Houston Grand Opera’s 2018–19 season

features world premiere of Tarik O’Regan/John Caird’sThe Phoenix; new productions of Wagner’sThe Flying Dutchman and Mozart’sDon Giovanni; first HGO performances of Bizet’sThe Pearl Fishers; and a revival of Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas

HGO will return to its Wortham Theater Center home

Second season of Seeking the Human Spirit initiative to focus on transformation

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Houston, January 19, 2018— Houston Grand Opera (HGO) will present its 2018–19 season in its creative home at Houston’s Wortham Theater Center after a year of displacement due to damage to the building from Hurricane Harvey. The 64^th season will open October 19, 2018, with HGO’s first performances in 20 years of Wagner’s romantic ghost story The Flying Dutchman, in a new production featuring baritone Andrzej Dobber as the Dutchman and the role debut of award-winning American soprano and HGO Studio alumna Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Senta. To close the season, the new Kasper Holten production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni featuring the HGO debut of baritone Philippe Sly in the title role and the role debut of soprano Ailyn Pérez as Donna Anna will be presented in repertory with The Phoenix, a world premiere about the colorful life of Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart’s librettist for the masterful Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and Così fan tutte. The new work, written by composer Tarik O’Regan and librettist John Caird, will star renowned baritone Thomas Hampson as Lorenzo da Ponte in a belated HGO debut and bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni as Da Ponte’s son, Lorenzo. HGO will also present a revival of Daniel Catán’s ethereal Florencia en el Amazonas with internationally acclaimed soprano and HGO Studio alumna Ana María Martínez in the title role; the first HGO presentation of Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers with the stellar tenor and baritone pairing of Lawrence Brownlee and Mariusz Kwiecien in the title roles along with soprano Andrea Carroll; and the return of HGO’s 2012 production of Puccini’s perennial classic La bohème, featuring the role debut of soprano and HGO Studio alumna Nicole Heaston as Mimì.

Subscriptions to the 2018–19 season are now available at HGO.org.  Single tickets will be available later this summer.

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Three mainstage operas—The Flying Dutchman, Florencia en el Amazonas, and The Phoenix—are part of Seeking the Human Spirit, HGO’s six-year multidisciplinary initiative designed to highlight the universal spiritual themes raised in opera, and to enable a wider segment of the Houston community to experience opera’s beauty, emotional power, and potential to heal. The initiative, which began in the fall of 2017, includes three mainstage operas each season—one of which is a new work—united by a single theme. The theme of the 2018–19 season will be transformation.

Six partner organizations have joined HGO to date, with a commitment to create projects that complement the operas, enhancing and enriching our community’s experience of the themes. These organizations include The Center for Performing Arts Medicine at Houston Methodist; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Jung Center, Houston; The Rothko Chapel; Sacred Sites Quest; and The Women’s Home in collaboration with the Institute for Spirituality and Health. Information about their 2018–19 collaborations will be announced later in 2018. 

HGO’s mainstage season will comprise 33 performances (including two free community performances) of six productions. The company will also present three student performances. 

HGOco, the company’s ten-year-old initiative that connects HGO’s creative resources with the diverse and vibrant Houston community, begins its second decade with an Opera to Go! tour of Cinderella in Spain by Mary Carol Warwick and Kate Pogue. One of HGOco’s most successful commissions for children’s opera, Cinderella in Spain has been offering a bilingual opera experience to young people and families for 20 years. In March 2019, HGOco will present the world premiere of Home of My Ancestors by composer Nkeiru Okoye and librettist Anita Gonzalez. The story of a Chicago-based African American doctor who returns to her childhood home in Houston’s Third Ward is the first of three new commissions for HGOco’s award-winning Song of Houston initiative, which has been creating new works based on stories that define the unique character of Houston since 2007.

This season, HGO continues to reach younger audiences through its popular Opening Nights for Young Professionals (ONYP) subscription series, where subscriptions start as low as $138 for six operas, and its affordable ticket initiatives that include the Pay Your Age program and the NEXUS ticket underwriting program. Launched just two years ago, the Pay Your Age program gives those under the age of 25 the opportunity to pay the price of their age for a single ticket. The multiyear NEXUS initiative provides a limited number of $15 tickets for first-time opera goers and student group audiences to all HGO performances. Both the ONYP subscription series and the affordable ticket initiatives have made opera more accessible to new audiences in the Greater Houston Area.

HGO opens its 64^th season with Wagner’s gothic romance about the redeeming and transformative power of a woman’s love. Last presented here in 1998, The Flying Dutchman tells the haunting story of a ship captain doomed by a curse to navigate a ghost ship forever unless released by true love and the young woman who becomes obsessed with him.

Polish baritone Andrzej Dobber, whose “authoritative presence” and “dark, rich, timbre” (Houston Chronicle) as Scarpia in HGO’s 2015 Tosca impressed HGO audiences, sings the Dutchman, while the demanding role of Senta will be sung by soprano and HGO Studio alumna Rachel Willis-Sørensen, who won first prize at the 2014 Operalia competition and whose “darkly colored voice”  was praised as “ideal” as Elsa in Opernhaus Zurich’s Lohengrin in the summer of 2017(Der Neue Merker). Senta’s father, Daland, will be sung by the Icelandic bass Kristinn Sigmundsson, who gave a “jolly and rich-toned performance” (San Francisco Chronicle) of the role at San Francisco Opera in 2013 and appeared as Fasolt in HGO’s Das Rheingold in 2014. Tenor Eric Cutler, who sang the Duke of Mantua in HGO’s 2009 Rigoletto and Florestan in the Stuttgart Opera’s 2016 production of Fidelio, will take the role of young Erik. Patrick Summers will conduct.

HGO’s new co-production with Atlanta Opera and Cincinnati Opera is directed by Atlanta Opera’s general and artistic director, Tomer Zvulun.

This story of young love in bohemian 19^th-century Paris set to Puccini’s radiant score has become one of the best-loved operas of all time. HGO brings back the “strikingly original…innovative staging”(Opera News) by John Caird from 2012; Caird reflects the action in the paintings of Marcello, an artist who lives along with his fellow bohemians in the garret.

Nicole Heaston, the Houston-based soprano and HGO alumna whom the Houston Press termed “an artist of rare beauty” in her role as Adina in HGO’s 2016 The Elixir of Love, makes a much anticipated role debut as Mimì.

Two former HGO Studio artists will also make professional role debuts: Korean soprano Pureum Jo will appear as Musetta, following noted appearances as Dai Yu in the 2016 world premiere of Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber at San Francisco Opera; Marcello will be portrayed by baritone Michael Sumuel, whose voice as Belcore in HGO’s 2016 Elixir of Love had a “resounding amber glow”(Houstonia). Argentine bass and HGO Studio alumnus Federico De Michelis will sing Colline. Opera News praised his “deep-voiced authority” as Thomas Betterton in HGO’s 2016 world premiere of Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players.

Twelve years before he wrote Carmen, 24-year-old French composer Georges Bizet received a commission from a Parisian theater for his first opera. The project came with a libretto about two pearl fishers in love with a mysterious priestess on the exotic island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), a prime example of the exaggerated Orientalism that fascinated Europeans for decades. Audiences fell in love with the romantic story and score, highlighted by one of the most radiantly beautiful duets in the operatic repertoire.

In HGO’s first-ever production of the opera, this famous duet, “Au fond du temple saint,” will be sung by two of today’s premier operatic artists, tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Nadir, and baritone Mariusz Kwiecien as Zurga. Brownlee’s “bell-like tenor” and “effortless facility”(Houston Press) were evident in his 2017 HGO appearances as Belmonte in The Abduction from the Seraglio. Kwiecien’s “powerful, moving singing” as Zurga in the Metropolitan Opera’s 2017 production of The Pearl Fishers was noted by the Washington Post. HGO Studio alumna Andrea Carroll, who sang with “purity and radiance”(Opera News) as Mary Hatch Bailey in HGO’s 2016 world premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life, will portray the priestess Leila. Argentine bass and HGO Studio alumnus Federico De Michelis (see La bohème), will sing Nourabad.

The technicolor production by renowned English fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, who created HGO’s 2007 Aida, (also seen in 2013) was based on the fabrics and artwork of Sri Lanka and “recalls the fascination of artists like Delacroix and Matisse with exotic textiles” (Washington Post). In collaboration with HGO’s Cultural Advisory Committee, HGO will offer audiences opportunities to explore the opera from both historical and current social-cultural perspectives through a variety of informational resources.

E. Loren Meeker, who has directed five world premieres for HGOco and most recently choreographed HGO’s The Marriage of Figaro in 2011, will direct. Conductor Roderick Cox, associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra, will make his operatic debut with these performances.

Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte’s masterpiece Don Giovanni returns to the HGO stage in a much anticipated HGO co-production that marks the company debut of Danish director Kasper Holten, director of opera at Royal Opera, Covent Garden, from 2011 to 2017. The opera’s ending calls for the unrepentant title character, who was based on the fictional libertine Don Juan, to be dragged to the underworld. In an approach that resonates in the MeToo era, Holten’s production explores what hell might look and feel like for a charismatic serial seducer. Working with the award-winning team of set designer Es Devlin and video designer Luke Halls—both contributors to the 2012 London Summer Olympics closing ceremonies—Holten conceives the entire opera through the prism of Giovanni’s complex mental landscape, resulting in a somewhat unconventional finale. Noted as “striking and clever” by the New York Times, this focus gives the 231-year-old masterpiece a contemporary perspective.

Canadian baritone Philippe Sly, whose “voracious performance was extraordinary” (Bachtrack) in his role debut as Giovanni at the 2017 Aix-en-Provence festival, will make his HGO debut in the role. Soprano Ailyn Pérez, who charmed Houston audiences as Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro (2016), will make her own role debut as Donna Anna. Bass-baritone and HGO Studio alumnus Ryan McKinny, whose most recent appearances here were as Gunther in Götterdämmerung (2017), will debut the role of Giovanni’s servant, Leporello.  Donna Elvira will be sung by Melody Moore, whose Dorabella in HGO’s 2014 Così fan tutte was a “standout”(Houston Press). Tenor Ben Bliss, a Metropolitan Opera Martin E. Segal Award winner, will sing Don Ottavio in his HGO debut. Kristinn Sigmundsson, who also appears in the season-opening Flying Dutchman, will portray the Commendatore.

Romanian conductor Cristian Măcelaru, who made his operatic debut with HGO’s 2010 production of Madame Butterfly and was recently appointed music director of the Cabrillo Festival, leads the HGO Orchestra and Chorus.

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.