Public Call for Art
Overview
Houston Grand Opera is proud to invite Houston street artists to apply for the opportunity to showcase a large-scale art piece on stage at the Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Theater. Applicants will submit a sample of their work for judging, with one artist selected to create a custom work for the company’s new production of Verdi’s Il trovatore, opening the new season on Oct. 18, 2024, and receive an honorarium of $3,000. Two additional artists will be chosen to create smaller-scale artworks inspired by HGO’s 2024-25 season, with each receiving an honorarium of $500.
HGO’s new, company-commissioned production of Verdi’s perennially popular Il trovatore represents the vision of influential director Stephen Wadsworth, who has set the story in contemporary Europe, where the old world meets the new, castles sit amid skyscrapers, and monuments stand alongside street art. The selected artist will collaborate with Wadsworth and award-winning scenic designer Charlie Corcoran to incorporate a mural-size, street art-style work into the production’s clever, colorful set.
General Guidelines
Artists from the region are invited to submit one image of their original street art, which may take the form of graffiti, murals, stencils, or wheat-pasted posters; a short bio; and other materials detailed in the application. The winner will have 2 weeks to create an original piece, to be featured as part of the set for HGO’s new production of Il trovatore.
About Il trovatore
HGO is thrilled to open the 2024-25 season with a new production of Verdi's Il trovatore, running Oct. 18 through Nov. 3, 2024. The production will star sublime soprano Ailyn Pérez as Leonora, opposite virtuoso baritenor Michael Spyres as her revolutionary lover Manrico, with baritone Lucas Meachem as the royalist Count di Luna and mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis as the fascinating woman Manrico knows as his mother, Azucena. Maestro Patrick Summers conducts.
FAQs
Selection Committee
- For Questions or Concerns:
With this new production, we want to emphasize that the great operas are about and for us—and that is why we want to feature a homegrown-Houston artwork on the Brown stage.
Khori Dastoor, HGO General Director and CEO
