Review: Verdi’s Macbeth
Heavy is the head that wears the crown—especially when you murdered your predecessor. Set in post-apocalyptic Scotland, Opera in the Heights’ production of Verdi’s Macbeth captures something new in Shakespeare’s classic from neon purple, lime, and yellow-wigged witches to shopping carts and barbed wire. Pulled off with passion, Macbeth [...]
Honeymoons on The Bayou
Conducting affairs with HTown’s Orchestras It’s finally official: After a three year search and on the eve of its Centennial Season, the Houston Symphony has named 35-year old conductor Adrés Orozco-Estrada as its next Music Director. Born in Columbia and trained in Vienna, Orozoco-Estrada hasn’t yet conducted most of the world’s [...]
Review: Don Giovanni
Women large and small, old and young, from Spain to Turkey— the seductive Don Giovanni has conquered them all. And beyond the lecherous main character is laughter, love, jealously, and fiery hell for those who do evil. Widely thought to be the best opera ever written, any production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni is held to [...]
Bass Notes
Da Camera brings Christian McBride to the Cullen On Friday February 8th at 8:00 pm, Da Camera Houston presents Christian McBride and Inside Straight at the Cullen Theater in the Wortham Theater Center. At the age of 17, McBride made his debut on the New York jazz scene. He honed his skills playing with jazz [...]
Flash Chat: Matthew Dirst of Ars Lyrica
Ars Lyrica takes us to Vienna for a special New Year’s celebration on December 31, 2012, 9 p.m. at Zilka Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, featuring featuring two rising stars of the opera stage – soprano Lauren Snouffer and countertenor John Holiday. An elegant gala and [...]
Outstanding Voices
Three Singers Make a Home in Houston The edges of my chiffon gown tickle the red carpet and my lofty, leopard print shoes lift me onto the escalators at the Wortham Theater Center. Surrounded by the soaring whimsy of Albert Paley’s ribbon-like sculptures, I imagine the ensuing [...]
Review: Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Monecchi
Opera in the Heights Is love only sweet when it’s forbidden? In the Opera in the Heights (a.k.a. Oh!) production of Vincenzo Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, there is no aphrodisiac like danger for the young lovers, Romeo and Giulietta. Loosely based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet [...]
Playing It Forward
Instruments Land in Young Musicians’ Hands There are three rules in a guitar lesson with Daren Hightower: 1) Always wash your hands; 2) Have fun; and 3) Play it forward. It’s a Sunday afternoon when I arrive at Hightower’s house to sit in on a lesson with a 9-year old named James, who has a [...]
Holiday Gems
There’s a bounty of holiday art activity every year, from the mainstays like A Christmas Carol and The Santaland Diaries at the Alley Theatre to Houston Ballet’s ever-popular Ben Stevenson production of The Nutcracker, this year with principal Amy Fote giving her last performance on a Houston Ballet stage. The Ensemble Theatre returns to Cinderella, [...]
Review: The Italian Girl in Algiers
The Italian Girl in Algiers Giant hats, a suspended cage, growing sand castles and balloons in the shape of Italy are just a few of the comic objects blown wonderfully out of proportion in Houston Grand Opera’s production of The Italian Girl in Algiers by Gioacchino [...]
Review: La bohème
In Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, happiness is simply one hand to warm another. As a humming audience member made clear, the melodies Puccini wrote are stunning and memorable, making this opera a well-known favorite. It’s hard to capture Puccini’s original, effortless simplicity [...]
Review: Otello at Opera in the Heights
Gold medallions, dapper suits, and a man snorting heroin set the new scene of Gioachino Rossini’s Otello. Though still a tragic tale of a father’s prejudice and a daughter’s sense of duty, it is opera’s Scarface. Rossini’s Otello is the first of two Houston opera premieres in Oh!’s [...]
