Do you know that we in Houston are blessed with an extraordinarily outstanding opera? Less than a handful of cities in the United States can claim a world-renown opera company; there are the Met in New York, the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the San Francisco Opera, and then there is the Houston Grand Opera – a truly outstanding company. It is the only opera company in the world to have won all three awards in the music world: a Tony, two Emmys, and two Grammys! We are so lucky to have this fabulous opera company in our city!
We have such a treat for you for our first meeting of 2014: a backstage visit to the Houston Grand Opera to see who and what actually produce such magic for the audience in front of the curtain. Currently the scenery and backdrops of The Passenger, an American premiere by HGO, will be onstage during our visit.
Dr. Mena Mark Hanna, dramaturg of HGO, will conclude our backstage tour by a presentation of the most ambitious undertaking by the opera to-date: a performance of the entire ring cycle by Richard Wagner, consisting of Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold), Die Walkuere (The Valkyrie), Siegfried, and Goetterdaemmerung (Twilight of the Gods). For those of you new to Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Das Rheingold is the shortest opera and lasts about 2-1/2 hours. For our meeting in April we will visit Das Rheingold on April 23 with a special reception at the Wortham Center before the performance.
We will meet on Tuesday, January 14, 2014, at 5:45 p.m. at the backstage entrance to the opera at 510 Preston. Please allow enough time for parking, and be sure to bring photo identification. After our visit to the opera, we will adjourn to The Wine Cellar at Little Napoli at 540 Texas Avenue, a block or so from the theater for our customary reception. Rebecca Koteras from HGO will accompany us to answer any additional questions you may have. The meeting cost for the tour and food are $15 per person; wine and other beverages are separate.
Several of you have already informed us that you will join us for the tour, but we need everyone to please respond now to angelika@houstonleipzig.org to let us know that you wish to participate, as spaces for the tour are limited, and we need to let security at the opera know how many of us and whom to expect.
The Houston Grand Opera has come long ways since 1955, when it performed Salome and Madame Butterfly as its first season offering. Since then it has grown in leaps and bounds: it serves over five million people every year, has introduced an astonishing 43 world premieres and six American premieres since 1973. Just a few of the world stars appearing at the opera over the years include Plàcido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Cecilia Bartoli, Marilyn Horne, Kiri Te Kawana, Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, and on and on . . . the list of stars is ever increasing. It takes over 1,000 people, 120 of whom are permanent employees, to bring pleasure and enjoyment of music and theater to Houston. HGO brings opera to the schools, runs an exemplary Opera Studio to train promising singers, and commissions operas in and from the diverse ethnic and cultural communities in Houston. Check out this cultural treasure at http://www.houstongrandopera.org/.