A two-night-only concert at The Hall traces the entire career of vocal powerhouse Whitney Houston.
Opera in the Rock
Posted inRock Candy
Opera in the Rock’s 2022-23 season includes Denyce Graves, William Grant Still’s ‘Highway 1,’ Nicky Parrish and more
Opera in the Rock’s 2022-23 season celebrates “the profound presence, culture, and artistic diversity of the Black community” with an opera by William Grant Still, a tribute to Whitney Houston, George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” and a one-woman performance by Takesha Meshé Kizart Thomas. It kicks off next week with a fundraising gala/masquerade ball featuring none other than mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves.
Posted inRock Candy
Fred Owens, new CEO of Opera in the Rock, is in search of opera’s ‘untold stories’
Opera has long been the realm of the rich and the white. Fred Owens wants to change that in Arkansas.
Posted inEntertainment
Opera in the Rock cuts ribbon on new downtown office
Mayor Frank Scott gathered with arts leaders and state representatives today to cut the ribbon on a new home for Opera in the Rock.
Posted inRock Candy
Weekly To-Do List: ‘Scalia/Ginsburg,’ ‘Primating,’ ‘Pippin,’ and a beer & ice cream family social
Opera and theater continue a cautious return in Central Arkansas this week.
Posted inEntertainment
Meet Nia Renée, the Central High School senior appearing on the season premiere of ‘American Idol’
Central High School student Nia Renée appears on the premiere episode of “American Idol,” to air 7 p.m., Feb. 14 on ABC.
Posted inEntertainment
Ballet Arkansas, Opera in the Rock and Arkansas Symphony Orchestra pay artists amid canceled performances
Canceled performances and lost revenue mean big pivots for arts organizations in Little Rock, several of which are scrambling more furiously than ever to be sure their performers get paid and that their organizations stay afloat.
Opera in the Rock: “The Gift of the Magi”
Opera in the Rock presents O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi,” rendered in 1997 by composer David Conte and librettist Nicholas Giardini as a chamber opera.
Opera in the Rock: “The Old Maid & The Thief”
Here, Opera in the Rock presents Menotti’s comedy with “larger-than-life actors, onstage music, live sound effects and commercial breaks,” a press release says, with Kevin Lambert as director, singer-songwriter/pianist John Willis as musical director, Erick Saoud on percussion, and two of Central Arkansas’s most respected voice instructors — Diane Kesling and Christine Donahue — singing.
Posted inMusic Reviews
Opera in the Rock’s “Madama Butterfly” a triumph
Mondanaro brought the libretto to absolute life. Her lines were smooth and spinning and radiant, and so nimble that she was able to lend that lovely element of surprise Puccini’s phrases can have, in the right hands — the kind where you’re not sure if a line of dialogue is going to blossom suddenly and swell upward, or demure modestly in a downward flutter and disappear.