Art of Opera Campers Go on with the Show

You’re invited to the final performance of HGO’s Art of Opera summer camp, Opera Is…, at the Wortham Theater Center’s Cullen Theater on Friday, July 19 at 3 p.m. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. Please use the Prairie St. entrance. 

At this point, it’s a tradition at HGO: a hurricane hits, and the show must go on.  

The talented young participants in the company’s Art of Opera summer camp at the Wortham Theater Center received a swift initiation into that storied tradition last week when Hurricane Beryl hit Houston.  

Most campers were still without power when they returned to the Wortham—which was blessedly unscathed this time around—just a couple days after the storm. We visited the resilient group inside the Gockley Rehearsal Room, where stage director Evan Tsitsias shared that he’d been doing his own camping, taking refuge at the home of music director Mary Box. “It’s been a slumber party,” he said.  

The campers themselves seemed a little shellshocked, but happy to be back. Emma, an incoming senior at Memorial High School, said her family had fled to her uncle’s house, and thank goodness. What if, without power or internet, she’d missed the memo to return to the theater?  

“I was so sad,” she said. “My biggest worry was I wouldn’t get the email that camp was coming back.” Re-joining her friends at the Wortham, she added, felt great: “This shows that life is going to move on, and it gives a sense of normalcy because I get to sing!”  

There was just over a week to go until the July 19 finale of the three-week camp for high school students—a public performance that, for the first time, would be held inside the Wortham’s Cullen Theater—and everyone was excited to be back in rehearsals after missing precious time.  

The final show would feature selections from The Little Prince, Dido and Aeneas, Candide, and The Tempest, woven together into an entertaining program that would also offer audiences unfamiliar with opera a quick education in the art form.  

It was the second year running that Mary, assistant conductor at the UH Moores Opera Center, and Evan, who teaches at the TUTS Humphreys School of Music Theatre, were leading the camp. The two said they’d worked with HGO staff to select vignettes that would best showcase the campers’ talents, which, by all accounts, were off the charts this year. “If you close your eyes and listen to their voices,” Evan shared, “you’d be surprised by how young they are.”  

During our visit, some of the campers were rehearsing a number from Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince, twirling around the room holding colorful lit balls to represent the planets the Prince visits in the story. Sophia—a newly minted Clements High graduate who’d been cast as the Prince—told us about her songs.  

“The first is when the Prince meets the Rose and makes up his mind to go visit other planets and learn more about the way of the universe and how to properly care for his Rose,” she said. “The second is when he visits Earth for the first time and meets the lamplighters, who are the only people he truly respects because they do something for others.” 

The Prince, Sophia added, wasn’t her only role in the show. This summer, for the first time, all campers were also taking on backstage duties after participating in two days of tech workshops with the experts at HGO. She was creating a costume, working with a piece of red tulle that would turn the Rose, played by Emma, into a person: “The petals above her head transform into a dress,” Sophia explained. Other campers were learning about stage management, props, lighting, and makeup.  

“Being at the Wortham this year makes me feel more professional,” said Emma, who also attended camp last year, at Kinder HSPVA. “Like, oh, I have to go to work, rather than going to school.” She was thrilled at the chance to sing on the Cullen stage, she shared, as she’s been coming to the Wortham since she was a little girl.  

“I’m a little nervous, but it’s going to be so fun. The kids this year are insane. They’re incredible! And this isn’t just another teen summer voice program. It’s, like, the best.”