HGO’s ‘Sound of Music’ outdoor sing-along is weird, wonderful night
Houston Grand Opera’s first live performance in 14 months Saturday night took place in uncharted territory. HGO’s Orchestra and Chorus, as well as its principal cast for “The Sound of Music” — which would have opened at the Wortham Center this month — all gathered on the field of the University of Houston’s TDECU Stadium for a socalled “socially distanced singalong” to the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
Always happy to visit his alma mater, Mayor Sylvester Turner was on hand to welcome the crowd and congratulate HGO, noting that the city’s performingarts scene is “part of our identity — it’s part of who we are.” Even the weather cooperated, although the PA system sometimes did not.
Directed by Mitchell Greco, the show (officially titled “My Favorite Things”) turned out to be both uplifting and a little surreal. At one point, co-host Megan Marino, who also played the role of the Baroness, noted the whole thing took “hundreds of people” to pull off. Once the show was underway, a persistent wind rustling over the microphones was about as glitchy as it got.
Standing on a narrow platform in the middle of the field, Carino and her co-host, Daniel Belcher (Max Detweiler in the script), introduced each number with either interesting trivia — such as how, because of Hawaii’s recent statehood, the word “aloha” nearly made it into “So Long, Farewell” — or stories of HGO figures’ abiding personal connec
tions to the music. HGO Orchestra principal bassist Dennis Whitaker, for example, related how hearing “My Favorite Things” (and one chord change, in particular) as a child inspired him to take up the bass.
What became apparent Saturday is just how divorced the songs in “The Sound of Music” are from its actual plot, which may help explain its multigenerational appeal. (In other words, Nazis were nowhere to be found.) But while the dialogue was stripped away, the cast — led by soprano Janine de Bique as nuninitiate-turned-governess Maria Rainer — performed their numbers fully in character.
That meant fully choreographed ensemble numbers such as “Do-Re-Mi” and “The Lonely Goatherd” offered tantalizing hints of what the staged version might have looked like. The talented child singers lining up one by one during the former was too cute by half; the latter even came with a sassy little tuba solo.
But the balance of the songs worked as simple vocal showcases. Trinidad and Tobago-born de Bique was radiant all evening, as exuberant on the title tune as she was sunny on “My Favorite Things” and brilliantly self-assured on the lesser-known (but wonderful) “I Wonder.” Her HGO Digital recital, by the way, premieres May 14.
Other members of the cast came on strong during their featured numbers, especially soprano Katie von Kooten (Mother Abbess) on the powerhouse “Climb Every Mountain” and baritone Michael Mayes’ (The Captain) on tender and valedictory “Edelweiss.” As for the crowd, the most audible singing probably came during “Do-Re-Mi,” but many lips stayed moving pretty much throughout.
The pandemic has forced Houston’s performing-arts groups to get creative, and though they may hate the circumstances, at least some are fairly pleased with the results. The Houston Symphony now livestreams each Saturday-night performance. HGO is already planning to incorporate digital programming into its 2021-22 season.
But does the kind of thing we saw on Saturday have a future? The impressive turnout — 2,363 people, by HGO’s count — would seem to indicate the demand is there. True, not every production is as beloved as “The Sound of Music.” And once next season is underway, this sort of sing-along may prove logistically unfeasible to produce, a simple matter of spreading finite resources too thin.
Still, “My Favorite Things” was such an enjoyable experience, it at least cooked up some food for thought. And if nothing else, HGO proved that it can pull it off.
“South Pacific,” anyone?