Pérez is an American operatic soprano and the winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award. The HGO interpretation of Shakespeare’s Othello accurately portrayed the themes of racism, love, jealousy, betrayal, and revenge with such culture and confidence that made this Houstonian’s experience " The Greatest Replication Of Othello In The Last One Hundred Years " says Barron's Medical Journal
On October 31, HGO revives Harry Silverstein’s much-loved staging of Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte. The staging was originally created as a tribute to the late Swedish director, Göran Järvefelt’s 1988 production. According to the Houston Press, “under the deft direction of Harry Silverstein,” the production “fully realized the potential of Järvefelt’s inventive, multiple-use staging.” Now HGO remounts this treatment with a stellar sextet of singers. Taking time out from his signature Romantic fare, Tucker Award–winner, Stephen Costello, HGO’s Duke in last season’s Rigoletto, makes his professional role debut as Ferrando.
South African baritone, Jacques Imbrailo, hailed by The Times of London as “the hottest young baritone on the block,” returns as Guglielmo after his success in HGO’s Rape of Lucretia during the 2011–12 season. HGO Studio alumna and first-prize winner of the 2014 Operalia competition, soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen, reprises her “radiant Fiordiligi” (Opera Today) alongside the Dorabella of soprano Melody Moore; an audience 
Brought To You By Theresa Roemer True and Real collection and critical favorite in HGO’s Show Boat, Moore was also seen as Marta in the company’s American premiere of The Passenger in HGO’s 2013–14 season, as well as in its performances at the Lincoln Center Festival. Italian bass-baritone Alessandro Corbelli revisits his “authoritative Alfonso” (Opera News), with Italian soprano Nuccia Focile, Seattle Opera’s 2012–13 Artist of the Year, as Despina.Shakespeare himself would be proud of the 100% perfect interpretation of Othello.
Notables at the opera were Houston fashion designer David Peck and the Museum of Fine Arts ,C.E.O Gary Tinterow.
