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HGO’s Norma
It was a good night for women everywhere. Read my review at Houstonia Magazine.
Photo by Lynn Lane
HGO’s West Side Story
Some fantastic dancing and singing on Friday night at Houston Grand Opera, though not often at the same time. Read my review at Houstonia Magazine.
Cunningham, Cage, and Johns at the Menil
It’s one of the events happening in Houston that I am most excited about for 2018. Read my preview at Houstonia Magazine.
Nota Bene
As the spring semester hurtles onward after the break, take refuge in many heartening concerts this weekend. Tomorrow evening, the storied saxophonist and artist Dickie Landry will regale anyone lucky enough to grab a seat in the Menil Collection’s Byzantine Fresco Chapel. Saturday morning, KINETIC is giving a pop-up chamber music performance at A 2nd Cup–a worthy outing for a number of reasons.
And come Monday, Sebastian Stefanović, a former writing student of mine and a fierce violist, will take the stage at the Shepherd School in a solo recital you’ll not want to miss. In December, I was witness to his performance of the harrowing Beethoven’s String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130. Energy and enigma don’t begin to cover it. True to form, on offer in Monday’s concert is György Ligeti’s remarkable (and rarely heard) viola sonata.
ATLAS
Ever since getting my hands on a very bad video of its world premiere here in Houston in 1991, I have dreamed of seeing Meredith Monk’s opera ATLAS for myself. Imagine my joy, then, when I saw that the LA Philharmonic will be reviving it at the end of their season in June 2019. What is a year, when I feel I’ve been waiting a lifetime.
Journey through the Mist
An hour before I heard Fabien Gabel captain the Houston Symphony through a (long) program ranging from Corigliano’s raw Conjurer Concerto to Ravel’s sumptuous Daphnis and Chloé, I was sunk into my seat listening to pianist Hannah Che, a former writing student of mine, as she steered her own vessel through the waters of Lizst, Beethoven, and Leoš Janáček in a solo recital. Her delicate performance of Janáček’s In the Mists remained with me long after she dropped her fingers from the keys, making it impossible not to listen to Ravel hours later and feel as if I were still peering through the soft haze that settles over water at dusk. Read my review at Bachtrack.
Clutter clutter, mutter mutter
There were so many multi-colored wig-and-bald clown caps on stage Friday that I starting hearing a rhyme from my childhood: One cap, two cap, green cap, blue cap—from top to bottom Houston Grand Opera’s latest performance of Barber of Seville looks like Dr. Seuss tried to go postmodern and sounds a bit like it too, but for a devilishly charismatic barber who saves the day. My review at Houstonia.
HGO’s Elektra
Nothing comes of pining for what could have been, but that’s where I found myself on Friday night at Houston Grand Opera’s Elektra. With reigning soprano Christine Goerke in the title role, I couldn’t help myself. Read my review at Houstonia.
Sustaining Kinetic
At Houstonia Magazine, I talk to the ensemble’s founder Natalie Lin about what it’s taken for the new music group to survive and flourish in Houston for three seasons. You can hear Kinetic’s “Inner Voices” concert on Sunday at MATCH.