HGO’s new season is celebration of romance
Houston Grand Opera wants audiences to fall in love with its 2024-25 season, which the company announced Wednesday afternoon, so general director and CEO Khori Dastoor has come up with a novel way to woo potential ticket buyers. Don't buy into the clichéd idea that opera is elitist, she urges, but adopt what she calls the “‘Pretty Woman' view” instead.
(Let us never forget, by the way, that a performance of Verdi's “La Traviata” is a crucial scene in the classic Richard Gere/Julia Roberts romantic comedy.)
“It's this incredible emotional and very romantic art form,” Dastoor says. “I can't tell you the number of people who have told me, ‘I proposed in the Wortham' (or) ‘My wife and I had our first date at the opera' (or) ‘When I go on Hinge or whatever and I want to impress someone, I take them to the opera.'
“It's got this sort of built-in association, and of course it does,” she continues. “There are these tragic stories and the emotional stakes are so high, and the music is so sweepingly romantic.”
HGO has subtitled the season “Truly, Madly, Deeply,” because all six main-stage operas explore the theme of romantic love in radically different ways. Earlier this week, Dastoor was kind enough to handicap the upcoming productions in her own words (lightly edited), cheerfully pointing out that several key roles will be filled by alumni of its Sarah and Ernest Butler HGO Studio.
“These are not locally known names, these are international stars, and we're excited to bring them back to Houston,” she says. “We've learned that our audiences expect the best, and that's what we're seeking to deliver.”
Verdi: ‘Il Trovatore’ (Oct. 18-Nov. 3)
Directed by Stephen Wadsworth; starring Ailyn Perez, Raehann Bryce-Davis, Michael Spyres
“We are examining in Stephen's production this idea of humanizing Azucena (BryceDavis' role), a woman who has been othered by society: honoring her humanity, honoring her lived experience, honoring why she feels so called to vengeance against the context of this great pure love story in a turf war. And the visuals are so contemporary; it gives us the opportunity to showcase street art from local Houston artists. We are so known for that in our city. It's going to be an incredibly fresh, contemporary take on one of the most beloved scores in all of time.”
Rossini: ‘Cinderella’ (Oct. 25-Nov. 9)
Directed by Joan Font; starring Isabel Leonard, Jack Swanson, Alessandro Corbelli
“In Rossini's version, it's not about shoes or anything, it's about the purity of a simple person's love and her ability to forgive all the wrongs. And it's incredibly funny; the stepsisters are hilarious. The music is sparkling. It's like champagne, and it just leaves you feeling totally, totally full of joy. Our cast is incredible.”
Puccini: ‘La bohéme’ (Jan. 24-Feb. 14)
Directed by John Caird; starring Yaritza Vélíz, Juliana Grigoryan, Joshua Guerrero, Edward Parks “You have to do ‘La bohéme' when you're building a new audience, and after COVID, that's certainly what we're doing. We're building a new generation of operagoers that are going to sustain HGO into the future, but it's about young people. It's about that very first blush of love. And Yaritza Vélíz, this Chilean soprano, walked into the Wortham. She stepped onstage in the dark and she sang one aria, and Patrick (Summers, HGO's artistic/ music director) and I turned to each other and said, ‘We have our Mimi.' We scheduled her right then.”
Bernstein et al.: ‘West Side Story’ (Jan. 31-Feb. 15)
Directed by Francesca Zambello; starring Shereen Pimentel, Brenton Ryan, Ana María Martínez (“Somewhere” soloist)
“‘West Side Story' is a personal favorite of mine, just the score. It's a production that HGO did during the Harvey year, so they did it in the convention center and weren't able to fully realize Francesca Zambello's enormously beautiful, gritty New York set. I just can't wait for our audiences to hear all of (Leonard) Bernstein's music as it was intended with classically trained voices. We have cast members from the film, we have cast members from Broadway, we have classically trained voices. We have dancers from New York, and local, so it's going to be a huge celebration.”
Missy Mazzolli: ‘Breaking the Waves’ (April 19-May 4)
Originally directed by Tom Morris; starring Lauren Snouffer, Ryan McKinney
“An affirmation of our commitment to doing bold, daring, fearless opera; and our continued commitment to American opera and the work of important living composers. It's a masterwork; it is grand in its emotion; it is very, very disturbing; it is challenging; and it has to be sung by the right cast. We have Ryan McKinney and Lauren Snouffer coming; their electricity's going to be palpable. The harmonic language is incredibly accessible and melodic and beautiful, even though the content is very, very, very disturbing.”
Wagner: ‘Tannhäuser’ (April 25-May 11)
Directed by Francesca Zambello; starring Russell Thomas, Tamara Wilson, Sasha Cooke, Luke Sutliff
“It's just this gorgeous setting of an artist living with two realities on each shoulder: the lust that's compelling him to live a very frivolous life, and the call of true love that is requiring of discipline and of purity and requiring of him to grow up. It's an incredible score, and we have an incredible cast with Tammy Wilson returning, Sasha Cooke returning; (and) Erik Nielsen, one of the most incredible conductors and interpreters of German repertoire. Absolutely unmissable.”
Tantalizingly, Dastoor has one final point for HGO's audiences, new or old, to chew on: The amount of work the company does outside the Wortham Center “absolutely dwarfs” what happens on the main stage, she says. The remainder of the new season will take place in more than 40 other venues across town through partnerships with the Houston Independent School District and the public library system; the Opera to Go! children's productions; one-offs like Giving Voice and the Concert of Arias; and, in November, HGO's inaugural Family Day, featuring a kid-friendly performance of Rossini's “Cinderella” directed by its star, Isabel Leonard.
This side of HGO's mission may not always grab the same headlines as a “La bohéme” or “West Side Story,” but Dastoor believes each one helps the company continue strengthening its bond with the community.
“This is the city that keeps giving, so we're feeling really supported and loved,” she says. “‘The Sound of Music' is coming up (next month) and there's going to be a lot of people coming to HGO for the first time to see that, so we're really excited to be able to announce this new season at this moment and give everyone something else to look forward to.”
For more information, go to houstongrandopera.org