Should performers try to capture the composer’s original vision for a piece? As an audience, do we expect them to? It’s a complicated question if the composer is still alive. It becomes a scholarly question if, say, we’re talking about… Continue Reading
From Theodore Bale, a thoughtful review of an extraordinary Qawwali concert at the Menil on Monday. Rarely does Houston’s art scene remember this side of music in town.
Laurie Anderson resists categorization. The Mitchell Artist Lecture is an annual event that aims to bring “icons of the avant garde” to the University of Houston. And you can read the long list of reasons why Anderson fits this bill… Continue Reading
Alex Waterman, director of Robert Ashley’s Vidas Perfectas, introduced tonight’s performance by remembering what Ashley said to him about re-making his television opera Perfect Lives: “Don’t sell them a used car–make them a new one.” The performance tonight in… Continue Reading
As the summer opera-hiatus drags on—alas, will October never arrive?—a few notes: Opera is not far away! Alex Waterman directs the late Robert Ashley’s Vidas Perfectas over two weekends in west Texas. Vidas Perfectas is a Spanish iteration of Ashley’s… Continue Reading
On Wednesday at the luminous G Gallery in the heights, four celebrated poets read from their work—Ange Mlinko, Paul Otremba, Joseph Campana, and Nick Flynn. And then, standing in a meager circle of electronic equipment and percussion instruments, musician… Continue Reading
“What we see is what we see, and what we hear is what we hear,” Robert Wilson said on March 27, the second night of the three-night Campbell Lecture Series at Rice University. I know Wilson first as the director… Continue Reading
Need an opera fix between productions at Houston Grand Opera and Opera in the Heights? Do you have five hours and a good internet connection? Generously, Théâtre du Châtelet’s production of Philip Glass’, Robert Wilson’s, and Lucinda Childs’ Einstein on… Continue Reading