Houston Grand Opera 97-98 season
Ruth Cross
October
"Macbeth" by Verdi, with Russian baritone Sergei Leiferkus, American
soprano Catherine Malfitano, Mexican tenor Rafael Rojas, American
bass Daniel Sumegi; conductor Australian Simone Young; director
David Alden; joint production with Lyric Opera of Chicago
"Hansel and Gretel" by Humperdinck, new, "more serious" production by
Maurice Sendak; co-production with 5 other companies; director Frank
Corsaro; full orchestra conducted by German Sebastian Lang-Lessing;
still casting,
January
"Madama Butterfly", new production jointly with San Diego Opera,
Dallas Opera, and Grand Theatre du Geneve; the main cast features
Ljuba Kazarnovskaya as Cio-Cio San, Marcello Giordani as Pinkerton,
Frank Hernandez as Sharpless and Jill Grove as Susuki; some
performances will have another, younger cast
"Billy Budd", by Britten, production from the London Royal Opera
House at Covent Garden; Danish baritone Bo Skovhus (Budd), American
Peter Kazaras (Edward Fairfax Vere), Willard White (John Claggart);
conductor Robert Spano(Brooklyn Philharmonic)
April
"Arabella" by Richard Strauss, with Renee Fleming and Germans
Christine Schaefer and Wolfgang Brendel; director Helmut Polixa
(Germany); conductor Christoph Eschenbach (Houston Symphony)
Fleming will do a recital with Eschenbach on March 29
"The Marriage of Figaro", a revival of the production by Goran
Jarvefelt and Carl Friedrich Oberle modeled after Sweden's
Drottningholm Court Theater; two casts of mostly new American
singers including Dean Peterson and Pamela Armstrong; also French
baritone Jean-Luc Chaignaud and Hungarian Jozsef Gregor; conductor
Lawrence Renes (Dutch)
The Houston Opera Studio production will be a new work based on
"Little Women", by American composer Mark Adamo.
--
Ruth Cross > Em rio que tem piranhas,
nor...@chevron.com > jacare nada de costas.
Houston, Texas, USA >
Daniel F. Tritter
Ruth Cross wrote:
>
> October
> "Macbeth" by Verdi, with Russian baritone Sergei Leiferkus, American
> soprano Catherine Malfitano, Mexican tenor Rafael Rojas, American
> bass Daniel Sumegi; conductor Australian Simone Young; director
> David Alden; joint production with Lyric Opera of Chicago
>
If David Gockley is serious about this grab-bag of bad jokes, how would
he dare continue the season, which bears some promise otherwise???
October sounds like a good time to be in Tierra del Fuego. Oh, that's
where Houston is located?
dft
ran taylor
dft:
Re: Macbeth
It has been 25 years since HGO did Macbeth; one of the few things
next year worth seeing. If I never see
Butterfly or Boheme or the Marriage of ** Figaro
again, heaven. [listen to OK] Let's return to
the early days of HGO when we didn't just do
new **** or barn burners [Mozart-Puccini] to make money.
Gockley are you listening?
Do not forget Macbeth was Verdi's favorite
work of his own. Great music. [not the Paris version
with the ** ballets]
Regarding Tierra del Fuego, I only wish Houston were
there. The only bad things here are the climate, and
maybe a few rude people, Gockley included.
Maybe you were thinking of Dallas?
After all, we no longer have a National Football Team.
If that isn't progress, what is?
rct
g.f.
In article <331589...@swbell.net>, ran taylor <hayd...@swbell.net> wrote:
>dft:
>
>Re: Macbeth
>It has been 25 years since HGO did Macbeth; one of the few things
>next year worth seeing. If I never see
>Butterfly or Boheme or the Marriage of ** Figaro
>again, heaven. [listen to OK] Let's return to
>the early days of HGO when we didn't just do
>new **** or barn burners [Mozart-Puccini] to make money.
>Gockley are you listening?
I think you're preaching to the choir. Gockley not only is
a more adventurous programmer than most, but has commissioned
more new operas than anyone else lately. The last few seasons
have seen maybe two money-makers apiece.
(who is thrilled, living in Texas, to have anything approaching
the quality of HGO!)
David Spence
: This is a bit off-topic, but the compartmentalization of repetoire
: between Eschenbach (German opera) and Sutej (Italian and French, with the
: exception of Ariadne auf Naxos once) has struck me as a bit curious.
: I once speculated to a friend that if Eschenbach was given a red-blooded
: Italian opera, which one would get the most comical results out of
: him? I forget what my friend came up with, but I could only first
: think of "Macbeth", and who do we get to do it next year except the
: female Eschenbach, Simone Young? Young is so incredibly similar, in
: her or it's (hard to tell these days) art of making grandiose things
: out of transitional passages (as in her Cavalleria Rusticana from
: the Met) and relying on the orchestra to save her butt throughout
: "Pagliaaci." I rest assured, not in spite of the fact that it will
: no good, that this "Macbeth" will certainly be entertaining,
: for all the wrong reasons. Leiferkus's Italian is undecipherable,
: as much as if he decided to start singing in Swahili at any moment.
: Add to this, Malfitano going on willpower and overacting in what
: should be a violently modern production (David Alden), ...thus,
: what was it that Wagner once said? "Ernani, I Lombardi, and
: other nights of carnage." Whatever he said, it will take on
: new meaning this coming October here.
: cheers,
: David
Daniel F. Tritter (dtri...@bway.net) wrote:
Martin Herbordt
Daniel F. Tritter wrote:
>
> Ruth Cross wrote:
> >
> > October
> > "Macbeth" by Verdi, with Russian baritone Sergei Leiferkus, American
> > soprano Catherine Malfitano, Mexican tenor Rafael Rojas, American
> > bass Daniel Sumegi; conductor Australian Simone Young; director
> > David Alden; joint production with Lyric Opera of Chicago
>
> If David Gockley is serious about this grab-bag of bad jokes, how would
> he dare continue the season, which bears some promise otherwise???
>
> October sounds like a good time to be in Tierra del Fuego. Oh, that's
> where Houston is located?
I'm sorry, what's the point? Most of us in Houston are thrilled to have
an opera company that even gets enough notice to be sneered at by those
living in Roma. I think the health of an artform is not to be measured
by what's going in the major concentration of wealth and interest, but
exactly in the opposite. That Houston, land of biggest livestock show
and rodeo in the world (19 days, over a million in attendance!) can
support
what it does is phenomenal.
You can even take this a step further. After having lived many years
near
NY and having been to the met my share of times (as well as most of the
major opera houses in Europe) I can truly say that I've never enjoyed a
performance any more than last week's Matrimonio Segreto at the
University
of Houston opera. Great seats for the price of a movie, kids singing
and
playing their hearts out, and wonderful humor and artistry. And an
energy
that has long since left many seasoned performers.
---------------------------------------------------------
Martin Herbordt
Asst. Professor
Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering Phone: (713) 743-4434
University of Houston FAX: (713) 743-4444
Houston, Texas 77204-4793 EMail: herb...@uh.edu
John Soward Bayne
Martin Herbordt wrote:
>
(lines deleted)
. . . Most of us in Houston are thrilled to have
> an opera company that even gets enough notice to be sneered at by those
> living in Roma. I think the health of an artform is not to be measured
> by what's going in the major concentration of wealth and interest, but
> exactly in the opposite. That Houston, land of biggest livestock show
> and rodeo in the world (19 days, over a million in attendance!) can
> support
> what it does is phenomenal.
(lines deleted)
I have been to some excellent opera in Houston. I
recall Turandot at Jones Hall with Eva Marton that
was thrilling, with fortune cookies and champagne
for everybody at the end because HGO were leaving
the theater. Der Rosenkavalier with Jan Grissom as
Sophie and Suzanne Mentzer as Octavian that is my
visual image of the presentation of the rose--they
had glitter in their hair. Rusalka with Rene Fleming
and Neil Rosenshein.
Janice Miller, are you listening? There's good opera
in Texas, and good weather too. I spent six years in
Dallas and I saw outstanding stuff: Don Pasquale with
Ruth Ann Swenson, Richard Stillwell, Raul Giminez,
Paolo Montarsolo; Figaro, also with Stillwell and
Swenson; Sutherland's last US performance in Merry Widow
(her US debut was in Dallas in 1961 or so), world
premiere of Argento's The Aspern Papers with Soderstrom,
von Stade, Rosenshein, Stilwell; Mariln Zchau as
Brunnhilde (Walkure) and Elektra; Sweet as Aida; Leiferkus
as Prince Igor; Soviero in the Puccini Trittico; Lopardo
in L'Eliser. Don Carlo with (how is my memory doing?)
Jerome Hines as Grand Inquisitor, Plishka as Phillip,
Susan Dunn as Elizabetta, Troyanos as Eboli--and they
must have had a tenor and baritone too! Dallas Opera also
has a splendid support group (Dallas Opera Guild) of devotees.
From Dallas, Houston is an hour away on Southwest Airlines.
I had mini-season tickets (3 operas) in Houston a couple
of years. More opera in Ft Worth and student performances
at Southern Methodist University and at University of North
Texas in Denton.
If Dallas doesn't seem sufficiently opera-friendly yet,
consider that the airport there is centrally located for
the rest of the US.
When you decide where you want to live, how will you get
your husband to agree to it?
Cheers
JSBayne
Atlanta
J. Miller
John Soward Bayne <John_...@nt.com> wrote in article <331C3A...@nt.com>...
> Janice Miller, are you listening?
Of course, I'm much too vain to ignore a thread with my name in it.
>There's good opera in Texas, and good weather too.
You're obviously quite right about opera in Texas, but the weather?! Not to
veer off the subject, but I lived in OK for three years......
> If Dallas doesn't seem sufficiently opera-friendly yet,
> consider that the airport there is centrally located for
> the rest of the US.
Good point.
>
> When you decide where you want to live, how will you get
> your husband to agree to it?
>
Mmm, I like the sound of that. Well, what do you think? I'll wiggle my little
finger and he'll come running! But seriously, we'll figure something out
.....together. I'm just hoping that, if we don't stay in the Nashville area,
we'll at least be near some of the places that have already been mentioned
here. And, I do appreciate all of your help with this.
Janice
Lis K. Froding
In <01bc28c7$7df76720$8ecaf1cd@first-floor> "J. Miller"
And if all else fails, you can always try New Jersey, you know ;-)
Lis
Pamela Troutman
Thank you for your support of the Houston Grand Opera. You expressed my
feelings exactly. Darci Lane
Daniel Kessler
The weather in Texas as a 'plus'??? I've made a few trips to Texas for
opera but really great evenings have been few and far between. There was
a Zefferelli DON GIOVANNI with Guilini conducting...Sutherland,
Schwarzkopf, Ratti, Waechter, Taddei in 1961 in Dallas that still lingers
strongly in the mind. About the same time there was an ELEKTRA with
Astrid Varnay at the San Antonio Opera that was very, very special. By
the way, one doesn't hear anything about San Antonio Opera for some time.
I guess the company went 'by the boards'. Then in 1977 there was Kiri's
first ARABELLA at Jones Hall in Houston with Ashley Putnam as Zdenka.
This was one of Kiri's stronger performances and her subsequent efforts
in the role went 'retrograde' in San Francisco in 1979 and later at the
Met in 1983. There was Elizabeth Soederstrom's KAT'A [KAT'A KABANOVA] in
Houston in 1981. Unfortunately, this performance didn't 'ignite' because
of John deMain's futile efforts at the podium and Friedman's lackluster
production! I do regret not having traveled to Dallas for Callas's MEDEA
in those early days of Larry Kelly or to have heard Marilyn Niska as
Blistein's REGINA at the Houston Opera. However, the exceptional ones
are spare in Texas.
eac...@aol.com
In article <5fmko3$1i...@newssvr01-int.news.prodigy.com>, XTQ...@prodigy.com wrote:
> There was
>a Zefferelli DON GIOVANNI with Guilini conducting...Sutherland,
>Schwarzkopf, Ratti, Waechter, Taddei in 1961 in Dallas that still lingers
>strongly in the mind.
It certainly lingers in mine! And another thing: Backstage, I stood in
line at Schwarzkopf's dressing-room. A gentleman in front of me
said (in German) how much he had enjoyed hearing the _Sopranen-
schlacht_ (the battle of the sopranos -- see above!), to which
Schwarzkopf just smiled enigmatically and asked: "Und wer hat
gewonnen?" ("And who won?")
Fate pulls strange tricks: That was in 1960. In 1966, I moved to
the Dallas-Ft. Worth "Metroplex" (specifically, Arlington) to teach
German at UT-Arlington. Very soon, I made the acquaintance of that
same person, who was, until his death a few years ago, one of my
closest friends. I hadn't associated him with that incident until
he related it to *me*! Imagine the look on his face when I told him
I had been standing directly behind him when it happened... --E.A.C.