The 10 best symphony and opera performances of 2019
Houston is blessed with an orchestra and opera company whose bold artistic visions are nearly always in sync with those organizations’ generous, enthusiastic audiences. That made building a list of 2019’s 10 most notable performances both a pleasure and incredibly frustrating: There could have easily been 10 more. Here they are in alphabetical order.
‘Aurora’ and ‘Eroica’
Houston Symphony (May)
His studies in Finland resulted, years later, in Houston Symphony composer-in-residence Jimmy López Bellido’s “Aurora” violin concerto, which — as channeled by incandescent soloist Leticia Moreno — imagined life around the Arctic Circle as stark and surreal. (Nifty visual effects had Jones Hall literally glowing, too.) Equally stirring was Beethoven’s third symphony: a heroic, if unofficial, debut for incoming concertmaster Yoonshin Song.
‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ Houston Symphony, May
The orchestra closed its previous classical season with Béla Bartók’s two-character 1911 opera, based on the familiar folktale about a European aristocrat whose wives have an unfortunate habit of dying on him. As Bluebeard and his latest betrothed, Matthias Goerne and Judith DeYoung gave riveting performances that were easily matched by the Gothic intensity of Andrés Orozco-Estrada’s ensemble.
Andrea Bocelli Toyota Center, December
Among a cavalcade of guest artists that included a violinist, two ballet dancers and three other vocalists (including Houston’s own Ana María Martínez), the 61-year-old superstar tenor sang more than enough beloved arias — by Puccini, Verdi, Mascagni and more — to more than make up for occasional lapses into schmaltziness. By itself, Schubert’s “Ave Maria” was pure perfection.
‘Don Giovanni’
Houston Grand Opera, April Decadence dripped from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 1787 opera, staged as an MC Escherinspired fun house that exposes its titular nobleman’s moral decay. Ryan McKinney oozed demonic charm as the Don; Paolo Bordogna played a harried and soulful manservant. The ladies of the HGO Studio-heavy cast, however, proved far too steely ever to be labeled Giovanni’s “victims.”
‘El Milagro del Recuerdo/The Miracle of Remembering’ Houston Grand Opera, December
HGO’s prequel to 2010’s “Cruzar la Cara de la Luna” giftwrapped a touchy subject — immigration — inside a touching mariachi-laced drama about two men who return from seasonal jobs in the U.S. while their wives toil away on their Mexican village’s annual Christmas pastorela.
Warm as a fresh batch of tamales, and just as tasty.
Eschenbach returns Houston Symphony, March
The abrupt cancellation of soloist Leila Josefowicz couldn’t spoil yet another triumphant homecoming by Christoph Eschenbach,
as the orchestra’s Conductor Laureate adroitly steered fill-in Jennifer Koh around the hairpin turns and dreamlike passages of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto. And conducting Anton Bruckner’s majestic, hourlong “Romantic” symphony, the 79-year-old maestro was clearly in his element.
Mendelssohn and Mahler Houston Symphony, October
As Halloween drew nigh, the orchestra conjured Romantic-era chills with “Die erste Walpurgisnacht,” in which valiant druids try to thwart Christian interlopers, and the dark fairy tale “Das klagende Lied.” Stuffed with astral harmonies and dramatic moments, both pieces made superb showcases for the Houston Symphony Chorus — don’t wait until “Messiah” next December to hear it in action.
Resilient Sounds
Houston Symphony, June
This change-of-pace concert at White Oak Music Hall unveiled six original compositions by students in Rice University and the University of Houston’s graduate music programs. Mentored by Bellido, each composer was paired with a member of Houston’s refugee community, with whom they worked with someone from another discipline (poetry, dance, etc.) to tell the refugee’s story.
The results were captivating and boundlessly creative.
‘Saul’
Houston Grand Opera, October Barrie Kosky’s high-camp take on 1 and 2 Samuel (via revival director Donna Stirrup) turned George Frideric Handel’s 1739 oratorio into a Bible story Ryan Murphy of “American Horror Story” could appreciate. Christopher Purvis’s Saul is a case study in toxic obsession, trumping even the crackling sexual chemistry between David and Jonathan — if not, perhaps, Handel’s exalted choruses.
Trifonov Plays Tchaikovsky Houston Symphony, November
World-class guest artists are routine in Houston, but audible gasps of the sort that roguishly handsome pianist Daniil Trifonov caused upon completing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 certainly aren’t. Combining staggering technical prowess with fierce emotional intensity, the 28-year-old Russian native instilled one of the piano repertoire’s most familiar pieces with a revelatory, almost primal life force.