Houston Grand Opera’s 2017–18 Season Features

Long-Awaited Return of Strauss’s Elektra and Bellini’s Norma, World Premiere of

Ricky Ian Gordon/Royce Vavrek’sThe House without a Christmas Tree, First Major American Opera House Presentation of Bernstein’sWest Side Story    

Houston Grand Opera to Celebrate An Evening in Old Hollywood with Annual Ball and After Party in April

Opera Ball set for April 14, 2018, with special entertainment by David Lee Roth

Houston, March, 2018— Houston Grand Opera’s annual white-tie fundraiser, this year chaired by  Drs. Liz Grimm and Jack Roth, returns April 14 with the 2018 Opera Ball, An Evening in Old Hollywood—featuring a special guest appearance by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Lee Roth, who will perform a rare, private mini-set of hits. Always a highly anticipated event on Houston’s social calendar, Opera Ball, to be held at The Post Oak at Uptown Houston, brings together many of the city’s movers, shakers, and tastemakers for an unforgettable evening in support of Houston Grand Opera. For the young professional crowd, the Encore Party will offer a chic, late-night celebration that tops off Opera Ball. Drs. Ishwaria and Vivek Subbiah are chairmen of the Encore Party.

This year, HGO pays tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood, as arriving Opera Ball guests walk the red carpet to a swanky supper club on Sunset Boulevard, where stars were born and glitz set the stage. Think palm trees and the Polo Lounge, cocktail shakers and dealmakers, and legends like Fred and Ginger, Garbo, Grant, and Garland. Imagine dancing under the glow of Hollywood lights. During dinner, guests will delight in a musical tribute to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers featuring original choreography performed by the American Contemporary Ballet from Los Angeles. The seated dinner will be catered by the culinary team of The Post Oak at Uptown Houston, led by executive chef Jean Luc Royere, formerly of Mandarin Oriental, Miami.

David Lee Roth is best known as the original (1974–1985) and current (2006–present) lead singer of the legendary hard rock band Van Halen. In 2007, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Also a songwriter, actor, and former radio personality, Roth is known as a successful solo artist, releasing numerous Gold and Platinum albums and singles, including “California Girls” and “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody.” Many know him for innovative music videos during the “hair band” era in rock ’n’ roll. Nominated for both Grammy and American Music Awards, Roth won the Best Stage Performance Award for “Jump” in 1984.

Opera Ball is Houston Grand Opera’s largest annual fundraiser, helping the organization to continue to present world-class opera in Houston. With the destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey, HGO and other arts organizations have suffered significant setbacks. This makes the 2018 Opera Ball all the more important to HGO’s future success.

The Opera Ball begins at 7 p.m., while the Encore Party follows at 10 p.m. Encore Party guests will be able to experience the glamour of Opera Ball as well as participate in the silent auction and enjoy cocktails and light bites before dancing the night away.

Tickets and tables for An Evening in Old Hollywood start at $1,500 and $15,000, respectively. Encore Party tickets run $150 each, while VIP tickets are $250. VIP tickets allow a 9 p.m. arrival for David Lee Roth’s performance, seated Champagne/dessert course and reserved seating in the Polo Lounge throughout the evening. To purchase Opera Ball and Encore Party tickets, contact HGO Director of Special Events Brooke Rogers at 713-546-0271 or brogers@hgo.org. For more information, visit HGO.org/operaball.

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Houston, 2017— Houston Grand Opera expands its commitment to broadening the audience for opera with a 2017–18 season that includes the first presentations of Leonard Bernstein’s classic musical West Side Story by a major American opera house and the world premiere of composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek’s holiday opera The House without a Christmas Tree. HGO will present its first performances in a quarter century of two iconic works: Richard Strauss’s revenge-filled Elektra with virtuoso soprano Christine Goerke in the tempestuous title role and 2016 Richard Tucker Award–winner and HGO Studio alumna Tamara Wilson in her role debut as Chrysothemis, under the baton of HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers; and Bellini’s grand-scale tragedy Norma  showcasing the debut of stellar dramatic soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska in the notoriously difficult title role, with 2015 Tucker winner and HGO Studio alumna Jamie Barton as Adalgisa. The company will revive its production of Handel’s Julius Caesar set in 1930s Hollywood, featuring the role debuts of star countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo (HGO’s 2017–18 Lynn Wyatt Great Artist) and Houston favorite and HGO Studio alumna soprano Heidi Stober as Caesar and Cleopatra, respectively, also conducted by Maestro Summers; and Rossini’s ever-popular comedy, The Barber of Seville, with a cast that includes the eagerly anticipated return of HGO Studio alumnus Eric Owens, Musical America’s 2017 Vocalist of the Year, as Don Basilio. The season opens with director Arin Arbus’s probing staging of Verdi’s poignant La traviata, with acclaimed soprano and HGO Studio alumna Albina Shagimuratova as Violetta, tenor Dimitri Pittas as Alfredo, and the North American debut of the highly praised young Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim.

 HGO’s main-stage season will comprise 45 performances (including two free community performances) of seven productions. The company will also present four student performances.

Details of the upcoming Houston Grand Opera productions are provided below, and more information is available at the company’s website: HGO.org. All repertoire, dates, pricing, productions, and casting are subject to change without notice.

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HGOco, the company’s initiative to connect HGO’s creative resources with the diverse and vibrant Houston community, will cap three years of engagement with the city’s veterans through several projects in November 2017 culminating around Veterans Day. HGOco will produce the American chamber opera Glory Denied by Tom Cipullo, November 6 and 9, 2017. Based on the book of the same title by Tom Philpott, the opera tells the story of America’s longest-held prisoner of war, Vietnam veteran Jim Thompson. The production will take place in the 1940 Air Museum hangar adjacent to Houston’s Hobby Airport. On Saturday, November 11, HGOco will present the final in a series of concerts featuring music commissioned during the course of its three-year Veterans Songbook project.  The songs are based on the words of veterans developed through workshops with Houston-area veterans groups held in conjunction with Writers In The Schools (WITS). Both of these projects will be part of a city-wide partnership focusing on veterans and their families that will include the Veterans Affairs Office of the City of Houston, the Veterans’ Administration Hospital, and Houston Public Media, among others.

HGOco is also partnering with American Lyric Opera to develop a new opera for children and families by composer Kamala Sankaram, to premiere at HGO in January 2018. An alumna of American Lyric Theater’s Composer/Librettist Development Program, Sankaram’s music has been performed by The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Beth Morrison Projects, and Opera on Tap, among others. She has received awards from the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation and the NY Innovative Theatre Foundation. Her opera Thumbprint, which premiered at the 2014 Prototype Festival, will have its West Coast premiere at LA Opera in June 2017. In recent articles Sankaram’s work has been praised as “strikingly original” (NY Times) with “a driving percussive energy and a distinctive sound”(Wall Street Journal).

This season HGO continues its discounted subscription series for young people under 25 featuring seven operas for $125, and it’s under 25 Pay Your Age single-ticket program launched last season. These initiatives complement HGO’s popular Opening Nights for Young Professionals discount series, and the continuing opportunities available to community groups for discounted and free tickets through the multiyear Nexus ticket underwriting initiative.

HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers notes, “In this season we are thrilled to bring back after nearly 25 years two masterpieces that have long captured the imaginations of opera lovers but whose extraordinarily demanding title roles have daunted many a performer; in Liudmyla Monastyrska (Norma) and Christine Goerke (Elektra) we have artists whose vocal and dramatic virtuosity illuminate these roles for our time. A new work from composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Royce Vavrek, retelling the children’s holiday favorite The House without a Christmas Tree, will warm our hearts with the power of family love. We are thrilled to welcome the brilliant countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo (HGO’s 2017–18 Lynn Wyatt Great Artist) to our stage as Julius Caesar. To celebrate the centennial of the American musical genius Leonard Bernstein, HGO is proud to present the first major American opera house production of his iconic West Side Story, which has been performed by several European opera companies, and which will speak to us with fresh relevance through the vision of director Francesca Zambello. And we are delighted to open our season with the collaboration of another tremendously gifted director, Arin Arbus, with rising conductor Eun Sun Kim on La traviata, featuring two outstanding lead artists, HGO Studio alumna Albina Shagimuratova and tenor Dimitri Pittas.” 

HGO Managing Director Perryn Leech adds, “HGO’s exceptional presentations of masterworks of the repertoire and new operas that resonate with audiences are raising the level of excitement around opera in Houston. Both the main-stage season and our HGOco activities at the Wortham and at venues around the city are connecting with our diverse and vibrant Houston community, and we look forward to new HGOco initiatives under the leadership of director Carleen Graham. We are also delighted that more young people have been discovering the excitement and passion of opera for about the same cost as a movie ticket through our under-25 Pay Your Age programs.”

Reminder due to Hurricane Harvey:  Details of the upcoming Houston Grand Opera productions and more information available at the company’s website: HGO.org. All repertoire, dates, pricing, productions, and casting are subject to change without notice. 

HGO opens its 63^rd season with Verdi’s time-honored setting of the heartbreaking story of a courtesan who sacrifices herself for love, given a fresh take by off-Broadway director Arin Arbus, “a director of true insight” (Toronto Star),  whose 2012 HGO production of The Rape of Lucretia was her first foray into opera. Dramatic coloratura soprano and HGO Studio alumna Albina Shagimuratova, who sang Violetta here in 2012, returns after her recent triumphant portrayal of the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor at Lyric Opera of Chicago and appearances as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute in Paris and Vienna. Her lover, Alfredo, will be sung by tenor Dimitri Pittas, whose “plangent tenor soar(ed) effortlessly”(Houston Press) as Nemorino in HGO’s 2016 production of The Elixir of Love. Romanian baritone George Petean, “absolutely outstanding in the title role” (Bachtrack) of Simon Boccanegra at Opera Australia in 2016, makes his HGO debut as Germont before performing the role later in the season at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the Metropolitan Opera. The rising Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim makes her American debut after successful appearances in Europe, including a 2014 Traviata in Marseilles that displayed “a convincing sense of bel canto”(Opera Today).

An art deco pyramid and a silver-screen Cleopatra bring Handel’s romantic comedy to the golden age of 1930s Hollywood in this imaginative HGO production originally staged in 2003 by James Robinson. Acclaimed countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo makes his role and HGO mainstage debuts as Caesar, following successes at the Dallas Opera as Roane in Jake Heggie’s Great Scott (2015) and in the title role of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten at English National Opera in 2016, where he displayed “more raw power than any countertenor I can remember”(Bachtrack). Soprano Heidi Stober returns to HGO as Cleopatra after 2016 performances as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro and her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Valencienne in The Merry Widow, when Opera News praised her “instrument of stunning brilliance, proportion and beauty.” The much-admired mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, who turned in a “bravura performance”(Opera Warhorses) as Nettie Fowler in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel at HGO in 2016, returns to the role of Cornelia, which she last performed in 2002. The role of Sextus will be sung by mezzo-soprano Megan Mikailovna Samarin in her first performances as an alumna of the HGO Studio, on the heels of her “impressive”(Opera Warhorses) 2016 appearances as Siébel in HGO’s Faust. Countertenor David Daniels, who played Arsamenes in HGO’s Xerxes in 2010 and is widely agreed to have helped redefine the opera world’s understanding of countertenors, will sing Ptolemy. Argentine bass and HGO Studio artist Federico De Michelis, familiar to HGO audiences as Angelotti in Tosca and Thomas Betterton in Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players, both in 2016, will perform Achillas. Patrick Summers will conduct. 

Soprano Christine Goerke’s portrayal of Richard Strauss’s revenge-driven Elektra in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall was a highlight of the 2015 season, her “effortless power, gleaming sound, and dramatic intensity” adding up to an “unforgettable” performance, according to the New York Times. Now, after her triumphant appearances as Brünnhilde in HGO’s first Ring cycle (2014–17), the company brings this virtuosic artist back to Houston for the return, after a 25-year absence, of Strauss’s startling one-act masterwork based on the ancient tragedy by Sophocles.

The stellar cast also includes 2016 Richard Tucker Award–winning soprano Tamara Wilson in her role debut as Elektra’s sister, Chrysothemis. An HGO Studio alumna, Ms. Wilson last appeared here as Leonora in Il trovatore in 2013. In 2015 she portrayed Aida at the Metropolitan Opera, where the New York Times noted that her “passion surpasses stereotype.” The sisters’ murderous mother, Klytaemnestra, will be sung by mezzo-soprano Michaela Martens, making her house and role debuts. In the Metropolitan Opera’s 2014 mounting of John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer, Martens, as Marilyn Klinghoffer, was “the singer who most tore at the heart”(New Yorker). Baritone and HGO Studio alumnus Greer Grimsley will sing Orest, Elektra’s brother. Last heard at HGO in 2002 as the High Priest in Samson and Delilah, Grimsley portrayed the title role in Seattle Opera’s The Flying Dutchman (2016), where the Seattle Times noted his “commanding stage presence and resonant voice.” Klytaemnestra’s lover, Aegisth, will be taken by HGO Studio alumnus Chad Shelton, whose 2016 HGO roles included Charles II in Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players and Cavaradossi in performances of Tosca. Shelton is Mao Tse-tung in last season’s Nixon in China. 

Patrick Summers conducts and Nick Sandys directs this revival of David McVicar’s haunting 2012 production.

Opera’s favorite barber returns to HGO with an all-star cast in the colorful Els Comediants production that the Houston Chronicle termed “inventive, playful,[and] unpredictable” when it debuted here in 2011. San Antonio native David Portillo, one of Opera News’s 2015 Rising Stars, returns to HGO to play Count Almaviva after bringing his “clean, pure tenor” (Houston Chronicle) to the role of Tamino in The Magic Flute in 2015. Baritone Lucas Meachem will make his HGO debut as Figaro, the role in which he gave a “charismatic”(San Francisco Classical Voice) performance at San Francisco Opera in 2015. Rosina will be sung by HGO Studio alumna Sofia Selowsky, who gave memorable HGO performances during the 2015–16 season as The Fox in The Little Prince and Eliza in the world premiere of David Hanlon’s After the Storm.  Peixin Chen, the HGO Studio alumnus who “stole the show” with his “deep-dish voice”(Houston Press) as Dr. Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro, will portray that character in Rossini’s opera. Acclaimed bass Eric Owens, an HGO Studio alumnus who was named Musical America’s 2017 Vocalist of the Year, will make a long-anticipated return to HGO as the wily Don Basilio. He last appeared here as Ramfis in Aida in 1999.

Leonard Bernstein often lamented that his 1957 landmark musical West Side Story did not have the bona fides to qualify as an opera, yet he eventually recorded it with opera singers (1984); the multiple award-winning work has found its way into opera houses across Europe, including a production at Austria’s Bregenz Festival in 2003 and 2004 directed by Francesca Zambello. Now Zambello returns to HGO, where she staged many notable projects including Show Boat (2013), Billy Budd (2009), and the world premieres of The Little Prince (2003) and Florencia en el Amazonas (1996), to create a new co-production with Glimmerglass Festival, where she is the artistic director, and Lyric Opera of Chicago.  

Set in a factory where the young women are employed, the production will feature as Maria HGO Studio alumna Andrea Carroll, whose HGO successes include portrayals of Mary Hatch Bailey in the 2016 world premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Julie Jordan in Carousel (2016). HGO Studio alumnus Norman Reinhardt will reprise the role of Tony after singing it in the 2016 Salzburg Festival opposite Cecilia Bartoli. Reinhardt’s portrayal of Lensky in HGO’s 2015 Eugene Onegin was “magnificently sung”(Houston Press). Anita will be sung by soprano Alicia Gianni, an HGO Studio alumna who portrayed Giannetta in The Elixir of Love (2016), and baritone Brian Vu will make his role and house debuts as Riff. A 2016–17 resident artist with Pittsburgh Opera, he won first place in the 2016 Lotte Lenya Competition, whose judges noted his “refreshing flair and vocal prowess.”

Timothy Myers, artistic and music director of North Carolina Opera, will conduct. He led HGO’s productions of Gregory Spears and Royce Vavrek’s O Columbia (2015) and Ricky Ian Gordon’s A Coffin in Egypt (2014). 

Vocal acrobatics abound in the title role in Norma, one of the most formidable dramatic soprano roles in all of opera. HGO has not presented the work in 22 years, so Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska’s first performances in the role will be particularly significant. After thrilling Houston audiences as Aida in 2013 and Tosca in 2015, she recently gave a “vocally scorching”(Telegraph) portrayal of Abigaille in Nabucco at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Joining her as Adalgisa is world-renowned mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, an HGO Studio alumna whose debut as Fenena in that same Covent Garden production was impressive with “warmth, richness of tone, [and] convincing dramatic engagement”(Opera). Tenor Simon O’Neill, whose “stirring tenor…epitomizes strength and perseverance”(Houston Chronicle) as Siegmund in HGO’s 2015 Die Walküre, will sing Pollione, and bass and HGO Studio alumnus Peixin Chen will portray Oroveso. As Dr. Bartolo in HGO’s 2016 Marriage of Figaro, Chen “stole the show” with his “deep-dish voice”(Houston Press).

Inspired by research into Druid culture in Roman-occupied Gaul, acclaimed director Kevin Newbury’s staging of this monumental work captures the visceral nature of the characters, with costumes often described as reminiscent of Game of Thrones.

Houston, 2017— Houston Grand Opera (HGO) today announced plans for Seeking the Human Spirit (STHS), a six-year multidisciplinary initiative designed to highlight the universal spiritual themes raised in opera and to expand and deepen Houstonians’ connections to opera and to art. Launching in the fall of 2017, STHS comprises three mainstage operas each season—one of which will be a new work—united by a single theme, and complementary projects by HGO and partner organizations created to enhance and enrich the community’s experience of the themes. Some of these activities will be available to the public; others will offer personal access to opera and HGO artists and staff for groups such as hospital patients, women who are rebuilding their lives after homelessness, and young people pursuing interfaith projects. 

“Opera takes the human spirit in this grand cathartic way and sings it back to you,” explained HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. “I wanted us to explore a set of pieces that have some vein of spirituality as their artistic core, and invite partners here in the Houston community to help us ignite a set of conversations about what art is for that will be meaningful to audiences and to the broader community.” 

Adds HGO Managing Director Perryn Leech, “At a time when conflict and division are all around us, two things that unite all people and cultures are spirituality and music. HGO is thrilled to inaugurate the most ambitious and inclusive initiative in our 62-year history and to invite Houstonians to discover the powerful experiences that great opera can provide. We are proud to break new ground in this city by collaborating with partner organizations who are doing vital artistic and community work and creating meaningful connections for new and nontraditional audiences as well as opera lovers.”

HGO will launch Seeking the Human Spirit in 2017–18 with three works tied to the theme of Sacrifice: Verdi’s La traviata (October 20–November 11) featuring Albina Shagimuratova as Violetta in a new production by Arin Arbus; the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek’s The House without a Christmas Tree (November 30–December 17) with Heidi Stober as Adelaide Mills; and Bellini’s Norma (April 27–May 11, 2018) with Liudmyla Monastyrska as Norma and Jamie Barton as Adalgisa. The 2018–19 mainstage operas, speaking to the theme of Transformation, will be Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (fall 2018) with Andrzej Dobber as the Dutchman, Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Senta, and Kristinn Sigmundsson as Daland; Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas (winter 2019) with Ana María Martínez as Florencia, directed by Francesca Zambello; and the world premiere of The Phoenix by Tarik O’Regan and John Caird, featuring Thomas Hampson as Lorenzo da Ponte and Luca Pisaroni as Young Lorenzo da Ponte. Also in the 2018–19 season, mezzo-soprano superstar and HGO Studio alumna Joyce DiDonato will perform her acclaimed recital program In War and Peace: Harmony through Music, which explores discord and harmony in times of war through her powerful interpretations of Baroque arias.

Future seasons of Seeking the Human Spirit will include productions of Handel’s Saul, Donizetti’s La favorite, R. Strauss’s Salome, Wagner’s Tannhäuser, and the world premiere of a new opera by Adam Guettel based on H. G. Wells’s The Invisible Man.

Presentations by HGOco, the company’s community and education arm, will include performances of Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied, a chamber opera based on the true story of America’s longest held prisoner of war; a concert of songs created from the stories of Houston veterans; The Armadillo’s Dream, a newly created book by Dennis Arrowsmith and Eduard Hakobyan for HGOco’s Storybook Opera program for young children; and Star-Cross’d, the pilot for a web-based serial opera on love in the face of obstacles. Star-Cross’d will follow a modern-day Romeo and Juliet storyline to be chosen from public submissions and will be created by composer Avner Dorman  and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann. 

Six artistic and community organizations will participate in Seeking the Human Spirit by presenting projects that speak to the individual operas or the annual themes. These groups and examples of their projects follow. Other partners will be invited to join the initiative in the future.   

Houston Methodist and its Center for Performing Arts Medicine

• The Center for Performing Arts Medicine at Houston Methodist will partner with HGO to further integrate music and song into the environment of care at the hospital. As part of the Margaret Alkek Williams Crain Garden Performance Series, patients, staff, and guests of Houston Methodist will experience public performances in Crain Garden shaped to illuminate healing aspects of music.
• HGO performers will partner with select units such as inpatient rehabilitation and the psychiatric department to offer arts experiences as therapeutic tools.
• A panel on human creativity led by Dr. Mauro Ferrari, president & CEO of Houston Methodist Research Institute, will focus on Dr. Ferrari’s theory of the four quadrants of human creativity and feature medical researchers and composers.
• HGO artists will also be given functional brain MRIs to help further understanding of how creativity works at a neurological level.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH)

• Thematic tours of the Museum’s collections, led by Museum Docents, will draw connections between the visual arts and HGO featured operas. 

·         Performances by HGO Studio artists in the MFAH galleries will be included as part of a pop-up concert series.

·         In conjunction with the MFAH Book Club program, one book will be selected per year to complement an opera featured in the HGO season, beginning with Norma in the spring of 2018. 

·         This collaboration will also utilize the expertise of the Mellon Foundation Undergraduate Curatorial Fellows at the MFAH, who will curate a digital exhibition of artworks from the MFAH collections that represent  the motifs embodied in the Seeking the Human Spirit initiative. The selected artworks will be printed and/or projected for Seeking the Human Spirit audiences to enjoy.

The Jung Center, Houston

• Lectures led by Jungian analysts and depth psychologists will accompany the operas and annual themes. Houston-based Jungian analyst Gretchen Heyer will present two lectures on the theme of Sacrifice to coincide with La traviata in the fall of 2017 and Norma in the spring of 2018.

The Rothko Chapel

• STHS panel discussions will be held on art and activism, the role of the arts and humanities in the 21st century, and their importance in framing and addressing important social issues of the day. Potential topics include contemporary opera as a reaction to modern societal issues and the role of the funder-as-activist in supporting the arts.

Sacred Sites Quest

• This experiential program introducing Houston high school students to sacred spaces in the city and around the world will include visits to HGO for each of the three STHS operas each season. The visits may include rehearsals, meetings with the cast/creative team, attending a performance, and/or backstage tours. 
• Participating students and volunteers will co-create a sacred space incorporating the labyrinth in a local Houston community in conjunction with Seeking the Human Spirit.

The Women’s Home/Institute for Spirituality and Health

• Residents of The Women’s Home Treatment and Transitional program participating in the home’s Courage to Search spiritual exploration course will attend two STHS performances each season, visit with HGO artists and/or production staff members, and engage in preparatory and debriefing sessions with Courage to Search volunteers.
• HGOco will bring performances of Opera to Go! and the new Storybook Opera to families at the Mabee WholeLife Service Center opening in Spring Branch in the fall of 2017.

HGO will provide opportunities for people to reflect on the themes and spiritual questions and to share their experiences throughout the initiative, using the hashtag #HGOHumanSpirit on social media, on the HGO website HGO.org/HumanSpirit, and in other ways to be announced later.

HGO’s Seeking the Human Spirit initiative is made possible by the generous support of the following donors and funders: Mr. and Mrs. Oscar S. Wyatt Jr.; Dian Graves Owen Foundation; The Wortham Foundation, Inc.; Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Foundation; Mr. John G. Turner and Mr. Jerry G. Fischer; Louisa Stude Sarofim Foundation; Mr. and Mrs. Byron Dyer; OPERA America; Mr. and Mrs. Donald G. Sweeney; Mr. and Mrs. Gabriel Loperena; Mrs. Pat Breen; and The Alkek and Williams Foundation.

About Houston Grand Opera

 Since its inception in 1955, Houston Grand Opera has grown from a small regional organization into an internationally renowned opera company. HGO enjoys a reputation for commissioning and producing new works, including 63 world premieres and seven American premieres since 1973. In addition to producing and performing world-class opera, HGO contributes to the cultural enrichment of Houston and the nation through a diverse and innovative program of performances, community events, and education projects that reaches the widest possible public. HGO has toured extensively, including trips to Europe and Asia, and has won a Tony, two Grammy awards, and two Emmy awards—the only opera company to have won all three honors.