The Magic of Mozart
The Dallas Symphony showcases two weekends with music by everyone’s favorite composer Mozart’s birthday is January 27. (He’ll...
Music
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)...
Holiday Gems
There’s a bounty of holiday art activity every year, from the mainstays like A Christmas Carol and The...
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 [...]
An Overnight Sensation
It is the stuff of dreams. Understudy goes on at the last minute. Important performance. Internationally broadcast over...
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 [...]
Cultural Warrior: ROCO’s Alecia Lawyer
Alecia L. Lawyer is the founder, executive and artistic director, and principal oboist of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO). With a tag line of “the Most Fun You Can Have with Serious Music,” Lawyer takes to heart the job of making classical music welcoming to all [...]
Fresh Tracks
Three Houston Music Groups Offer New Recordings In the 21st Century you really can find everything on the internet. Thanks to the magic of digital technology, you can find a car, a house or, if you are the Houston Chamber Choir’s artistic director, Robert Simpson, the manuscript [...]
The History of Music
Dallas Symphony commissions new music based on an obscure date in U.S. history It can be said that...