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.
Includes:
Opera takes the human spirit in this grand cathartic way and sings it back to you.
The 2018–19 mainstage operas, will speak to the theme of “Transformation”:
Wagner: The Flying Dutchman • Fall 2018
Andrzej Dobber as the Dutchman
Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Senta
Kristinn Sigmundsson as Daland
Tomer Zvulun, director
Catán: Florencia en el Amazonas • Winter 2019
Ana María Martínez as Florencia
Francesca Zambello, director
Tarik O’Regan and John Caird: The Phoenix • Spring 2019
World Premiere
Thomas Hampson as Lorenzo Da Ponte
Luca Pisaroni as Young Lorenzo Da Ponte
HGO launched Seeking the Human Spirit in 2017–18 with three works tied to the theme of “Sacrifice”:
Verdi: La traviata • Fall 2017
Albina Shagimuratova as Violetta
Eun Sun Kim, conductor
Arin Arbus, director
Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek: The House without a Christmas Tree • December 2017
World Premiere
Heidi Stober as Adelaide Mills
James Robinson, director
Bellini: Norma • Spring 2018
Liudmyla Monastyrska as Norma
Jamie Barton as Adalgisa
Kevin Newbury, director
Handel: Saul
Donizetti: La favorite
R. Strauss: Salome
Wagner: Tannhäuser
Adam Guettel: world premiere based on H.G. Wells’s The Invisible Man
Veterans Songbook Capstone • Fall 2017
Tom Cipullo: Glory Denied
Veterans Songbook Final Concert
An Evening with Tom Philpott, author of Glory Denied
Serial Opera pilot • April 2018
Avner Dorman/Stephanie Fleischmann: Star-Cross’d
SACRIFICE: A young woman agrees to give up the man she loves to save his honor.
SACRIFICE: A daughter forgoes the Christmas tree she deeply desires in order to obey her father and help another family.
SACRIFICE: A high priestess makes the ultimate sacrifice when she is forced to choose between love and duty.
What I love about opera is that it connects us all…We are communicators, we are messengers. We are not the message.
Houston Methodist/Center for Performing Arts Medicine
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Jung Center, Houston
The Rothko Chapel
The Women’s Home/Institute for Spirituality and Health
Sacred Sites Quest
With a special thanks to our Major Donors
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
The Alkek and Williams Foundation
