OperaCues Winter 2025 West Side Story

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MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL DIRECTOR AND CEO

Welcome to the Wortham Theater Center! This season at Houston Grand Opera, we are celebrating an emotion that has driven artists to create for centuries—love—as only our art form can. HGO’s winter repertoire brings two of the most adored love stories in history, La bohème and West Side Story. If this is your first time joining us, get ready to be swept away.

You never forget your first time experiencing Puccini’s La bohème —especially with an impossibly gorgeous, star-studded cast like ours portraying the opera’s unforgettable characters. Directed by John Caird, this show, full of instantly recognizable melodies, is a touching testament to humanity’s need to love, and be loved, even in the most trying of circumstances.

Making her much-anticipated HGO debut, internationally renowned soprano Yaritza Véliz stars as generous and pure seamstress Mimì, whose love story with the poet Rodolfo, performed by tenor and Butler Studio artist Michael McDermott, will steal your heart. Two Grammy winners, baritone Edward Parks and soprano Brittany Renee, perform the roles of the fiery lovers Marcello and Musetta. We are thrilled to welcome the supremely gifted Karen Kamensek, herself a Grammy winner, to the podium to conduct Puccini’s moving score.

Like La bohème, West Side Story boasts a stunning young cast. Created by composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, choreographer Jerome Robbins, and playwright Arthur Laurents, this timeless musical holds a lens to a new generation searching not only for love, but also for belonging, as it comes of age in a turbulent time rife with inherited problems.

Directed by the brilliant Francesca Zambello, the production boasts an incredible cast of stars, many of whom have featured in West Side Story in the recent Broadway revival or in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 film version. Soprano Shereen Pimentel and tenor Brenton Ryan perform as star-cross’d lovers Maria and Tony, with Yesenia Ayala as Anita, Kyle Coffman as Riff, and Yurel Echezarreta as Bernardo. In a special appearance, beloved soprano Ana María Martínez graces the stage to sing “Somewhere.” Roberto Kalb, a dynamic young conductor whose star is rapidly rising, takes the podium for his company debut.

This season at HGO, we’re not only exploring romantic love through these great works— we’re also celebrating our love for this gorgeous art form, for our city, and for you, our audience. It’s wonderful to be with you in the theater. I trust you’ll find lots to love.

Khori Dastoor

General Director and CEO

Margaret Alkek Williams Chair

OPERA BALL

Opera Cues is published by Houston Grand Opera Association; all rights reserved. Opera Cues is produced under the direction of Chief Marketing and Experiences Officer Jennifer Davenport and Director of Communications Catherine Matusow, by Houston Grand Opera’s Audiences Department.

Editor

Catherine Matusow

Designers

Chelsea Crouse

Rita Jia

Contributors

Colin Brush

Joe Cadagin

John Caird

Khori Dastoor

Amber Francis

Patrick Summers

Francesca Zambello

Advertising

Matt Ross/Ventures Marketing 713-417-6857

For information on all Houston Grand Opera productions and events, or for a complimentary season brochure, please email the Customer Care Center at CustomerCare@HGO.org or telephone 713-228-6737.

Houston Grand Opera is a member of OPERA America, Inc., and the Theater District Association, Inc.

Photo credit: Curtis Brown

Photo credit: Todd Rosenberg

OFFICERS

Claire Liu, Chair of the Board

Allyn Risley, Senior Chair of the Board

Janet Langford Carrig, Chair Emeritus of the Board

Lynn Wyatt, Vice Chair of the Board

James Loftis General Counsel; Secretary

MEMBERS AT LARGE

Richard E. Agee

Thomas R. Ajamie

Robin Angly *

John S. Arnoldy *

Christopher V. Bacon, Audiences Committee Vice Chair

Michelle Beale, Governance Committee Chair;

Butler Studio Committee Vice Chair

Astley Blair, Audit Committee Chair

Albert Chao

Louise G. Chapman

Mathilda Cochran *

Albert O. Cornelison Jr. *

James W. Crownover

Khori Dastoor

Joshua Davidson

David B. Duthu *

Warren A. Ellsworth IV, M.D., Butler Studio Committee Chair

Benjamin Fink, Finance Committee Chair

Joe Geagea

Michaela Greenan, Audit Committee Vice Chair

Dr. Ellen R. Gritz, Community & Learning Committee Chair

Selda Gunsel

Matt Healey, Finance Committee Vice Chair

Richard Husseini

José M. Ivo, Philanthropy Committee Chair

Myrtle Jones, Community & Learning Committee Vice Chair

Marianne Kah, Houston Grand Opera Endowment, Inc. Chair

Bill Kroger

David LePori, Governance Committee Vice Chair

Gabriel Loperena

Beth Madison *

Sid Moorhead

“ ” Patrick Summers HGO

Sara Morgan

Kristin Muessig

Terrylin G. Neale, Houston Grand Opera Endowment, Inc. Secretary; Treasurer

Ward Pennebaker

Cynthia Petrello

Gloria M. Portela, Philanthropy Committee Vice Chair

Allyson Pritchett

Matthew L. Ringel, Audiences Committee Chair

Kelly Brunetti Rose

Jack A. Roth, M.D.

Harlan C. Stai

John G. Turner *

Veer Vasishta

Alfredo Vilas

Margaret Alkek Williams

*Senior Director

LEGACY BE?

Soprano Andrea Carroll as Nannetta in Falstaff (2023)

Photography by Lynn Lane.

IMPRESARIOS CIRCLE

IMPRESARIOS CIRCLE

$100,000 OR MORE

Judy and Richard Agee

Robin Angly and Miles Smith

Astley Blair

The Brown Foundation, Inc.

Carol Franc Buck Foundation

Sarah and Ernest Butler

Janet and John Carrig

Anne and Albert Chao

Louise G. Chapman

Mathilda Cochran

ConocoPhillips

Mr. and Mrs. James W. Crownover

The Cullen Foundation

The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts

City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance

Ms. Marty Dudley

Connie Dyer

The Elkins Foundation

Frost Bank

Marianne and Joe Geagea

Drs. Liz Grimm and Jack Roth

Nancy Haywood

Matt Healey

William Randolph

Hearst Foundation

H-E-B

Houston Grand Opera Endowment, Inc.

Houston Methodist

Humphreys Foundation

Elizabeth and Richard Husseini

Claire Liu and Joe Greenberg

M. D. Anderson Foundation

Beth Madison

Mr. and Mrs. D. Bradley McWilliams

Sara and Bill Morgan

National Endowment for the Humanities

Nabors Industries

Novum Energy

Allyson Pritchett

Shell USA, Inc.

Dian and Harlan Stai

Texas Commission on the Arts

Isabel and Ignacio Torras

Mr. John G. Turner and Mr. Jerry G. Fischer

Veer Vasishta

Mr. and Mrs. Alfredo Vilas

To learn more about HGO’s Impresarios Circle members, please see page 76.

FOUNDERS COUNCIL FOR ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Vitol

Margaret Alkek Williams

The Wortham Foundation, Inc.

2 Anonymous

Houston Grand Opera is deeply appreciative of its Founders Council donors. Their extraordinary support over a three-year period helps secure the future while ensuring the highest standard of artistic excellence. For information, please contact Greg Robertson, managing director of strategic campaigns, at 713-546-0274 or GRobertson@HGO.org.

Ajamie LLP

Baker Botts L.L.P.

Michelle Beale and Dick Anderson

Nana Booker and Booker · Lowe Gallery

Anne and Albert Chao

Jane Cizik

ConocoPhillips

Mr. and Mrs. James W. Crownover

Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Davidson

Connie Dyer

Drs. Rachel and Warren A. Ellsworth IV

Frost Bank

Marianne and Joe Geagea

Drs. Liz Grimm and Jack Roth

Dr. Ellen R. Gritz and Mr. Milton D. Rosenau Jr.

Matt Healey

Myrtle Jones

Marianne Kah

Carolyn J. Levy

Claire Liu and Joe Greenberg

Michelle Klinger and Ruain Flanagan

Beth Madison

John P. McGovern Foundation

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Sharyn and Jerry Metcalf

Dr. and Mrs. Miguel Miro-Quesada

Kathleen Moore and Steven Homer

Sid Moorhead

Novum Energy

Allyson Pritchett

Matthew L. Ringel

Jill and Allyn Risley

Kelly and David Rose

John Serpe and Tracy Maddox

Dian and Harlan Stai

Mr. John G. Turner and Mr. Jerry G. Fischer

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Veer Vasishta

Helen Wils and Leonard Goldstein

Anonymous

ARE YOU TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY PASSIONATE ABOUT OPERA, COMMUNITY, AND PURPOSE?

Visit HGOGuild.org or the HGO Guild Boutique in the Grand Foyer to learn more

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UNDERWRITER—

$50,000 OR MORE

Mr. William J. Altenloh and Dr. Susan Saurage-Altenloh

Thomas R. Ajamie

Ken and Donna Barrow

Michelle Beale and Dick Anderson

Mr. Jack Bell

Mr. Eliodoro Castillo and Dr. Eric McLaughlin

Jane Cizik

Jennifer and Benjamin Fink

Amanda and Morris Gelb

Dr. Ellen R. Gritz and Mr. Milton D. Rosenau Jr.

Janet Gurwitch and Ron Franklin

Myrtle Jones

Barbara and Pat McCelvey

Diane K. Morales

Franci Neely

Jill and Allyn Risley

John Serpe and Tracy Maddox

Isabel and Ignacio Torras

Alejandra and Héctor Torres

James M. Trimble and Sylvia Barnes

Mr. and Mrs. Jesse B. Tutor

Mary-Olga and John Warren

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UNDERWRITER—

$25,000 OR MORE

Dr. Dina Alsowayel and Mr. Anthony R. Chase

Christopher Bacon and Craig Miller

Dr. Saúl and Ursula Balagura

Mr. and Mrs. Frank N. Barnes

Dr. Gudrun H. Becker

Ms. Susan Bloome

Nana Booker and Booker · Lowe Gallery

Meg Boulware and Hartley Hampton

Melinda and Bill Brunger

Ms. Kiana K. Caleb and Mr. Troy L. Sullivan

Dr. Peter Chang and Hon. Theresa Chang

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Clancy

Shelly Cyprus

Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Davidson

Lynn Des Prez

Rebecca and Brian Duncan

Drs. Rachel and Warren A. Ellsworth IV

C.C. and Duke Ensell

Dr. and Mrs. Ronald Galfione

Lynn Gissel

Leonard A. Goldstein and Helen B. Wils

Dr. Linda L. Hart

Gary Hollingsworth and Ken Hyde

Marianne Kah

Michelle Klinger and Ruain Flanagan

Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Langenstein

Stephanie Larsen

Alfred W. Lasher III

Lori and David LePori

Carolyn J. Levy

Sharon Ley Lietzow and Robert Lietzow

Mrs. Rosemary Malbin

Renee Margolin

Will L. McLendon

Prof. and Mrs. D. Nathan Meehan

Amy and Mark Melton

Sharyn and Jerry Metcalf

Dr. and Mrs. Miguel Miro-Quesada

Mr. David Montague

Kathleen Moore and Steven Homer

Sid Moorhead

Terrylin G. Neale

Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Nickson

Beverly and Staman Ogilvie

Susan and Ward Pennebaker

Elizabeth Phillips

Gloria M. Portela

Ms. Katherine Reynolds

Matthew L. Ringel

Kelly and David Rose

Mr. and Mrs. David Rowan

Ms. Jill Schaar and Mr. George Caflisch

Jeff Stocks and Juan Lopez

Dr. Laura E. Sulak and Dr. Richard W. Brown

Sheila Swartzman

Mr. Scott B. Ulrich and Mr. Ernest A. Trevino

John C. Tweed

Laura and Georgios Varsamis

Mary Lee and Jim Wallace

Mr. and Mrs. David S. Wolff

Mr. Trey M. Yates

Alan and Frank York

2 Anonymous

GUARANTORS

The Brown Foundation, Inc.

Mathilda Cochran

William Randolph Hearst Foundation

Sara and Bill Morgan

National Endowment for the Humanities

The Wortham Foundation, Inc.

GRAND UNDERWRITERS

Judy and Richard Agee

Joan and Stanford Alexander Family Fund

ConocoPhillips

The Elkins Foundation

H-E-B

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo ™

Powell Foundation

Shell USA, Inc.

UNDERWRITERS

Ruth and Ted Bauer Family Foundation

Ms. Kiana K. Caleb and Mr. Troy L. Sullivan"

The Cockrell Family Fund

Rebecca and Brian Duncan

Halliburton

Rosemary Malbin

Dr. Laura Marsh

Mr. David Montague

Vivian L. Smith Foundation

SUPPORTERS

Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Ardell

Adrienne Bond

Mr. and Mrs. Lester P. Burgess

The Lawrence E. Carlton, MD, Endowment Fund

City of Houston through the Miller Theatre Advisory Board

James J. Drach Endowment Fund

Trish Freeman and Bruce Patterson

Monica Fulton

Mrs. Geraldine C. Gill

Rhoda Goldberg

George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation

William E. and Natoma Pyle

Harvey Charitable Trust

Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation

Houston Grand Opera Guild

Lee Huber

Ms. Joan Jeffrey

Mr. Geoffry H. Oshman

Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Pancherz

Texas Commission on the Arts

The activities of Houston Grand Opera are supported in part by funds provided by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.

Saturday, March 8

Sing! Move! Play!: Carmen. Levy Park. 11 a.m.

Monday to Friday, March 10 to 14

Storybook Opera: The Armadillo’s Dream (Mon), Westward Ho, Carlotta (Tues), Opera Cat (Wed), Lula the Mighty Griot (Thurs), Maria’s Magical Musical Adventure (Fri). Levy Park. Check LevyParkHouston.org for program times.

Monday, March 10

Opera to Go!: Mo Willems’s Bite-Sized Operas! Theater District Open House performance at Lynn Wyatt Square. 1 p.m.

Tuesday, March 11

Opera to Go!: Mo Willems’s Bite-Sized Operas! Alief Neighborhood Center. 11 a.m.

Wednesday, March 12

Opera to Go!: Mo Willems’s Bite-Sized Operas! Houston Rodeo Community Day performance. 11:30 a.m.

Saturday, March 15

Storybook Opera: Morry the Moores Opera House Mouse. Levy Park. 11 a.m.

VOICES UP

Celebrate Black History Month with a spectacular evening of song.

This is the sixth year for a beloved tradition at HGO: Giving Voice, created by renowned tenor Lawrence Brownlee. Emceed by Dr. Ruth Simmons, the former president of Prairie View A&M, the 2025 event will showcase the vital role of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as an important training ground for Black musicians and professionals.

For the third year running, the concert will be held at the historic Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in the Third Ward. A group of world-class soloists including baritone Reginald Smith, Jr. and

Butler Studio artists Elizabeth Hanje and Sam Dhobhany will be performing a rousing program of operatic works and spirituals, with Kevin J. Miller at the piano. The evening will also feature a fabulous mass choir of singers from the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Choir, the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, and Texas Southern University, as well as the spiritual ensemble Voices of Houston.

Join us for an inspiring concert in honor of Black History Month! February 28, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. Free. Tickets at HGO.org/ GivingVoice

CONGRATULATIONS!

OPERA America recognizes HGO Board of Directors

Chair Claire Liu.

Each year, OPERA America’s National Opera Trustee Recognition Awards honor outstanding trustees of North American opera companies for their exemplary leadership and service. In 2024, the organization named our own board chair, Claire Liu, as one of its five honorees, making the entire HGO family proud. Liu will be recognized at the OPERA America Salutes awards dinner in New York.

“The 2024 National Opera Trustee Recognition Award recipients exemplify excellent nonprofit governance,” says Marc A. Scorca, president and CEO of OPERA America. “We recognize their significant contributions to the companies they serve and the field at large.”

Liu has been an active member of the HGO Board since 2015, serving as chair since 2022. In 2021, she co-chaired the Search Committee that appointed General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor. Most recently, she spearheaded the development of the company’s strategic plan. Liu’s impact on HGO will be felt for years to come. We’re so grateful. Brava!

Soprano Latonia Moore at Giving Voice 2024

A ROYAL WELCOME TO OUR LITTLEST PATRONS HGO’s

first-ever Family Day: a sold-out success!

A posse of rats was let loose in the Wortham Theater Center’s Grand Foyer during HGO’s first-ever Family Day. But not to worry—the ensuing shrieks were delighted ones, as the rats were characters from the day’s special performance of Rossini’s Cinderella, directed by renowned mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard. The 90-minute, English-language, “relaxed environment” show was a hit, welcoming a nearly full house of Houston families to the theater to enjoy not only the opera, but also arts and crafts, a glitter bar, the chance to meet a prince and princess, and much more.

“We created Family Day because art is essential for young minds, and Houstonians of all ages deserve musical experiences of the highest quality,” says HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor. “It was exhilarating to see so many families at the Wortham for this performance. My own girls adored the show. Given the success of the day, I am thrilled to share that we have established a new Houston tradition! We’ll be announcing plans for HGO’s second annual Family Day in March.”

Children making crafts in the Grand Foyer

A young opera-goer in his finery

The day delighted audiences of all ages!

Introducing opera to our littlest fans

HOUSTON METHODIST Margaret Alkek Williams Crain Garden Performance Series

For almost a decade, Houston Grand Opera has brought the healing power of music to Houston Methodist Hospital through our Crain Garden Performance Series. Renowned for its pioneering Center for Performing Arts Medicine, Houston Methodist has been a supporter of HGO for nearly 20 years, consistently providing world-class care to our incredible artists. As a part of both organizations’ commitment to our Houston community, the Crain Garden series brings HGO artists directly to patients and caregivers through powerful vocal recitals that are open to all. We at HGO are incredibly grateful for Houston Methodist’s years of support and expertise, and we look forward to many more years of this extraordinary partnership.

HGO's recitals at the hospital are open to all.

HGO Teaching Artist Alejandro Magallón and pianist Rachel Chao performing at Houston Methodist Hospital

NABORS INDUSTRIES

Family Day: Cinderella

Nabors Industries has been an invaluable supporter of HGO since 2008, and we are thrilled that they are lead supporters of our first ever Family Day series production, Cinderella HGO has long envisioned producing sensory-friendly operas for families on the Wortham Theater mainstage, and this season, the support of Nabors Industries made our dreams come true. Hundreds of families experienced the magic of opera for the first time on Family Day, filling the sold-out theater with wonder and joy. We are so proud of our innovative partnership with Nabors Industries, and we can’t wait for our next Family Day—although we’ll miss the rats!

HGO's first Family Day was a hit— we hope you join us next year!

Children flocked to the rats from the Cinderella production.

EVERY LAST FIBRA

Soprano Yaritza Véliz, making her HGO debut as Mimì in La bohème , on life and Puccini.

By Khori Dastoor, General Director & CEO

OPERA LOVE STORIES ♥ PART 2 OF A SERIES

When I reach soprano Yaritza Véliz for our conversation ahead of her HGO debut as Mimì, she tells me about all the things she loves. Her hometown of Coquimbo, in northern Chile. The beach. Her dogs. Her mother, a kindergarten teacher, and father, a truck driver. Her fiancé, a double-bass player in the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago, where the couple is based. Her uncles, younger brother, and granny. Singing, always—even though her beloved family wasn’t a musical one.

When, I want to know, did opera come into her heart?

“I think, in 2016, when I sang, for the first time, a Puccini opera,” Yaritza says, remembering her experience at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago – Opéra Nacional de Chile. “That was La bohème, when I sang Musetta. That was my debut with Puccini. And in that moment, I thought, I really want someday to sing the role of Mimì, because it has everything. Mimì is very honest. It’s beautiful.

“Puccini has something that takes my heart. It’s very strong, you know? And Verdi has also that, but I think it’s mostly with Puccini to me. I think he’s my favorite composer. His music moves all my emotions. When I am singing Mimì, or I hear the music, it’s impossible not being in tears, you know? I start to cry. I start to feel something. The music moves me— moves every fibra —I don’t know how to say fibra Fiber? From my body.”

Yaritza sang her first Mimì in 2022, at the Glyndebourne Festival, and caused a sensation. She performed the role again in early 2024 at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, leading a reviewer at Opera Now to write: “I will stick my neck out and say that soprano Yaritza Véliz will become a star.” Of course, by then, it was already written. And now, HGO audiences have the extraordinary opportunity to experience Yaritza’s glorious voice when she performs her favorite role, Mimì, in her company debut.

Yaritza’s path to opera stardom can be traced back to when she was 6 years old, singing with her school chorus. From the beginning, she knew her voice was different. “This weird voice that I had, it was special,” she remembers. “It was like an old voice.”

When she was 12, her family traveled to her father’s hometown, a religious town called Andacollo, and heard a tenor singing at the church. “I thought, that man sings like me. And I never heard before an

opera singer.” She introduced herself to him and sang something. “He started to scream,” Yaritza remembers. “He goes out. He starts to scream, she’s a miracle! The miracle of Andacollo! ” Her journey in opera had officially begun.

The next year, Yaritza got a scholarship from Amigos del Municipal de Santiago, part of Opéra Nacional de Chile. From then on, every weekend, she traveled six hours by bus from Coquimbo to Santiago, and six hours back, to train with her voice teacher. Her family was proud of her, but nervous, unsure about opera as a career choice. Still, they supported her, with Yaritza’s mom joining her on her long trips to Santiago until she was able to navigate the city by herself.

Yaritza continued her music studies at the Universidad de Chile. Then, in 2018, she applied for the two-year Young Artists Programme at the Royal Ballet and Opera and was accepted. At 26, she moved to London, not yet knowing English. “It was a shock for my family,” she says. “Mostly for my granny, because she was always more protective with me. But she was always very, very happy for what I did, and my parents also.”

Now in demand at the world’s great houses, Yaritza loves her job, although, she admits, it’s not without sacrifice. Life on the road can be lonely. “I like to be with my family,” she says, “I like to be with my fiancé all the time. I really like to have friends. After the claps, when you finish, you take off everything, and then you’re alone.” She goes home to Chile whenever she can.

The conversation returns to La bohème, and Yaritza’s favorite role. Her second Mimì, she confides, was very different from her first. “The difference was, my granny passed away last December,” she says. “I was with my granny when she died. I was holding her hand and telling her, everything will be okay

“And at the Royal Opera, when I sang the last words that Mimì said, I really understood what she wanted to say. I knew the meaning of, it’s your last time to talk to someone you really love. And I saw that in the eyes of my granny.

“And when I sang Mimì, I was in tears. But then I really feel it, what Mimì wants, because she really wants to be alive for someone she loves. You know, the love is very important in this opera. And when you are trying to be alive, it’s sometimes more hard when you love someone, and you don’t want to leave that person. I think that’s the meaning of this opera. It’s the real love.” 

PHOTO: YARITZA VÉLIZ AS MIMÌ AT LONDON'S ROYAL BALLET AND OPERA. PHOTO CREDIT: CAMILA GREENWELL, ROYAL OPERA HOUSE.

Ticket sales cover less than 20% of the cost of producing great opera. Your contributions make up the rest. Bring grand opera to families and students across Houston—give today.

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For more information, visit HGO.org/ Donate. Please contact Sarah Bertrand, assistant director of philanthropy, at 713-546-0276 or SBertrand@HGO.org.

DIRECTOR'S NOTE: WEST SIDE STORY

By Francesca Zambello

“Two households, both alike in dignity...” Thus begins Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in which we see “ancient grudge break to new mutiny.”

When Arthur Laurents and Jerome Robbins first conceived a modern, musical version of the play, he imagined a rivalry between Catholic and Jewish communities on the Lower East Side; only later did he and his collaborators move the story uptown, pitting a gang of native New Yorkers against those more recently arrived.

Although America is a country of immigrants, we continue to struggle with issues around immigration and migration, which makes West Side Story as resonant today as it was when it was first written. The musical landed on Broadway in 1957, just as the Civil Rights Movement was gaining steam and we were collectively examining some of the divisions in our country. In many ways, we have moved forward since that time. But even in the time from the debut of this production here at HGO in 2018 until now, I feel I’ve witnessed the growth of hatred in our country. There are now laws in place against certain kinds of discrimination, but especially with the rise of social media, I’m concerned that we are becoming more, not less, inclined to think in terms of “us” vs. “them.” The story of two warring gangs challenges all of us to look at how we define and marginalize “the other.” Perhaps we find it easy to engage with people of

different cultural backgrounds. But what about differences in education? Politics? Religion? Economic means? Gender and sexuality?

The clash of cultures has been exacerbated by the increasing accessibility of firearms in this country, which has resulted in the deaths of not only those who take it upon themselves to represent and defend a particular group, but countless innocents caught in the crossfire. The creators’ vision of America is hardly a utopian one, but they surely never imagined a landscape like today’s, in which mass shootings are a regular occurrence in every kind of community, from an urban nightclub to a suburban schoolyard.

The presence of a gun in the final moments of West Side Story drastically changes the dynamic in a way that is immediately recognizable. Maria’s final speech is almost unbearable to witness, in part because it is so easy to empathize with her state of mind. “How do you fire this gun, Chino? Just by pulling this little trigger? How many bullets are left, Chino? Enough for you? ….and you? All of you? We all killed him; and my brother and Riff. I, too. I CAN KILL NOW, BECAUSE I HATE NOW.”

Leonard Bernstein scrawled “an out and out plea for racial tolerance” across the first page of his copy of Romeo and Juliet. As we approach this piece once again, I hope we can make that plea reverberate in a new way. 

Photo credit: Michael Bishop

LENNY

IN COW TOWN

HGO colleagues remember wild Houston nights with the composer of West Side Story

By Joe Cadagin, Audience Education and Communications Manager

Bernstein, baritone Timothy Nolen, and soprano Sheri Greenawald at the composer’s poolside party celebrating the HGO world premiere of his opera, A Quiet Place (1983)

Photo credit: Jean Uppman

It was June 17, 1983, and Houston Grand Opera had just given the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s opera A Quiet Place. Downtown Houston’s Four Seasons ballroom was packed with donors and dignitaries in black tie, assembled for an elegant post-show dinner. Presiding over the affair was then-General Director David Gockley, who labored tirelessly to bring this new work to the stage.

But, of course, the man of the hour was the 64-year-old Bernstein—white-haired and paunchy, but well-tanned and still youthful. Soprano Sheri Greenawald, who debuted the role of Dede in A Quiet Place, recalls how events unfolded.

“Even though champagne was running freely that night, Lenny had a bottle of scotch on his table. He was in a very jolly mood. When it came time to address the room, he stood up and said, ‘I think we have to thank David Gockley for bringing culture to this cow town!’

“My jaw dropped. There was silence. I could see David was turning six shades of white.” Greenawald and her Quiet Place co-star, the late baritone Timothy Nolen, “kicked each other black and blue under the table. Because Cowtown is Fort Worth. To call Houston a cow town—it’s an oil town, if it’s anything!”

Although Bernstein’s opening-night joke “went over like a lead balloon,” as Greenawald puts it, his intent was mischievous rather than malicious. “I think Lenny could get away with most anything,” she adds. “He was sort of the king of the world, really. Anybody who worked with him surely knew his power. You just absorbed it.”

The composer was genuinely grateful to Gockley and the company for mounting A Quiet Place. Indeed, a lot was riding on this new work. Bernstein had always had a fraught relationship with music theater in all its forms, never feeling like he could get any genre quite right—especially opera.

Having grown up in the shadow of George Gershwin, Bernstein had a life-long dream of writing the next Great American Opera, one that could rank alongside Porgy and Bess. In 1976, Bernstein attended HGO’s legendary production of Porgy during its run on Broadway.

“He came backstage afterward,” says former HGO Music Director John DeMain, who conducted the performance. “And he said, ‘I’ve waited 40 years to hear it done this way.’ He had never conducted that score, but he knew every note of it. Lenny idolized Gershwin. I think he saw himself as a modern-day Gershwin, as the successor to Gershwin.”

In many ways, West Side Story carried forward Gershwin’s legacy, more so than the works that Bernstein explicitly labeled “opera.” The score for his 1957 musical is structured operatically, unified by a system

Bernstein and former HGO Music Director John DeMain in rehearsal for A Quiet Place.

Photo credit: Jim Caldwell

Bernstein and former HGO General Director David Gockley.

Photo credit: Jim Caldwell

Bernstein and A Quiet

).

of recurring themes—like the rising, three-note motive from the prologue. You can hear it being whistled during the aerial shot of Manhattan at the beginning of the 1961 film adaptation.

DeMain remembers learning some surprising information about this little tune, and other supposedly instrumental motives from the musical. After being chosen to conduct the Broadway revival of West Side Story in 1980, he was granted an hourlong audience with Bernstein at the maestro’s Central Park West apartment.

“Around 55 minutes in, he said, ‘Go to the piano and play the opening notes of the prologue.’ So, ba-dee-da. And he said to me, ‘You know, all of that had words. Stephen Sondheim and I wrote words to the whole prologue, the whole dance at the gym, everything.’”

The show’s choreographer and director, Jerome Robbins, eliminated many of these lyrics, converting sung portions into purely danced sequences. “It was Robbins who fashioned the show into the hit that it was,” admits DeMain.

Previews for that 1980 production took place in Miami, where Bernstein was on hand to oversee the musical direction. Initially, he tried to impose his ideal tempos on DeMain. But they were far too fast or slow for Robbins’s choreography. The composer eventually gave up, realizing that West Side Story was born of collaboration, not a single mastermind. As DeMain recounts, “Lenny said to me, ‘We agreed to do this revival because Jerry Robbins would stage and choreograph it. Give him what he wants.’”

Catholic service and a musical revue. Five years later, he tried to replicate the popularity of West Side Story with another musical, the presidential-themed 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It turned out to be one of the most famous flops in Broadway history, closing after only seven performances.

By 1980, then, Bernstein was in desperate need of a success to lift him out of his theatrical slump. It was at that point when he received a letter from a journalist requesting an interview. Appended to the note was an odd postscript: “Interested in librettos?” The writer was Stephen Wadsworth, who would become a respected director of opera and classical drama (he staged HGO’s new production of Il trovatore this season). At the time, however, he was an unknown twenty-something.

Wadsworth and Bernstein clicked, and the two became fast friends. “Once he trusted you and allowed you access,” says Wadsworth, “he was unreserved in his respect and affection, and the dearest and most humble collaborator.” Together, they conceived a sequel to Trouble in Tahiti that examined the lives of its characters 30 years later. Titled A Quiet Place, the opera was an intense study of family dysfunction and mental illness. Wadsworth’s libretto drew on his own first-hand experiences, combined with autobiographical elements from Bernstein.

Bernstein’s first opera, Trouble in Tahiti, premiered in 1952. It’s a one-act send-up of mid-century suburbia in which a trio of scat singers narrate the unhappy realities of a picket-fence marriage. This was followed by his 1956 operetta Candide, based on Voltaire’s satirical novella. While a hit, the work underwent endless revisions throughout the composer’s life.

In 1971, Bernstein returned to the stage with his Mass, an innovative yet underappreciated work that combined elements of a

“There were certain relationships he wanted to write about,” explains Wadsworth, “and of course he opened the weighty, creaking door of his heart, and all that life experience, energy, and invention burst out like a million dollar bills being blown down the street. My job was to make him want to open his heart, then try to catch as many bills as I could and get them into, you know, the attaché case. To calm that wind and get the bills into some kind of order.”

At his appointment as general director of HGO in 1972, David Gockley made it the company’s mission to cultivate new

Place librettist Stephen Wadsworth, photographed in New York by Arthur Elgort (whose son, Ansel, went on to play Tony in the 2021 Spielberg adaption of West Side Story

American works. A Quiet Place was commissioned as the fifth HGO world premiere, to be presented in 1983 as a double bill with Trouble in Tahiti. DeMain, remembering Bernstein’s tendency to interfere during West Side Story preparations, had the composer fly out to Houston after rehearsals were already underway.

Once he arrived, the cast performed the first scene for Bernstein at a warehouse space in Chinatown. “And he’s watching it,” recalls DeMain, “and he’s weeping! ‘It’s all so’—I won’t use his language— ‘fabulous, effing fabulous!’ He was very moved and thrilled with the whole thing.”

That particular scene, which depicts the funeral of a departed wife, no doubt held great personal significance for Bernstein. Five years earlier, he had lost his own spouse, Felicia Montealegre. Their rocky relationship and Bernstein’s complex sexual identity also seem to be reflected in Wadsworth’s libretto, which features a bisexual character married to a woman.

Closeted for most of his life, Bernstein began to display his samesex attraction more openly in the years following his wife’s death. Sheri Greenawald retells how she and the rest of the cast invited him out dancing one night to a gay country-western joint, the Brazos River Bottom. “Now we know why he writes in 5/4 time,” remarked Greenawald’s colleague, “he dances in 5/4!”

Bernstein could really let loose. Following a Sunday matinee of A Quiet Place, the composer hosted a poolside party at the Four Seasons. Local jazz musician Robert “Doc” Morgan was there leading his band in some tasteful background music while the guests awaited the maestro’s arrival.

“Everybody started getting kind of restless,” Morgan recollects. “Finally—and I’m not exaggerating—you could hear this roar getting louder and louder. All of a sudden, the doors flung open, and out walked Leonard Bernstein in a bathing suit, cowboy hat, a cigarette held high, with 20 gay young men hopping around him. The party changed like that.”

8mm footage from that shindig shows a bath-robed Bernstein basking in his post-show glory. Playing the Texan boy from “cow

town” in his Roy Rogers hat, he dances a little striptease, executes a Chaplinesque heel kick, and embraces members of the featured entertainment—the all-gay Montrose Country Cloggers.

At the climax of the night, Bernstein asked Morgan if he could sing one of his own numbers, “Some Other Time” from On the Town. “I said, ‘Lenny, if the key’s not right, tell me.’ He looked at me like I was from Mars and said, ‘Mr. Morgan [pretends to puff on cigarette] when I sing [puff] there is no key.’ And listen, it was terrible —it was embarrassing! He messed up the form on his own tune.” A snapshot captures Morgan looking on in confusion as Bernstein skips to the bridge prematurely.

“Being with Lenny was always a little dangerous, you know?,” sums up Greenawald. “You’re not dealing with your choir director down the street. This is Leonard f***king Bernstein, okay?”

Of course, behind Bernstein’s showboating and carousing—as well as the persona of the Great American Composer-cumConductor—was a genuine and vulnerable man that Wadsworth recalls fondly.

“I figured out early on that, one-on-one, away from the scramble of fame and crowded rooms, he was truly one of the great people. With others around, expecting him always to perform Leonard Bernstein for them, he was uncomfortable and often irascible. When we could simply talk and work, he was of course one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever known— an intellectual companion nonpareil, a very funny man, an important humanitarian thinker, a mentor, and a friend.” 

Bernstein and Houston jazz musician Robert "Doc" Morgan at the composer's Four Seasons party.

Photo credit: Tim Tull

MAKING LOVE LAST

The enduring appeal of Puccini’s La bohème

By Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director

La bohème is the French title of an Italian opera often uttered with a warm sigh, and in English-speaking countries it is virtually never translated, because the sigh is not there in English. As it turns out, in art as in life, the sigh with which you utter a name is everything.

Jonathan Larson’s popular 1996 musical Rent takes its title—and most of its plot—from Puccini’s La bohème. The title comes from Bohème’s first act, when the landlord Benoît interrupts the antics of four men and demands the delinquent rent on their garret with one brusque Italian word, “affitto!” Rent created a sensation and an entire cottage industry, including Lin-Manuel Miranda’s pandemic film, Tick, Tick…Boom!, based on another musical by Larson, an autobiography about his years composing Rent.

Larson’s own story mirrored La bohème, including his tragic premature death at age 35 from a misdiagnosed aortic dissection that took his life only a day before Rent ’s first Broadway preview. For a generation of theatergoers who were themselves coming of age, Larson became linked forever with his own characters, especially Mimi Márquez, the leading female character, based on Puccini’s character.

One wonders what Puccini might have thought of a remake of his beloved Bohème that turns Parisian seamstress Mimì into a Latinx stripper in Lower Manhattan. We can’t imagine he would have been anything other than delighted. And he composed in an era when reusing stories was not only accepted but expected. Puccini, too, was forever linked with Bohème, to a point of making it difficult for him to be taken as seriously as his talent would have demanded. Puccini, so beloved now, did not enjoy much acclaim in his life.

“Povera Mimì” (poor Mimì), sings Marcello in the third act of La bohème. We might echo with “Povera Puccini,” for the woeful reputation the composer had during much of his lifetime. He experienced modern problems: he was one of the first to experience a car accident, and he died of effects from excessive tobacco use. Any composer would envy Puccini’s popularity, but his deep connection with a large opera-loving public, and his cultural reach far beyond opera as well, were the very things that made him so suspect to his colleagues. An Italian music critic after the first performance of La bohème in Turin not only predicted the opera would make no great impression on the world, but also suggested that Puccini take up some other line of work to avoid further embarrassment. The review, which wasn’t an uncommon contemporary sentiment about any of Puccini’s operas, has obviously not aged well. La bohème is very easily the most popular opera ever composed, known and loved by millions.

Puccini composed three of the most popular operas in history— La bohème, Madame Butterfly, and Tosca —but that was hardly all. Manon Lescaut and La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) are both thrilling works that audiences love if they will attend them—getting an audience to attend anything is the biggest issue facing the arts, not getting them to enjoy it once they’re here. Puccini’s famous final opera, though he did not live to complete it, was his epic Turandot, an orchestral and choral glory set in a fantasy fairytale China. His undoubted masterpiece, though, is his 1918 commission from the Metropolitan Opera, his trio of one-act operas which together form into a single work entitled Il trittico, which for me is the greatest single evening of Italian opera ever composed. Why? It holds within it all of the impulses that propelled Bohème to such unprecedented popularity—youth, humor, and pathos—but it has so much more. It was Puccini’s artistic reaction to the horrors of WWI, which had no discernible end in sight as Trittico was conceived and composed. Unable to face the scale of the death all around him, he had two different librettists fashion three diversely wonderful operas that share a powerful unifying theme: the effect of one death on those left alive. In a fairer world, Trittico would be as popular as Bohème, but culture, like the life it reflects, is unpredictable.

And Bohème’s success was also unpredictable. It was wildly unconventional for the mores of its day. Very few operas of the era were about “regular” folks. It was considered unseemly at the time to portray poverty, though Charles Dickens went a long way in changing that in literature. In opera, though, it was rare until Puccini opened the floodgates.

Opposite page: Act II of HGO's 2018 production

Wagner, though gone for 20 years or more by Puccini’s maturity, had influenced all. The death of Verdi in 1901 left Italy without a unifying cultural figurehead (he had been a national hero for most of his long life), and the Italian intelligentsia turned to Puccini to fulfill the legacy of both Wagner and Verdi, which was a big ask for anyone. Puccini was altogether a more light-hearted and sentimental creative artist. He did not aspire to the intellectual heights of Wagner nor the epic emotional worlds of Verdi. Most of Wagner and Verdi’s title roles were male (Aida was a rarity in that way), while Puccini’s operas not only were largely about women, but they also appealed to women in a generation when women attending the theater became more commonplace—through most of the 19th century, the theater or opera house was an extension of the business day, and women were rarely present. Puccini, in terms of opera, changed all of that.

of La bohème, directed by John Caird. This page: Ivan Magrì and Nicole Heaston as Rodolfo and Mimì in HGO's La bohème (2018).

Photo credits: Lynn Lane

HGO'S LONG HISTORY WITH LA BOHÈME

HE

UNDERSTOOD THE HUMAN HEART AS

ONLY A GREAT ARTIST CAN. AND IF THERE IS A SCORE ABOUT YOUNG LOVE THAT IS MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN LA BOHÈME, WE HAVE YET TO HEAR IT."

La bohème is rich with mirror images. Nearly every plot event occurs in both forward and reverse, foreshadowing two possible outcomes: a lifetime of happiness for Mimì and Rodolfo or an uncertain, unpredictable conclusion. The libretto is filled with these pairs: sunset and sunrise, winter and spring, Parisian rooftops mentioned by both Mimì and Rodolfo in different ways, and the two garret acts opening with the same musical material. The quarrels between Marcello and Musetta reflect the deeper, more painful jealousies and irreconcilable differences between Mimì and Rodolfo. Another notable plot mirror involves the gift Rodolfo buys for Mimì on Christmas Eve: a small bonnet, which she later tells him to return, a painful reminder for both of them. Then there is a final gift from Musetta—a muff to keep Mimì’s hands warm (her cold hands being the focus of Rodolfo’s aria in the first act). However, Mimì mistakenly assumes the gift is from Rodolfo, and Musetta, in a poignant moment, does not correct her.

Bohème is also, for interpreters, absolutely jam-packed with musical delights, each of which has importance and meaning, and many of which are missed by conductors and directors. In their defense, it is almost impossible to do them all justice. To fully achieve them, a conductor must work in very close collaboration with a director and all of the artists to make it into an organic whole, and as a repertory opera, Bohème almost never gets rehearsed that way.

There are so many details: La bohème begins with a musical shudder depicting the cold Parisian attic garret where the four bohemians live. They are a poet, painter, musician, and philosopher—Rodolfo, Marcello, Schaunard, and Colline—but what Puccini’s score tells us so clearly, and with such aching beauty, is that these men are none of these things. They are all pretenders, lost in the mêlée of life, trying to find their way. Rodolfo, the supposed poet, never produces a meaningful word as a writer until he gazes into the eyes of Mimì, and suddenly there is the poetry he had been seeking in all the wrong places. Puccini profoundly understood these characters, and what he composed for them is truly indelible. He changed

opera forever with this one work, and only the greatest can do that. How did he do it?

He undoubtedly had a unique melodic gift, but he was more than that. The world into which he emerged was one of virtuoso orchestras and star singers, and he also had a unique ability to create roles that great artists long to perform. But Puccini’s greatest gift was with audiences, who loved his music instantly and love it to this day. He understood the human heart as only a great artist can. And if there is a score about young love that is more beautiful than La bohème, we have yet to hear it.

La bohème has so many musical highlights that it is challenging to only point out a few. There are this opera’s famous arias, of course, all very well known: Rodolfo’s, both of Mimì’s, and Musetta’s famous waltz. The brilliant second act, only 18 minutes in length, packs in more fun and drama and comedy than many entire operas.

The musical high point of La bohème is the great quartet that closes the opera’s third act, an absolute wonder of character and subtlety. Within it, we hear the entire drama: the cold loneliness of winter, the aching desires of the two young lovers, the harsh reality of Mimì’s illness, and the petty arguments of Marcello and Musetta. And not all of Bohème hits you over the head: Schaunard, the “musician,” corrects the tempo of a boy’s pretend dancing, and the constant verbal one-upmanship in which the boys engage is always given some musical flourish as well. Much of Bohème is very subtle indeed, and so often incredibly beautiful: when Mimì is in her dying moments, Puccini even orchestrates her last heartbeats as they get ever further-apart and faint. Absolutely no detail went unnoticed by him.

Yes, there are reasons we utter La bohème with a sigh. It connects us to the greatest impulses of love and youth and innocence and loss, things that every person privileged with adulthood will experience. It also shares with us, without lecturing us, a gentle reminder that life is brief, so grab the love that is yours. We don’t know exactly who said it, as it is one of those statements that is so true that many claim it, but when asked why opera stays alive at all, the answer was clear: there is always someone hearing La bohème for the first time. Sigh. 

DIRECTOR'S NOTE: LA BOHÈME

By John Caird

Henry Murger was 23 years old when he started writing Scènes de la vie de bohème, and Théodore Barrière was 25 when he adapted the work for the stage. Both men knew very well the world they were describing, so there is a raw authenticity about their efforts that requires an interpreter to take these young characters and their plight very seriously.

Nothing very much happens in La bohème —our young artists share a garret apartment, two of them have lovers, one of whom is seriously ill. These relationships founder—from jealousy and infidelity—and then one of the girls dies. It is all very real and intensely sad—but not the stuff of genuine tragedy. In fact, the essential tone of La bohème is comedic. Although dirt poor and struggling artistically, these witty, mocking, irreverent students take life in their stride. Were it not for the intensity with which they suffer emotionally, Bohème would be an outright comedy with a sad ending. But this is a drama with a distinctly French ingredient—it is the same essential mixture of emotions that Balzac achieved in his Comédie humaine —genuine laughter, sometimes angry, sometimes joyous, but always mixed with tears.

may act as our interpreters. If Schaunard, the composer, is represented in the pit by Puccini himself, the scenic world that the bohemians inhabit is as if painted by Marcello. Every surface of the set is a canvas drawn from the same rich and chaotic pictorial world as that of Toulouse-Lautrec—a contemporary of Puccini and an artist who was himself obsessed by the bohemian underworld of Paris.

We only get a brief glimpse of the lives of the artists in Bohème, but we can be allowed to imagine that these young men may turn out to be influential figures in their own right. The lives of so many artists start out in desperation, poverty, and disappointment before they realize their full potential—and their intimate friends and muses, if they survive, can bear witness to the reality of these early struggles.

Herein lies the true genius of Puccini’s achievement. By giving every one of Murger’s characters a real musical specificity, Puccini allows them to move from laughter to tears and back again with effortless ease—and his orchestral background overflows with the most lovingly crafted detail in support of their complex emotional journeys.

For this production, designer David Farley and I have chosen to imagine that the characters of the opera

The two muses in Bohème represent two very different aspects of this witness. Musetta is an intensely practical young woman who knows that she must rely on men in order to live in any sort of comfort—despite the fact that she clearly adores Marcello. Mimì is a different case altogether—the minute she walks into the garret she brings mystery, beauty, and stillness with her. Puccini allows himself to linger over her dreams and those of Rodolfo—and these dreams provide us with the emotional heart of the work. Murger and Puccini are both saying the same thing, one with words and the other with music. Life can be harsh, and unfair and horribly brief—but it can always be mitigated by beauty— the beauty of a face, or a dream, or a mind or a melody. Love and art will always prove more powerful than death. 

This director's note was previously published by Canadian Opera Company (2013).

Title page of an 1877

edition of Henry Murger's Scènes de la vie de bohème, illustrated by André Gill (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

THE CHARMING AND TERRIBLE LIFE OF STARVING ARTISTS IN 1830S PARIS

By Joe Cadagin, Audience Education and Communications Manager

Bohemian Rhapsody

What’s a bohemian? In one sense, Bohemia is a very real place—a Czech region smackdab in the middle of Europe. There existed a common misconception that Roma travelers originated from this area. They were dubbed bohémiens in French, just as the English word “gypsies” stemmed from the misassumption that the Roma came from Egypt. “Bohemian” eventually expanded into a catch-all for anyone who, like the Roma, lived on the fringes of society: vagrants, criminals, prostitutes, and other denizens of the shady demimonde

In the early 19th century, however, “bohemian” came to be associated with a specific subgroup of outsiders. The title of Puccini’s 1896 opera—a shortened version of the French phrase la vie de bohème —refers to the unconventional lifestyles of poor young artists residing in Paris. They were flamboyant figures, most of them male, and many of them students. They grew their hair long and dressed in dandyish attire, or else in the shabbiest of outfits (where we get our fashion of “boho-chic”). They engaged in eccentric behaviors, throwing wild parties where they took hashish and drank punch from skulls.

Most importantly, they subjected themselves to abysmal poverty in order to devote themselves fully to their art. But this freedom could come at a terrible cost, as Puccini’s opera warns us.

artists and intellectuals to exchange ideas, often speaking in their own specialized slang. Cafés were treated as ersatz studios where bohemians read, wrote, sketched, and painted. To save money, one member of a cohort would buy a cup of coffee and camp out at a table shared by several friends, none of whom intended to order anything.

One of the most popular of these venues was the Café Momus in the Latin Quarter, the setting of Act II in Puccini’s opera. Named after the Greek god of satire, the Momus was a regular haunt of Henry Murger, the author whose works served as the inspiration for La bohème

In the 1840s, Murger published a series of semifictionalized stories detailing his first-hand experiences as an authentic bohemian. The characters (hereafter referred to by the Italian versions of their names given to them in the opera) were based on the author’s friends and lovers. The tales were adapted into a wildly popular musical play in 1849 and, two years later, compiled into a collected volume titled Scènes de la vie de bohème

The forerunners of beatniks, hippies, and hipsters, bohemians emerged at one of the first points in modern history when such a countercultural movement was possible. In 1830, the Second French Revolution installed a new monarchy with a liberal-minded king who was well-disposed to the growing class of bourgeois professionals. In La bohème, Rodolfo bows sarcastically to the portrait of Louis Philippe on a coin, mocking the middle-class mores this “Citizen King” represented.

Granted, the bourgeoisie has always encompassed a wide range of backgrounds and incomes. (Although “bougie” signifies “ostentatiously wealthy” today, the vast majority of contemporary Americans are technically bourgeois.) But for the disillusioned youth of 1830s and ’40s France, “bourgeois” was less a social class than a shorthand for a set of objectionable values: economic stability, domestic comfort, and old-fashioned aesthetic tastes. Bohemians were intrepid individualists who sought to escape the expectations of bourgeois orthodoxy, expressing their nonconformity in their unusual habits and creative endeavors.

Without a regular salary, however, bohemians were forced to live in squalor. They occupied cheap apartment houses in the Latin Quarter, the university district surrounding the Sorbonne. Artists could only afford dirty attic rooms known as a “garrets.” These were on the least desirable floors, accessed by several flights of stairs. They were blusteringly chilly, the winter wind ripping through uninsulated eaves. With little to spare for fuel, bohemians often resorted to burning their furniture—just as Marcello threatens to set fire to a chair in Act I of Puccini’s opera.

When they weren’t cooped up in these freezing, dingy domiciles, bohemians frequented Paris’s iconic cafés. These were spaces for

Murger’s preface to this anthology provided a kind of bohemian field guide, laying out a taxonomy of the different “subspecies.” First, there were the “unknown bohemians,” who made up the majority. These were hopelessly mediocre talents who would never gain recognition. Indeed, the only artist of any lasting fame to emerge from early 19th-century bohemia was the poet Charles Baudelaire. The rest faded into obscurity.

Then there were the “amateur bohemians”—poseurs from well-to-do families who were simply slumming for their own amusement. As soon as the going got tough, they got real jobs and retreated into bourgeois respectability. We still see them today in the guise of trust-fund hipsters.

“Real bohemia,” Murger’s third category, comprised the lucky few who not only had artistic potential, but also the dedication needed to achieve anything. For them, bohemia was not an end in itself, but a necessary stop on the way to success—a proving grounds and test of perseverance. In Murger’s stories, Marcello enters his Red Sea canvas (which he’s busy painting as the curtain rises in Puccini’s opera) several years in a row at a competition held at the Louvre. The classically minded judges reject its wild Romanticism—the dominant style among bohemian artists at the time. Eventually, Marcello sells it to a greengrocer as a shop sign.

It demanded this kind of resourcefulness to survive. Many unknown bohemians remained stubborn idealists, refusing all commercial work in the name of High Art. They died pointless martyrdoms, succumbing to illness and even starvation. Real bohemians, on the

Marcel (Marcello) shows his Red Sea painting to an art dealer (illustration by André Gill, BnF).

other hand, were scrappy pragmatists, supporting themselves with side gigs. Rodolfo, for instance, edits a lady’s hat magazine called The Beaver, mentioned in Act I of La bohème. Murger’s original stories typically revolve around the characters’ elaborate schemes to raise a few francs—usually with the aim of wooing some mademoiselle

The women associated with bohemia—almost none of whom were artists—fell into their own category: the grisettes. Christened for their cheap grey dresses, grisettes were provincial girls who moved to Paris to seek labor in factories. Or else, they performed piecework trades like Mimì, who makes artificial flowers in addition to her employment as a seamstress.

In the popular imagination, the grisettes represented sexual liberation—unlike prudish bourgeois daughters, they were open to liaisons with artists and aristocrats alike. In reality, their situations were probably fairly bleak. Grisettes depended on the support of men to supplement their meager wages, which were sent back home to their families.

Some women, like Musetta, lived entirely off the largesse of suitors. Dubbed lorettes, they weren’t quite courtesans, but engaged in multiple simultaneous relationships. Their promiscuity—glorified in Musetta’s waltz number “Quando me’n vo’” in La bohème—was simply a means of getting by. If not some gentleman’s bed, then a hospital bed awaited them.

Indeed, Mimì’s death to tuberculosis, a bacterial infection of the lungs, was all too common among bohemians. Murger recalled a funeral for one of his friends. Ever short on cash, the author was unable to tip the gravedigger. “No matter,” the digger replied, “next time will do!”

Marcello, “One believes, hopes, and all seems beautiful.”

This bohemian tendency to merge life and art is conveyed in HGO’s production of La bohème by Tony-winning director John Caird. The set, designed by David Farley, is constructed almost entirely of painted canvases—as if to say that the rooftops and restaurants of Paris are created by the characters themselves. We see the sooty city as these desperate bohemians would wish to see it, not as it truly is.

But in the end, Rodolfo discovers too late that no amount of poeticizing can preserve Mimì from the inevitable consequences of bohemian life. His odes to her pale skin and frigid hands merely disguise the symptoms of consumption.

In the original stories, Mimì is coquettish and even cruel, closer in temperament to Musetta. And while Rodolfo feels her death deeply, his mourning is short-lived—we get the sense that he'll find another grisette and forget her. Puccini and his librettists, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, took a turn from Murger’s cynical vision. In their Italianized take on the tale, Rodolfo and Mimì’s love lives on forever, immortalized in the sweeping score. Hearing Rodolfo’s cries of “Mimì!” in the final scene, it’s impossible to imagine that he’ll ever be able to move on.

Perhaps these revisions betray a bohemian-style impulse on the part of Puccini and his collaborators to mask the uncomfortable historical reality—to romanticize what were, in actuality, the transactional relationships typical between bohemians. Yet the enduring popularity of La bohème speaks to the importance of the opera’s slightly rose-tinted depiction. We continue to be inspired by its evocations of true love—by its ability to rekindle the purest and profoundest feelings of youthful ardor in our hearts. “The sublimest poem,” as Rodolfo puts it, “is the one which teaches us to love!” 

“Times are not always gay in bohemia,” observed Murger, who called it “a charming and a terrible life.” At the same time, he marveled at bohemians’ endless adaptability and invention, remarking that “their daily existence is a work of genius.” They were the first to merge life and art. Their very existence—their eccentric clothes and mannerisms, their lively café conversations, their fantastical parties, their passionate love affairs— was treated like a grand opus.

No doubt this was a coping method to deal with the wretchedness of their struggles. In Puccini’s opera, the characters are constantly aestheticizing the banal world around them, playing make-believe and waxing rhapsodic about the most mundane objects and occurrences. “O beautiful age of deceits and utopias!” sings

Rodolphe (Rodolfo) woos a grisette (illustration by André Gill, BnF).

PRODUCTION FUNDERS

PRINCIPAL GUARANTORS

Claire Liu and Joe Greenberg

Dian and Harlan Stai

The Wortham Foundation, Inc.

PREMIER GUARANTORS

Houston Grand Opera Endowment, Inc.

GRAND GUARANTORS

The Humphreys Foundation

Mr. John G. Turner and Mr. Jerry G. Fischer

GUARANTORS

Judy and Richard Agee

Joan and Stanford Alexander Family Fund

Robin Angly and Miles Smith

Louise G. Chapman

Drs. Liz Grimm and Jack Roth

Elizabeth and Richard Husseini

Laura and Brad McWilliams

Nabors Industries

Marguerite Swartz

Texas Commission on the Arts

Mr. Veer Vasishta

Margaret Alkek Williams

GRAND UNDERWRITERS

Mr. Eliodoro Castillo and Dr. Eric McLaughlin

Molly and Jim Crownover

The Elkins Foundation

Jennifer and Benjamin Fink

Amanda and Morris Gelb

Marianne and Joe Geagea

Matt Healey

Tracy Maddox and John Serpe

Diane Morales

Saurage Marketing Research

Mary-Olga and John Warren

Marianne Kah

Latham & Watkins LLP

Renee Margolin

Prof. and Mrs. D. Nathan Meehan

National Endowment for the Arts

Terrylin G. Neale

Katherine Reynolds

Mr. and Mrs. David Rowan

Torras Foundation

Helen Wils and Leonard Goldstein

Alan and Frank York

SPONSORS

Rebecca and Brian Duncan

Bryant Lee

Michele Malloy

UNDERWRITERS

Samuels Family Foundation

Loretta and Lawrence Williams

A Co-Production of Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera Company, and San Francisco Opera

Sung in Italian with projected English translation Brown Theater, Wortham Theater Center

The performance lasts approximately 2 hours and 11 minutes, including one intermission.

The activities of Houston Grand Opera are supported in part by funds provided by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts. January 24, 26m, February 1, 6, 9m, 12, 14

Giacomo Puccini LIBRETTO

Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

QUICK START GUIDE

THE OPERA IN ONE SENTENCE

A group of starving Parisian artists live life to the fullest, but their passionate love affairs are threatened by poverty and illness.

BACKGROUND

The title of Puccini’s 1896 opera is a shortened version of the French phrase la vie de bohème —“the bohemian life.” In the 1840s, author Henry Murger published a series of colorful stories chronicling the eccentric behaviors and daily struggles of poor young artists residing in the Latin Quarter of Paris. His collected tales, as well as a popular theatrical adaptation, served as the basis for Puccini’s opera. The libretto was adapted by the playwrighting team of Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, who were associated with a parallel strain of Italian bohemianism dubbed scapigliatura (“dishevelment”). The opera represents an Italian movement known as verismo, an aesthetic of naturalism that often dealt with the lives of everyday people.

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

The curtain rises with a bang—a bounding theme in the orchestra that represents the bohemians’ youthful energy. Act I rides this rollicking momentum toward the romantic heart of the opera: the luscious pair of arias and duet between Rodolfo and Mimì. Rodolfo introduces himself in “Che gelida manina,” a soaring, dreamy number that encapsulates his poetic soul. Mimì responds with her gentle “Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì,” in which she bashfully describes the small joys of her simple life. Their voices intertwine in the ecstatic duet, “O soave fanciulla.” Listen for their final offstage sighs of “Amor!”—a tender expression of love at first sight.

A carnivalesque trumpet theme kicks off the bustling Christmas market in Act II—a complex choral counterpoint of vendors, shoppers, and children. The crowd’s organized musical chaos abates when Musetta arrives to sing her seductive waltz, “Quando m’en vo’.” Reminiscent of a sidewalk accordion tune, it’s one of the few passages in this thoroughly Italian opera that sounds reminiscent of the Parisian setting.

The sparse harp-and-flute motive at the opening of Act III evokes quiet snowfall. This is the wintery backdrop for a dramatic quartet that’s really more of a double breakup duet—Rodolfo and Mimì anticipate their springtime separation in aching, bittersweet phrases while Marcello and Musetta hurl insults at one another.

As Mimì lies on her deathbed in Act IV, listen for themes from the Act I love scene that reprise with tragic irony. This act contains two miniature arias: Colline’s somber “Vecchia zimarra, senti,” a dirge-like ode to the trusty coat he plans to pawn, and Mimì’s farewell “Sono andati?,” which traces one long, drooping line. Listen for the return of both

these numbers in the orchestra when Rodolfo lets out his heartbreaking cries of “Mimì!” at the final curtain.

FUN FACT

Ruggero Leoncavallo, composer of Pagliacci, wrote his own operatic adaptation of Murger’s stories at the same time as Puccini. This rival La bohème —which premiered a year after Puccini’s—features the identical characters and hits most of the same plot points. Yet Leoncavallo’s libretto focuses the story on Marcello and Musetta as the lead couple. Coincidentally, Musetta has her own waltz number in the vein of “Quando me’n vo’.” Puccini’s beloved tune is quoted in a better-known Bohème adaptation— Jonathan Larson’s 1996 rock opera Rent. The musical re-sets the action in Manhattan’s East Village during the AIDS epidemic, with HIV standing in for tuberculosis.

CAST & CREATIVE

CAST

(in order of vocal appearance)

Marcello

Rodolfo

Colline

Schaunard

Benoît / Alcindoro

Mimì

Parpignol

Musetta

Customs Officer

Sergeant

Edward Parks *

Michael McDermott †

Michelle Beale and Dick Anderson / Dr. Ellen R. Gritz and Mr. Milton D. Rosenau Jr. Fellow

Cory McGee ‡

Navasard Hakobyan †

Bill and Melinda Brunger / Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Nickson / Gloria M. Portela Fellow

Héctor Vásquez

Yaritza Véliz * Novum Artist

Demetrious Sampson, Jr. †

Dr. Dina Alsowayel and Mr. Anthony R. Chase / Mr. Eliodoro Castillo and Mr. Eric McLaughlin / Mr. and Mrs

Hector Torres / Mr. Trey Yates Fellow

Brittany Renee *

Sam Dhobhany †

Johnny Salvesen

CREATIVE TEAM

Conductor

Director

Associate Director

Set and Costume Designer

Lighting Designer

Fight Director

Intimacy Director

Chorus Director

Children's Chorus Director

Italian Diction Coach

Musical Preparation

Stage Manager

Assistant Director

Karen Kamensek *

John Caird

Katherine M. Carter

David Farley

Michael James Clark

H. Russ Brown

Olivia Knight

Richard Bado ‡

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Director Chair

Karen Reeves

Gerardo Felisatti

Laura Bleakley †

Ms. Lynn Des Prez / Dr. and Mrs. Miguel Miro-Quesada Fellow

Jenny Choo †

Dr. Laura E. Sulak and Dr. Richard W. Brown Fellow

Peter Pasztor ‡

Teddy Poll

Annie Wheeler

Colter Schoenfish

* Mainstage debut

† Butler Studio artist

‡ Former Butler Studio artist

PRODUCTION CREDITS

English supertitles by Scott Heumann, adapted by Alexa Lietzow. Supertitles called by Judy Frow.

Performing artists, stage directors, and choreographers are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO, the union for opera professionals in the United States.

Scenic, costume, and lighting designers and assistant designers are represented by United Scenic Artists, IATSE Local USA-829. Orchestral musicians are represented by the Houston Professional Musicians Association, Local #65-699, American Federation of Musicians.

Stage crew personnel provided by IATSE, Local #51.

Wardrobe personnel provided by Theatrical Wardrobe Union, Local #896.

Usher personnel provided by IATSE, Local B-184.

This production is being recorded for archival purposes.

SYNOPSIS

Original Setting: Paris, 1830s

Act I

Marcello, an artist, is busy painting while his roommate Rodolfo, a poet, gazes from their freezing garret apartment at the rooftops of Paris. Desperate for a little warmth, the young men burn the script of Rodolfo’s play. They’re soon joined by their companions Colline, a philosopher, and Schaunard, a composer. The latter bears cash and a basket of food and fuel—a bounty won by helping an English gentleman exterminate a parrot. After evading Benoît the landlord’s demands for rent, the bohemians set out to celebrate Christmas Eve in the Latin Quarter. All depart except Rodolfo, who has an article to finish writing. A young woman suddenly knocks at his door, asking him to relight her candle. This is Mimì, a seamstress who also makes artificial flowers. Suffering from tuberculosis, she faints from exhaustion. Once she revives, Mimì bids him goodnight, only to realize that she’s misplaced her key. Searching for it together in the dark, their hands touch. The two are instantly smitten with one another: he with Mimì’s pale, innocent beauty; she with Rodolfo’s way with words. Singing of love, they exit armin-arm to meet the others.

Act II

Amidst the bustling Christmas market in the Latin Quarter, the bohemian quartet—now accompanied by Mimì—do some shopping. Parpignol the toy salesman pushes his cart through the crowd, and children beg their mothers for a present. Meanwhile, the bohemians find a table at their usual venue, Café Momus. Their meal is interrupted by the arrival of the coquettish Musetta and her older benefactor, Alcindoro. A former flame of Marcello’s, Musetta taunts the artist and drives him mad with jealousy. Unable to resist her siren song, Marcello falls into Musetta’s embrace. Together the group makes off into the crowd, leaving Alcindoro to foot their hefty dinner bill.

INTERMISSION

Act III

Two months later, snow falls on the Barrière d’Enfer, a tollgate where street sweepers and peddlers enter Paris daily. A sickly looking Mimì approaches the nearby inn, from which Marcello emerges. He and Musetta have taken up lodging here, joined recently by Rodolfo. Mimì tells Marcello of her dissolving relationship with Rodolfo, who has grown increasingly jealous and distant. Just then, the poet comes out to speak with Marcello. Concealing herself, Mimì listens as Rodolfo explains that he truly adores Mimì but cannot stand to see her succumb to consumption. Mimì’s cough gives away her hiding place. The two lovers make up, deciding to stay together through the end of winter and part ways in the spring. Meanwhile, Musetta exits the inn. Marcello confronts her for flirting with other guests, and their passionate argument ends in a separation.

Act IV

Some time later, back in their garret apartment, Marcello and Rodolfo—both single now—reminisce about their lost loves. Schaunard and Colline return with some spartan supper supplies, and the friends distract themselves with dancing and games of make-believe. Their revelries are cut short by the unexpected arrival of Musetta, who discovered a critically ill Mimì on the street and helped her climb up to the loft. The bohemian friends do their best to comfort the dying girl: Marcello fetches a doctor, Musetta rushes to buy a fur muff, and Colline goes to pawn his faithful overcoat to help pay for medical expenses. Left alone together, Rodolfo and Mimì fondly remember the day they met. Their companions return, but it’s too late. Mimì expires quietly, and Rodolfo clutches her in despair, crying her name.

HGO PERFORMANCE HISTORY

HGO first performed La bohème in the 1957-58 season, with subsequent performances on the mainstage in the 1963-64, 196869, 1974-75, 1981-82, 1985-86, 1991-92, 1995-96, 2002-03, 2007-08, 2012-13, and 2018-19 seasons.

LA BOHÈME

HGO ORCHESTRA

Patrick Summers,

Artistic and Music Director

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chair

VIOLIN

Denise Tarrant*, Concertmaster

Sarah and Ernest Butler Concertmaster Chair

Chloe Kim*, Assistant Concertmaster

Natalie Gaynor*, Principal Second Violin

Carrie Kauk*, Assistant Principal

Second Violin

Miriam Belyatsky*

Rasa Kalesnykaite*

Hae-a Lee Barnes*

Chavdar Parashkevov†

Anabel Ramirez*

Mary Reed*

Erica Robinson*

Linda Sanders*

Oleg Sulyga*

Sylvia VerMeulen*

Melissa Williams*

Zubaida Azezi

Andres Gonzalez

Kana Kimura

Mila Neal

Sean O’Neal

Augusta Schubert

Rachel Shepard

Emily Zelaya

VIOLA

Eliseo Rene Salazar*, Principal

Lorento Golofeev*, Assistant Principal

Gayle Garcia-Shepard*

Elizabeth Golofeev*

Erika C. Lawson*

Suzanne LeFevre†

Matthew Weathers*

Nicholas Lindel

Sarah Mason

CELLO

Barrett Sills*, Principal

Erika Johnson*, Assistant Principal

Dana Rath*

Wendy Smith-Butler*

Chennie Sung*

Shino Hayashi

DOUBLE BASS

Dennis Whittaker*, Principal

Erik Gronfor*, Assistant Principal

Carla Clark*

Hunter Capoccioni

FLUTE

Henry Williford*, Principal

Tyler Martin*

PICCOLO

Izumi Miyahara

OBOE

Elizabeth Priestly Siffert*, Principal

Mayu Isom†

Stanley Chyi

ENGLISH HORN

Spring Hill

CLARINET

Eric Chi*, Acting Principal

Justin Best

BASS CLARINET

Molly Mayfield

BASSOON

Amanda Swain*, Principal

Quincey Trojanowski*

HORN

Sarah Cranston*, Principal

Kimberly Penrod Minson*

Spencer Park*

Gavin Reed

TRUMPET

Tetsuya Lawson*, Principal

Randal Adams*

Gerardo Mata

TROMBONE

Thomas Hultén*, Principal

Mark Holley*

BASS TROMBONE

Jordan Milek Johnson*

CIMBASSO

Mark Barton*, Principal

TIMPANI

Alison Chang*, Principal

PERCUSSION

Richard Brown†, Principal

Christina Carroll, Acting Principal

Craig Hauschildt

Karen Slotter

HARP

Caitlin Mehrtens*, Principal

BANDA

Lisa Nickl, Piccolo

Rebecca Powell Garfield, Piccolo

Paul Armitage, Trumpet

Philip Scoles, Trumpet

Robert McCullagh, Percussion

* HGO Orchestra core musician † HGO Orchestra core musician on leave this production

HGO CHORUS

Richard Bado, Chorus Director

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Director Chair

Nathan Abbott

Dennis Arrowsmith

Sarah Bannon

Megan Berti

Steve Buza

Christopher Childress

Jennifer Coffman

Patrick Contreras

Callie Denbigh

Zack Scott Frank

Dallas Gray

Sarah Jane Hardin

Austin Hoeltzel

Julie Cathryn Hoeltzel

Audrey Hurley

Jon Janacek

Katherine Jones

Joe Key

Alison King

Melissa Krueger

Wesley Landry

Carolena Belle Lara

Sarah L. Lee

Aarianna B. Longino

Alejandro Magallón

Heath Martin

Jeff Monette

Natasha Monette

Tristan G. Montaque

Leah Moody

Iván Moreno

Matthew Neumann

Abby Powell

Saïd Henry Pressley

Gabrielle Reed

Kendall Reimer

HGO CHILDREN’S CHORUS

Karen Reeves, Children's Chorus Director

Annie Blitz

Iris Burke

Olivia Chang

Emma Cranston

Evelyn Foot

Anvi Joshi

Daniel Karash

Abigail Lee

Maxwell Magallón

SUPERNUMERARIES

Alessandro Baldan

Ian M. Gallagher

David Kenner

Samuel Kor

Sarah Leal

Austin McLeod

Brian Tighe

Dante Petrozzi

Shreya Puvvada

Edison Desch Salek

Macie Joy Speer

Lora Uvarova

Maximus Vu

Asha Weinzapfel

Kaiya Zhang

HGO is grateful to Ignacio Torras and the Torras Foundation for supporting the supernumeraries featured in La bohème In partnership with The Hub and Sensory Stages, HGO featured a child performer from Houston’s neurodivergent community in the production. Torras’s support furthers HGO’s mission to be an inclusive organization that represents the diversity of our great city.

Matthew Reynolds

Francis Rivera

Hannah Roberts

Emily Louise Robinson

Johnny Salvesen

Hillary Schranze

Kellen Schrimper

Valerie Serice

Andrew Surrena

Gabrielle Tyler

Lisa Borik Vickers

Miles Ward

WHO'S WHO

KAREN KAMENSEK (UNITED STATES) CONDUCTOR

Karen Kamensek is making her mainstage HGO debut. Previously for the company, she served as assistant conductor on Four Saints in Three Acts (1996). Engagements for the 2024-25 season include Poul Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale at San Francisco Opera, Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick at the Metropolitan Opera, and Candide at Semperoper Dresden. During the 2023-24 season, Kamensek made several important debuts, from Tosca with London’s Royal Ballet and Opera to the world premiere of Adam Schoenberg’s Cool Cat with the Los Angeles Philharmonic to Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Seattle Symphony. Recent opera highlights include her performances with the English National Opera in Glass's Akhnaten and Satyagraha; Welsh National Opera in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and Candide; the Metropolitan Opera in Rigoletto; the Lyric Opera of Chicago in The Magic Flute; and the Royal Swedish Opera leading Victoria Borisova-Ollas’s Dracula.Her most recent debuts include the world premiere of the Philip Glass ballet Alice with Opéra National du Rhin and Wonderful Town with the Norwegian Opera & Ballet. Kamensek served as the Music Director of the State Opera of Hannover from 2011-16 and Associate Music Director at the Hamburg State Opera from 2008-11. She won the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for her work with the Metropolitan Opera on Philip Glass’s Akhnaten in 2022.

JOHN CAIRD (UNITED KINGDOM)

DIRECTOR

Tony Award-winning director John Caird is an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Principal Guest Director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) in Stockholm, and a freelance writer and director of plays, musicals, and operas. He also directed this production of La bohème for HGO in 2012 and 2018. Other work for HGO includes directing and writing the libretto for two company world premieres: Tarik O’Regan’s The Phoenix (2019) and André Previn’s Brief Encounter (2009). Also for HGO, he directed Parsifal (2024), Tosca (2023, 2015, 2010), and Don Carlos (2012). His recent directorial credits include his own adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film Spirited Away in Tokyo and London; Monteverdi’s Orfeo at Garsington Opera; Estella Scrooge in New York; Knights’ Tale, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night, all in Tokyo; Don Giovanni at Welsh National Opera; McQueen at the Haymarket Theatre; Tosca in Chicago and LA; Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Stratford Festival in Canada; La bohème in San Francisco and Toronto; and his own musical, Daddy Long Legs, off-Broadway, in Tokyo, and across the U.S. His musical Jane Eyre was recently revived in a new chamber version at Theatre Raleigh in North

Carolina. His many National Theatre productions include his own Olivier Award-winning version of Candide, The Seagull, Peter Pan, and Hamlet. His directorial work for the RSC included over 20 productions, including Nicholas Nickleby and Les Misérables, both of which have won numerous awards. Theatre Craft, his book about directing plays and musicals, is published by Faber and Faber.

KATHERINE M. CARTER (UNITED STATES) ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

Katherine M. Carter is a stage director of theater and opera. Previously for HGO, Carter served as assistant director for La bohème (2018), director for the same production that season at Miller Outdoor Theatre, and assistant director for Dialogues of the Carmelites (2022). Her work has been seen at The Canadian Opera Company, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota Opera, On Site Opera, The Alley Theatre, The Rose Theatre, Parallel 45 Theatre, Westport Country Playhouse, Boston Lyric Opera, The Little Orchestra Society, Playwrights Horizons, 54 Below, Boston Opera Collaborative, and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Carter has been a guest at some of opera’s leading training programs, including The Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera. She has led productions and workshops at The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes Opera, New York University, Carnegie Mellon University, Rice University, the New School for Drama, Interlochen Arts Academy, the University of Michigan, and the National Opera Association. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies with New Georges, Wolf Trap Opera, The Drama League, and Playwrights Horizons. She is the co-founder of The MITTEN Lab, a weeklong residency in northern Michigan for emerging theater artists, and a certified Intimacy Director through IDC Professionals.

DAVID FARLEY (UNITED KINGDOM) SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER

Previously for HGO, David Farley served as set and costume designer for this production of La bohème (2012 and 2018), which has also been presented at San Francisco Opera and Canadian Opera Company, with the latter earning Farley nominations for two Dora Awards. Farley’s work has previously been seen at HGO in Parsifal (associate designer, 2024) and The Phoenix (designer, 2019). He is associate designer for Slung Low theater company in Leeds, U.K. Credits as designer include Sunday in the Park with George in New York and the West End, which won Olivier Awards for best design and best musical production at the Wyndhams. He was nominated for costume design and set design at the 2008 Tony Awards for Sunday in the

Park with George. His credits in the West End include The Comedy about a Bank Robbery, McQueen, Daddy Long Legs, A Little Night Music, and Little Shop of Horrors, and on Broadway, A Little Night Music and 13. Further credits include Flood in Hull, Snapshots, Take Flight, Travesties, and Are You There, McPhee? in the United States; and the tours of Million Dollar Quartet, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Crush. He is a guest lecturer at Wimbledon College of Arts.

MICHAEL JAMES CLARK (UNITED STATES) LIGHTING DESIGNER

Michael James Clark is the head of lighting and production media for HGO. This season for the company, he also served as revival lighting designer for Cinderella. In the 2023-24 season, he was lighting designer for Falstaff and The Big Swim and revival lighting designer for Parsifal. During the 2022-23 season, Clark was associate lighting designer for The Marriage of Figaro, Werther, and Tosca, and during the company’s 2021-22 season he created the lighting design for the world premiere production of The Snowy Day, and served as the assistant lighting designer for The Magic Flute and associate lighting designer for Carmen. He served as revival lighting designer for HGO’s production of Aida (2020) and designed lighting for mainstage and Miller Outdoor Theatre productions of La bohème (2018-19) and the world premiere of The Phoenix (2019). He lit the HGO world premieres of Some Light Emerges (2017), After the Storm (2016), and O Columbia (2015); mainstage productions of Otello (2014); Die Fledermaus, Aida, and Il trovatore (2013); La bohème, La traviata, and The Rape of Lucretia (2012); The Marriage of Figaro (2011); the world premiere of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (2010); and numerous outdoor productions. Clark also has designed lighting for Teatro La Fenice, San Francisco Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, Stages Repertory Theatre, Theatre Under the Stars, Rice University, and the 2007 Prague Quadrennial. He holds a degree in lighting design from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

H. RUSS BROWN (UNITED STATES) FIGHT DIRECTOR

This season for HGO, H. Russ Brown also serves as fight director for Il trovatore and West Side Story. Elsewhere this 2024-25 season, Brown’s engagements include the world premiere of his original farce, Funny Boned, at COM Theatre as well as fight director for Esther at A.D. Players and Private Lives at The Alley Theatre. His theatrical credits include The Three Musketeers at The Alley Theatre; Return of Neverland with Quest Theatre Ensemble in Chicago; Hamlet with Trama Theatre Company; Ruby Nelle at York Theatre; Dead Man Walking with Northwestern Opera; Romeo and Juliet at Iowa State University; Macbeth at Tyler Junior College; Run for Your Wife at Maples Repertory Theatre; Newsies with Stratford High School Players; Moon Over Buffalo at Lon Morris College; Sweeney Todd and Jekyll & Hyde with Columbia Entertainment Company; The

Fantasticks and Oklahoma! at Lon Morris College; Julius Caesar, The Pirates of Penzance, and Aida at UW-Stevens Point; I Hate Hamlet at Nicolet College; and Burning The Saint at UMC Corner Playhouse. Brown has taught and given guest lectures at numerous universities. He has also served as the Society of American Fight Directors' (SAFD) Governing Body Secretary and as Coordinator of the National Stage Combat Workshop (EXCELSIOR!). He currently serves as Head of Theatre/Artistic Director for the College of the Mainland Theatre Program in Texas City.

OLIVIA KNIGHT (UNITED STATES) INTIMACY DIRECTOR

This season for HGO, Olivia Knight also served as Intimacy Director for Il trovatore. Knight’s other engagements for the 2024-25 season include Una in Blackbird with Dirt Dogs Theatre Co. and the premiere of Synapse with The Octarine Accord. She has led movement, fight and intimacy workshops in the Houston community at various educational institutions as well as working as a teacher at both the college and high school levels. She was awarded the VCUarts Research Grant in 2021 for her work on The Penelopiad. Previous theatrical credits include Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Gregory in Romeo & Juliet with the Houston Shakespeare Festival (2024); Ursula in Much Ado About Nothing and First Witch/Lady Macduff in Macbeth with the Houston Shakespeare Festival (2023); Ash in Wolf Play with Rec Room Arts (2023); #25 in The Wolves at Quintero Theatre (2023); Princess of France in Love’s Labour’s Lost with Studio 108 (2023); the title role of Rumpelstiltskin and Katherine/Boy in Henry V at the Wortham (2022); Sonia in Our Lady of 121st Street at Quintero Theatre (2021); and Olivia in Twelfth Night at Richmond Catholic Theatre (2020).

RICHARD BADO (UNITED STATES) CHORUS DIRECTOR

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Director Chair

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Richard Bado made his professional conducting debut in 1989 leading Houston Grand Opera’s acclaimed production of Show Boat at the newly restored Cairo Opera House in Egypt. Since then, Bado has conducted at Teatro alla Scala, Opéra National de Paris, HGO, New York City Opera, the Aspen Music Festival, Tulsa Opera, the Russian National Orchestra, the Florida Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, Wolf Trap Opera, and has conducted the Robert Wilson production of Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts at the Edinburgh Festival. This season, Bado conducts performances of The Nutcracker for Houston Ballet and performances of West Side Story for Houston Grand Opera. An accomplished pianist, Bado has appeared regularly with Renée Fleming and numerous other leading artists. Bado— who holds music degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where he received the 2000 Alumni Achievement Award, and West Virginia University—has studied advanced choral conducting with

Robert Shaw. He is the Director of Artistic Planning and Chorus Director for HGO, where he received the Silver Rose Award in 2013. He has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. For 12 years, he was the Director of the Opera Studies Program at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Bado has served on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Dolora Zajick Institute for Young Dramatic Voices, the International Vocal School in Moscow, the Texas Music Festival, and has served on the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, the Bolshoi Opera Young Artist Program, Opera Australia, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Utah Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera.

KAREN REEVES (UNITED STATES)

CHILDREN’S CHORUS DIRECTOR

Karen Reeves has been working with young singers at HGO since 1991. She is a Grammy Award winner, having served as chorus director for the HGO Children’s Chorus in the Houston Symphony’s performance of Berg’s Wozzeck, which won the 2017 Grammy for Best Opera Performance. She prepared HGO’s Juvenile Chorus for the world premiere of The House Without a Christmas Tree in 2018 and has also prepared the HGO Children’s Chorus and child soloists for such productions as The Sound of Music, Werther, Otello, Carmen, Dead Man Walking, Tosca, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hansel and Gretel, and The Little Prince, as well as the spring 2021 outdoor performance at the University of Houston, My Favorite Things: Songs from The Sound of Music. She was a member of the HGO Chorus for 13 seasons, and during the 1999-2000 season, she became the founding director of the Bauer Family High School Voice Studio, HGO’s intensive program for high school students preparing for further vocal music study. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Southwestern University and her Master of Music degree from Rice University. She taught on the voice faculty at Houston Baptist University, and for more than 20 years she taught in the voice department of Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts as an artist consultant. She has served as a grant evaluator for the Texas Commission on the Arts music and opera advisory panel. She is the opera program administrator at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.

MICHAEL MCDERMOTT (UNITED STATES) TENOR—RODOLFO

Michelle Beale and Dick Anderson / Dr. Ellen R. Gritz and Mr. Milton D. Rosenau Jr. Fellow

A second-year Butler Studio artist from Huntington Beach, California, Michael McDermott is the third-place winner in HGO’s 2023 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias and a 2021 alumnus of HGO’s Young Artists Vocal Academy. Also during HGO’s 2024-25 season, he performed the roles of Messenger in Il trovatore and Don Ramiro in student and Family Day performances of Cinderella. During HGO’s 2023-24 season, he performed

the roles of Bardolph in Falstaff and 4th Esquire in Parsifal. In 2022, he covered the role of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at the Aspen Music Festival and returned in 2023 to perform Arbace in Idomeneo. At The Juilliard School in New York, he performed the roles of Spärlich in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Filippo in Haydn’s L’infedeltà delusa, as well as appearing in Liederabends and recitals. In summer 2024, McDermott sang the role of Camille de Rosillon in The Merry Widow at the Glyndebourne Festival. His recent competition wins include first prize in the 2024 Grand Concours Vocal Competition, first prize in the Schmidt Vocal Competition, and first prize in the Scholarship Division of the National Opera Association’s Carolyn Bailey Argento Competition. McDermott received his Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and pursued his master’s degree at Rice University.

YARITZA VÉLIZ (CHILE) SOPRANO—MIMÌ

Novum Artist

Yaritza Véliz is making her HGO debut. Other roles in the 2024-25 season include Violetta in La traviata at the Bavarian State Opera and the Dallas Opera, Mimì in La bohème at Hamburg State Opera, Micaela in Carmen at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, and Desdemona in Otello at Municipal de Santiago. During the 2023-24 season, she starred as Mimì in La bohème for London’s Royal Ballet and Opera; Violetta in La traviata for Norwegian National Opera; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni for Opéra de Rouen; Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi for the Opéra national de Lorraine; and Adina in The Elixir of Love for Santa Fe Opera. Recent highlights include appearances as Catrina in Frida and Diego at the San Francisco Opera; Alice Ford in Falstaff at the Komische Oper Berlin; Violetta in La traviata at the National Theatre in Prague and Municipal de Santiago; Mimì in La bohème at the 2022 Glyndebourne Festival; Suzel in a concert performance of L’amico Fritz with the Netherlands Radio Orchestra at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam; and her U.S. debut singing the title role of Handel’s Rodelinda at the 2021 Aspen Festival, where she was the inaugural Renée Fleming Artist. Véliz was the winner of the 2023 Emerging Stars Competition at the San Francisco Opera.

EDWARD PARKS (UNITED STATES) BARITONE—MARCELLO

Grammy Award-winning baritone Edward Parks is making his HGO debut. Recent engagements include Sharpless in Madame Butterfly at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center, Jack Torrence in The Shining with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Opera Colorado, The Creature in Frankenstein with Arizona Opera, and Marcello in La bohème with Boston Lyric Opera and Detroit Opera. Over the past few seasons, Parks has joined Andrea Bocelli on tour, performing in venues including New York’s Madison Square Garden. Upcoming engagements include a return to Detroit Opera to sing Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan tutte in

a new staging by Yuval Sharon. Highlights from past seasons include Escamillo in Carmen with the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy, a return to Minnesota Opera as Audebert in Silent Night (2018), Valentin in Faust with Lyric Opera of Chicago (2018), Steve Jobs in the world premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with Santa Fe Opera (2017), Belcore in The Elixir of Love with Opera Oviedo in Spain (2017), and Figaro in The Barber of Seville with the Metropolitan Opera (2010). Parks received a 2019 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs). A National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Parks trained at the Met’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program and was also awarded third prize in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition. He was named a First Prize winner at the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition and has received awards from the George London Foundation.

BRITTANY RENEE (UNITED STATES)

SOPRANO—MUSETTA

Two-time Grammy Award-winning artist Brittany Renee is making her HGO debut. During the 2023-24 season, Renee made house debuts with San Francisco Opera as Julie in Rhiannon Giddens and Micheal Abels’s Omar, and with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Musetta in La bohème. She also returned to the Metropolitan Opera to perform the roles of Destiny/Loneliness/Greta in Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmons’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones and cover Micaela in Carmen. During the 2022-23 season, Renee’s roles included Sadie Griffith in Terence Blanchard’s Champion, Giannetta in The Elixir of Love, and First Ancella in Cherubini’s Medea, all at the Metropolitan Opera. Roles for 2024-25 include additional runs of Musetta at the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera, her Washington National Opera debut as Bess in Porgy and Bess, and Esther in Paula Prestini’s Silent Light with National Sawdust. Recent highlights include her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in the roles of Destiny/ Loneliness/Greta in Fire Shut Up in My Bones; Annie in the Met’s Porgy and Bess, which won Best Opera Recording at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards; Micaela in Carmen with Opera Orlando; and Bess in Porgy and Bess at the Teatro Regio Torino. Renee’s debuts have included performances at the Semperoper Dresden, Turin’s Teatro Regio, Tel Aviv’s Charles Bronfman Auditorium, Bari’s Teatro Petruzzelli, The Magnetic Opera Festival in Elba, Italy, Opera on the Avalon in Canada, and houses across the U.S.

CORY MCGEE

(UNITED STATES)

BASS-BARITONE—COLLINE

This season for HGO, Butler Studio alumnus Cory McGee also performs the roles of Alidoro in Cinderella and

Biterolf in Tannhäuser. In HGO’s 2023-24 season, McGee performed as Second Knight in Parsifal and Imperial Commissioner in Madame Butterfly. Elsewhere the same season, he performed the roles of Pietro in Simon Boccanegra with Opera Philadelphia, Colline in La bohème with Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with The Atlanta Opera, and as a bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Santa Fe Symphony. HGO roles for 2022-23 included Doctor Grenvil in La traviata, Johann in Werther, Jailer in Tosca, and Fifth Jew in Salome. During the 2021-22 HGO season, he performed the role of Billy in The Snowy Day. McGee joined Santa Fe Opera as an apprentice artist in 2019 and 2021, performing roles of the Gardener in Ruder’s The Thirteenth Child and Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In 2022, he debuted at Detroit Opera in the role of Colline in La bohème and sang the role of Caspar in Der Freischütz with Wolf Trap Opera, where he returned in 2023 to perform the title role in Don Giovanni. McGee was the second prize winner in HGO’s 2020 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. He completed his Master of Music degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

NAVASARD HAKOBYAN (ARMENIA)

BARITONE—SCHAUNARD

Bill and Melinda Brunger / Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Nickson / Gloria M. Portela Fellow

Third-year Butler Studio artist Navasard Hakobyan won first place at HGO’s 2022 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. In 2023, he won Third Prize and the Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Prize of Zarzuela at the Operalia World Opera Competition, and in 2024 was named a Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. During HGO’s 2023-24 season, he performed as Sharpless in alternate cast performances of Madame Butterfly, and during the company’s 2022-23 season, he performed the roles of Baron Douphol in La traviata, Antonio in The Marriage of Figaro, and Second Nazarene in Salome Other engagements during the 2024-25 season include a house debut with Semperoper Dresden, a solo concert in Prague, and more. The 2023-24 season brought his house and role debut as Gregorio in Romeo and Juliet with Dallas Opera and his Carnegie Hall debut in a concert dedicated to Rachmaninoff’s 150th anniversary. In 2023 as a fellow at Music Academy of the West, Hakobyan performed the role of Marcello in La bohème. Hakobyan was named winner of the 2023 Marilyn Horne Song Competition at Music Academy of the West and received first prize in the 2023 Premiere Opera Foundation International Vocal Competition, a 2022 Sullivan Award, first prize at the 2023 Butler Opera International Voice Competition in Austin, and third prize in the 2021 José Carreras Grand Prix International Competition. He was a member of the young artist program at the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Yerevan, Armenia.

HÉCTOR

VÁSQUEZ (UNITED STATES)

BARITONE—BENOÎT/ALCINDORO

Héctor Vásquez has performed with HGO many times, including as The Emperor Altoum in Turandot (2022), Aba in El Milagro del Recuerdo (2022, 2019), Benoît/Alcindoro in this

production of La bohème (2018, 2012), George Benton in Dead Man Walking (2011), the title role in Rigoletto (2009), and Alvaro in Florencia en el Amazonas (2001, 1996). Recent appearances include Aba in El Milagro del Recuerdo with San Diego Opera and Colonel in The Falling and The Rising with Intermountain Opera. Vásquez has sung leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as houses in San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Cleveland, and Orlando. He has served as baritone soloist with philharmonic/symphony orchestras in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Houston, among others. He has been featured at music festivals of Berlin, Ojai, Aspen, Carmel, and Santa Fe, as well as the Hollywood Bowl Summer Season. Vásquez is an assistant professor of voice at the University of Houston and a member of the voice faculty of HGO’s Bauer Family High School Voice Studio. He served as program director of the Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio from 2006 to 2008. He has judged many national and international competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. His broadcast appearances include Live from the MET, Live from Lincoln Center, and NPR radio performances.

DEMETRIOUS SAMPSON, JR. (UNITED STATES) TENOR—PARPIGNOL

Dr. Dina Alsowayel and Mr. Anthony R. Chase / Mr. Eliodoro Castillo and Mr. Eric McLaughlin / Mr. and Mrs. Hector Torres / Mr. Trey Yates Fellow

A second-year Butler Studio artist from Albany, Georgia, Demetrious Sampson, Jr. also performs the roles of Ruiz in Il trovatore and Younger Sailor in Breaking the Waves during HGO’s 2024-25 season. The previous season for the company, Sampson performed the role of 3rd Esquire in Parsifal. The second place and Audience Choice Winner in HGO’s 2023 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias, Sampson is a 2022 alumnus of HGO’s Young Artists Vocal Academy. He made his professional debut with Atlanta Opera at the age of 20 as Crab Man in Porgy and Bess, a role he reprised at Des Moines Metro Opera in summer 2022 as an apprentice artist. During summer 2023, he joined the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. In summer 2024, he made company and role debuts with Cincinnati Opera as Gastone in La traviata and with Wolf Trap Opera as the Kronprinz in Kevin Puts’s Silent Night. A previous Encouragement Award winner, he was named a National Finalist in the 2024 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. Sampson received his bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University in 2023.

JOHNNY SALVESEN (UNITED STATES)

BASS—SERGEANT

Johnny Salvesen is a member of the HGO Chorus. He made his HGO mainstage debut in 2024 as Admiral von Schreiber in The Sound of Music. He performed the roles of Sergeant of Police in The Pirates of Penzance in July 2023 and Old Adam Goodheart in Ruddigore in July 2024 with the Gilbert and

Sullivan Society of Houston. Salvesen is the Director of Music at Messiah Lutheran Church, where he plays piano and organ. He also maintains a private piano studio. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Texas Christian University and Master of Music Theory degree from the University of Houston.

SAM DHOBHANY (UNITED STATES)

BASS-BARITONE—CUSTOMS OFFICER

First-year Butler Studio artist Sam Dhobhany, from Brooklyn, New York, received the Ana María Martínez Encouragement Award at HGO’s 2024 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. He is a 2022 alumnus of HGO’s Young Artist Vocal Academy. Also during the 2024-25 season for HGO, he made his company debut as Alidoro in HGO Family Day Presents Cinderella and will perform the role of Terry in Breaking the Waves In summer 2024, he returned to Santa Fe Opera as an apprentice artist, where his roles included Marchese d’Obigny in La traviata and covering Dulcamara in The Elixir of Love and The Notary in Der Rosenkavalier. In 2024, Dhobhany sang the role of Angelotti in Tosca with Dayton Opera and the title role in The Marriage of Figaro at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. In summer 2023, Dhobhany was an apprentice artist with Santa Fe Opera, where he covered and sang the role of Un Médecin in Pelléas et Mélisande and covered 2nd Spirit/5th Pastore in L’Orfeo. In the summer of 2021, he joined Wolf Trap Opera’s Studio Artist Program, where he covered the role of Doctor Grenvil in La traviata. Dhobhany was a 2023 winner of the Michigan District in The Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

ENTIRE ORIGINAL PRODUCTION DIRECTED & CHOREOGRAPHED BY

ORIGINALLY PRODUCED ON BROADWAY BY Robert E. Griffith and Harold S. Prince BY ARRANGEMENT WITH Roger L. Stevens

A Co-Production of Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, and Lyric Opera of Chicago

CASTING BY Merri Sugarman, CSA

Sung in English with projected English text (and Spanish text on February 15)

Brown Theater, Wortham Theater Center

The performance lasts approximately 2 hours and 22 minutes, including one intermission.

† High School Night January 31, February 2m, 4†, 5, 7, 8, 13, 15

QUICK START GUIDE

THE MUSICAL IN ONE SENTENCE

Amidst a violent conflict between rival New York street gangs, two star-cross’d young lovers defy prejudice and hate to pursue a forbidden romance.

BACKGROUND

In 1944, Leonard Bernstein had his breakout as a budding Broadway composer with the ballet Fancy Free and its expanded musical-theater version, On the Town both choreographed by Jerome Robbins. For their next big collaboration, Robbins dreamt up a modernized, musical-ballet adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Aided by two still-unknown talents—playwright Arthur Laurents and lyricist Stephen Sondheim—Bernstein and Robbins set the action in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. It’s an exclusive neighborhood today, but at the time of the musical’s 1957 premiere, a crime-ridden tenement district. The fictional conflict between the Sharks, who are Puerto Rican newcomers, and the Jets, who are children of broken families, was meant to shed light on the rise of juvenile delinquency and increasing ethnic tensions incited by postwar migration. Though Puerto Ricans were legally Americans, they were often treated as outsiders and had trouble assimilating. West Side Story raises the question of whether we’re truly able to overcome cultural differences. At the final curtain, the responsibility is left with the audience to build a better world.

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

Bernstein developed separate sonic palettes to portray the two warring gangs. The Jets are associated with bebop and cool jazz, exemplified in Riff’s solo “Cool.” Listen for the song’s angular phrases,

dissonant harmonies, and explosive syncopations, which would have come off as daringly cosmopolitan for Broadway audiences reared on Richard Rodgers. Accompanying the Sharks is a range of Hispanic dance forms. In numbers like “America,” Bernstein embraces the complex rhythms of mambo, cha-cha, and the Puerto Rican seis—a style he would have heard during his research trip to the island. Listen for the song’s alternating pattern: two groups of three beats and three groups of two, a musical technique known as “hemiola.”

Dance is integral to the musical, which was envisioned as a kind of ballet with singing. HGO’s production features the original Jerome Robbins choreography seen in the 1961 movie version, as well as an extended dream ballet that wasn’t included in the film. The dancers model a peaceful society, depicting the utopian “Somewhere” described in Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics.

Bernstein was intent on creating a work of operatic quality that could rank alongside Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Listen for numbers like Anita and Maria’s duet, “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love,” and the multilayered ensem ble “Tonight,” both

by a series of recurring leitmotifs, most of which contain an extremely dissonant interval known as the tritone. You can hear it in the first two notes of Tony’s “Maria.” At the end of the show, this interval figures in the orchestra’s final harmony, left symbolically unresolved.

FUN FACT

The original concept for West Side Story which was given the humorous working title Gangway!—was set in Manhattan’s

CAST & CREATIVE

CAST

Maria Shereen Pimentel *

Tony Brenton Ryan

Anita Yesenia Ayala *

Bridal Shop Owner Ana María Martínez ‡

THE JETS

Riff (The Leader) Kyle Coffman *

Action Nathan Keen *

A-Rab P. Tucker Worley *

Baby John Elijah Lancaster *

Big Deal Duncan Smith *

Diesel Donald Sayre

Snowboy Kevin Bowman *

Gee-Tar Drew Minard *

Tiger Matthew Liotine *

THEIR GIRLS

Graziella Emily Snouffer *

Velma Jenavieve Adams *

Minnie Gillian Clifford *

Clarice Lacey Kohn *

Anybodys Macy McKown *

THE SHARKS

Bernardo (The Leader) Yurel Echezarreta *

Chino Manuel Santos *

Pepe Lester Gonzalez *

Indio Omar David Caraballo Morales *

Luis Edgar Cavazos *

Anxious Ben Chavez *

Nibbles Sam Morales *

THEIR GIRLS

Rosalia Anissa Marie Griego *

Consuelo Maria Cristina Posada Slye *

Francisca Alexia Acebo *

Teresita Marissa Barragán *

Estella Risa D'Souza *

THE ADULTS

Doc Jack Young

Lieutenant Schrank Spencer Plachy

Krupke Daniel Belcher ‡

Glad Hand Austin Hanna *

CREATIVE TEAM

Conductor

Roberto Kalb *

Novum Artist

Richard Bado ‡ (Feb. 4, 13, 15)

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus

Director Chair

Director Francesca Zambello

Associate Director Eric Sean Fogel

Choreographer Jerome Robbins

Original Choreography Joshua Bergasse * Reproduced by

Associate Kiira Schmidt Carper * Choreographer

Set Designer Peter J. Davison

Costume Designer Jessica Jahn

Lighting Designer Mark McCullough

Sound Designer Andrew Harper

Associate Lighting A.J. Guban * Designer

Fight Director H. Russ Brown

Intimacy Director Avery Vonn Kenyatta *

Assistant Costume Lynly Saunders * Designer

Dance Captain Emily Snouffer *

Fight Captain P. Tucker Worley *

Dialogue Coach Jennifer Ringo ‡

Musical Preparation Kseniia Polstiankina Barrad * Teddy Poll

Madeline Slettedahl

William Woodard

Assistant Director Ian Silverman

Stage Manager Brian August

* Mainstage debut

† Butler Studio artist

‡ Former Butler Studio artist

SYNOPSIS

Original setting: Manhattan’s Upper West Side, 1950s

ACT I

Two rival street gangs get into a violent scuffle: the Sharks, newcomers from Puerto Rico, versus the Jets, children of broken families. They’re busted by the neighborhood cops, Lt. Schrank and Officer Krupke, who send the Sharks on their way. Riff, the head of the Jets, consults with his right-hand men, A-Rab, Baby John, and Action. They plan to parley with the Sharks at the dance that night and arrange a rumble to reclaim their territory. Riff tries in vain to convince his best friend Tony, a former Jet who works at Doc’s Drugstore, to join the gang again.

Maria, a young Puerto Rican seamstress, departs for the dance with her older brother Bernardo, leader of the Sharks, and his girlfriend Anita. Abandoning her suitor Chino at the gymnasium sock hop, Maria dances with Tony, and the two instantly fall for one another. Bernardo splits them apart and schedules a war conference with Riff for later that night.

After the dance, Tony visits Maria at her family’s apartment, climbing a fire escape to her bedroom window. They declare their love and part. Meanwhile, Anita and the Puerto Rican girls debate the advantages and drawbacks of living as Latina immigrants in America. At Doc’s, Riff tells the Jets to keep their cool while they wait for the Sharks. Tony interrupts the war conference and gets the parties to agree to a fair, fists-only fight between their two best men, to take place the following night. Lt. Schrank attempts to infiltrate the meeting, but when the gangs stonewall him, he insults their backgrounds.

The next day, Tony goes to see Maria at the bridal shop where she works, and they imagine their wedding together. Night approaches, with its promise of passion or bloodshed. At the rumble, Bernardo and Riff face off, but Tony can’t prevent them from wielding knives. Bernardo stabs Riff, and Tony retaliates, stabbing Bernardo.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

INTERMISSION

ACT II

Later that night, Maria is entertaining friends in her bedroom when Chino arrives with news that Tony has killed her brother. Maria is enraged at Tony, but the two reconcile. He promises they’ll escape together to a nameless Somewhere—a place where they’ll be able to love one another, free from prejudice and hate. The Jets regroup but are accosted by Officer Krupke. After he leaves, they mock the broken justice system he represents. Anybodys, a tomboy ostracized by the Jets, rushes in and informs them that Chino intends to hunt Tony down.

Anita confronts Maria, begging her friend to leave Tony. But Maria convinces her that their love is true, and Anita promises to pass a message onto him. At Doc’s, Anita is molested by the Jets and lies to them, telling them that Chino has jealously murdered Maria. When Tony hears this false report from Doc, he runs into the street and begs for Chino to come out and kill him as well. Suddenly catching sight of Maria, Tony realizes she is still alive. But at that moment, he is shot by Chino. Brandishing the gun, Maria threatens to shoot the Sharks and Jets who have assembled around her— she has learned to hate. Members of both gangs look on as Maria embraces Tony’s lifeless body.

HGO PERFORMANCE HISTORY

HGO previously performed West Side Story in the 2017-18 season, at the Resilience Theater inside the George R. Brown Convention Center.

CONTENT ADVISORY

This production contains gunshot effects.

Any video and/or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

Projected titles design by Kelley Rourke, originally for The Glimmerglass Festival. Spanish supertitles by Cecilia Violetta López (Feb. 15 performance only). Supertitles called by Matthew Neumann.

Associate Casting Director: Spencer Gualdoni, CSA West Side Story is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.mtishows.com

Performing artists, stage directors, and choreographers are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO, the union for opera professionals in the United States.

Scenic, costume, and lighting designers and assistant designers are represented by United Scenic Artists, IATSE Local USA-829.

Orchestral musicians are represented by the Houston Professional Musicians Association, Local #65-699, American Federation of Musicians.

Stage crew personnel provided by IATSE, Local #51.

Wardrobe personnel provided by Theatrical Wardrobe Union, Local #896.

Usher personnel provided by IATSE, Local B-184.

This production is being recorded for archival purposes.

HGO ORCHESTRA HGO CHORUS

Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chair

VIOLIN

Denise Tarrant*, Concertmaster

Sarah and Ernest Butler Concertmaster Chair

Chloe Kim*, Assistant Concertmaster

Natalie Gaynor*, Principal Second Violin

Carrie Kauk*, Assistant Principal Second Violin

Miriam Belyatsky*

Rasa Kalesnykaite*

Hae-a Lee Barnes*

Chavdar Parashkevov*

Anabel Ramirez*

Mary Reed*

Erica Robinson*

Linda Sanders*

Oleg Sulyga*

Sylvia VerMeulen*

Melissa Williams*

VIOLA

Eliseo Rene Salazar†, Principal

Lorento Golofeev†, Assistant Principal

Gayle Garcia-Shepard†

Elizabeth Golofeev†

Erika C. Lawson†

Suzanne LeFevre†

Matthew Weathers†

CELLO

Barrett Sills*, Principal

Erika Johnson*, Assistant Principal

Dana Rath*

Wendy Smith-Butler*

Chennie Sung*

DOUBLE BASS

Dennis Whittaker*, Principal

Erik Gronfor*, Assistant Principal

Carla Clark*

FLUTE

Henry Williford*, Principal

Tyler Martin*

Izumi Miyahara

OBOE

Elizabeth Priestly Siffert*, Principal

Mayu Isom†

CLARINET

Eric Chi*, Acting Principal

Justin Best

Molly Mayfield

SAXOPHONE

Aaron Martinez

Scott Plugge

Robert Walzel

BASSOON

Amanda Swain*, Principal

Quincey Trojanowski†

HORN

Sarah Cranston*, Principal

Kimberly Penrod Minson*

Spencer Park†

TRUMPET

Tetsuya Lawson*, Principal

Randal Adams*

Gerardo Mata

TROMBONE

Thomas Hultén*, Principal

Mark Holley*

Jordan Milek Johnson†

TUBA

Mark Barton†, Principal

TIMPANI

Alison Chang*, Principal

PERCUSSION

Richard Brown†, Principal

Wesley Sumpter, Acting Principal

Christina Carroll

Craig Hauschildt

Karen Slotter

HARP

Caitlin Mehrtens†, Principal

GUITAR

Paul Chester

PIANO/CELESTA

William Woodard

Richard Bado, Chorus Director

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Director Chair

Megan Berti

Scott Clark

Austin Hoeltzel

Melissa Krueger

Wesley Landry

Alejandro Magallón

Heath Martin

Katherine McDaniel

Saïd Henry Pressley

Kendall Reimer

Hannah Roberts

Johnny Salvesen

Kellen Schrimper

Kaitlyn Stavinoha

HGO Orchestra core musician

HGO Orchestra core musician on leave this production

WHO'S WHO

LEONARD BERNSTEIN (UNITED STATES)

COMPOSER

Leonard Bernstein (1918–90) was one of the first American conductors to win wide international acclaim. He became music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958, and from then until 1969, he led more concerts with the orchestra than any previous conductor. He composed the one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti in 1952; its sequel, the opera A Quiet Place, received its world premiere at Houston Grand Opera in 1983, presented as a double-bill with Trouble in Tahiti. For the Broadway stage, Bernstein collaborated with Betty Comden and Adolph Green in creating On the Town (1944) and Wonderful Town (1953). In collaboration with Richard Wilbur, Lillian Hellman, and others he wrote Candide (1956). Other versions of Candide were written in association with Hugh Wheeler, Stephen Sondheim, et al. In 1957 he again collaborated with Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents on the landmark musical West Side Story, also made into an Academy Award–winning film. In 1976, Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner wrote 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Bernstein’s multiple honors included the 1990 Praemium Imperiale, an international prize created by the Japan Arts Association and awarded for lifetime achievement in the arts. Bernstein used the $100,000 prize to establish The Bernstein Education Through the Arts (BETA) Fund, Inc., before his death on October 14, 1990.

STEPHEN SONDHEIM (UNITED STATES)

LYRICIST

Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) wrote the music and lyrics for Saturday Night (1954), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), The Frogs (1974), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), Passion (1994), and Road Show (2008). Besides West Side Story, he wrote lyrics for Gypsy (1959) and Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965) and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Anthologies of his work include Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me a Little (1981), You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), Putting It Together (1993/99) Sondheim on Sondheim (2010), and his posthumous final work Here We Are (2023). He composed the scores of the films Stavisky (1974) and Reds (1981) and songs for Dick Tracy (1990) and the television production Evening Primrose (1966). His collected lyrics with attendant essays have been published in two volumes: Finishing the Hat (2010) and Look, I Made a Hat (2011). In 2010, the Broadway theater formerly known as Henry Miller’s Theatre was renamed in his honor.

ARTHUR

LAURENTS (UNITED STATES)

BOOK

An award-winning playwright, screenwriter, librettist, director, and producer, Arthur Laurents (1917-2011) was responsible for creating the books of many Broadway shows including Gypsy, Anyone Can Whistle, Do I Hear A Waltz?, Hallelujah, Baby!, and Nick & Nora. He wrote the screenplays for The Snake Pit, Anna Lucasta, Anastasia, Bonjour Tristesse, The Way We Were, and The Turning Point. He also wrote the plays Home of the Brave, The Time of the Cuckoo, and A Clearing of the Woods. He directed I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Anyone Can Whistle, Gypsy, La Cage aux Folles, Birds of Paradise, and Nick & Nora

JEROME ROBBINS (UNITED STATES)

ORIGINAL DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER

Jerome Robbins (1918-98) was world renowned for his work as a choreographer of more than 60 ballets as well as his work as a director and choreographer in theater, movies, and television. His first ballet, Fancy Free (1944) for American Ballet Theatre, remains part of many repertoires. He joined New York City Ballet in 1949, became an associate artistic director with George Balanchine, and created numerous ballets for the company. Besides West Side Story, some of his Broadway shows include On the Town, Billion Dollar Baby, High Button Shoes, The King and I, Gypsy, Peter Pan, Miss Liberty, Call Me Madam, and Fiddler on the Roof. In 1989, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway won six Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Director. Robbins directed for television and film as well, with his co-direction and choreography of West Side Story winning him two Academy Awards. Robbins’s other awards include five Donaldson Awards, two Emmy Awards, the Screen Directors’ Guild Award, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Robbins was a 1981 Kennedy Center Honors recipient, was awarded the Chevalier dans l’Ordre national de la Legion d’honneur, was an honorary member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and was awarded a National Medal of Arts as well as the Governor’s Arts Awards by the New York State Council on the Arts.

ROBERTO KALB (MEXICO) CONDUCTOR

Novum Artist

Roberto Kalb, the current music director of Detroit Opera, is making his HGO debut. Elsewhere this season he will lead performances of Siegfried with The Atlanta Opera, and La traviata and Rinaldo with the Detroit Opera, conduct the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in concerts alongside Sir Bryn Terfel, and debut with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México conducting Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. In the 2023-24 season, Kalb made multiple house debuts, including Santa Fe Opera

conducting The Elixir of Love, as well as both The Atlanta Opera and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago for Rigoletto. Additionally, Kalb made his debut as Music Director of Detroit Opera conducting Yuval Sharon’s production of The Cunning Little Vixen. In Detroit, he also conducted an Arias and Overtures Gala and launched the “Beyond the Pit” series featuring the Detroit Opera Orchestra. Other recent highlights include conducting a double bill of Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci at Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Kalb’s 2022-23 season included performances at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, San Diego Opera, and San Francisco Opera. In 2019, he concluded his five-season tenure as resident conductor and head of music at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis with a critically acclaimed run of Rigoletto in collaboration with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

RICHARD BADO (UNITED STATES) CONDUCTOR

(Feb. 4, High School Night; Feb. 13 and 15)

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Director Chair

For information on Richard Bado, please see page 41.

FRANCESCA ZAMBELLO (UNITED STATES) DIRECTOR

An internationally recognized director of opera and theater, Francesca Zambello is the Artistic Director of the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center and former General and Artistic Director of the Glimmerglass Festival (2011-22). This season she also directs a new co-production from HGO and WNO, Tannhäuser. Her U.S. directing debut took place at HGO with a production of Fidelio (1984), and she has since directed almost two dozen productions for the company, including the company’s record-breaking The Sound of Music (2024), Dialogues of the Carmelites (2022), Florencia en el Amazonas (2019), and this production of West Side Story (2018). Her work has been seen at the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, the Bolshoi, London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Paris Opera, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and English National Opera. Zambello received the San Francisco Opera Medal for Artistic Excellence for her more than 30 years of artistic contributions to the company, including serving as Artistic Advisor from 2006-11. In 2020, she received the Knighthood of the Order of the Star of Italy for her contribution to the promotion of Italian culture and heritage. She has been awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for her contribution to French culture, and the Russian Federation’s medal for Service to Culture. Her theatrical honors include three Olivier Awards, two Evening Standard Awards, two French Grand Prix des Critiques, the Helpmann Award, the Green Room Award, the Palme d’Or in Germany, and the Golden Mask in Russia.

ERIC SEAN FOGEL (UNITED STATES)

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

This season for HGO, Eric Sean Fogel also serves as choreographer for Tannhäuser Previously for HGO, he served as associate director/choreographer for The Sound of Music (2024); associate director for this production of West Side Story (2018); and as choreographer for The Pearl Fishers (2019) and Florencia en el Amazonas (2019). Fogel has been the Head of Stage Movement and Choreography at the Glimmerglass Festival for more than a decade. He is also a guest stage director on staff at the Metropolitan Opera, where he served as revival director for The Magic Flute and Norma. He recently directed two new productions of The Barber of Seville at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Songbird for Washington National Opera, and choreographed new productions of Pagliacci and Francesco Cavalli’s La Calisto at the Glimmerglass Festival. His Kennedy Center credits include Songbird; Samson and Delilah; Don Giovanni; Candide; West Side Story ; The Little Prince; Florencia en el Amazonas; The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me; and La forza del destino. Fogel has also created new productions for Opera Australia, Opera Bordeaux, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theatre, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Lyric Opera Kansas City, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Royal Opera of Versailles, Seattle Opera, Washington National Opera, and numerous other prestigious companies.

JOSHUA BERGASSE (UNITED STATES) REVIVAL CHOREOGRAPHER

Joshua Bergasse is making his HGO debut reproducing Jerome Robbins’s original choreography for West Side Story. On Broadway, he has choreographed the revival of On the Town, for which he received an Astaire Award and was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. Additional Broadway choreography credits include the revival of Gigi and the debut of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Among his Off-Broadway works are Sweet Charity starring Sutton Foster, Bomb-itty of Errors, and Captain Louie. Bergasse’s numerous other choreography credits include Guys and Dolls and The Sound of Music at Carnegie Hall. He has choreographed multiple segments for television, including numbers in So You Think You Can Dance and Sinatra: A Voice for a Century on PBS. His choreography has been featured on Monsterland on Hulu, Jessica Jones for Netflix, the feature film Grown Ups 2 with Adam Sandler, and the PBS special A Capitol Fourth. He won an Emmy Award for his choreography on NBC’s musical drama SMASH, and received Drama Desk, Astaire, and Outer Critics Circle Awards nominations for his choreography of Cagney Off-Broadway. A member of the Broadway Dance Center faculty since 1998, he also serves as artistic director for the center’s Musical Theater Performance Project.

KIIRA SCHMIDT CARPER (UNITED STATES)

ASSOCIATE CHOREOGRAPHER

Kiira Schmidt Carper is making her HGO debut. Carper has served in the same role for this production of West Side Story at both Teatro Lirico di Cagliari and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, working closely with choreographer Joshua Bergasse to recreate the work of Jerome Robbins. Carper also served as revival choreographer for Opera Australia’s production of West Side Story in 2024. Carper is an assistant professor of musical theater in the Department of Drama at Syracuse University and a former assistant professor of practice at Texas State University. Her Broadway credits include Follies (2011 revival), Anything Goes (2011 revival), The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012 revival), Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (2008-09), and No No Nanette and Stairway to Paradise at New York Convention Center. In addition to numerous domestic tours and international credits, additional choreography work includes the NBC TV show SMASH and The Fred Astaire Awards. Carper’s choreography was recognized by Austin Critics Table Awards for TSU’s production of Ragtime, which was named the Best Production of 2018. In 2016, she received the Excellence in Choreography award from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at TSU, an honor she also received in 2013 for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Sam Houston State University.

PETER J. DAVISON (UNITED KINGDOM)

SET DESIGNER

During the 2024-25 season for HGO, Peter J. Davison also serves as set designer for Tannhäuser. Previously for the company, he served as set designer for The Sound of Music (2024), this production of West Side Story (2018), Show Boat (2013), Der Rosenkavalier (1995), and Lucia di Lammermoor (1994). His opera credits include The Marriage of Figaro (Vienna); Die Gezeichneten, Falstaff, and Die schweigsame Frau (Zurich); Capriccio (Berlin and Torino); Der Rosenkavalier, Carmen, and Mary Stuart (English National Opera); Anna Bolena (Bavarian State Opera); Katya Kabanova (New Zealand); Mitridate, re di Ponto (Salzburg); Manon Lescaut (Australia); The Rake’s Progress, The Marriage of Figaro, and Cyrano de Bergerac (Metropolitan Opera); The Queen of Spades (London’s Royal Ballet and Opera); Guillaume Tell (Opera Bastille); Fidelio, Die Walküre, Porgy and Bess, Salome, La forza del destino, La traviata (Washington); La bohème (Royal Albert Hall), La rondine (La Fenice); Cyrano de Bergerac (La Scala); Porgy and Bess, Show Boat, Florencia en el Amazonas (Chicago);  Carmen, The Tales of Hoffmann (Beijing); Heart of a Soldier (San Francisco Opera); La traviata (Bolshoi Theatre); Two Women (San Francisco, Cagliari, Sardinia), Carmen (Salzburg), Porgy and Bess (Glimmerglass), and Norma (Santiago Chile). He has created designs for major musicals and been nominated for Tony, Drama Desk, and Olivier Awards.

JESSICA JAHN (UNITED STATES)

COSTUME DESIGNER

Previously for HGO, Jessica Jahn designed the costumes for the company’s worldpremiere opera The Snowy Day (2021), La favorite (2020), Rigoletto (2019), Norma (2018), this production of West Side Story (2018), and Mary Stuart (2012). Projects that she has collaborated on include Gloria: A Life at the Daryl Roth Theatre, Coal Country and Hamlet at the Public Theater, Life Is a Dream at Santa Fe Opera, Monodramas and Mosè in Egitto at New York City Opera, The Crucible at the Glimmerglass Festival, West Side Story at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dead Man Walking at Washington National Opera, Castor and Patience at Cincinnati Opera, Norma at The Gran Teatre de Liceu and the Canadian Opera Company, Orpheus and Eurydice at San Francisco Opera, Blue at the Nationale Opera and Ballet in Amsterdam, and Fidelio at Canadian Opera Company. Currently, Jahn serves on OPERA America’s Board, as well as OA’s Racial Justice Opera Network and Women’s Opera Network steering committee; she was the inaugural chair to the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee at the Glimmerglass Festival. Jessica has taught at NYU, Rutgers University, and Brandeis University’s theater arts departments, and is currently an Assistant Professor at Montclair University. She was awarded both the Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Awards for her design of Charles Busch’s The Confession of Lily Dare

MARK MCCULLOUGH (UNITED STATES)

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Mark McCullough is a lighting designer for opera and theater. His work has been seen at HGO in The Sound of Music (2024), The Pearl Fishers (2019), Florencia en el Amazonas (2019), West Side Story (2018), A Christmas Carol (2014), and Show Boat (2013). During the 2023-24 season his engagements included Aida and West Side Story with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Candide with Glimmerglass Festival, La traviata with Seattle Opera, West Side Story with Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Elektra with Washington National Opera, and Rebecca with Musical Vienna. He has also designed lighting for the Vienna State Opera (Macbeth); Bolshoi Theatre (La traviata); the Metropolitan Opera (The Marriage of Figaro); the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing (The Tales of Hoffmann); La Scala (Cyrano de Bergerac); Teatro Real (Luisa Miller); Opéra national du Rhin (The Beggar’s Opera); London's Royal Ballet and Opera (The Queen of Spades); Opera North (Eugene Onegin); Ópera Nacional de Chile (Norma), and numerous productions with Boston Lyric Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Washington National Opera, Dallas Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Canadian Opera Company, New York City Opera, Seattle Opera, and San Francisco Opera, including the Ring cycle directed by Francesca Zambello.

ANDREW HARPER (UNITED STATES) SOUND DESIGNER

Previously for HGO, Andrew Harper, a sound designer and consultant for theater, opera, and ballet, designed works including The Sound of Music (2024), Another City (2023), the outdoor singalong My Favorite Things (2021), El Milagro del Recuerdo (world premiere, 2019), The Phoenix (world premiere, 2019), The Flying Dutchman (2018), Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (2018), this production of West Side Story (2018), The House without a Christmas Tree (world premiere, 2017), It’s a Wonderful Life (world premiere, 2016), Carousel (2016), Sweeney Todd (2015), A Coffin in Egypt (world premiere, 2014), and A Little Night Music (2014). Additionally, he has designed sound for productions with Washington National Opera/Kennedy Center, New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Lyric Opera Kansas City, The Atlanta Opera, San Antonio Opera, El Paso Opera, and Houston Ballet, among others. In summer 2021, he designed the outdoor sound system for the Glimmerglass on the Grass Festival in New York, as well as its six productions: The Magic Flute, Songbird, Il trovatore, Gods and Mortals, To the World, and The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson As sound designer for Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars, Harper has designed sound for more than 50 productions.

H. RUSS BROWN (UNITED STATES) FIGHT DIRECTOR

For information on H. Russ Brown, please see page 41.

AVERY VONN KENYATTA (UNITED STATES) INTIMACY DIRECTOR

Avery Vonn Kenyatta is making his HGO debut. He is a Houston-based actor, as well as Intimacy and Fight Director. He is a certified Intimacy Director with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, and a certified Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. Select fight/intimacy credits include Spring Awakening, Is God Is (Rec Room); Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (4th Wall Theatre Company); Black Super Hero Magic Mama and Othello: The Remix (Stages); and Clyde’s (The Ensemble Theatre). He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Western Michigan University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Houston's Professional Actor Training Program.

SHEREEN PIMENTEL (UNITED STATES)

SOPRANO—MARIA

Shereen Pimentel is making her HGO debut. She also starred as Maria in the musical’s 2020 Broadway revival, where

she was recognized for her outstanding performance as an Outer Critics Circle honoree for Best Actress in a Musical. Pimentel’s recent engagements include performing the roles of Eva Perón in American Repertory Theatre & Shakespeare Theatre Company’s co-production of Evita, Guenevere in Camelot at The Muny, and Rapunzel in New York City Center’s Encores! production of Into the Woods. Pimentel made her Carnegie Hall debut as a vocal soloist in Jon Batiste’s American Symphony. She has worked with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra. Her screen credits include John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch on Netflix. She started performing professionally at the age of nine, debuting on Broadway as Young Nala in The Lion King. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from The Juilliard School.

BRENTON RYAN (UNITED STATES)

TENOR—TONY

Previously for HGO, Brenton Ryan sang Henrik in A Little Night Music (2014). During the 2023-24 season, Ryan performed as Mime in Das Rheingold at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, Eros in Antony and Cleopatra at Gran Teatro del Liceu, and Monostatos in The Magic Flute at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia. Other engagements for the 2024-25 season include role debuts as Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw and Der Schulmeister and Mücke in The Cunning Little Vixen at Bavarian State Opera. Additional engagements include the roles of Eros in Antony and Cleopatra and Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro with The Metropolitan Opera, Nick in The Handmaid’s Tale with San Francisco Opera, and Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro with Lyric Opera of Chicago. Recent performances include the roles of Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Seraglio at Bavarian State Opera, Monostatos in The Magic Flute at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, Loge in Das Rheingold with Dallas Opera, and Eros in Antony and Cleopatra at San Francisco Opera Additional highlights include both Monostatos in The Magic Flute and Spoletta in Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera, Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Seraglio at Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and Der Narr in Wozzeck at Lyric Opera of Chicago. At LA Opera, Ryan sang Léon in The Ghosts of Versailles, which received a 2017 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. He is featured in the film In Our Nature, singing a selection from Pagliacci. Ryan is a winner of the Birgit Nilsson prize at the 2016 Operalia competition and received a 2018 Grammy for Best Opera Recording for semi-staged performances of Wozzeck with the Houston Symphony.

YESENIA AYALA (UNITED STATES) MEZZO-SOPRANO—ANITA

Yesenia Ayala is making her HGO debut. For this production she will be working again with choreographer Josh Bergasse, with whom she worked on Sweet Charity Off-Broadway and made her Broadway debut in Charlie and the

Chocolate Factory. Other Broadway credits include Carousel, Illinoise, and a Drama Desk-nominated turn as Anita in Ivo Van Hove’s 2020 revival of West Side Story. Ayala has received three Chita Rivera Award nominations for Best Dancer and two wins for Best Ensemble for Illinoise and Carousel, both choreographed by Justin Peck. Also in collaboration with Peck, she appeared as Clary in Steven Spielberg’s film adaption of West Side Story and in Bradley Cooper’s Maestro. Other TV and film credits include Incarcerated, Modern Love, and Fosse/Verdon. Regionally, she appeared as Pilar in Destiny of Desire at The Old Globe. She was featured in Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” list in 2021.

KYLE COFFMAN (UNITED STATES) RIFF

Kyle Coffman is making his HGO debut. He has previously appeared in Bradley Cooper’s Oscar-nominated film Maestro and Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of West Side Story as the Jets member Ice. He recently wrapped on the TV series Raymar in the title role. Coffman is an original Broadway cast member of Newsies, where he played the role of Henry. He joined the revival cast of The Mystery of Edwin Drood in the role of Christopher Lyon, and the 2009 revival cast of West Side Story in the role of A-rab. His other stage appearances include Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Frank), Oliver! (The Artful Dodger), The Music Man (Tommy Djilas), Jerome Robbins’s Broadway, and the play Sex with Strangers (Ethan Strange). Additional film and television credits include Classmates, the short film Desert Heart, and Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

YUREL ECHEZARRETA (UNITED STATES) BERNARDO

Actor, singer, and dancer Yurel Echezarreta is making his HGO debut. Echezarreta has appeared in a multitude of Broadway productions, with roles in West Side Story, La Cage Aux Folles, Matilda, Aladdin, Head Over Heels, and Moulin Rouge the Musical. Most recently, he appeared as Sebas, one of the Sharks, in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story film, as well as the independent feature film The Last Five Years with Anna Kendrick. Television credits include Barry on HBO, Alternatino on Comedy Central, and Odd Mom Out on Bravo. Regional credits include Pasadena Playhouse’s production of Head Over Heels, the Hollywood Bowl’s Kinky Boots, and many others.

NATHAN KEEN (UNITED STATES) ACTION

Nathan Keen is making his HGO debut. Keen has previously been seen on Broadway as Gavroche in Les Misérables, and in Hello, Dolly! His many touring credits include Hello, Dolly!, Finding Neverland, West Side

Story (Broadway National and 50th Anniversary International tours), Chicago, and We Will Rock You. Regional appearances include West Side Story at Lyric Opera of Chicago, A Christmas Carol at Repertory Theatre St. Louis, The Cher Show at Ogunquit Playhouse, and Radio City Spring Spectacular.

ANA MARÍA MARTÍNEZ (PUERTO RICO, UNITED STATES) SOPRANO—BRIDAL SHOP OWNER

Grammy Award-winning soprano Ana María Martínez, originally from Puerto Rico, is considered one of the foremost sopranos of her time, with an international career that spans the world’s most important opera houses and concert halls. From 2019 to 2024, Martínez served as HGO’s first-ever Artistic Advisor. Following a two-year appointment as Artist-in-Residence at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, in 2021 she became a professor in the university’s Department of Voice. She is honored to have been a 2021 recipient of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Hispanic Heritage Award in the Arts. Martínez has a storied history with HGO, performing roles including Cio-Cio San in Madame Butterfly (2010, 2015), the title role in Carmen (2014), Marguerite in Faust (2016), and Florencia in Florencia en el Amazonas (2019). Elsewhere this 2024-25 season Martínez performs with Los Angeles Opera as both Margarita Xirgu in Ainadamar and Despina in Così fan tutte, and makes her house debut at Pittsburgh Opera in the title role of Tosca. Martínez’s career highlights include Cio-Cio San and Musetta in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera; the title role in Rusalka at the Glyndebourne Festival and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; the title role in Luisa Miller and the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro at the Bavarian State Opera; Violetta in La traviata, Donna Elvira, and Cio-Cio San at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera; Donna Elvira at San Francisco Opera; Nedda in I Pagliacci, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, Marguerite in Faust, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Rusalka at Lyric Opera of Chicago; Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Mimì, Violetta, Nedda, and the title role in Carmen at Los Angeles Opera; and her major roles with HGO.

P. TUCKER WORLEY  (UNITED STATES)  A-RAB / FIGHT CAPTAIN

P. Tucker Worley is making his HGO debut. International credits include West Side Story (Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour) and Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Darlinghurst Theatre Company).

U.S. tour credits include Mamma Mia!, Peter Pan 360, and Oliver! New York credits include the world premiere of Jake Brasch’s Salutations, I’m Creative Dave. Regional U.S. credits include Comedy of Errors and Julius Caesar (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Sita Ram (Lookingglass Theatre Company); Million Dollar Quartet and Pump Boys and Dinettes (Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre); A Chorus Line, Irving Berlin’s: White Christmas, Legally Blonde, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Elf: The Musical (The Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities).

ELIJAH LANCASTER (UNITED STATES)

BABY JOHN

Elijah Lancaster is making his HGO debut. He has performed with Ailey II, The Black Iris Project, Houston Ballet, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Lancaster was the principal dancer/actor in an Emmy Award-winning film with The Black Iris Project, Jeremy McQueen’s WILD: These Walls Can Talk He has worked with choreographers Norbert De La Cruz lll, Nejla Yatkin, Amy Hall Garner, Channel Da Silva, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Andrea Miller, Francesca Harper, Christopher Huggings, and William Forsythe. He graduated from The Ailey School’s Certificate Program in 2018.

DONALD SAYRE (UNITED STATES) DIESEL

Donald Sayre has previously performed with HGO in Il trovatore (2024), La traviata (2022), and Saul (2019), as well as in West Side Story (2018) as Pepe. He has worked with Houston companies including Pilot Dance Project, Hope Stone Dance, and Backstage Dance. Sayre received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Belhaven University in 2013.

MACY MCKOWN (UNITED STATES) ANYBODYS

Macy McKown is making her HGO debut. She has performed at Kansas City Starlight, Pittsburgh CLO, The Muny, Music Theatre Wichita, Casa Mañana, and Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, working with renowned artists such as Al Blackstone and Baayork Lee. As a member of the USA Tap team, she won two silver medals at the International Dance Organization World Tap Dance Championships in Riesa, Germany. McKown was named the winner of Broadway World’s Next on Stage: Dance Edition and was awarded the LaDuca Achievement Award for Excellence. She recently competed on season 18 of FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance, where she placed in the Top 15 female dancers. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theatre from the University of Michigan.

JACK YOUNG (UNITED STATES) DOC

Jack Young is reprising his role as Doc in West Side Story, having previously performed the role with HGO in 2018. Recent appearances include the roles of Duke Vincentio in Measure for Measure with American Shakespeare

Center and the title roles in King Lear and Richard III with Houston Shakespeare Festival. Other theater credits include Uncle Morty in Awake & Sing! (Main Street Theater), Matt in Talley’s Folly (The Warehouse Theatre), Meadows in Hostages (Primary Stages, New York), and Shylock in Merchant of Venice (ACTION! Theatre, Los Angeles, nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role). Young has served as the artistic director of Houston Shakespeare Festival since 2014, where he recently led the company through its 50th anniversary season directing Romeo and Juliet. A Certified Fight Director with the Society of American Fight Directors, he has choreographed violence for over 100 productions, and is the Sword Safety Instructor for the Houston Ballet. Young has led professional training programs at Ohio University, The Warehouse Theatre, and Duke University. He is a Professor of Acting at the University of Houston, where he has received the UH Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award and the University Teaching Excellence Award, the university’s highest teaching honor.

SPENCER PLACHY (UNITED STATES)

LIEUTENANT SCHRANK

Spencer Plachy returns to HGO after performing the role of Franz in The Sound of Music in 2024. Local credits include Rogers in And Then There Were None at Alley Theatre, Dracula in Dracula at Classical Theatre Company, and Rudolph in Winter Solstice at REC Room Arts. Plachy has toured with Disney’s The Lion King as Scar. Broadway credits include Romeo & Juliet and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Regional roles include Antony in Julius Caesar, Beau in Sandy Rustin’s The Cottage, Victor in Private Lives, Curly in the national tour of Oklahoma!, and Chad in All Shook Up. TV appearances include Shades of Blue.

DUNCAN SMITH (UNITED STATES)

BIG DEAL

Duncan Smith is making his HGO debut. Smith recently made his Off-Broadway debut in the world premiere of Love in Idleness. His other credits include Dreamgirls (The Muny); Cats, Ragtime, Rock of Ages, and Beauty and the Beast (Music Theatre Wichita); and Carousel and Kinky Boots (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma). He is a graduate of The University of Oklahoma.

KEVIN BOWMAN (UNITED STATES)

SNOWBOY

Kevin Bowman is making his HGO debut. Recent credits include Gypsy (Music Theatre Wichita), 9 to 5 (Music Theatre Wichita), Rent (Texas State University), and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (The Palace Theatre). Bowman is

currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from Texas State University.

ANISSA MARIE GRIEGO (UNITED STATES) ROSALIA

Anissa Marie Griego is making her HGO debut as Rosalia in West Side Story. Griego has previously been seen in Ainadamar at the Metropolitan Opera, Prom the Musical at Sharon Playhouse, and the first national tour of the musical 1776

MARIA CRISTINA POSADA SLYE (UNITED STATES) CONSUELO

Maria Cristina is making her HGO debut. New York theater credits include Evita (Mistress; New York City Center, Encores!) and Americano (Ceci understudy, Swing; Off-Broadway). National tours include Hello, Dolly!, The Bodyguard Musical, Ghost the Musical, and Elf the Musical. Regional credits include Bye Bye Birdie (Kennedy Center), Sunset Boulevard (Kennedy Center), West Side Story (Anita; Virginia Rep Theatre, Florida Rep Theatre), Jesus Christ Superstar (The Muny), The Bodyguard Musical (Papermill Playhouse), A Chorus Line (Diana Morales, Engeman Theatre), Evita (Ensemble/Eva & Mistress understudy, American Repertory Theater & Shakespeare Theatre Company), and Somewhere (Rebecca Candelaria, Geva Theatre).

ALEXIA ACEBO (UNITED STATES) FRANCISCA

Alexia Acebo is making her HGO debut. Credits include the national tours of Wicked (Witch’s Mother) and Chicago (Ensemble, Velma understudy). Regional credits include On Your Feet! at The Muny. TV/film credits include Bridge & Tunnel Acebo also appeared in the music video for Lay Your Head on Me

MARISSA BARRAGÁN (UNITED STATES) TERESITA

Marissa Barragán is making her HGO debut. She has recently appeared onstage at The Metropolitan Opera (A Niña in Ainadamar, 2024), The Muny, American Repertory Theater, and Shakespeare Theatre Company, among others. She is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where she majored in International Politics and International Security Studies and minored in Latin American Studies.

MANUEL SANTOS (UNITED STATES) CHINO

Manuel Santos is making his HGO debut. Broadway credits include the 2009 revival of West Side Story (Chino) at the Palace Theatre, On the Town (S. Uperman) at the Lyric Theatre, Gigi (Bonfils) at the Neil Simon Theatre, and Aladdin (Kassim) at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Last year, Santos completed his two-year North American tour of Hamilton: An American Musical, for which he played the roles of Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Lafayette/Jefferson, and King George III. He also starred in NBC’s TV show Smash (14 episodes).

DANIEL BELCHER (UNITED STATES) OFFICER KRUPKE

Previously for HGO, Grammy Award-winning baritone Daniel Belcher, a Butler Studio alumnus, has performed roles including Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music (2024), Lawrence in The Wreckers (2022), James Addison Mills III in the world premiere of A House without a Christmas Tree (2017), Taddeo in The Italian Girl in Algiers (2012), the title role in Billy Budd (2008), Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (2005), Papageno in The Magic Flute (2004), Schaunard in La bohème (2002), John Brooke in Little Women (2000 and world premiere in 1998), and the title role in Orfeo (1999), among others. With a repertoire of more than 90 roles, Belcher has championed roles from the Baroque to those composed expressly for him. He came to international attention in 2004 creating the role of Prior Walter in Peter Eötvös’s Angels in America for the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. In fall 2023 he joined the faculty at the University of Houston, and throughout the 202223 season served as the resident artist voice teacher with Opera Colorado, where he also performed the role of Fritz/Frank in Die Tote Stadt. In the 2021-22 season, Belcher joined the Metropolitan Opera for Akhnaten and Rigoletto.

AUSTIN HANNA (UNITED STATES)

GLAD HAND

Austin Hanna is making his HGO debut. He joined the Houston Shakespeare Festival during the last two summers, as Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Prince Escalus in Romeo and Juliet, Duncan/Porter/Doctor in Macbeth, and Antonio/Seacoal in Much Ado About Nothing At the University of Houston, Austin acted in Twelfth Night and Circle Mirror Transformation, both directed by the Alley Theatre’s Elizabeth Bunch; The Skin of Our Teeth; Julius Caesar; Love’s Labour’s Lost; and Marisol. Also at UH, he wrote and performed his solo show, Feel Better. Austin is a graduate of the UH Professional Actor Training Program and an alumnus of Shakespeare at Winedale.

EMILY SNOUFFER (UNITED STATES)

GRAZIELLA / DANCE CAPTAIN

Emily Snouffer is making her HGO debut in named role. Previously for the company, she appeared as a dancer in Carousel and Rusalka. Select regional credits include West Side Story (Graziella), Oklahoma! (Dream Laurie), and Bye Bye Birdie (Deborah Sue). She has worked with choreographers including Karla Puno Garcia, Charlie Williams, Sarah O’Gleby, and the Kuperman Brothers. Snouffer holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin.

JENAVIEVE ADAMS (UNITED STATES)

VELMA

Jenavieve Adams is making her HGO debut. Recent credits include performing Josh Prince’s work at the Chita Rivera Awards and New York City Children’s Theater’s production of Pinocchio at Theatre Row, under the direction of Stephanie Klemons. Adams is a standing company member of Steven Blandino’s company TreadFAST, where she has performed his original works along with pieces by Ellenore Scott, Phil Cogan, and Ehizoje Aseke. Adams holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Commercial Dance from Pace University.

LESTER GONZALEZ (CUBA)

PEPE

Lester Gonzalez is making his HGO debut. Past credits include Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Aida (featured dancer), the second national tour of Anastasia (Prince Siegfried/ Ensemble), Opera San Luis Obispo’s Carousel (Carnival Boy/ Ensemble), Edwaard Liang’s Romeo and Juliet (Romeo/Paris), and Septime Webre’s The Great Gatsby (Gatsby/Ensemble). Gonzalez has worked with acclaimed ballet companies including Ballet San Antonio, Dayton Ballet, and Ballet Idaho.

OMAR DAVID CARABALLO MORALES (PUERTO RICO, UNITED STATES) INDIO

Omar David Caraballo Morales is making his HGO debut. He is a professional dancer from Puerto Rico with artist credits including Ozuna, Yandel, and Jowell & Randy. He was recently seen in roles including Mike in A Chorus Line and Rudolpho in Matilda the Musical with Moore Vision Entertainment. He was also seen in the Puerto Rico theater production of Borikén, Isla de la Música International television credits include Miss World

DREW MINARD (UNITED STATES) GEE-TAR

Drew Minard is making his HGO debut. On Broadway, he performed in The Music Man His touring credits include Beetlejuice and Billy Elliot (Billy), and his regional credits include La Cage Aux Folles at Barrington Stage. TV credits include Dispatches from Elsewhere and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Minard’s solo show, Catcher Suites, based on The Catcher in the Rye, recently premiered at Peregrine Theatre Ensemble, where he played the role of Holden Caulfield.

GILLIAN CLIFFORD (UNITED STATES) MINNIE

Gillian Clifford is making her HGO debut. Clifford has trained with prestigious organizations including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, and the Radio City Rockettes. She has performed in works by Francesca Harper, Norbert De La Cruz lll, and Darrell Grand Moultrie. She has danced with Company E, DBDT: Encore!, and Dallas Black Dance Theatre, recently making her opera debut in The Dallas Opera’s Pelléas and Mélisande. Clifford is a graduate of Howard University.

LACEY KOHN (UNITED STATES) CLARICE

Lacey Kohn is making her HGO debut. Her Texas State University credits include Seussical (Jungle Ensemble), Into the Woods (Snow White/Spirit), Pippin (Frug Ponytail/ Player 3), Urinetown (Dance Captain/Cladwell’s Secretary), and Guys and Dolls (Martha). Recent credits include Chicago (Liz), Legally Blonde (Margot), Newsies (Bowery Beauty), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Potiphar’s Court), and Hairspray (Brenda). Kohn was a part of the Steps on Broadway Conservatory and assisted with the Tremaine Dance Performance Company. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from Texas State University.

EDGAR CAVAZOS (MEXICO) LUIS

Edgar Cavazos is making his HGO debut. He was recently part of the workshop for ¡Americano!, a new musical at the New 42nd Street Studios. He was also seen at the revival of Evita and Into the Woods (pre-production) at New York City Center’s Encores! Other credits include the Metropolitan Opera’s Aida. He was seen Off-Broadway and in national tours for Comfort Women: A New Musical and Jesus Christ Superstar. Regional credits include On Your Feet!, Evita, In the Heights, West Side Story,

and Jesus Christ Superstar. Television credits include The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and NBC’s Upfront. Cavazos is featured in Ben Platt’s music video, “Temporary Love.”

BEN CHAVEZ (UNITED STATES) ANXIOUS

Ben Chavez is making his HGO debut. He recently performed in Newsies and Frozen at Theatre Under the Stars. National tour credits include Disney’s Aladdin. Off-Broadway credits include The Radio City Christmas Spectacular and Marry Harry. Regionally, he has performed at Asolo Repertory Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cape Playhouse, and Sacramento Music Circus. Chavez is also a recording artist and a Performing Arts Houston New/Now 2025 winner. His commissioned concept album, Last Day, County Fair, will play at the Cullen Theater this March. Chavez is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

SAM MORALES (UNITED STATES) NIBBLES

Sam Morales is making his HGO debut. His credits include Theatre Under the Stars’s Newsies, Cinderella, and Elf ; the University of Houston Moores School of Music’s production of Anna Karenina; Music Theatre International choreography videos; and Houston Symphony’s 21st Century Broadway. Morales studies ballet with Bayou City Ballet and vocal performance at Lone Star College-Tomball. He is a member of the TUTS Pre-Professional Company. He will be graduating high school this May.

RISA D’SOUZA (UNITED STATES) ESTELLA

Risa D’Souza is making her HGO debut. She began her dance training with the MET Youth Company and performed in Tidal Intersections by Katarzyna Skarpetowska with METdance. D’Souza performed with Reed Dance and METdance for five seasons, serving as company liaison in her final year. She debuted with the Houston Symphony in 2019 and danced with Houston Contemporary, where she is a founding member, for three seasons. D’Souza teaches and choreographs all over Houston and is the company director for Enrich Dance Company. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Point Park University.

Fiddler on the Roof with the original staging by Jerome Robbins. Other credits include the roles of Big Deal in West Side Story at The Lyric Opera of Chicago and Greg on the national tour of A Chorus Line, as well as performing as a dancer at the Metropolitan Opera, on Saturday Night Live, and more.

TARA RUBIN CASTING

Merri Sugarman CSA and Spencer Gualdoni CSA of Tara Rubin Casting assisted HGO in the identification and auditioning of many of the cast members of West Side Story. Since being established in 2001, Tara Rubin Casting has been involved in artist selection for many major Broadway productions and tours including Death Becomes Her, Left on Tenth, The Wiz, The Heart of Rock & Roll, The Who’s Tommy, The Outsiders, Water for Elephants, Back to the Future, Here Lies Love, Bad Cinderella, Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, KPOP, Mr. Saturday Night, SIX, Ain’t Too Proud, The Band’s Visit, Miss Saigon, Dear Evan Hansen, Cats, School of Rock, Aladdin, Billy Elliot, The Producers, Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys, Les Misérables, and The Phantom of the Opera. Upcoming Broadway productions for which Tara Rubin Casting is currently engaged include BOOP! The Musical, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, and Buena Vista Social Club

MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL

Music Theatre International (MTI) is one of the world's leading theatrical licensing agencies, granting theaters from around the world the rights to perform the greatest selection of musicals from Broadway and beyond. Founded in 1952 by composer Frank Loesser and orchestrator Don Walker, MTI is a driving force in advancing musical theater as a vibrant and engaging art form. MTI works directly with the composers, lyricists, and book writers of these musicals to provide official scripts, musical materials, and dynamic theatrical resources to over 100,000 professional, community, and school theaters in the U.S. and in over 150 countries worldwide. MTI is particularly dedicated to educational theater, and has created special collections to meet the needs of various types of performers and audiences. MTI’s Broadway Junior® shows are 30- and 60-minute musicals for performance by elementary and middle school-aged students, while MTI’s School Editions are musicals annotated for performance by high school students.

MATTHEW LIOTINE (UNITED STATES) TIGER

Matthew Liotine is making his HGO debut. He most recently played the role of Sasha in

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LOVE SONGS: A STORY

THIS SEASON, HGO IS SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON LOVE. STAR-CROSS'D LOVE, MAD LOVE, ETERNAL LOVE—IT’S WHAT OPERA’S ALL ABOUT, AND IT’S NO SURPRISE LOVE BLOOMS BEHIND THE SCENES, TOO. WE ASKED THREE OPERATIC COUPLES, ALL PART OF THE HGO FAMILY, TO SHARE THEIR STORIES WITH OPERA CUES .

By Amber Francis, Communications Coordinator

THE BALLAD OF ANI AND NAVASARD: A PROPOSAL IN THE SKY

Ani

Austria.

Mezzo-soprano Ani Kushyan and baritone Navasard Hakobyan, two current members of HGO’s Butler Studio, met in Yerevan, Armenia in 2016, while studying under the same teacher. She was in her third year with the Komitas State Conservatory, and he was entering his first.

“When I entered the room for the first time for my lessons, she was standing there, and I just thought, oh, wow,” Navasard remembers. “The first time I met her, I knew I felt something, but I said, no, it’s time to concentrate on my career, on singing.”

“I remember, I was always impressed by how focused he was on his craft,” says Ani. “He wasn’t messing around. He didn’t live in Yerevan, so his commute to and from his town, Garni, was four hours. But in the mornings, he was always the first student to practice. I liked that about him.”

The pair got to know each other as friends and remained so for years, long after Ani finished her studies in Armenia and began traveling abroad to further her craft. When Ani moved back to Armenia in 2021, the two finally started dating. Shortly afterward,

Navasard traveled to Houston, won HGO’s Concert of Arias competition, and received an invitation to join the Butler Studio training program for young artists.

It was tough for both that Navasard was leaving for the States so soon after they got together. But the next year, it was Ani’s turn to compete in the Concert of Arias and win a spot with the Butler Studio. Armenia had set the stage for their relationship, and Houston would change it forever. Navasard decided to propose to Ani that fall, when she moved here to join the program.

He called up Ani’s mother, who arranged for her to pack a lavish white dress in her suitcase for the occasion, saying she could wear it to fancy parties. He also arranged for their mutual friend, the Armenian soprano Mané Galoyan, who was in Houston to perform in HGO’s The Wreckers, to help him.

Mané invited Ani to a girls-only white party at a swanky rooftop downtown. On the big day Mané breezed in, dressed in white, and announced that it was incredibly important for the two of them to go buy a table, like, right now. “What had actually happened,” Ani says, “was that Navasard forgot to buy a table to put all the sweets, champagne, and flowers on. So, I ended up going to buy a table.”

“For her own proposal,” Navasard chimes in.

“Yeah, for my proposal!” Ani laughs.

When they arrived for the party, Ani was confused as to why Mané kept her waiting in the parking garage. Then, finally, everything was ready. When Ani stepped foot onto the rooftop, she was floored. A string trio playing “La vie en rose” was there to greet her. And there, across the way, a beaming Navasard stood with the flowers, the sweets, the champagne, and, of course, the fabled table. Needless to say, she said yes.

Kushyan and Navasard Hakobyan in Salzburg,

Soprano Mané Galoyan, a Butler Studio alumna and HGO favorite, and conductor/composer Roberto Kalb, making his company debut at the podium for West Side Story, first met in 2019, in a perhaps unlikely location: Louisville, Kentucky. “An Armenian and a Mexican meet in Kentucky,” Mané jokes. “It happens all the time, I’m sure.”

They were both in town for Rigoletto with Kentucky Opera. “We immediately hit it off as friends. We had an incredible artistic experience. She’s an incredible singer, musician,” says Roberto. “We only became a couple six months later.”

conductor, but he is always very kind. I think that it’s a good combination. We need more of that in the world.”

“I don’t know of a better soprano alive. Really,” says Roberto, returning the admiration. “She’s also the most wonderful human. She’s down to earth, she’s warm, everything that I always wanted in someone. I feel truly lucky to have met her.”

In December 2020, the couple tied the knot with a Zoom wedding for the ages. Roberto’s immediate family attended the ceremony in person, while Mané’s family, unable to travel from Armenia, joined the rest of their 200-odd guests virtually to cheer on the

THE SONG OF MANÉ AND ROBERTO: A COVID WEDDING

Mané Galoyan and Roberto Kalb met during a Rigoletto production.

The new couple vacationed in Hawaii while Mané was working, after which she joined him in Chicago, where he had a gig. Then COVID-19 ground the world to a halt. The pair “panic-drove all the way down to Miami,” says Roberto, where they remained.

The virus tore the performing world apart, but the couple, suddenly possessed of a luxurious amount of time, was closer than ever. They would sit down at the piano with a glass of wine, sight-reading duets of Schubert symphonies until four in the morning.

“Sometimes it was very ridiculous,” Mané shares. “But it’s a very nerdy activity that we both love. He’s so talented and has so much knowledge. It’s like his brain is an encyclopedia. He’s so musical, and such a good

newlyweds from home. After their first dance, Mané’s father, who only speaks Armenian, moved the couple by giving a heartfelt speech entirely in English.

Once the virtual guests said their goodbyes, Roberto’s family kept the party going. They had good champagne with pizza and wedding cake, smoking cigars into the early hours of the morning. “It was a very strange but very beautiful day,” Roberto says. “It was actually kind of magical.”

Soprano Ailyn Pérez, Leonora in Il trovatore this season at HGO, and bass Soloman Howard met at the Santa Fe Opera, all the way back in 2016. It wasn’t the right time for them just yet, but the two noticed each other right away. In fact, Ailyn remembers reminding herself to breathe. “I was struck with this sense of awe and joy and peace all in one,” she recalls. “People say love at first sight, but I felt peace at first sight.”

She wasn’t alone in her feelings. Soloman was captivated by her eyes from the moment they first locked gazes. The two hadn’t even had a real conversation, but he immediately felt seen. “ It’s like she’s looking into your soul,” he says. “It says, I see you, all of you, and I care to know more I care to listen. I was like, whew, I’m in trouble.”

THE DUET OF AILYN AND SOLOMAN: IT’S ABOUT TIME

In 2019, the stars finally aligned for Ailyn and Soloman. From then on, they took part in the same ritual as all opera couples: a lot of video calls. The two were head-over-heels, but their busy careers made it tough. “When we’re on contract, we’re basically on call 24 hours a day,” says Ailyn. “Planning to see someone, make appointments, go on dates, it’s hard for us.”

Still, they were fortunate to share an understanding about the artist’s life and to be able to face its challenges together. “To have someone who knows firsthand the demands that this profession has of you, specifically as a singer, is very comforting,” says Soloman. “And it’s nice to have a trusted set of ears in the house that says—baby, I’m singing this, what does this sound like? I try to do the same for her. I think it’s a beautiful partnership.”

“We talk about doing new roles or new jobs and what we bring to it,” adds Ailyn. “Soloman brings his life experience with him on stage. He shares those pieces of himself in his work, even though it’s in a different language with a different composer, different venue, different colleagues, in different places in the world— he still brings that Soloman. For me, that’s been a great deal of inspiration.”

“Her compassion and care and generosity that she has, not just as an artist, but in everyday life, is one of the things I love most about her. It makes her a great communicator on stage. I think because of her vulnerability, generosity, and how sincere she is as a person, it translates to her artistry.”

It was only fitting that a love born from opera would ultimately lead to a proposal on stage. After a performance of Tosca at San Francisco Opera in 2019, Solomon got down on one knee before the audience and popped the question. Ailyn excitedly hopped over to kiss Soloman, who lifted her into his arms as the crowd cheered.

“He almost couldn’t hear me scream yes,” laughs Ailyn, “because the whole audience was already beating me to it.”

Ailyn Pérez and Soloman Howard after the opening night performance of Tosca at the War Memorial Opera House (2021). ©Drew Altizer Photography/ San Francisco Opera

OPENING NIGHT: IL TROVATORE

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2024

HGO kicked off the 2024-25 season on Opening Night with a new, HGO-commissioned production of Verdi’s Il trovatore, directed by Stephen Wadsworth, which set the tragic tale of love and vengeance in modern Spain. The opera’s impressive cast included Raehann Bryce-Davis, Ailyn Pérez, Michael Spyres, Lucas Meachem, and Morris Robinson, with Maestro Patrick Summers at the podium.

Following the performance, 425 guests gathered for a seated dinner on Fish Plaza, chaired by Janet Gurwitch and Ron Franklin The event raised $612,000 in support of HGO’s mission to enrich Houston’s diverse community through opera. Décor by The Events Company complemented a multi-course menu from City Kitchen Catering

HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor thanked supporters, highlighted Maestro Summers’s upcoming transition to music director emeritus, and celebrated Board Chair Claire Liu’s recent accolades from OPERA America’s National Opera Trustee Recognition Awards. The evening concluded with a warm round of applause as Summers introduced the cast and creative team of Il trovatore, marking a powerful start to the season’s theme of love: Truly. Madly. Deeply

Photography by Michelle Watson and Emily Jaschke

The fabulous cast of Il trovatore: back row, Demetrious Sampson, Jr., Lucas Meachem, Morris Robinson, and Michael McDermott. Front row, Michael Spyres, Elizabeth Hanje, Ailyn Pérez, and Raehann Bryce-Davis.

Claire Liu and Joe Greenberg, Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen

Matt Healey and Denise Reyes

HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor

Alecia Harris and Eivind Moen

Ruain Flanagan and Michelle Klinger, Lady Stephanie Kimbrell

Vivianna Jolie and Astley Blair

HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers

Terrylin Neale, Patrick Summers, Jake Heggie, Ellen and Robert Vladem

Dulce and Pedro Pires Joao, Teresa and José Ivo, Deisi and Max Blankfeld

Lucas and Irina Meachem, Tracy Maddox and John Serpe

Jesse and Betty Tutor, Farida Abjani

Amanda and Morris Gelb

OPENING NIGHT

Tony and Cynthia Petrello

Elizabeth Hanje, Ailyn Pérez

Opening Night Dinner Chairs Janet Gurwitch and Ron Franklin

Brian Dunham and Allyson Pritchett

Ron Walker and Jenny Elkins, Drs. Huda and William Zoghbi

Margaret Alkek Williams, David Wuthrich

Patrick Summers, Janet Gurwitch, Khori Dastoor, Ron Franklin

Lady Stephanie Kimbrell (left) and Cory McGee (back row), with Butler Studio artists

Ani Kushyan, Alissa Goretsky, and Elizabeth Hanje

LAUREATE SOCIETY RECITAL

OCTOBER 13, 2024

HGO’s Laureate Society members kicked off the 2024-25 season with an exclusive afternoon featuring Raehann Bryce-Davis, who made her HGO debut as Azucena in Il trovatore. The program included a mix of soulful spirituals, operatic arias, and contemporary works, with "Ride on, King Jesus" featured alongside selections from Carmen, Samson et Dalila, Il trovatore, and more. The recital was followed by a dinner, providing an intimate setting for HGO’s most dedicated supporters. This annual event, reserved for HGO's Laureate Society members—opera lovers who have made commitments to the company in their estate plans—offered a unique opportunity to experience Bryce-Davis in an up-close and personal setting. For more information, contact Amanda Neiter at ANeiter@HGO.org or 713-546-0216.

Photography by Katy Anderson

Geoffrey Oshman and Linda Sonier

William Woodard, Raehann Bryce-Davis, Craig Miller

Patrick Summers, Laura and Brad McWilliams

Janet Sims, Jesse Weir, Lynn Des Prez

Terrylin Neale, Joe Greenberg, Anna Dean, Robin Angly

Dr. Richard Stasney, Lynn Gissel, Susan Bloome, Brenda Harvey-Traylor

Susan Osterberg

THE TALL TENORS

Three current Butler Studio artists share some interesting traits.

By Colin Michael Brush, Butler Studio Director

The Butler Studio has built its reputation on gathering and nurturing some of the most extraordinary young voices, and among these, tenors hold a particularly rarefied status. Tenors are often the heart of opera’s most romantic and heroic roles. Think of Don José’s tragic intensity (Carmen), Tony’s youthful optimism (West Side Story), or Rodolfo’s ardent passion (La bohème)—the last of which, as it happens, is now being performed by current Butler Studio artist Michael McDermott! Yet, for as central as tenors are to opera, they’re not a common voice type. Most male voices naturally fall into the baritone range, making tenors a unique find in any operatic company.

Tenors are often stereotyped as emotionally expressive, with a touch of diva flair, and despite the altitude of their high notes, they’re not

Shawn Roth with Butler Studio artist Ani Kushyan.

Photo credit: Lynn Lane

always clocked as “towering” in height. This year, however, the program is training three tenors who break every mold: Demetrious Sampson, Jr. and Michael McDermott are now in their second year as Butler Studio artists, while Shawn Roth joins us for his first year. Not only are all three over six feet tall, but each brings a distinctly different sound and repertoire specialty. It’s no exaggeration to say we’ve hit the tenor jackpot!

How tall are you?

Michael McDermott: I’m 6’1”—but 6’2” for the stage!

Shawn Roth: I believe I’m the runt of the tenors at 6’1”.

Demetrious Sampson, Jr.: I am six feet and 2.75 inches, so I say I’m 6’3”.

How did you get into opera, and were you always a tenor?

McDermott: My high school choir director suggested that I start taking lessons, which I did. It took a few years to figure out if I was a baritone or tenor, but I fell in love with the tenor repertory. The more I sang it and trained my voice higher, the more of a tenor I became.

Roth: I was exposed to opera through singing classical music in my school’s choir. I started as a baritone, switched to tenor in high school, went back to baritone in college, and finally settled at tenor just before graduating.

Photo credit: Lynn Lane

Sampson: I always sang high in my school choirs, and in high school, I started to think, “Maybe I need to do something with this…” I started taking lessons as a countertenor! But panels at competitions would say, “Your tenor voice could be special, and you’d make a lot of money.” After hearing “special” and “money,” I thought, “Let’s see if I like it,” and now I’m here.

How would you describe the tenor voice to someone new to opera?

Sampson: I’d say the tenor voice is the most primal yet unnatural of all voice types. It’s the hardest to train but can be the most special to hear. We’re best known for our upper register—what some call the “voice of God” or the “cash register”— where tenors sing in a way that captures the primal essence of humanity.

McDermott: There’s a lot of risk in the tenor’s highest extremes, and the audience feels that—that’s what makes the voice type so exciting. It’s also what gives so many of us anxiety!

Roth: Out of all the voice types, we carry our chest voices the highest up the scale. We’re also the voice type you’re most likely to hear warming up backstage.

What are some stereotypes about tenors, and how do you fit or negate these stereotypes?

McDermott: There are too many stereotypes to count, but one of the biggest is that we’re all divas. Honestly, this can be true.

Roth: People think we’re full of ourselves. Misleading! We’re actually full of air. A stereotype I fit is that I make funny faces on high notes. No horned helmet yet, but it’s on the bucket list!

Sampson: People often think of tenors as divas with fragile egos. Not me! I check my ego at the door. While there are tenors who fit that stereotype, I find that most have a healthy sense of self and are genuinely kind, supportive people.

What’s your ultimate dream role, and if there were no limits, what’s a fantasy role you’d love to sing?

McDermott: In about 10 years, I hope to sing roles on the fuller side of the lyric repertoire, like Cavaradossi and Don José. But my ultimate dream role is Rodolfo. If there were no limits? I’d try Escamillo in Carmen. I’d love to see how a tenor might handle that baritone swagger!

Roth: My dream role is Siegmund in Die Walküre. His music is raw, powerful, and lyrical. The Vickers recording with Karajan never fails to give me goosebumps! But if I could pick any role ever, I’d go for Don Basilio from The Barber of Seville. I get jealous every time I see a bass sing "La calunnia"—it looks like so much fun!

Sampson: My ultimate dream role is Der Kaiser from Die Frau ohne Schatten. But my fantasy? Tosca! Every time I think about that role, I think, “Yes, that’s me. Let’s do it!” 

Michael McDermott with Ani Kushyan.

Photo credit: Lynn Lane

Demetrious Sampson, Jr. with Butler Studio alumna Meryl Dominguez.

Laura Bleakley, Pianist/Coach

Ms. Lynn Des Prez / Dr. and Mrs. Miguel Miro-Quesada Fellow

Jenny Choo, Pianist/Coach

Dr. Laura E. Sulak and Dr. Richard W. Brown Fellow

Sam Dhobhany, Bass-Baritone

Dian and Harlan Stai Fellow

Alissa Goretsky, Soprano

Nancy Haywood / Susan Bloome / James M. Trimble and Sylvia Barnes Fellow

Navasard Hakobyan, Baritone

Melinda and Bill Brunger/ Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Nickson/ Gloria M. Portela Fellow

Elizabeth Hanje, Soprano

Ms. Marty Dudley / Amy and Mark Melton / Jeff Stocks and Juan Lopez Fellow

Ani Kushyan, Mezzo-Soprano

Donna and Ken Barrow/ Barbara and Pat McCelvey/

Jill A. Schaar and George Caflisch Fellow

Michael McDermott, Tenor

Michelle Beale and Dick Anderson/ Dr. Ellen R. Gritz and Mr. Milton D. Rosenau Jr. Fellow

Shawn Roth, Tenor

Drs. Liz Grimm and Jack Roth/ Drs. Rachel and Warren A. Ellsworth IV / Kathleen Moore and Steven Homer / Sharon Ley Lietzow and Robert Lietzow Fellow

BUTLER STUDIO FACULTY & STAFF

Colin Michael Brush, Director Sponsored by Christopher Bacon and Craig Miller, Mr. Jack Bell, and Lynn Gissel

Maureen Zoltek, Music Director

Mr. and Mrs. Albert B. Alkek Chair

Kiera Krieg, Butler Studio Manager

Stephen King, Director of Vocal Instruction

Sponsored by Jill and Allyn Risley, Janet Sims, and the James J. Drach Endowment Fund

Patrick Summers, Conducting Instructor and Coach

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chair

Peter Pasztor, Principal Coach

Sponsored by the Mr. and Mrs. James A. Elkins Jr. Endowment Fund

Madeline Slettedahl, Assistant Conductor

BUTLER STUDIO SUPPORTERS

The Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio is grateful for the underwriting support of Ms. Marty Dudley, Ms. Stephanie Larsen, and Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. Langenstein. The Butler Studio is also thankful for the in-kind support of the Texas Voice Center and for the outstanding support of the Magnolia Houston hotel.

Additional support for the Butler Studio is provided by the following funds within the Houston Grand Opera Endowment, Inc.:

William Woodard, Assistant Conductor

Brian Connelly, Piano Instructor

Mo Zhou, Showcase Director and Guest Acting Faculty

Stephen Neely, Dalcroze Eurhythmics Instructor

Adam Noble, Movement Instructor

Christa Gaug, German Instructor

Enrica Vagliani Gray, Italian Instructor Sponsored by Marsha Montemayor

Neda Zafaranian, English Instructor

Margo Garrett, Guest Coach

Warren Jones, Guest Coach

Demetrious Sampson, Jr., Tenor

Dr. Dina Alsowayel and Mr. Anthony R. Chase/ Dr. Eric McLaughlin and Mr. Elliot Castillo/ Alejandra and Héctor Torres/ Mr. Trey Yates Fellow

Ziniu Zhao, Bass  Carolyn J. Levy / Jill and Allyn Risley / Dr. Peter Chang and Hon. Theresa Chang and Friends / Dr. Ron Galfione and Carolyn Galfione Fellow

Hemdi Kfir, Guest Coach

Matthew Piatt, Guest Coach

Leon Major, Guest Acting Faculty

Alley Theatre's Resident Acting Company, Guest Acting Faculty

The Gordon and Mary Cain Foundation Endowment Fund

Marjorie and Thomas Capshaw Endowment Fund

James J. Drach Endowment Fund

The Evans and Portela Family Fund

Carol Lynn Lay Fletcher Endowment Fund

William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship Fund

Charlotte Howe Memorial Scholarship Fund

Elva Lobit Opera Endowment Fund

Marian and Speros Martel Foundation Endowment Fund

Erin Gregory Neale Endowment Fund

Dr. Mary Joan Nish and Patricia Bratsas Endowed Fund

John M. O’Quinn Foundation Endowed Fund

Shell Lubricants State Company Fund

Mary C. Gayler Snook Endowment Fund

Tenneco, Inc., Endowment Fund

Weston-Cargill Endowed Fund

The Young Artists Vocal Academy (YAVA) is generously supported by Mr. and Mrs. Robert N. Wakefield, Gwyneth Campbell, and David and Norine Gill. Additional in-kind support is generously provided by the Magnolia Houston hotel.

ROBERTO KALB CHARACTER OUT OF

By Catherine Matusow

Read about Roberto Kalb’s opera love story on page 64!

At its heart, West Side Story is about what it means to be othered. That is something that conductor Roberto Kalb, making his highly anticipated debut at the HGO podium for this classic musical, knows something about. Kalb was born in Mexico City, where his family was seen as other for being Jewish. When he came to the United States, his peers saw him as other not only for being Mexican, but for not fitting their idea of what that looks like. In a way, he was even other in his own family—the son a banker, with three older brothers in finance, he instead decided to pursue music. These experiences mean Kalb—an accomplished composer, conductor, and, since 2022, the music director of Detroit Opera—feels the emotion of West Side Story deeply and personally.

Cues: Tell us about your background.

Roberto Kalb: I was born in Mexico City, and I’m the youngest of four brothers. My mother was born in Cairo in ’51 to a family of Sephardic Jews. Their native tongue was French. They were kicked out in ’56 and became refugees. They went to Paris for three years, then to Queens, New York, where she was until she was 18. And then she went on vacation to Mexico City because her aunt lived there, and she met my dad on a blind date. My dad’s family is Ashkenazi Jewish and had been in Mexico since 1900.

My grandfather on my dad’s side wanted to be a conductor. He wanted to move to Vienna when he was 20 to study conducting. My great-grandmother cried for weeks on end, so he decided not to leave his family. He stayed in Mexico and became a banker. So the musical lineage stopped there, until me. But when I was born, there was music in my house. My dad used to blast Pavarotti and Domingo, and I used to watch The Three Tenors as a kid. And I begged my mom for piano lessons. I was 5 when I started. I loved it, and I took it seriously, but I didn’t think I’d be a pianist. I thought I’d be something in finance like my brothers, and play piano for fun.

Cues: How did you decide to pursue music as a career?

RK: When I was 13, I was playing the trumpet in my middle school band. One of my buddies came over, and he said, you have to listen to this. And it was the soundtrack to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by John Williams. I was like, oh my God, this is the

best thing in the world. I went and I bought my own CD. My parents were out of town, I remember. And I put the CD in, and I just blasted it and air-conducted the soundtrack. And I thought, this is what I have to do with my life. I have to make music for film, and I have to conduct my own scores. That was my career goal when I was 13.

When I was 17, I convinced my dad to let me apply to the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, and I got in. That, for me, was a test, to see if I could be competitive. I was quite an ambitious teenager. And I succeeded. I went as a composer. My original background is in composition. My first degrees in the U.S., from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of Michigan—those were composition degrees. I was writing music. And I did write music for film, but as soon as I did it, I didn’t like it, because I was really subject to the director’s vision, and I wanted my own creativity. At the same time, I was conducting, for fun, orchestras, and I also watched my first opera live, Fidelio, at the San Francisco Opera.

Cues: Tell us about that experience.

RK: Donald Runnicles conducted a beautiful prelude, and then the little duet at the beginning of Fidelio that’s so cute, you know? That was instantaneous love for opera. I was like, oh my God, it’s life—it’s us—with the most glorious music accompanying it and telling the story. And the bug bit pretty hard. That’s how my path started into opera. My training is in orchestral conducting, but I conduct a lot of opera because—well, I guess I got the reputation for being good at it.

Cues: Are you looking forward to taking the podium for West Side Story for the first time?

RK: Yes, somehow, it’s my first time. But I love it. I have really early memories of West Side Story, because I watched the film at home as a teen. And I remember loving it. My parents loved it. And it’s just fantastic music. Kind of like Puccini, it gets a bad rap for being beautiful, and accessible, and exciting. But it’s masterful. I think Bernstein was a compositional genius. He goes from style to style with no issue. He could write the most intense, most profound, complex music, or any dance form. Any Latin dance form, he’s at home. And I think that’s the mastery of this piece: that he weaves everything, all those styles, together so effectively. And if you dig deep into the score, it’s compositionally truly brilliant.

Cues: How do you prepare for something like that?

RK: The conductor, in the first rehearsal, has to know more about the piece than anyone else. I have a long,

very specific process. The first part of it is always reading and analyzing the libretto, memorizing the text. If there’s an original literary source, I read that. I’m very meticulous. I go through the whole score, and I go role by role. I do that pass for every single character. Then I go back, and I do another pass, and I do instrumentation. Then I sit. I play. I sing. I’m writing phrasings—you know, where should this phrase go? Really important landmarks in the piece. The last step is bowings. I go through all of the string parts, and I bow every single note of it.

I don’t make final musical decisions until the piece is really in my DNA. This takes a long time. West Side Story is a little easier for me because I know a lot of the music, but I haven’t conducted a complete West Side Story. So this will take me a good three months to just really get in my body.

Cues: Is there a particular philosophy or method that guides you?

RK: My philosophy is that the music speaks for itself. I believe in egoless art-making, because this idea of putting your stamp on something, I think, is a weird thought. I try to be a vessel for the composer, and also for the director’s vision. If you work with a great director—Francesca Zambello is fantastic—to bring a vision, that’s also part of the conductor’s job. And to accentuate your cast. If I do West Side Story with one cast, it might sound a little different than with another cast, right? Because you adapt to the humans that are in front of you.

Cues: West Side Story is about the immigrant experience. As an immigrant yourself, do you connect to the story on that level?

RK: I’m from a Spanish-speaking country, and I came to a non-Spanish-speaking country. Unfortunately, there’s too many parallels. I grew up in Mexico City, Jewish. I was an alien. We’re 50,000 Jews in Mexico City. There’s a large amount of antisemitism that’s ingrained in the society to a degree that you would not believe. As a kid, I would hear, oh, that girl smells like a Jew ; or, oh, your voice is sounding raspy. You sound like a Jewish woman. It’s an everyday thing.

When I moved to the States, there was the other aspect. I had never been left out because I was Latin. I speak English well, and I studied at an American school in Mexico, so when I got to the States, that was easy.

But the culture shock was dramatic. People would say, oh, you’re Mexican? But you don’t look Mexican. And I said, what do Mexicans look like? And then people get stuck because I have pale skin. I look more European, because I have that descendance. So it was a little hard. And then, the other one was: Wait, but how are you Jewish? You’re Mexican.

Cues: You really did feel it directly.

RK: Yes. That said, I feel every opera directly. If you’re doing La bohème, we all have felt love. We all have experienced death. These are human experiences. With West Side Story, even if you’re not Latino, and even if you don’t have that immigrant experience, you can place yourself in that situation. If you’ve been left out in a playground, or were chosen last in football, or anything like that. Those feelings of rejection are universal. So, sure, I have firsthand experience. But I think we all have.

That’s why people love West Side Story : because they can empathize with every single character. I really do believe that 99 percent of people are good, and that when they go into the opera, they’re empathetic. They can identify with all of these themes regardless of where they’re from. 

Roberto Kalb will make his HGO debut at the podium for West Side Story. Credit: Austin Richey, Detroit Opera

The Impresarios Circle is Houston Grand Opera’s premier donor recognition society. These vanguard supporters who provide annual support of at least $100,000 are instrumental to HGO’s success. For information, please contact Deborah Hirsch, chief philanthropy officer, at 713-546-0259 or DHirsch@HGO.org.

JUDY AND RICHARD AGEE

HGO subscribers for more than two decades, Judy and Dick are ardent believers in the power of storytelling through words and music. They partnered with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston Inner-City Catholic Schools to expand student access to HGO Community & Learning programs. Judy and Dick, the founder and chairman of Wapiti Energy LLC and Bayou Well Holdings Company LLC, also support mainstage productions. Dick is a member of the HGO Board of Directors.

ROBIN ANGLY AND MILES SMITH

HGO subscribers Robin and Miles joined the Founders Council in 2010. The company is honored to have Robin as a senior member of the HGO Board of Directors and a member of HGO’s Laureate Society. The couple is familiar with the view from the HGO stage as well— both are former singers in the HGO Chorus. Robin and Miles have been donors to HGO signature events, the Young Artists Vocal Academy, and HGO’s Ring cycle, as well as Community & Learning Initiatives. They are charter members of the Impresarios Circle and generously underwrite a mainstage production each season.

ASTLEY BLAIR

An HGO subscriber for 20 years, Astley is a member of the HGO Board of Directors and serves as the Chair of the Audit Committee. He is currently the CFO of the Marine Well Containment Company, and his experience is built on years of technical education with the Association of Accounting Technicians. Active throughout Houston, Astley gives his time to Houston Food Bank, United Way, and initiatives to support STEM education. He is the past chairman of the Center for Houston’s Future and a board member of the Houston Airport System Development Corporation. Astley is an enthusiastic supporter of HGO signature events and chaired the Opening Night Dinner for the 2014-15 season. This season, Astley is underwriting HGO’s production of Breaking the Waves

THE BROWN FOUNDATION, INC.

The Brown Foundation, Inc., established in 1951 by Herman and Margarett Root Brown and George R. and Alice Pratt Brown, has been a treasured partner of HGO since 1984. Based in Houston, the Foundation distributes funds principally for education, community service, and the arts, especially the visual and performing arts. HGO is tremendously grateful for The Brown Foundation’s leadership support, which has been critical to the company’s unprecedented growth and success in recent years. The Brown Foundation was among the lead contributors to HGO’s Hurricane Harvey and COVID-19 recovery efforts.

THE CAROL FRANC BUCK FOUNDATION

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation has generously supported HGO since 1986. Carol was an avid adventurer and supporter of the arts, and she fondly remembered going to the San Francisco Opera with her mother as a child. Since her passing in 2022, the Foundation has continued her vision of supporting the arts across the United States, with a special emphasis on Wagner’s operas. HGO is especially grateful for the Foundation’s support of our Ring cycle from 2014-17 and Jake Heggie’s Intelligence in 2023.

SARAH AND ERNEST BUTLER

HGO subscribers for over 35 years, Sarah and Ernest made the largest gift to HGO in company history in 2023, creating a new fund within the HGO Endowment valued at $22 million and becoming the naming partner for the Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio. They are also the lead underwriters for the company’s digital artistic programming and have generously endowed three chairs at HGO: those of HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers, Chorus Director Richard Bado, and HGO Orchestra Concertmaster Denise Tarrant. Ernest and Sarah reside in Austin and are longtime supporters of Ballet Austin, Austin Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Texas Cultural Trust, and the University of Texas Butler School of Music, which has carried their name since 2008. Sarah and Ernest are world travelers, and they never miss an opportunity to see opera in the cities they visit.

JANET AND JOHN CARRIG

Janet and John have been HGO supporters and subscribers since 2007. Both worked at ConocoPhillips before retiring, Janet as Senior Vice President and John as President and Chief Operating Officer. Active members of their community, Janet and John serve on many boards including the advisory board of the National Association of Corporate Directors, the Council of Overseers for the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, and The Alley Theater in Houston. Janet also serves as Chair Emeritus on the HGO Board of Directors and Chair Emeritus on the HGO Endowment’s Board of Directors. The company is grateful to Janet and John for helping underwrite our 2024-25 season.

ANNE AND ALBERT CHAO

Anne and Albert have been subscribers and supporters of HGO for over 20 years. While serving as Executive Chairman of the Board of Westlake Corporation, Albert finds time for numerous cultural causes including serving on the board of Rice University and the Asia Society Texas Center. He is a member of the HGO Board of Directors and was the co-chair of Inspiring Performance—The

Campaign for Houston Grand Opera. Over the years, the Chaos have sponsored HGO signature events, the Butler Studio, Song of Houston, and mainstage productions. The couple has also supported the HGO Endowment. In April 2023 they chaired the Opera Ball.

LOUISE G. CHAPMAN

Louise Chapman of Corpus Christi, Texas, a longtime supporter of HGO, is a member of the HGO Board of Directors. Louise’s late husband, John O. Chapman, was a South Texas agricultural businessman and philanthropist. In addition to HGO, the Chapmans have supported numerous organizations in health, education, and the arts, including Texas A&M University, the Corpus Christi Symphony, and the Art Museum of South Texas. Louise and HGO Trustee Connie Dyer have known each other since they were college roommates at The University of Texas.

CONOCOPHILLIPS

For over 40 years, ConocoPhillips has supported various programs at HGO, from signature events to mainstage productions, including a long-standing tradition of supporting HGO’s season-opening operas. In 2009, the company gave a major multiyear grant to establish ConocoPhillips New Initiatives, a far-reaching program that allows the Opera to develop new and innovative education and community collaboration programs. Kelly Rose, general counsel and SVP, serves on the HGO Board of Directors.

MOLLY AND JIM CROWNOVER

Molly and Jim have been HGO subscribers for over 30 years and are members of the Impresarios Circle and Laureate Society. Jim has been a member of HGO’s Board of Directors since 1987, including service as chairman from 2016-18 and on the Executive, Governance, Development, and Finance Committees. In 1998, Jim retired from a 30-year career with McKinsey & Company, Inc. and has served on myriad corporate and non-profit boards including Rice University (past board chair), United Way (past campaign chair), and most recently as M.D. Anderson Foundation President. Molly serves on the Butler Studio Committee. She also serves on the Advisory Board of The Shepherd Society at Rice University and the Houston Ballet Board of Trustees (past Executive Committee and Ballet Ball chair). In addition to chairing both Concert of Arias and Opening Night Dinner, Molly and Jim have been honorees at both events.

THE CULLEN FOUNDATION

For more than three decades, The Cullen Foundation has been a vital member of the HGO family. Established in 1947, the Foundation has a long history of giving generously to education, health care, and the arts in Texas, primarily in the Greater Houston area. HGO is grateful

for the Foundation’s longstanding leadership support of HGO’s season activities and special support for HGO’s COVID-19 recovery efforts.

THE CULLEN TRUST FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts has been a lead underwriter of HGO’s mainstage season for nearly 30 years. The Trust was established from assets of The Cullen Foundation to specifically benefit Texas performing arts institutions, particularly those within the Greater Houston area. The Cullen Trust has provided lead support for memorable productions including HGO’s Family Opera Series and, most recently, has funded an expansion of Community & Learning's partnerships with MacGregor Park and other Third Ward organizations. HGO is grateful for the Trust’s leadership contribution to HGO’s Hurricane Harvey recovery fund, as well as a generous gift to HGO’s COVID-19 recovery efforts.

MS. MARTY DUDLEY

Ms. Marty Dudley became a lover of HGO when she started subscribing and attending HGO special events in 2023. Marty currently serves as the vice president and secretary of the Dudley Family Foundation and believes deeply in funding research and education at Houston Methodist Hospital, Inova Health System, and Purdue University, to name a few. Her profound love of education and young artists make Marty a wonderful supporter of the Butler Studio. This season, Marty is underwriting first-year Butler Studio artist and First Prize Concert of Arias winner Elizabeth Hanje.

CONNIE DYER

Connie Dyer has been an important member of the HGO family for decades. Connie loves Opening Night festivities and the Concert of Arias. She is a leadership donor, Trustee, and a member of the Laureate Society and the Founders Council for Artistic Excellence. With her late husband Byron, she has hosted receptions for HGO Patrons in their beautiful home in Santa Fe. They were early and enthusiastic underwriters for the company’s Seeking the Human Spirit initiative, and Connie also made a Grand Guarantor pledge for HGO’s COVID Relief Campaign. HGO Board Member Louise Chapman and Connie were college roommates at the University of Texas, Austin.

THE ELKINS FOUNDATION

This year marks the 25th anniversary of HGO’s partnership with The Elkins Foundation. Each year since 1956, The Elkins Foundation has contributed to numerous organizations serving Houston and the Greater Gulf Coast. They are guided by a belief that a community’s strength lies in the vision of its people and the health of its institutions. The Elkins Foundation’s support for HGO’s Community & Learning programs makes it possible for thousands of children across greater Houston to experience the transformative power of opera and the arts. The Foundation also supports HGO’s thrilling musical theater series, introducing families and newcomers to the magic of HGO.

FROST BANK

Frost Bank has supported HGO for over a decade, helping bring to life some of the world’s most treasured operas as well as sponsoring one of the company’s most beloved events, the Patrons Circle Recital. Since Frost’s founding in 1868, the bank has invested in the communities it serves through hard work, customer service, and support of the arts, education, economic development, and health and human services. David LePori, Regional President, serves on the HGO Board of Directors, and Executive Vice President Michelle Huth serves on HGO’s corporate council.

JOE AND MARIANNE GEAGEA

Joe and Marianne have been supporters and subscribers of HGO since 2022. After a distinguished 40-year career with the Chevron Corporation, Joe retired in June 2022 as Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor to Chevron’s Chairman and CEO. Joe and Marianne love all manner of art and support institutions such as the Museum of Houston Fine Arts Houston and the Houston Ballet where Marianne serves on the board of trustees. Joe has been on the HGO board of trustees for two years and is currently leading our strategic planning committee. Joe and Marianne are also grand underwriters for this season’s production of Puccini’s La bohème

DRS. LIZ GRIMM AND JACK ROTH

HGO subscribers since the 2013-14 season, Liz and Jack have both committed themselves to cancer research and patient care through their work at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Jack is a member of the HGO Board of Directors and served as Butler Studio Committee Chair. Liz and Jack were generous underwriters of the company’s historic, first-ever Ring cycle and lead supporters of its German repertoire, including Elektra. Additionally, Liz and Jack chaired the 2018 Opera Ball and the 2022 Concert of Arias.

NANCY HAYWOOD

Long-time Trustee Nancy Haywood loves HGO and has a particular passion for the Butler Studio and young artists. Her enthusiasm is infectious. This season Nancy is underwriting first-year Butler Studio artist Alissa Goretsky. Her love for supporting young artists goes beyond HGO to the Houston Boy Choir, where she is one of their most ardent benefactors and board members. Nancy is a member of HGO’s Butler Studio Committee, Philanthropy Committee, and the Laureate Society. Most recently, she made a guarantor pledge for the company’s COVID Relief Campaign. Nancy and her late husband, Dr. Ted Haywood, approached every opera performance as a “date night.” Ted Haywood was a prince.

MATT HEALEY

Matt Healey serves on the HGO Board of Directors. He is Senior Vice President, Finance and Treasury, at Cheniere Energy, responsible for budgeting, capital planning, forecasting, and capital raising. He also owns El Segundo Swim Club, a full-service bar and swimming pool in the historic Second Ward. Matt became a huge fan of HGO the moment the curtains opened on the water tank Rhinemaidens in Das Rheingold in 2014. Although he has seen the Ring cycle in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, the HGO production is by far his favorite. A passionate fan of German repertoire, he underwrote Salome in the 2022-23 season, Parsifal in the 2023-24 season, and is underwriting Tannhäuser this season.

WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST FOUNDATION

The William Randolph Hearst Foundation is a national philanthropic resource for organizations working in the fields of culture, education, health, and social services. The Foundation identifies and funds outstanding nonprofits to ensure that people of all backgrounds in the United States have the opportunity to build healthy, productive, and inspiring lives. A dedicated supporter of HGO’s Community & Learning initiatives, the Foundation helps Houstonians of all ages to explore, engage, and learn through the inspiring art of opera.

H-E-B

For over 115 years, H-E-B has contributed to worthy causes throughout Texas and Mexico, a tradition proudly maintained today. And for over 20 years, H-E-B has been a lead supporter of HGO’s arts education programs for Houston area students. H-E-B’s partnership helps over 60,000 young people experience the magic of opera each season. Always celebrating Houston’s cultural diversity, H-E-B supports thrilling programming like HGO’s Giving Voice concert and various Community & Learning initiatives.

CITY OF HOUSTON / HOUSTON ARTS ALLIANCE

Houston Arts Alliance partners with HGO to bring operatic excellence to Houston. A subsidiary of the City of Houston, Houston Arts Alliance works to implement the City of Houston’s vision, values, and goals for its arts grantmaking and civic art investments. HGO is also grateful to Houston Arts Alliance for its support throughout Hurricane Harvey and the COVID-19 pandemic.

HOUSTON GRAND OPERA ENDOWMENT, INC.

Established and incorporated in 1982, the Houston Grand Opera Endowment (HGOE) is a vital financial management tool that ensures HGO has a reliable, regular source of income. Today, the Endowment contains over 50 named funds, both unrestricted and restricted, and annually distributes 4.5 percent of the Endowment’s average market value to HGO, making it the company’s largest single annual funder. The Houston Grand Opera Endowment Board is led by Marianne Kah.

HOUSTON METHODIST

For over ten years, Houston Grand Opera has partnered with Houston Methodist, the official health care provider for HGO. Houston Methodist’s Center for Performing Arts Medicine (CPAM) is the only center of its kind in the country, comprising a specialized group of more than 100 physicians working collaboratively to address the specific demands placed upon performing artists. In addition to the first-rate medical care CPAM provides HGO artists, Houston Methodist also generously supports HGO’s mainstage season and partners frequently on Community & Learning collaborations. HGO is fortunate to have Dr. Warren Ellsworth and Dr. Apurva Thekdi serve as Houston Methodist’s corporate trustees.

HUMPHREYS FOUNDATION

Based in Liberty, Texas, the Humphreys Foundation has been a major underwriter of HGO’s mainstage season since 1980. Geraldine Davis Humphreys (d. 1961), a member of the pioneer Hardin family of Liberty, Texas, bequeathed her estate to Humphreys Foundation, which was formally established in 1959. The Foundation provides support for performing arts in Texas and college scholarship funding for students in the arts. Linda Bertman, Louis Paine, and Jeff Paine serve as trustees of Humphreys Foundation. The Foundation is a lead supporter of HGO’s musical theater series, including last season’s recordbreaking production of The Sound of Music.

ELIZABETH AND RICHARD HUSSEINI

We like to think that HGO helped “set the stage” for Elizabeth and Richard Husseini’s love story. When a set malfunction at the end of the first act of HGO’s The Flying Dutchman forced Maestro to re-start the opera from the top, the two seatmates bonded in their shared delight that they got to hear more Wagner! The two got engaged one year later (at HGO, of course). Richard is a tax partner at Kirkland & Ellis, a generous HGO corporate supporter, and a member of both the HGO Board of Directors and the HGO Endowment Board. Elizabeth retired from Baker Botts as a corporate and securities partner and devotes her attention to family and community matters, including Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Preservation Houston, the Junior League, and River Oaks Baptist School, which the Husseinis’ two sons attend. Enthusiastic supporters of the young artists and alumni of the Butler Studio, the couple chaired the 2019 Concert of Arias. True to their love of Wagner, the Husseinis are generously underwriting this season’s production of Tannhäuser

CLAIRE LIU AND JOE GREENBERG

Claire and Joe have subscribed to HGO for many seasons and are members of HGO’s Founders Council for Artistic Excellence. Claire assumed the role of Chair of the Houston Grand Opera Board of Directors in August 2022. She is retired from LyondellBassell Industries, where she led the corporate

finance team, and was formerly a managing director with Bank of America. Joe is founder and CEO of Alta Resources, L.L.C., a private company involved in the development of shale oil and gas resources in North America. Claire and Joe support many organizations, with particular emphasis on educational organizations including YES Prep and Beatrice Mayes Charter School. An avid runner, Claire has completed marathons in all 50 states.

M. D. ANDERSON FOUNDATION

The M. D. Anderson Foundation has provided general operating support to HGO for more than 30 years, as well as several innovative investments to advance HGO’s digital infrastructure. The Foundation was established in 1936 by Monroe Dunaway Anderson, whose company, Anderson, Clayton and Co., was the world’s largest cotton merchant. While the Foundation started the Texas Medical Center and was instrumental in bringing to it one of the premier cancer centers in the world, the Foundation’s trustees also looked to improve the wellness of communities through the arts. HGO is privileged to have such a longstanding and committed partner in enhancing the quality of life for all Houstonians.

BETH MADISON

Beth has been an HGO subscriber for more than two decades. HGO has had the honor of her support since 2004. Past chair of the HGO Board of Directors, she is a senior director of the HGO Board of Directors, serves on the Butler Studio Committee, and is an active member of HGO’s Founders Council. She was the honoree at the 2017 Concert of Arias. Beth generously supports the Butler Studio, signature events, and mainstage operas. She has been inducted into the Greater Houston Women’s Hall of Fame and serves on the University of Houston System Board of Regents.

LAURA AND BRAD MCWILLIAMS

HGO subscribers for 35 years, Laura and Brad are passionate advocates for HGO. A longtime Trustee, Laura has served on the HGO Finance Committee, chaired the Annual Fund Drive, and serves on the Laureate Society Council. Laura and Brad’s generosity has impacted almost every area of the company including its signature events – they chaired the 32nd Annual Concert of Arias in 2020. They most recently created the McWilliams Fund for Artistic Excellence to underwrite HGO’s mainstage operas for the 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 seasons.

SARA AND BILL MORGAN

Sara and Bill have been supporting HGO since 2002. Sara is a co-founder of the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, where she currently serves on the board. Bill is a co-founder of the Kinder Morgan companies and the retired vice chairman and president of Kinder Morgan, Inc., and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, LP. The Morgans support Community & Learning initiatives, HGO’s signature events, and mainstage productions. HGO is thrilled to have Sara serve on the HGO Board of Directors and as a member and past chair of the Community & Learning Committee.

NABORS INDUSTRIES

Nabors Industries is a leading provider of advanced technology for the energy industry. The company owns and operates one of the largest land-based drilling rig fleets and is a provider in numerous international markets. By leverage its core competencies, Nabors aims to innovate the future of energy and enable the transition to a lower carbon world. HGO is grateful for the generous support of Nabors, and Tony and Cynthia Petrello, for HGO’s first ever Family Day Presents: Cinderella

NOVUM ENERGY/MARCIA AND ALFREDO VILAS

Alfredo Vilas is a passionate lover of opera, serves on the HGO Board of Directors, and together with his wife Marcia chaired HGO’s unforgettable “Cielito Lindo” Opera Ball in 2019. Vilas is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Novum Energy, a global supplier and logistics group of companies founded in 2011 with its original operations focused on Latin America. Novum Energy has been a leading corporate sponsor of HGO for more than a decade, and this year, the Vilases, Novum Energy, and the Novum Foundation will expand their partnership to support HGO’s Latin American initiatives.

ALLYSON PRITCHETT

Allyson Pritchett, a member of the HGO Board of Directors, is the Founder & CEO of Bodka Creek Capital, a Houston-based real estate private equity firm with over $100 million in assets under management. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics & Archaeology from Harvard University. After attending her first opera at HGO in 2021 (Carmen), she joined the Young Patrons Circle and quickly demonstrated her passion for opera by underwriting soprano Angel Blue in La traviata the following year.

SAROFIM FOUNDATION

Established by Fayez Sarofim, the Sarofim Foundation was created in gratitude for the opportunities that this country and Houston provided him as an emigrant from his native Egypt. The Foundation has had a significant, lasting impact on Houston and beyond, particularly in education, healthcare, and the arts. HGO is grateful to the Sarofim Foundation for its continued dedication to the arts and the unique power of opera.

SHELL USA, INC.

Shell USA, Inc. is a leader in the Houston arts community, supporting HGO for over 40 years. Shell USA, Inc.’s leadership support makes opera more accessible and inspires young minds with STEM-aligned arts education opportunities like HGO’s annual Opera Camps. Shell USA, Inc. was also a major supporter of HGO’s Hurricane Harvey recovery. HGO is honored to have Selda Gunsel,

Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Technology for Shell globally, as a member of the HGO Board of Directors.

DIAN AND HARLAN STAI

Harlan, a member of the HGO Board of Directors, and Dian are charter members of HGO’s Founders Council for Artistic Excellence. Their leadership support has touched every part of HGO, including mainstage productions, the Butler Studio, the HGO Endowment, and signature events. The Stais have also sponsored Butler Studio artists, and they host annual recitals featuring Butler Studio artists at Mansefeldt, their renowned Fredericksburg ranch. HGO was privileged to recognize Dian and Harlan as the honorees of Opening Night 2008 as well as the 2014 Concert of Arias, and we are honored that they will be this year’s Opera Ball honorees

TEXAS COMMISSION ON THE ARTS

The mission of the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) is to advance our state economically and culturally by investing in creative projects and programs. TCA supports a diverse and innovative arts community in the state, throughout the nation, and internationally by providing resources to enhance economic development, arts education, cultural tourism, and artist sustainability initiatives. Over the years, TCA has provided invaluable support to many HGO projects, including mainstage productions (like this season’s West Side Story) and a wide array of Community & Learning initiatives.

ISABEL AND IGNACIO TORRAS

Isabel and Ignacio “Nacho” Torras are proud supporters of HGO. After coming to Houston in 1989, Nacho launched Tricon Energy in 1996 and grew it into the leading multinational commodities trading platform it is today. Inspired by their love for Spanish food, they own and operate Houston restaurants MAD, Rocambolesc, and BCN Taste & Tradition, which was recently awarded a Michelin star. They are generous supporters of the arts, academic research, and initiatives for the inclusion of neurodiverse people. At HGO, they chaired the 2024 “Mirror” Opera Ball and supported the inclusion of a neurodiverse performer in this winter’s La bohème, among other projects.

JOHN G. TURNER & JERRY G. FISCHER

John and Jerry, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, travel around the world to experience the best that opera has to offer. HGO subscribers and donors for over a decade, the couple’s leadership support of Wagner’s Ring cycle (2014-17) was the largest gift ever made to the company for a single production, and they will continue their love of Wagner this season by acting as lead underwriters for Tannhäuser. John, a shareholder at Turner Industries Group, is a senior member of the HGO Board of Directors and past chair of the

Butler Studio Committee. Jerry is a board member of Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. In recent years, John and Jerry have supported HGO mainstage productions, the Butler Studio, and signature events. They are members of the Founders Council for Artistic Excellence, and John is a member of the Laureate Society.

VEER VASISHTA

Veer Vasishta is a passionate lover of opera and a proud member of the HGO Board of Directors and Impresarios Circle. Following his education in mechanical engineering and a successful career in finance, Veer co-founded a technology firm based in Montreal, Canada, with staff in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the U.K., and Asia. He trained as a classical guitarist after a short time playing violin and in a rock band in high school. Veer began attending HGO performances as soon as he arrived in Houston.

VINSON & ELKINS LLP

HGO has been privileged to have the support of international law firm Vinson & Elkins LLP for 40 years. For more than 100 years, Vinson & Elkins LLP has been deeply committed to empowering the communities in which it serves. The firm has enriched the cultural vibrancy of Houston by supporting HGO through in-kind legal services and contributions to signature events and mainstage productions, including this season’s production of Puccini’s La bohème.

VITOL

Established in 2006, The Vitol Foundation was created to make a difference in people’s lives. For the past three years, Vitol has made that difference through its support of HGO’s Community & Learning programs. Vitol’s commitment to education gives children in the greater Houston area the opportunity to experience the magic of opera no matter their background. HGO is grateful to Vitol, and to its Vice President, HGO board member Kristin Muessig, for underwriting Opera Ball in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

MARGARET ALKEK WILLIAMS

Margaret, a longtime singer, possesses a deep affinity for all music, and especially opera, and has supported HGO for over 30 years. Currently, Margaret continues her parents’ legacy as chairman of their foundation, where her son Charles A. Williams serves as president. HGO is humbled by Margaret’s incredible generosity and dedication to the company, both as an individual donor and through her family’s foundation. She has endowed the Margaret Alkek Williams Chair, held by HGO General Director Khori Dastoor, and is a member of HGO’s Laureate Society. A valued member of the HGO Board of Directors, Margaret was the honoree of the 2009 Opera Ball and chairman of the 2014 Ball. She also generously chaired the 2018 Hurricane Harvey benefit concert, HGO and Plácido: Coming Home! During the 2024-25 season, she will be the chair of Opera Ball.

THE WORTHAM FOUNDATION, INC.

In the 1980s, the Wortham Foundation contributed $20 million to lead the capital campaign for the Wortham Theater Center, guided by businessman Gus S. Wortham’s early recognition of the vital role of the arts in making Houston an appealing place to live and work. During their lifetimes, Gus and his wife, Lyndall, were dedicated to improving the lives of Houstonians. The Foundation continues to support HGO through the Wortham Foundation Permanent Endowment and generous annual operating support. This leadership support has been vital to the Opera’s growth and commitment to excellence. The Wortham Foundation’s support of HGO’s Hurricane Harvey recovery helped to bring the company back home, and its special support of HGO’s COVID-19 recovery efforts helped us come back stronger than ever.

ANNUAL SUPPORT

Houston Grand Opera Trustees and Patrons Circle members support the Opera with annual donations of $10,000 or $5,000, respectively, and make possible the incredible work of HGO. Trustees and Patrons enjoy many benefits at the Opera, including Masterson Green Room privileges during performance intermissions, behind-the-scenes experiences, personalized ticket service, two tickets to all open dress rehearsals, Opera Guild membership, a discount on Opera Guild Boutique purchases, and much more. For information on joining as a Trustee or Patron, please contact David Krohn, senior director of philanthropy, at 713-980-8685 or DKrohn@HGO.org.

CHAIR, DONOR ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE

Ms. Gwyneth Campbell, Co-Chair, Donor Engagement Committee

Mauricio Perillo

Co-Chair, Donor Engagement Committee

TRUSTEE—$10,000

OR MORE

Chris and Michelle Angelides

Blanche S. and Robert C. Bast, Jr., MD

Mr. and Mrs. James Becker

Drs. Robert S. and Nancy Benjamin

Stephanie and Dom Beveridge

Adrienne Bond

Nancy and Walt Bratic

Mr. Stephen Brossart and Mr. Gerrod George

Dr. Janet Bruner

Mollie and Wayne Brunetti

Mr. and Mrs. Lester P. Burgess

Mrs. Carol Butler

Drs. Ian and Patricia Butler

Mr. Robert Caballero

Ms. Gwyneth Campbell and Mr. Joseph L. Campbell

Patricia and Jess Carnes

Mr. Robert N. Chanon

Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Clarke

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Collier

Dr. Laurence Corash and Ms. Michele Corash

Julie and Bert Cornelison

Mr. Robert L. Cook and Mrs. Giovanna Imperia

Jayne and Peter Davis

Ms. Sasha Davis

Anna M. Dean

Dr. Elaine DeCanio

Dr. and Mrs. Roupen Dekmezian

Ms. Elisabeth DeWitts

Valerie and Tracy Dieterich

Jeanette and John DiFilippo

Dr. and Mrs. William F. Donovan

Joanne and David Dorenfeld

Mr. James Dorough-Lewis and Mr. Jacob Carr

Anna and Brad Eastman

Mr. Bob Ellis

Ms. Mary Foster

Mr. John E. Frantz

Caroline Freeman

Trish Freeman and Bruce Patterson

Monica Fulton

Gina and Scott Gaille

Mr. and Mrs. Scott J. Garber

Dr. and Mrs. David P. Gill

Mrs. Geraldine C. Gill

Mr. Wesley Goble

Sandy and Lee Godfrey

Michaela and Nicholas Greenan

Ms. Dianne L. Gross

Ms. Julia Gwaltney

Dr. Patricia Holmes

Alan and Ellen Holzberg

Lee M. Huber

Ann and Stephen Kaufman

Mr. Mark Klitzke and Dr. Angela Chen

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Knull III

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Kolb

Ann Koster

Elizabeth and Bill Kroger

Mrs. Connie Kwan-Wong

Mr. and Mrs. Blair Labatt

Mr. and Mrs. Randall B. Lake

Rita Leader

Mr. Bryant Lee

Dr. and Mrs. Ernst Leiss

Mrs. Marilyn Lummis

Ms. Michele Malloy

Ms. Diane M. Marcinek

Mary Marquardsen

Mr. R. Davis Maxey

Dorothy McCaine

Ms. Janice McNeil

Ginger Menown

Chadd Mikulin and Amanda Lenertz

Dr. Indira Mysorekar Mills and Dr. Jason Mills

Dr. and Mrs. William E. Mitch

Marsha L. Montemayor

Erik B. Nelson and Terry R. Brandhorst

John Newton and Peggy Cramer

Geoffry H. Oshman

Susan and Edward Osterberg

Mr. and Mrs. Michael J. Pancherz

Dr. Selda Gunsel and Mr. Don Pferdehirt

Mr. Mark Poag and Dr. Mary Poag

Mr. and Mrs. Andrey Polunin

Dr. Angela Rechichi-Apollo

Carol F. Relihan

Mr. Todd Reppert

Ed and Janet Rinehart

Mr. and Mrs. Walter Ritchie

Dr. and Mrs. Franklin Rose

Mr. Mike Rydin

Adel and Jason Sander

Judy Sauer

Mrs. Helen P. Shaffer

Merrill Shields and Ray Thomasson

Ms. Janet Sims

Diana Strassmann and Jeffrey Smisek

Mr. and Mrs. George Sneed

Mr. and Mrs. Aaron J. Stai

Bruce Stein

Kathy and Richard Stout

Rhonda Sweeney

Mrs. Carolyn Taub

Mr. Minas and Dr. Jennifer Tektiridis

Mr. and Mrs. John Untereker

Mr. and Mrs. Robert N. Wakefield

Mr. and Mrs. Jay Watkins

Mr. and Mrs. K.C. Weiner

Loretta and Lawrence Williams

Mr. and Mrs. C. Clifford Wright, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. John W. Wright

Mr. Hugh Zhang and Ms. Lulu Tan

Rini and Edward Ziegler

Nina and Michael Zilkha

3 Anonymous

YOUNG TRUSTEE—$5,000 OR MORE

Emily Bivona and Ryan Manser

Mr. and Mrs. Damian Gill

Meredith and Joseph Gomez

Ms. Roya Gordon

Alecia Harris

Ms. Ellen Liu and Ms. Ilana Walder-Biesanz

Emily and Adrian Melendez

Mr. Andrew Pappas

Drs. Mauricio Perillo and Luján Stasevicius

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Ritter

Dr. Nico Roussel and Ms. Teresa Procter

Jennifer Salcich

Mr. Michael Steeves

Mrs. Stella Tang and Mr. Steven Tang

Dr. Yin Yiu

1 Anonymous

NATIONAL TRUSTEE—$5,000 OR MORE

Ms. Alissa Adkins, Corpus Christi, TX

Ms. Jacqueline S. Akins, San Antonio, TX

Mrs. Estella Hollin-Avery, Fredericksburg, TX

Jorge Bernal and Andrea Maher, Bogota, Colombia

Dr. Dennis Berthold and Dr. Pamela Matthews, College Station, TX

Mr. Richard E. Boner and Ms. Susan Pryor, Austin, TX

Mr. Tom Burley and Mr. Michael Arellano, Philadelphia, PA

Mrs. Carol W. Byrd, Wetumka, OK

Mr. Bryce Cotner, Austin, TX

Dr. Thomas S. DeNapoli and Mr. Mark Walker, San Antonio, TX

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Evans, Coldspring, TX

Jack Firestone, Miami, FL

Mr. Raymond Goldstein and Ms. Jane T. Welch, San Antonio, TX

Mr. Charles Hanes, San Jose, CA

Brian Hencey and Charles Ross Jr., Austin, TX

Edward and Patricia Hymson, San Francisco, CA

Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey S. Kay, Austin, TX

Mrs. Judy Kay, Dallas, TX

Dr. and Mrs. Morton Leonard Jr., Galveston, TX

Paul and Judy Lerwick, Asheville, NC

Cathleen C. and Jerome M. Loving, Bryan, TX

Barbara and Camp Matens, Baton Rogue, LA

Mr. Kenton McDonald, Corpus Christi, TX

Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Mehrens, Longview, TX

Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Misamore, Sedona, AZ

Mr. Juan Moreno, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Mr. John P. Muth, Wimberly, TX

Dr. James F. Nelson and Mr. Yong Zhang, San Antonio, TX

Ms. Claire O'Malley, San Antonio, TX

Matilda Perkins, Santa Fe, NM

Ms. Wanda A. Reynolds, Austin, TX

Michelle and Chuck Ritter, Kansas City, MO

James and Nathanael Rosenheim, College Station, TX

Mr. Bruce Ross, Los Angeles, CA

Mr. and Mrs. Bob Ryan, San Francisco, CA

Mrs. Carolyn A. Seale and Mrs. Carol Lee Klose, San Antonio, TX

Mr. Donald Wertz, Austin, TX

David Woodcock, College Station, TX

PATRONS CIRCLE—$5,000 OR MORE

Ms. Jacquelyn M. Abbott

Mr. W. Kendall Adam

Mrs. Nancy C. Allen

Alfredo Tijerina and JP Anderson

Shaza and Mark Anderson

Dr. Tom Anderson

Dr. Julia Andrieni and Dr. Robert Phillips

Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Ardell

Mr. Neely Atkinson

Heather and Richard Avant

Ms. Kristi Axel

Nancy and Paul Balmert

Mr. William Bartlett

Mr. Stephen Beaudoin

Dr. and Mrs. Joel M. Berman

Drs. Henry and Louise Bethea

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley C. Beyer

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen D. Bickel

Dr. Matthew J. Bicocca and Mrs. Yvonne Pham Bicocca

Dr. Joan Hacken Bitar

Dr. Jerry L. Bohannon

Mr. Al Brende and Mrs. Ann Bayless

Mr. Chester Brooke and Dr. Nancy Poindexter

Joan M. C. Bull, M.D.

Mr. and Mrs. Thierry Caruso

Mrs. John R. Castano

Drs. Danuta and Ranjit Chacko

Dr. Beth Chambers and Mr. J. Michael Chambers

Dr. Cindy Childress and Mr. Jack Charles

Mr. and Mrs. Richard T. Clark

Janet Clark

Ms. Donna Collins

Dr. and Mrs. J. Michael Condit

Dr. Nancy I. Cook

Mr. and Mrs. Sam Cooper

Mr. and Mrs. Larry Dooley

Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Dubrowski

Mrs. Eliza Duncan

Ms. Nancy Dunlap

Mr. John Egbert and Mrs. Kathy Beck

Kellie Elder and David Halbert

Mrs. James A. Elkins III

Parrish N. Erwin Jr.

Ms. Thea M. Fabio and Mr. Richard Merrill

Ms. Ann L. Faget

Mr. Brian Faulkner and Ms. Jackie Macha

Mary Ann and Larry Faulkner

Ms. Vicki Schmid Faulkner

Ms. Ursula Felmet

Ms. Jianwei Feng and Mr. Yujing Li

Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Fish

Wanda and Roger Fowler

Cece and Michael Fowler

Mr. and Mrs. William B. Freeman Jr.

Mr. Mauro Garcia-Altieri

Dr. Layne O. Gentry

Dr. Eugenia George

Nancy Glass, M.D. and John Belmont, M.D.

Rhoda Goldberg

Mr. Thomas K. Golden and Mrs. Susan Baker Golden

Mary Frances Gonzalez

Sue Goott

Mrs. Gwynn F. Gorsuch

ANNUAL SUPPORT

Dr. and Mrs. David Y. Graham

Ms. Dianne Halford

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. Halsey

Mrs. Mary Hankey

Mr. Frank Harmon III and The Honorable Melinda Harmon

Mr. and Mrs. A. John Harper III

Mr. and Mrs. Melvyn Hetzel

Pam Higgins

Mrs. Ann G. Hightower

Doug Hirsch and Maureen Semple-Hirsch

Deborah and Michael Hirsch

Rosalie and William M. Hitchcock

Dr. Holly Holmes

Mr. and Mrs. John H. Homier

Dr. and Mrs. Gabriel N. Hortobagyi

Mr. and Mrs. Clay Hoster

Dr. Kevin Hude

Ms. Heather Hughes

Dr. Alexandra Ikeguchi

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Jacob

Mr. and Mrs. Malick Jamal

Mr. David Jaqua and Mr. John Drewer

Ms. Joan Jeffrey

Mr. and Mrs. Basil Joffe

Dr. Susan John and Mr. Darrell John

Charlotte Jones

Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Kauffman

Mr. Anthony K.

Mr. and Mrs. George B. Kelly

Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Rice Kelly

Mr. and Mrs. Albert Kidd

Mr. Lannis E. Kirkland

Ms. Carey Kirkpatrick

Ms. Rie Kojima Angeli

Dr. and Mrs. Lary R. Kupor

Dr. Helen W. Lane

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Le

Mr. Richard Leibman

Mr. and Ms. Frank Liu

Ms. Eileen Louvier

Ms. Lynn Luster

Mr. and Mrs. Paul A. Lynn

Ms. Cora Sue Mach

Mark and Juliet Markovich

Dr. and Mrs. Malcolm Mazow

Shawna and Wynn McCloskey

Gillian and Michael McCord

Mimi Reed McGehee

Elizabeth and Keith McPherson

Kay and Larry Medford

Mrs. Anne C. Mendelsohn

Jody Meraz

Terry and Hal Meyer

Mr. Steve Morang

Ms. Shannon Morrison

Ms. Linda C. Murray

Mrs. Bobbie Newman

Ms. Geri Noel

Ms. Lisa L. Ng

Drs. John and Karen Oldham

Mrs. Maria Papadopoulos

Carl and Julie Pascoe

Mr. and Mrs. Harry C. Pinson

Mr. and Mrs. Elvin B. Pippert Jr.

Mrs. Jenny Popatia

The Radoff Family

Ms. Judith Raines

Ms. Deree Reagan

Dr. David Reininger and Ms. Laura Lee Jones

Mr. Serge Ribot

Mr. Robert Richter Jr.

Mrs. Carol Ritter

Kate and Greg Robertson

Drs. Alejandro and Lynn Rosas

Mrs. Shirley Rose

Dr. and Mrs. Sean Rosenbaum

Dr. Steve and Adriana Rosenbaum

Mr. Dave O. Schein and Ms. Karen M. Somer

Mr. and Mrs. Dayo Seton

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Shearouse

Hinda Simon

Kris and Chris Sonneborn

Dr. and Mrs. C. Richard Stasney

Mr. Per A. Staunstrup and Ms. Joan Bruun

Richard P. Steele and Mary McKerall

Dr. Pavlina Suchanova

Drs. Adaani E. Frost and Wadi N. Suki

Dr. and Mrs. Demetrio Tagaropulos

Ms. Karen Tell

Ms. Susan L. Thompson

Mr. Leon Thomsen and Mrs. Pat Thomsen

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Tobias

Fiona Toth

Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Trainer Jr.

Dr. Elizabeth Travis and Mr. Jerry Hyde

Mr. Alvin Tucker

Dr. David Tweardy and Dr. Ruth Falik

Gregoria and Frances Vallejo

Mr. and Mrs. Larry Veselka

Greg Vetter and Irene Kosturakis

Ms. Marie-Louise S. Viada

Ms. Vera D. Vujicic

Mr. and Mrs. M. C. "Bill" Walker III

Geoffrey Walker and Ann Kennedy

Diane and Raymond Wallace

Mr. and Mrs. John Wallace

Mr. Alexander Webb

Ms. Pippa Wiley

Randa Duncan Williams and Charles Williams

Dr. Courtney Williams

Ms. Jane L. Williams

Nancy and Sid Williams

Dr. Alice Gates and Dr. Wayne Wilner

Geraldina and Scott Wise

Ms. Debra Witges

Dr. Randall Wolf

Ms. Cyvia Wolff

Drs. Edward Yeh and Hui-Ming Chang

Mr. and Mrs. Rick Zachardy

Mr. and Ms. Min Zheng

John L. Zipprich II

6 Anonymous

YOUNG PATRONS—$2,500 OR MORE

Mr. Robert Anderson

Sarah and Steve Bond

Mr. J.P. Bosco III

Mr. Michael Daus

Dr. Mhair Dekmezian

Mr. Albert Garcia Jr.

Taryn and Lauren Gore

Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Hanno

Ms. Kathleen Henry

Lauren and Birk Hutchens

Mr. Brett Lutz and Mrs. Elizabeth Lutz

Rachael and Daniel MacLeod

Tara and Liam McElhiney

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Muri

Renee Palisi

Ms. Morgan A. Pfeil

Ms. Cristina M. Romeu

Ms. Constance Rose-Edwards

Mr. and Mrs. Jeremy Rosen

Mr. Justin Rowinsky and Ms. Catarina Saraiva

Ms. Joan Sanborn and Mr. Dan Parisian

Mr. Parashar Saika and Ms. Lori Harrington

Ms. Emily Schreiber

Emily Schultz and Pavel Blinchik

Melanie Smith

Mr. Jake D. Stefano

Ms. Gabriella Tantillo

Mr. Jeff Taylor

Joshua and Rebekah Wilkinson

Mr. and Mrs. Jamie Yarbrough

Mr. Kenneth Young and Mrs. Emmelie Young

NATIONAL PATRONS—$2,500 OR MORE

Ms. Cynthia Akagi and Mr. Tom Akagi, Madison, WI

HGO DONORS

Yoko and Tom Arthur, Santa Fe, NM

Mr. Murray Beard, Cordova, TN

Tom and Kay Brahaney, Midland, TX

Dr. Bernd U. Budelmann, Galveston, TX

Ms. Marion Cameron-Gray, Chicago, IL

Ms. Louise Cantwell, San Antonio, TX

Ms. Susan Carvel, New Braunfels, TX

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Carvelli, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Dr. Raymond Chinn, San Diego, CA

Mr. and Mrs. Terry Cloudman, Boulder, Colorado

Mr. James M. Duerr and

Dr. Pamela Hall, San Antonio, TX

David Edelstein, Carbondale, CO

Dr. and Mrs. Marvin A. Fishman, NM

Dr. Wm. David George, Austin, TX

Ms. Gabriella M. Guerra, San Antonio, TX

Mr. Mark Jacobs, Dallas, TX

Ms. Gail Jarratt, San Antonio, TX

Ms. Alison D. Kennamer and Joyce Kennamer, Brownsville, TX

Jeff and Gail Kodosky, Austin, TX

Ms. Heidi Munzinger and Mr. John Shott, Coronado, CA

Mr. William Nicholas, Georgetown, TX

John and Elizabeth Nielsen-Gammon, College Station, TX

Mr. James R. Rogers, College Station, TX

Mr. and Mrs. Victor E. Serrato, Pharr, TX

Ms. Alice Simkins, San Antonio, TX

Ms. Lori Summa, Lancaster, NH

Dr. David N. Tobey and Dr. Michelle Berger, Austin, TX

Mr. Tom Turnbull and Mr. Darrell Smith, Eunice, LA

Mr. Jerre van den Bent, Dallas, TX

Mrs. Rons Voogt, Huntsville, TX

Mr. and Mrs. Kirk Weaver, Washington, D.C. Martin R. Wing, San Antonio, TX

Houston Grand Opera appreciates all individuals who contribute to the company’s success. Support in any amount is received most gratefully. Our donors share a dedication to supporting the arts in our community, and the generosity of these individuals makes it possible for HGO to sustain world-class opera in the Houston area. For information on becoming a Houston Grand Opera donor, please contact David Krohn, senior director of philanthropy, at 713-980-8685 or DKrohn@HGO.org.

ASSOCIATE PATRONS—

$2,000 OR MORE

Ms. Cecilia Aguilar

Dr. Robert E. Anderson

Mr. and Mrs. V. G. Beghini

Mr. and Mrs. M. J. Castelberg

Kenneth T. Chin

Mr. Donald W. Clarke

Vicki Clepper

Mr. Jerry Conry

Ms. Joyce Cramer

Mr. and Mrs. Warren Dean

Ms. Linnet Frazier Deily

Peggy DeMarsh

Mr. Alan England

Mr. and Mrs. Blake Eskew

Travis Fenstermaker

Ms. Julie Fischer

Susan Giannatonio and Bruce Winquist

Mr. Michael Gillin and Ms. Pamela Newberry

Mr. and Mrs. Kirk Girouard

Ruzena Gordon

Mr. and Mrs. David Guenther

Dr. and Mrs. Carlos R. Hamilton, Jr.

Margaret Hawk

Mr. and Mrs. Michael F. Henderek

Mr. Stanley A. Hoffberger

Mr. Steven Jay Hooker

Mr. and Mrs. Ronald E. Huebsch

Dr. Alan J. Hurwitz

Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Jackson

Linda Katz

Mr. John Keville

Lynn Lamkin

Mr. Robert Lorio

Mr. Joel Luks

Ms. Nadine Littles

Ana María Martínez

Mr. and Mrs. J. Stephen Marks

Mr. James L. McNett

Mr. Nicolo Messana

Ms. Chris Miller and Mr. Gary Glaser

Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Moynier

Ms. Maria C. (Macky) Osorio

Mr. Rick Pleczko

Suzanne Page-Pryde and Arthur Pryde

Linda Peterson

Dr. and Mrs. Florante A. Quiocho

Mr. Edgar RinconMr

Mr. and Mrs. Risher Randall

Ms. Jo Ann W. Schaffer

Christopher B. Schulze, M.D.

Dr. Daniel Sessler and Dr. Ximena Sessler

Ms. Diana Skerl

Nancy Thompson

Ms. Dorian Vandenberg Rodes

Mr. and Mrs. Alton L. Warren

Ms. Elizabeth D. Williams

Ms. Sandy Xu

Bin Yu

Drs. William and Huda Yahya Zoghbi

3 Anonymous

CONTRIBUTING FELLOWS—$1,000

OR MORE

Mr. and Mrs. Neil Ken Alexander

Joan Alexander

Mrs. Linda Alexander

Mr. Robert K. Arnett Jr.

Ms. Dorothy B. Autin and Mr. Daniel Coleman

Dr. Carlos Bacino

Mrs. Deborah S. Bautch

Jim and Susan Boone

Mr. Bob F. Boydston

Ms. Julia Cambra

Ms. Mary Clark

Dr. Claude Cech

Mr. and Mrs. James Collins

Mr. and Mrs. Larry Corona

Mr. Carl R. Cunningham

Mr. John Dazey

Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Davis

Dr. Susan E. Denson

Mrs. Sarah D. Donaho

Mr. and Mrs. J. Thomas Eubank

Steve and Marie Fay Evnochides

Sylvia B. Fatzer

Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Ferenz

Mrs. Madeleine Ferris

Mr. David Fleischer

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Fowler

Lucy Gebhart

Mr. Enrico R. Giannetti

Mr. David Gockley

Ms. Janet Graves

Ms. Suzanne Green

Dr. James E. Griffin III and Dr. Margo Denke

Mr. and Mrs. Ira Gruber

Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Guinee

Mr. and Mrs. Philip Gunnels

Mr. Donald Hang

Ms. Rebecca Hansen

Mr. Rawley Penick and Mrs. Meredith L. Hathorn

Dr. Ralph J. Herring

Ms. Eliane S. Herring

Dr. Sallie T. Hightower

Ms. Susan Hirtz

Kay and Michael W. Hilliard

Deronica Horn

Mr. John Hrncir

Mr. Francisco J. Izaguirre

Mr. Mark E. Jacobs

The Jewels

Mr. and Mrs. John Jordan

Mr. David K. Johnson

Dr. Ngaruiya Kariuki

Lynda and Frank Kelly

Ms. Nancy J. Kerby

Dr. Milton and Gail Klein

Mr. and Mrs. John Lattin

Mr. John Lauber and Ms. Susan M. Coughlin

Mr. David Leebron and Ms. Ping Sun

Mr. Marshall Lerner

Dr. Benjamin Lichtiger

Dr. Robyn T. Lincoln

Mrs. Sylvia Lohkamp

Mr. and Mrs. Karl R. Loos

Dr. Robert Louis

Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Y. Lui

Mr. and Mrs. C. Robert Mace

Ms. Nancy Manderson

Dr. and Mrs. Moshe H. Maor

Mr. and Mrs. Ben Marshall

Mr. H. Woods Martin

Onalee and Dr. Michael C. McEwen

Mr. Bob McLaughlin

Dr. Mary Fae McKay

Keith and Shawntell McWilliams

Dr. Gilda McFail

Alexandra and Frank Meckel

Mrs. Theresa L. Meyer

Judy Miner

Mr. Frank Modruson

Mr. and Mrs. Marvin H. Mueller

Mr. and Mrs. Mike Newman

Mr. Dean Niemeyer and Dr. Marlowe D. Niemeyer

Ms. Jeanne M. Perdue

Mrs. Davonda and Dr. Eric Peterson

Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Phillips

Ms. Felecia Powell-Williams

Mr. and Mrs. Phil Plant

Dr. V.A. Pittman-Waller

Susie and Jim Pokorski

Mr. and Mrs. William Rawl

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Reynolds

Mr. and Mrs. Gene Steve Rhea

Mr. William K. Rice

Mr. Jack Rooker

Mansel and Brenda Rubenstein

Sharon Ruhly

Dr. Mo & Mrs. Brigitte Saidi

Ramon and Chula Sanchez

Alan J. Savada

Kathleen and Jed Sazama

Ms. Joan M. Shack

Mr. Frederick Schacknies

Mr. Alan Schmitz

Kenneth and Deborah Scianna

Dr. Paul E. Setzler

Ms. Valerie Serice

Mr. Nick Shumway and Mr. Robert Mayott

Mr. Herbert Simons

Jan Simpson

Mr. John S. Skaggs

Mr. and Mrs. Louis. S. Sklar

Ms. Anne Sloan

Len Slusser

Mr. Arthur Smith

Ms. Linda F. Sonier

Mr. and Mrs. George Stark

Mr. Leon Strieder

Mr. Kiyoshi Tamagawa and Mr. Bill Dick

Ann Tornyos

Mr. Robert Trussell

Mr. and Mrs. Tim Unger

Dr. and Mrs. Lieven J. Van Riet

Mr. Arie Vernes

Mr. Albert T. Walko

Dr. Nicole McZeal Walters

Andrea Ward and David Trahan

Dr. Jackie Ward

Mr. Peter J. Wender

J. M. Weltzien

Mrs. Dolores Wilkenfeld

Mr. and Mrs. Bert B. Williams

CORPORATE, FOUNDATION, AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORTERS

Robert and Michele Yekovich

3 Anonymous

Houston Grand Opera’s corporate, foundation, and government partners make it possible for HGO to create and share great art with our community. We are incredibly proud to work with these organizations and grateful for all they do. For information on joining HGO’s valued team of corporate and foundation supporters, please contact Kelly Finn, senior director of institutional giving, at 713-546-0265 or KFinn@HGO.org.

Michaela Greenan, Corporate Council Chair

CORPORATE, FOUNDATION, GOVERNMENT

HOUSTON GRAND OPERA

CORPORATE COUNCIL

Thomas R. Ajamie, Ajamie LLP

J. Scott Arnoldy, Triten Corporation

Astley Blair, Marine Well Containment Company

Meg Boulware, Boulware & Valoir

Albert Chao, Westlake Corporation

Adam Cook, Tokio Marine HCC

Joshua Davidson, Baker Botts L.L.P.

Nick Deshi, Latham & Watkins

Susan R. Eisenberg, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Warren Ellsworth, MD, Houston Methodist

Richard Husseini, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Michelle Huth, Frost Bank

Bill Kroger, Baker Botts L.L.P.

Bryant Lee, Latham & Watkins

David LePori, Frost Bank

Bryce Lindner, Bank of America

Claire Liu, LyondellBasell (Retired)

Craig Miller, Frost Bank

Kristin Muessig, Vitol, Inc.

Ward Pennebaker, Pennebaker

Anthony Petrello, Nabors Industries

Gloria M. Portela, Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Allyn Risley, GTT North America

Susan Rivera, Tokio Marine HCC

Kelly Rose, ConocoPhillips

Silvia Salle, Bank of America

Susan Saurage-Altenloh, Saurauge Marketing Research

Apurva Thekdi, MD, Houston Methodist

Ignacio Torras, Tricon Energy

Alfredo Vilas, Novum Energy

CORPORATE SUPPORTERS

GUARANTORS—$100,000 OR MORE

Boston Consulting Group *

ConocoPhillips †

Frost Bank †

H-E-B †

Houston Methodist †*

Nabors Industries

Novum Energy

Vinson & Elkins LLP †*

Vitol, Inc.

GRAND UNDERWRITERS—

$50,000 OR MORE

Ajamie LLP

Bank of America †

Nana Booker and Booker · Lowe Gallery

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™ †

Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Shell USA, Inc. †

UNDERWRITERS—$25,000 OR MORE

Baker Botts L.L.P.

Boulware & Valoir

Halliburton

Latham & Watkins

Tokio Marine HCC

Westlake Corporation

SPONSORS—$10,000 OR MORE

CenterPoint Energy

Frost Brown Todd

Infosys

Swagelok Texas Mid-Coast

Wells Fargo

MEMBERS—$1,000 OR MORE

Avance Houston, Inc.

USI Insurance Services

IN-KIND CONTRIBUTORS TO OPERATIONS AND SPECIAL EVENTS

UNDERWRITERS—$25,000 OR MORE

Abrahams Oriental Rugs and Home Furnishings

ALTO

City Kitchen Catering

The Events Company

Jackson & Company Catering

SPONSORS—$15,000 OR MORE

Kirksey Gregg Productions

Magnolia Houston

CO-SPONSORS—$7,500 OR MORE

BCN Taste and Tradition

Elegant Events and Catering by Michael

Medallion Global Wine Group

BENEFACTORS—$5,000 OR MORE

The Corinthian at Franklin Lofts

David Peck

The Lancaster Hotel

Masterson Design/Mariquita Masterson

Shaftel Diamond Co.

MEMBERS—$1,000 OR MORE

Brasserie du Parc

Connie Kwan-Wong/CWK Collection Inc.

Dar Schafer Art

Elliott Marketing Group

Ellsworth Plastic Surgery

Gittings Portraiture

Glade Cultural Center

Hayden Lasher

The Hotel ZaZa

Chef Ashley James

La Colombe d'Or Hotel

Las Terrazas Resort & Residences

Lavandula Design

Mayfield Piano Service

Shoocha Photography

FOUNDATIONS AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

PREMIER GUARANTOR—

$1,000,000 OR MORE

Houston Grand Opera Endowment Inc. †

Anonymous

PRINCIPAL GUARANTORS—

$500,000 OR MORE

The Brown Foundation, Inc. †

City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance †

The Wortham Foundation, Inc. †

Anonymous

GRAND GUARANTORS—

$250,000 OR MORE

The Alkek and Williams Foundation †

Carol Franc Buck Foundation

The Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts †

Humphreys Foundation †

Anonymous

GUARANTORS—$100,000 OR MORE

Joan and Stanford Alexander Family Fund

M.D. Anderson Foundation †

The Cullen Foundation †

The Elkins Foundation

William Randolph Hearst Foundation

National Endowment for the Humanities

The Sarofim Foundation

Texas Commission on the Arts †

GRAND UNDERWRITERS—

$50,000 OR MORE

Mellon Foundation †

The Powell Foundation †

UNDERWRITERS—$25,000 OR MORE

Ruth and Ted Bauer Family Foundation †

Cockrell Family Fund

John P. McGovern Foundation †

National Endowment for the Arts

OPERA America †

Vivian L. Smith Foundation

Stedman West Foundation †

Sterling-Turner Foundation

SPONSORS—$10,000 OR MORE

Mid-America Arts Alliance

Samuels Family Foundation

William E. and Natoma Pyle Harvey Charitable Trust

MEMBERS—$1,000 OR MORE

City of Houston through the Miller Theatre Advisory Board †

Aaron Copland Fund for Music

George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation †

Albert & Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation

Houston Grand Opera Guild †

Houston Saengerbund

The Nathan J. Klein Fund

University of Houston

Bauer College of Business

CULTURAL PARTNERS

Consulate General of Italy in Houston

Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles

* Contribution includes in-kind support † Ten or more years of consecutive support

CORPORATE MATCHING

Baker Hughes Foundation

Bank of America Charitable Foundation

BP Foundation

Chevron Humankind

CITGO Petroleum

Coca-Cola North America

ConocoPhillips

Encana

EOG Resources, Inc.

EQT Foundation

ExxonMobil Foundation

Fannie Mae

Hewlett-Packard Company

IBM Corporation

Illinois Tools Works Inc.

LyondellBasell Chemical Company

Macquarie

Microsoft Employee Giving

Nintendo Of America

Quantlab Financial, LLC

Salesforce

Shell USA, Inc. Foundation

The Boeing Company

Union Pacific

Williams Companies

Craig Miller, Chair

The Laureate Society comprises individuals who have helped ensure the future of Houston Grand Opera by remembering the Opera in their wills, retirement plans, trusts, or other types of estate plans. The Laureate Society does not require a minimum amount to become a member. Planned estate gifts to the Houston Grand Opera Endowment can be used to support general or specific Opera programs. Houston Grand Opera is deeply grateful to these individuals. Their generosity and foresight enable the Opera to maintain its growth and stability, thus enriching the lives of future generations. For information regarding charitable estate gift planning and how it might positively impact you, your loved ones, and Houston Grand Opera, please contact Amanda Neiter, director of legacy giving, at 713-546-0216 or ANeiter@HGO.org.

LAUREATE SOCIETY MEMBERS

Ms. Gerry Aitken

Margaret Alkek Williams

Mr. William J. Altenloh and Dr. Susan Saurage-Altenloh

Robin Angly and Miles Smith

Bill A. Arning and Aaron Skolnick

Christopher Bacon and Craig Miller

Gilbert Baker

Dr. Saúl and Ursula Balagura

Mr. William Bartlett

Mr. James Barton

Mr. Lary Dewain Barton

Michelle Beale and Dick Anderson

Marcheta Leighton-Beasley

Jack Bell

Mrs. Natalie Beller

Dr. James A. Belli and Dr. Patricia Eifel

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley C. Beyer

Dr. Joan Hacken Bitar

Susan Ross Black

Ms. Susan Bloome

Dr. and Mrs. Jules H. Bohnn

Adrienne Randle Bond

Ms. Lynda Bowman

Mr. and Mrs. Harry W. Bristol

Catherine Brock

Myra Brown

Mr. Richard S. Brown

Mr. Logan D. Browning

Dr. Bernd U. Budelmann

Mr. Richard H. Buffett

Mr. Tom Burley and Mr. Michael Arellano

Mr. Ralph Byle

Ms. Gwyneth Campbell

Roxi Cargill and Peter Weston, M.D.

Jess and Patricia Carnes

Ms. Janet Langford Carrig

Sylvia J. Carroll

Ms. Nada Chandler

Mr. Robert N. Chanon

Ms. Virginia Ann Clark

Mathilda Cochran

Mr. William E. Colburn

Mr. and Mrs. Paul L. Comstock

Mr. Jim O. Connell

Mrs. Christa M. Cooper

Mr. Efraín Z. Corzo and Mr. Andrew Bowen

Mr. and Mrs. James W. Crownover

Shelly Cyprus

Mr. Karl Dahm

Dr. Lida Dahm

Mr. Darrin Davis

Ms. Sasha Davis

Ms. Anna M. Dean

Peggy DeMarsh

Ian Derrer and Daniel James

Ms. Elisabeth DeWitts

Connie Dyer

Jane H. Egner

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Evans

Ms. Thea M. Fabio and Mr. Richard Merrill

Ms. Ann L. Faget

Ms. Vicki Schmid Faulkner

Mrs. Thomas Fauntleroy

Jack Firestone

Julie Fischer

Nancy Fischer

Mr. Bruce Ford

Dr. Donna Fox

Dr. Alice Gates and Dr. Wayne Wilner

Dr. Layne O. Gentry

Mr. Michael B. George

Dr. Wm. David George

Dr. and Mrs. David P. Gill

Lynn Gissel

Mr. Wesley Goble

Mr. David Gockley

Rhoda Goldberg

Leonard A. Goldstein and Helen B. Wils

Mary Frances Gonzalez and Ross I. Jackson

Jon Kevin Gossett

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Gott

Mr. and Mrs. Donald Graubart

Claire Liu and Joe Greenberg

Dr. Nichols Grimes

Dr. Ellen R. Gritz and Mr. Milton D. Rosenau Jr.

Mr. Jas A. Gundry

Mr. Claudio Gutierrez

Mr. and Mrs. William Haase

Dr. Linda L. Hart

Mrs. Brenda Harvey-Traylor

Nancy Haywood

Teresita and Michael Hernandez

Dr. Ralph J. Herring

Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Hewell

Mr. Edward L. Hoffman

Gary Hollingsworth and Ken Hyde

Alan and Ellen Holzberg

Mr. Frank Hood

Ms. Ami J. Hooper

Mr. and Mrs. George M. Hricik

Lee M. Huber

Robert and Kitty Hunter

Greg Ingram

José and Teresa Ivo

Brian James

Spencer A. Jeffries and Kim Hawkins

Ms. Charlotte Jones

Cynthia J. Johnson

Ms. Marianne Kah

Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Kauffman

Ann and Stephen Kaufman

Charles Dennis and Steve Kelley

Mr. Anthony K.

Ms. Virginia E. Kiser

Ann Koster

David Krohn

Dr. Lynn Lamkin

Ms. Michele LaNoue and Mr. Gerald Seidl

Carolyn J. Levy

Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Liesner

Mr. Michael Linkins

Virola Jane Long

Mr. and Mrs. Karl R. Loos

Mrs. Marilyn Lummis

Dr. Jo Wilkinson Lyday

Mr. and Mrs. Paul A. Lynn

Mrs. Rosemary Malbin

Dr. Brian Malechuk and Mr. Kevin Melgaard

Ms. Michele Malloy

Emily Bivona and Ryan Manser

Mrs. J. Landis Martin

Ms. B. Lynn Mathre

Ms. Nancy Wynne Mattison

Dr. and Mrs. Malcolm Mazow

Mrs. Dorothy McCaine

Mrs. Sarah McCollum

Deirdre McDowell

Muffy and Mike McLanahan

Will L. McLendon

Mr. Allen McReynolds

Ms. Maryellen McSweeney

Mr. and Mrs. D. Bradley McWilliams

Christianne Melanson and Durwin Sharp

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Menzie

Ms. Georgette M. Michko

Ms. Suzanne Mimnaugh

Kathleen Moore and Steven Homer

Sid Moorhead

Diane K. Morales

Juan R. Morales

Mr. and Mrs. Sidney S. Moran

Mr. and Mrs. Marvin H. Mueller

Ms. Linda C. Murray

Terrylin G. Neale

Erik B. Nelson and Terry R. Brandhorst

Mrs. Bobbie Newman

Mrs. Tassie Nicandros

Beverly and Staman Ogilvie

Geoffry H. Oshman

Ms. Maria C. (Macky) Osorio

Susan and Edward Osterberg

Mrs. Joan D. Osterweil

Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Percoco

Mauricio Perillo, PhD and Luján Stasevicius, PhD

Sara M. Peterson

Mark and Nancy Picus

Mr. and Mrs. Harry C. Pinson

Susie and Jim Pokorski

Gloria M. Portela

Suzanne Page-Pryde and Arthur Pryde

Dr. Angela Rechichi-Apollo

Mr. Todd Reppert

Conrad and Charlaine Reynolds

Ms. Wanda A. Reynolds

Ed and Janet Rinehart

Gregory S. Robertson

Edward N. Robinson

Mrs. Shirley Rose

Mr. John C. Rudder Jr.

H. Clifford Rudisill and Ray E. Wilson

Mr. and Mrs. Tom Rushing

Dr. Mo & Mrs. Brigitte Saidi

Mr. and Mrs. Terrell F. Sanders

Ms. Wanda Schaffner

Mr. Chris Schilling

Kenneth and Deborah Scianna

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Senuta

Mrs. Helen P. Shaffer

Ms. Sue A. Shirley-Howard

Hinda Simon

Mr. Herbert Simons

Ms. Susan Simpson

Ms. Janet Sims

Bruce Smith

Ms. Linda F. Sonier

Dian and Harlan Stai

Ms. Darla Y. Stange

Dr. and Mrs. C. Richard Stasney

Catherine Stevenson

Patrick Summers

Rhonda Sweeney

Susan Tan

Mrs. Carolyn Taub

Mr. Quentin Thigpen and Ms. Amy Psaris

Fiona Toth

Mr. John G. Turner and Mr. Jerry G. Fischer

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Turner

Mr. and Mrs. Jesse B. Tutor

Birgitt van Wijk

Mr. and Mrs. Alfredo Vilas

Mrs. Rons Voogt

James and Mary Waggoner

Dean Walker

Mr. William V. Walker

Shirley Warshaw

Mr. Gordon D. Watson

Ms. Rebecca Weaver

Mr. Jesse Weir

Mr. Geoffrey Westergaard

Pippa Wiley

Ms. Jane L. Williams

Mr. and Mrs. David S. Wolff

Dr. Fabian Worthing

Jo Dee Wright

Lynn Wyatt

Alan and Frank York

Mr. and Mrs. Mark Yzaguirre

Mrs. Lorena Zavala

John L. Zipprich II

19 Anonymous

HOUSTON GRAND OPERA ENDOWMENT

The Houston Grand Opera Endowment, Inc., is a separate nonprofit organization that invests contributions to earn income for the benefit of Houston Grand Opera Association. The Endowment Board works with CAPTRUST, an independent investment counsel, to engage professional investment managers. An endowed fund can be permanently established within the Houston Grand Opera Endowment through a direct contribution or via a planned gift such as a bequest. The fund can be designated for general purposes or specific interests. For a discussion on endowing a fund, please contact Deborah Hirsch, chief philanthropy officer, at 713-546-0259 or DHirsch@ HGO.org. HGO acknowledges with deep gratitude the following endowed funds.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Officers

Marianne Kah, Chair

Mark Poag, Vice Chair

Terrylin Neale, Secretary; Treasurer

Yolanda Knull, Senior Chair

Tom Rushing, Chair Emeritus Members at Large

Thomas R. Ajamie

Khori Dastoor

Carolyn Galfione

Richard Husseini

Stephen Kaufman

Claire Liu

Scott Wise

GENERAL ENDOWMENT FUNDS

Susan Saurage-Altenloh and William Altenloh Endowed Fund

The Rudy Avelar Patron Services Fund

Barrow Family Endowed Fund

Charles T. (Ted) Bauer Memorial Fund

Sandra Bernhard Endowed Fund

The Stanley and Shirley Beyer Endowed Fund

Ronald C. Borschow Endowment Fund

Mary Frances Newton Bowers Endowment Fund

Pat and Daniel A. Breen Endowment Fund

The Brown Foundation Endowment Fund

Joan Bruchas and H. Philip Cowdin Endowed Fund

Sarah and Ernest Butler Endowment Fund

Jane and Robert Cizik Endowment

Michael and Mathilda Cochran Endowment Fund

Douglas E. Colin Endowment Fund

The Gerald and Bobbie-Vee Cooney Rudy Avelar Fund

The Renee and Benjamin Danziger Endowed Fund

In loving memory: Gail and Milton Klein Family and Leslie Danziger

Mary Jane Fedder Endowed Fund

Linda K. Finger Endowed Fund

Robert W. George Endowment Fund

Harold Gilliland Endowed Fund

The Leonard Goldstein and Helen Wils Fund for the Future

Adelma Graham Endowed Fund

Frank Greenberg, M.D. Endowment Fund

Roberta and Jack Harris Endowed Fund

Jackson D. Hicks Endowment Fund

General and Mrs. Maurice Hirsch Memorial Opera Fund

Ann Holmes Endowed Fund

Ira Brown Endowment Fund

Elizabeth Rieke and Wayne V. Jones Endowment Fund

Leech Family Resilience Fund

Lensky Family Endowed Fund

Mary R. Lewis Endowed Fund

Beth Madison Endowed Fund

Frances Marzio Fund for Excellence

Franci Neely Endowed Fund

Constantine S. Nicandros Endowment Fund

Barbara M. Osborne Charitable Trust

Cynthia and Anthony Petrello Endowed Fund

Mary Ann Phillips Endowed Fund

C. Howard Pieper Endowment Fund

Kitty King Powell Endowment Fund

Glen Rosenbaum Endowment Fund

Rowley Family Endowment Fund

The Ruddell Endowment Fund

Sue Simpson Schwartz Endowment Fund

Shell Lubricants (formerly Pennzoil — Quaker State Company) Fund

Dian and Harlan Stai Fund

The John and Fanny Stone Endowment Fund

Dorothy Barton Thomas Endowment Fund

John G. Turner and Jerry G. Fischer Endowed Fund

John and Sheila Tweed Endowed Fund

Marietta Voglis Endowed Fund

Bonnie Sue Wooldridge Endowment Fund

The Wortham Foundation Permanent Endowment Fund

PRODUCTION FUNDS

Edward and Frances Bing Fund

Tracey D. Conwell Endowment Fund

The Wagner Fund

PRINCIPAL ARTISTS FUNDS

Jesse Weir and Roberto Ayala Artist Fund

The Lynn Wyatt Great Artist Fund

ENDOWED CHAIRS AND FELLOWSHIPS

Margaret Alkek Williams Chair: Khori Dastoor, General Director and Chief Executive Officer

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chair: Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director

Sarah and Ernest Butler

Chorus Director Chair: Richard Bado

Sarah and Ernest Butler

Concertmaster Chair: Denise Tarrant

Marianne Kah, Chair

Mr. and Mrs. James A. Elkins Jr. Endowed Chair: Peter Pasztor

Mr. and Mrs. Albert B. Alkek Chair: Maureen Zoltek

James A. Elkins Jr. Endowed Visiting Artist Fund

ELECTRONIC MEDIA FUNDS

The Ford Foundation Endowment Fund

SARAH AND ERNEST BUTLER

HOUSTON GRAND OPERA STUDIO FUNDS

Audrey Jones Beck Endowed Fellowship Fund/Houston Endowment, Inc.

The Gordon and Mary Cain Foundation Endowment Fund

Marjorie and Thomas Capshaw Endowment Fund

Houston Grand Opera Guild Endowment Fund

James J. Drach Endowment Fund

Evans and Portela Family Endowed Chair

Carol Lynn Lay Fletcher Endowment Fund

William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship Fund

Charlotte Howe Memorial Scholarship Fund

Elva Lobit Opera Endowment Fund

Marian and Speros Martel Foundation Endowment Fund

Laura and Brad McWilliams Endowed Fund

Erin Gregory Neale Endowment Fund

Dr. Mary Joan Nish and Patricia Bratsas Endowed Fund

John M. O’Quinn Foundation Endowed Fellowship Fund

Shell Lubricants (formerly Pennzoil — Quaker State Company) Fund

Mary C. Gayler Snook Endowment Fund

Dian and Harlan Stai Fund

Tenneco, Inc. Endowment Fund

Weston-Cargill Endowed Fund

HOUSTON GRAND OPERA MANAGEMENT & STAFF

Khori Dastoor

General Director and CEO

Margaret Alkek Williams Chair

Patrick Summers

Artistic and Music Director *

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chair

EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP GROUP

Richard Bado, Director of Artistic Planning/ Chorus Director *

Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Director Chair

Jennifer Bowman, Director of Community and Learning

Jennifer Davenport, Chief Marketing and Experience Officer

Molly Dill, Chief Operating Officer *

Elizabeth Greer, Chief Financial Officer

Deborah Hirsch, Chief Philanthropy Officer *

OFFICE OF THE GENERAL

DIRECTOR

Mary Elsey, Chief of Staff to the General Director and CEO

Claire Padien-Havens, Director of Strategic Projects & Initiatives

Joel Thompson, Composer-in-Residence

Tyler Thormählen, Governance Administrator

ARTISTIC

Chris Abide, Manager of Rehearsal Planning & Artist Services

ChloeSue Baker, Artist Services Administrator

Colin Michael Brush, Director of the Butler Studio

Nico Chona, Music Administrator and Orchestra Personnel Manager

Joel Goodloe, Associate Director of Rehearsal Planning & Artist Services

Kiera Krieg, Butler Studio Manager

Mark C. Lear, Associate Artistic Administrator *

Alexa Lietzow, Artistic & Media Coordinator

Lucas Nguyen, Assistant Music

Librarian & Supertitle Manager

Peter Pasztor, Principal Coach *

Teddy Poll, Resident Conductor

Karen Reeves, Children’s Chorus Director *

Jack Ruffer, Rehearsal Planning Administrator

Madeline Slettedahl, Assistant Conductor

Monica Thakkar, Director of Artistic Partnerships & Music Planning

EDUCATION FUNDS

Bauer Family Fund

Sandra Bernhard Education Fund

Lawrence E. Carlton, M.D., Endowment Fund

Beth Crispin Endowment Fund

James J. Drach Endowment Fund

Fondren Foundation Fund for Educational Programs

David Clark Grant Endowment Fund

The Schissler Family Foundation Endowed Fund for Educational Programs

OUTREACH FUNDS

Guyla Pircher Harris Project

Spring Opera Festival Fund (Shell Lubricants, formerly Pennzoil—Quaker State Company)

CONCERT OF ARIAS

Eleanor Searle McCollum Endowment Fund

William Woodard, Assistant Conductor

Maureen Zoltek, Head of Music Staff and Butler Studio Music Director Mr. & Mrs. Albert B. Alkek Chair

AUDIENCES

Marc Alba, Customer Care Specialist

Ellen Bergener, Customer Care Representative

Steve Butler, Video Producer

Joe Cadagin, Audience Education and Communications Manager

Gabrielle Castillo, Customer Care Specialist

Nicholas Chavez, Group Sales Coordinator

Chelsea Crouse, Sr. Creative Manager

Juan Flores, Customer Care Specialist

Amber Francis, Communications Coordinator

Clarisa Galindo, Marketing Coordinator

Jessica Gonzalez, Marketing Manager

Sofia Heggem, Guest Experience Coordinator

Scott Ipsen, Director of Patron Experience * Rudy Avelar Chair

Rita Jia, Graphic Designer

Latrinita Johnson, Customer Care Specialist

Tory Lieberman, Director of Marketing

Aaron Marsh, Guest Experience Manager

Sam Mathis, Patron Services Manager

Catherine Matusow, Director of Communications

Matt McKee, Associate Director of Sales and Service

Destiny McQuarters, Customer Sales and Service Specialist

Brian Mitchell, Archivist, The Genevieve P. Demme Archives and Resource Center *

Roselyn Rios, Digital Content Coordinator

Michelle Russell, Ticketing & Marketing Data Manager

Dorian Valenzuela, Digital Content Manager

Beverly Vich, Customer Sales and Service Specialist

COMMUNITY AND LEARNING

Favour Aimufua, Programs Coordinator, Administration

Fernando Barajas, Administrative Manager

George Heathco, Programs Coordinator, Programming & Engagement

Patty Holley, Program Manager of School & Educator Engagement

Dr. Lisa Vickers, Bauer Family High School Voice Studio Manager

Dr. Kiana Day Williams, Associate Director of School & Educator Engagement

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

Christian Davis, Human Resources Manager

Ariel Ehrman, Business Intelligence Manager

Matt Gonzales, Associate Director of Information Services *

Vicky Hernandez, Revenue & Receivables Administrator

Chasity Hopkins, Accounting Manager

Elia Medina, Payroll Administrator

Noorwali Punjwani, Controller

Sarah Saulsbery, Accounts Payable Administrator

Denise Simon, Human Resources Coordinator *

Grace Tsai, Manager of Data and Analytics

Ahna Walker, Human Resources Generalist

Chaedron Wright, Information Technology Assistant

Joy Zhou, Director of Information Services

PHILANTHROPY

Lyanne Alvarado, Philanthropy Officer, Corporate Partnerships

Stephen Beaudoin, Director of Major Gifts

Sarah Bertrand, Assistant Director of Philanthropy

Brooke Caballero, Philanthropy Associate

Kedrienne Day, Director of Institutional Giving

Kelly Dolan, Donor Events Specialist

Kelly Finn, Sr. Director of Institutional Giving *

Ross S. Griffey, Associate Director of Institutional Giving

David Krohn, Sr. Director of Philanthropy

Tessa Larson, Major Gifts Officer

Olivia Lerwick, Philanthropy Writer

Ana Llamas, Prosect Researcher and Manager

Patrick Long-Quian, Philanthropy Operations Manager

Meredith Morse, Assistant Director of Institutional Giving

Amanda Neiter, Director of Legacy Giving

Allison Reeves, Director of Signature Events

Gregory S. Robertson, Managing Director of Strategic Campaigns *

Madeline Sebastian, Director of Philanthropy

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS

Kaleb Abide, Costume Coordinator

Philip Alfano, Lighting Associate & Principal Draftsman *

Brian August, Stage Manager

Kristen E. Burke, Director of Production *

April Cagle, Wardrobe Supervisor

Elliott Carnell, Assistant Technical Director

Michael James Clark, Head of Lighting & Production Media *

Andrew Cloud, Interim Props Manager *

Norma Cortez, Costume Director *

Katherine Cunningham, Associate Director of Signature Events

Bui Dung, Junior Stitcher

Meg Edwards, Assistant Stage Manager *

Heather Rose Ervin, Wig and Makeup Assistant

Caitlin Farley, Assistant Stage Manager

Joseph B. Farley, Production Manager

Vince Ferraro, Head Electrician *

Luis Franco, Office Services Coordinator *

Beth Goodill, Assistant Stage Manager

Bridget Green, Wig and Makeup Assistant

Jackson Halphide, Assistant Technical Director

Eduardo Hawkins, Head of Sound *

David Heckman, Costume Coordinator Assistant

John Howard, Head Carpenter *

Esmeralda De Leon, Costume Coordinator *

Nara Lesser, Costume Production Assistant *

Jae Liburd, Operations Driver

Melissa McClung, Technical and Production Administrator

Tatyana Miller, Junior Draper

Amanda Mitchell, Wig & Makeup Design Director

Cam Ngyuen, Costume Technician

Rovion Reed, Production & Projects

Manager, Community & Learning

Bradley Roast, Technical Director

Emma Rocheleau, Assistant Stage Manager

Leslie Romero, Junior Stitcher

Colter Schoenfish, Assistant Director

Ian Silverman, Assistant Director

Kaley Karis Smith, Assistant Director

Rachel Smith, Assistant Head Electrician and Board Operator

Stephanie Smith, Assistant Director

Meghan Spear, Assistant Stage Manager

Dotti Staker, Principal Wig Maker and Wig Shop Manager *

Christopher Staub, Director of Operations & Institutional Projects *

Bryan Stinnet, Assistant Carpenter/Head Flyperson

Paully Tran, Senior First Hand *

Myrna Vallejo, Costume Shop Supervisor *

Sean Waldron, Head of Props *

Annie Wheeler, Production Stage Manager *

*denotes 10 or more years of service

Take advantage of the company’s user-friendly one-stop shop for everything HGO. Resources include:

Your all-access guide to performances, on the mainstage and in the community: HGO.org/On-Stage

The Backstage Pass blog, for taking a deep dive into the season’s operas, company artists, and more: HGO.org/ Backstage-Pass

Plan Your Visit information, from parking options, to hotel

recommendations, to FAQs, and more: HGO.org/Plan-Your-Visit

HGO’s Customer Care Center, including performance information, ticket assistance, and more: HGO.org/ Contact-Us

And much more!

ENJOY THE WORTHAM

We encourage our guests to make full use of the Wortham Theater Center when they come to the opera. You’re invited to:

Relax and reflect: Find a spot in one of the Wortham Theater Center’s Brown or Cullen alcoves, or another area in the concourse—now with expanded seating!

Explore our Stories to Stage Gallery: Don’t miss the chance to learn more about HGO’s winter operas, with history displays, behind-the-scenes looks at productions, and more. Now on view in the Grand Foyer East Wing.

Browse the merchandise: Volunteers from the HGO Guild operate a gift and souvenir boutique in the Grand Foyer.

Soak in the scene over lunch or dinner: Food services are available prior to each performance in the Grand Foyer. For something quick, find parfait kits, naan sandwiches, and much more at the Grab N Go station.

Dine at the Founders Salon: Enjoy a prix-fixe, seasonally inspired menu.

Reservations are required, with a priority reservation window open for Patrons Circle members up to 72 hours before the performance date. Reservations then open to full-season subscribers. To reserve, call 713-533-9318 or email Cafe@ ElegantEventsByMichael.com.

Attend a free Opera Insights lecture: Brush up on the day’s opera during one of HGO's popular pre-show talks from HGO Artistic and Music

Director Patrick Summers. Join us on the Orchestra level of the Brown Auditorium 45 minutes before curtain time.

Enjoy music from solo instrumental artists including Gilbert Sedeño: Tunes fill the lobby both before each show and during intermission.

YOUR AUDIENCE GUIDE

Tips for a great night out with your community

Make sure to build in time to enjoy the Wortham before the show—and get to your seats. Late seating may take place at designated moments during each act’s first 20 minutes, either in an alternate location in the theater or, in some cases, a TV viewing area in the Grand Foyer. Latecomers may take their ticketed seats after the next intermission.

Have a bite in the lobby, not in the theater, but do enjoy a drink at your seat—just make sure it’s in a special container from the bar.

Unwrap candies and cough drops before curtain, and remain popular with your peers!

Have a drink: The lobby bars are open before each performance and during intermission. Don’t forget—premium wine selections are available in the center bar of the Grand Foyer. And don’t miss Happy Half Hour— guests receive $2 off all beer, wine, and cocktails at all bars for the first 30 minutes the theater is open (each bar begins service 90 minutes before performance time).

Pro-tip: Pre-order beverages for intermission at any of the bars when you arrive at the theater, and your drinks will be waiting for you!

Silence or turn off your phone and other devices such as smart watches, then put them away. You’ll avoid blinding lights, distracting noises, and vexing your neighbors.

Save conversation for intermission or after the show. You can break down the performance with your neighbor at the break!

Bring the young arts lover in your life to the opera. Just remember: disruptors, however cute, should be escorted to the lobby.

More info at HGO.org/Plan-Your Visit

SAVE THE DATES

THROUGH MAY 12

Opera to Go! Presents Mo Willems’s BiteSized Operas!, a touring production for students and families. Recommended for children grades 2-8. To book this exciting show at your school, community center, or other venue, email OperaToGo@HGO. org or visit HGO.org/OperaToGo

THROUGHOUT THE 2024-25 SEASON

Storybook Opera and Sing! Move! Play! at Levy Park: Every Saturday at 11 a.m. (except May 30). Grades Pre-K-2. LevyParkHouston.org

JAN. 24, 26M, FEB. 1, 6, 9M, 12, 14

Performances of Puccini’s La bohème Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Theater. Ticketholders are invited to Opera Insights lectures, held in the Brown’s Orchestra section 45 minutes prior to each performance. Special intermission reception for members of Opening Nights for Young Professionals at the January 24 performance only. Join us for Pride Day on February 9; and a special Valentine’s Day show on February 14.

JAN. 26

Opera to Go! Presents Mo Willems’s Bite-Sized Operas!, a sensory-friendly production at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center. 2:30 p.m. ERJCC Kaplan Theatre. Ages 3 and up. Free. ERJCCHouston.org

JAN. 30, APR. 22

Opera Club: High school students are invited to learn more about the world of opera and attend dress rehearsal performances of West Side Story (Jan. 30) and Tannhäuser (Apr. 22). No musical experience needed. Free, application and registration required. For information, email Community@HGO.org.

JAN. 30, FEB. 18

School and Educator Engagement Educational Enrichment Workshops: West Side Story, Jan. 30 at 6 p.m. Giving Voice, Feb. 18 at 5:30 p.m. Wortham

Theater Center. Each workshop includes a lecture and discussion, five continuing professional education credits for Texas educators, and a catered dinner. $25.

JAN. 31, FEB. 2M, 5, 7, 8, 13, 15

Performances of Bernstein’s West Side Story Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Theater. Ticketholders are invited to Opera Insights lectures, held in the Brown’s Orchestra section 45 minutes prior to each performance. Join us for Under 40 Friday on February 7, when audiences under 40 years old enjoy discounted tickets; and Noche de Ópera, a celebration of Houston’s Latinx community, on February 15.

FEB. 4

High School Night: West Side Story. HGO hosts a full-length performance of the opera for students and their chaperones. Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Theater. 7 p.m. Sold out.

FEB. 23, MAR. 23, APR. 13

Bauer Family High School Voice Studio Masterclasses: Open to the public for the 2024-25 season. 2 p.m. Appropriate for all ages. Free, RSVP required. For information, visit HGO.org/BFHSVS.

FEB. 28

Giving Voice: HGO’s 6th annual concert celebrates the vital role HBCUs serve as an important training ground for Black singers, musicians, and professionals. 7:30 p.m. Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church. Tickets available at HGO.org/GivingVoice.

MAR. 12

Opera to Go!: Mo Willems’s Bite-Sized Operas! Houston Rodeo Community Day performance. 11:30 a.m. RodeoHouston.com

APR. 5

Opera Ball: Enjoy cocktails, dinner, a silent auction, dancing, and more! 6 p.m. Wortham Theater Center. Margaret Alkek Williams, chair. Dian and Harlan Stai, honorees. For information, visit HGO.org/ OperaBall.

APR. 6

Breaking the Waves: a screening of Lars von Trier’s acclaimed film, the basis for the opera, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. 1 p.m. Tickets at MFAH.org/Films.

APR. 19, 26, 30, MAY 2, 4M

Performances of Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Theater. Ticketholders are invited to Opera Insights lectures, held in the Brown’s Orchestra section 45 minutes prior to each performance. Special intermission reception for members of Overture at the April 26 performance only. Join us for Under 40 Friday on May 2; audiences under 40 years old enjoy discounted tickets.

APR. 25, 29, MAY 3, 8, 11M

Performances of Wagner’s Tannhäuser Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Theater. Ticketholders are invited to Opera Insights lectures, held in the Brown’s Orchestra section 45 minutes prior to each performance. Special intermission reception for members of Opening Nights for Young Professionals at the April 25 performance only.

MAR. 8-15

Free Spring Break Fun at HGO!

For more information, see page 11 of Opera Cues and visit HGO.org/Community!