Houston Grand Opera’s 2023-24 season is nothing short of epic. “We are producing some of the grandest and most mature artistic works in the repertoire all in one season,” says Khori Dastoor, HGO General Director and CEO. “Verdi’s last opera, Wagner’s last opera, late Mozart—these pieces are Mount Everest, each one of them.”
The challenge is so great that no U.S. orchestra has pulled it off in recent decades: a concert-hall presentation of Richard Wagner’s four-opera epic, The Ring of the Nibelung. But the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is taking it on.
After taking the helm at The Cliburn, which runs the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Jacques Marquis looked back across the contest’s winners and noticed a pattern.
Houstonians have experienced the magic of Miller Outdoor Theatre for 100 years now. What is it about this place that tugs on the heart strings, and turns shared moments into lasting memories?
Launched in 1993 as a showcase for a single performer, it has evolved into an annual contest that offers $40,000 in prize money to aspiring musicians aged 18 to 32.
It’s the start of my whirlwind tour of the Dallas Arts District. Improbably, in all the years I have lived in Houston (23) and all the time I have been an arts writer in Texas (5), I had never been to Dallas. I am here now as a first time arts tourist, eager to absorb the wonders of a new place, open to every experience that might come my way.