A screen measuring 24 by 30 feet will be set up on the Ray C. Fish Plaza outside the Wortham Center in downtown Houston. The gala will also be shown live via satellite at the Miller Outdoor Theatre, a venue in Hermann Park.
Denyce Graves, perhaps the most prominent graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio program, will perform, as will alumnae Anna Maria Martinez and Joyce DiDonato. Houston Ballet star Lauren Anderson, composer Philip Glass, and pop star Elton John are also on the program.
HGO music director Patrick Summers will conduct; Michle Assaf is the concert's director. Roger Moore, the British actor and onetime star of the James Bond films, will serve as master of ceremonies.
The program will include excerpts from two important operas that premiered at HGO: Glass's 1984 Akhnaten and John Adams' Nixon in China.
Houston Grand Opera has been showing live simulcasts outside the Wortham Center since 1995, when it screened a production of La Cenerentola starring Cecilia Bartoli. The company will also screen a performance of Gounod's Rom_o et Juliette on April 29.