Small But Mighty: Fort Worth Opera Moves Forward With World Premiere
Belt-tightening is all too familiar in the arts, but it doesn’t mean a group’s vision has to fade away.
Music
Haunted Melodies: Turn of the Screw at The Dallas Opera
Benjamin Britten’s opera Turn of the Screw, which first premiered in 1954, is not simply a retelling of the classic Henry James’ novella but rather a haunting exploration of the corruption of innocence, the supernatural and the descent into madness.
Hiding in Plain Sites: CounterCurrent Artists Reveal Stories throughout Houston
In 2014, the University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts blazed a trail into the world of festival programming.
Young & Outstanding: Houston’s WindSync & Kinetic Team Up
WindSync seems plenty youthful when you look at a photo, but let’s take another vantage point. The Houston quintet spends about 120 days a year on the road -- hardly the mark of a fledgling group.
Borders, Ritual and Awesomeness: Five Days of Fusebox
Fusebox, Austin’s contemporary, cross-disciplinary visual and performing arts festival, and all round benevolent force in the struggle to keep Austin weird, consolidated its offerings in 2016, going from a 10 or 12 day schedule to a five-day festival lineup.
Opera That Soars: Madame Butterfly at The Dallas Opera
The Dallas Opera’s 2017 centerpiece production of the Puccini classic Madame Butterfly opened Friday night and featured several highly anticipated Dallas debuts including that of Chinese soprano, Hui He.
Breaking Boundaries: Apollo Chamber Players in Cuba
Amid the hearty shouts of “Cuba Libre” punctuating the final exuberant moments of Arthur Gottschalk's Imagénes de Cuba, Houston's Apollo Chamber Players capped off their historic performance/recording tour in Cuba with a lively retrospective concert at the Institute of Hispanic Culture upon their return to Houston.
Houston Symphony’s Fidelio & a New Season
The heroics of Beethoven’s Fifth. The exuberance of his Ode to Joy. The humor of his First Symphony. The drama of his Eroica. The Houston Symphony and Andrés Orozco-Estrada have embraced all that and more since they launched their Beethoven symphony cycle in 2015.
Mass Effect: Orchestra of New Spain Revisits Classic Courcelle Composition
Francisco Courcelle may not rank as a big-name composer. But his Misa Ave Maris Stella, a dramatic chorus-and-orchestra work from 1750, has become a go-to piece for Dallas’ Orchestra of New Spain.
Sonic Expansions: Austin’s Experimental Music Scene
This year I unintentionally celebrated National Bird Day (Jan. 5) at an avant-garde jazz show. The newly-established Austin Cultural Exchange, together with local record label Astral Spirits and Brooklyn-based journal Sound American, presented Nate Wooley (Brooklyn) on trumpet and Ken Vandermark (Chicago) on clarinet and saxophone—in solo and duo sets that destroy common notions of what these instruments can do or the fullness of sound one or two horns can create.
Electrifying Heroines and Cherished Classics: HGO’s New Season
They rank among opera’s most electrifying heroines, yet Houston hasn’t felt their wallop for more than 25 years. Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, a Druid priestess, sacrifices herself on a pyre to atone for her secret marriage to a Roman. Richard Strauss’ Elektra descends into madness as despair and rage over her father’s slaying consume her.
It Happened in Texas: Nixon In China Returns to HGO
The U.S. presidential election looms, and the politician has planned his trip for maximum media impact. He’s a divisive figure, with ideas that could revolutionize the world order. Cameras track his plane’s arrival, and when he steps out, legions of television viewers are watching him. He knows that, and he has every intention of capitalizing on it.