Welcome to the Wortham Theater Center! The two operas in HGO’s spring repertoire, Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Breaking the Waves and Wagner’s Tannhäuser, are the brilliant culmination of our season-long exploration of love. While one of these operas was composed by a modern master of the art form, and the other by a genius from history, these two pieces share a fundamental connection: they’re both love stories.
Breaking the Waves is one of the finest artistic achievements of the 21st century. Based on the art film by Lars von Trier, the opera is set in 1970s Scotland, where the religious young Bess meets the oil rig worker Jan, forming a powerful bond that leads to ecstasy—and tragedy. These two complex characters will be portrayed by a pair of megawatt stars, soprano Lauren Snouffer and bassbaritone Ryan McKinny. Sara Brodie directs the revival of Tom Morris’s production, with Maestro Patrick Summers conducting Mazzoli’s ethereally beautiful score.
Tannhäuser can only be seen at one American house this season—ours—in a gorgeous, new production from theater legend Francesca Zambello that puts a fresh lens to the title character’s sensual, spiritual journey. This towering masterpiece will be performed by a dream cast of artists who have now taken their rightful place as the leading Wagnerians in all of opera: tenor Russell Thomas in his role debut as Tannhäuser; superstar soprano Tamara Wilson, a graduate of our own Butler Studio, as Elisabeth; and sought-after mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Venus. We welcome Erik Nielsen, acclaimed music director of Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, to the HGO podium for the first time.
In a season all about love, mounting these sublimely beautiful, epic pieces is itself an act of love. I’m filled with gratitude for the pioneering women, Mazzoli and Zambello, whose brilliance and vision fill our stage this spring, and for all of the awe-inspiring artists and creatives who have brought great art to Houston during this extraordinary season.
But most of all, I’m grateful for you, our audience, who not only appreciate thought-provoking, boundary-pushing art, but consider it vital, and prioritize making space for it in your lives. Thank you for being here.
Khori Dastoor General Director and CEO
Margaret Alkek Williams Chair
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
OPENING NIGHT DINNER
PORGY & BESS ®
OCTOBER 24, 2025
Dina Alsowayel and Tony Chase, Chairs
CONCERT OF ARIAS DINNER
FEBRUARY 6, 2026
Featuring the HGO Orchestra and Maestro Patrick Summers
OPERA BALL
APRIL 11, 2026
HGO.ORG/Events
Catherine Matusow
Designers
Chelsea Crouse
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Contributors
Colin Michael Brush
Joe Cadagin
Khori Dastoor
Patrick Summers
Francesca Zambello
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Photo credit: James Glossop
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
Experience modern luxury with a touch of historic charm at the Magnolia Hotel Houston, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel. Our offerings provide the perfect backdrop for a weekend escape, a memorable celebration, or a pre- or post-show indulgence at our on-site restaurant, The Dispatch, ideally situated in downtown Houston.
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
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
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
Joan and Stanford Alexander Family Fund
Carolyn J. Levy
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
To learn more about HGO’s Impresarios Circle members, please see page 74.
FOUNDERS COUNCIL FOR ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE
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
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 Deborah Hirsch, chief philanthropy officer, at 713-546-0259 or DHirsch@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
Houston Methodist
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
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
Mrs. Nancy Dunlap
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
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
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
Michaela and
Nicholas Greenan
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
Rita Leader
Judy Ley
Sharon Ley Lietzow and Robert Lietzow
Mrs. Rosemary Malbin
Renee Margolin
Prof. and Mrs. D. Nathan Meehan
Amy and Mark Melton
Sharyn and Jerry Metcalf
Dr. and Mrs. Miguel Miro-Quesada
Mr. David Montague and Mrs. Diane FerrufinoMontague
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
Mr. Mike Rydin
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
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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 and Mrs. Diane FerrufinoMontague
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.
WHAT A NIGHT!
Concert of Arias 2025: one for the history books
This winter, the atmosphere inside the Wortham Theater Center’s Cullen Theater was electric as seven gifted emerging artists took the stage for this year’s Concert of Arias, HGO’s 37th Annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers.
The finalists were selected from 1,000 applicants and 20 semi-finalists, all seeking the chance to compete for newly increased cash prizes and, perhaps, receive an invitation to join the Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio. (The top two winners will be joining the program this fall! See page 66.) For the first time in company history, the finalists had the opportunity to share their talents accompanied by the HGO Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro James Gaffigan. And share, they did.
“The competition was a wonderful display of talent, excellence, and joy,” says HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor. “It left my heart full—of beauty, inspiration, and gratitude for the next generation of artists, who hold the future of our art form in their hands.”
The 2025 Concert of Arias winners included:
• 1st Place prize of $25,000: Geonho Lee, baritone
• 2nd Place prize of $15,000: Luka Tsevelidze, tenor
• 3rd Place prize of $10,000: Lauren Carroll, soprano
• The Audience Choice Award of $5,000: Geonho Lee, baritone
• The Ana María Martínez Encouragement Award of $2,000: Daria Lupu, soprano
GIVING VOICE TO THE FUTURE
Houston celebrates Black History Month with an evening of opera.
In February, HGO again partnered with Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston’s historic Third Ward for the sixth Giving Voice, the company’s annual celebration of Black artists in classical music and opera. This year’s event honored the legacy of the country’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
A group of outstanding soloists performed for the crowd—including baritone Reginald Smith, Jr., dramatic tenor Issachah Savage, and two Butler Studio artists, soprano Elizabeth Hanje and bass-baritone Sam Dhobhany—joined by choirs from Texas Southern University, Jackson State University, WABC, the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, and Voices of Houston. The evening was emceed by Dr. Ruth J. Simmons, a Distinguished Presidential Fellow at Rice University whose impressive career includes service as President of Brown University, Prairie View A&M University, and Smith College.
“It is well-known in our industry that the country’s HBCUs are pillars of musical excellence and vital training grounds for the best and brightest in the field,” says HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor. “All of us inside the Cathedral were inspired by the sublime voices that joined together to give Houston a night to remember.”
Baritone Geonho Lee took top honors.
A NEW ERA FOR PATRICK SUMMERS
Where to see Maestro next season.
Maestro Patrick Summers has announced that after more than 25 years with HGO, the 2025-26 season will be his last as the company’s artistic and music director. The following season, he will assume a new role—music director emeritus and holder of the Robert and Jane Cizik Music Director Emeritus Chair—continuing to serve HGO as a valued advisor, scholar, and guest conductor.
As the company undertakes a search for its next music director, we’re making big plans to celebrate Maestro Summers, honoring him with a 2025-26 season full of extraordinary grand opera, performed by brilliant artists from across the world.
HGO audiences—many of whom have enjoyed Summers at the podium for more than two decades—will have three opportunities to experience his artistry next season. Summers will be conducting the HGO Orchestra, the renowned ensemble he has guided since its earliest days, for Puccini’s Il trittico in fall 2025 and Handel/ Mozart’s Messiah in spring 2026. He will also be behind the baton for next season's Concert of Arias, to take place on February 6, 2026.
“My final season as artistic and music director is of enormous meaning to me,” says Summers. “I am honored to conduct what is to my mind the single greatest Italian opera, Puccini’s Trittico, and to close my tenure with Mozart’s loving homage to Handel, his orchestration of one of the greatest works in the canon, Messiah.”
PAINTING THE 2025-26 SEASON
Nestor Topchy’s art takes center stage.
In March, the HGO team announced plans for a new season of grand opera, set to launch next fall with a highly anticipated production of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. And if you’re a member of the HGO family and received one of our 2025-26 season brochures, you might have noticed its unique look.
HGO has commissioned leading Houston artist Nestor Topchy to create a set of original artworks inspired by the six operas in our mainstage season, plus a piece depicting the company’s special Butler Studio production in the Cullen Theater, Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men. The striking paintings, done in Topchy’s signature Byzantine-influenced style, can be found not only in our company brochure, but also on posters for the season.
“Patrick Summers and I both had the same thought after visiting the Menil Collection to see Nestor’s solo show last year. We knew we wanted him to create a body of work that captures the spirit and emotion of the incredible operas we’ll be staging for our city,” says HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor. “The resulting suite of paintings is stunning—a wonderful reflection of the great art to come on the Wortham stage, made by and for Houstonians.”
HGO will be celebrating Maestro Summers throughout the 2025-26 season.
Clockwise from top left: Topchy's interpretations of Porgy and Bess, Hansel and Gretel, The Barber of Seville, and Il trittico, all coming to HGO next season.
OPERA FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
The M. D. Anderson Foundation has been a steadfast supporter of HGO for nearly 50 years, during which time the Foundation has not only fostered incredible artistry in Houston—it has helped HGO become a truly 21st-century opera company. The Foundation’s recent investments in HGO’s digital infrastructure and technology, from mobile tickets to cybersecurity, have been invaluable to our success adapting a centuries-old art form for a cutting-edge world. We are grateful for the foresight and support of the M.D. Anderson Foundation, and we look forward to many more years of partnership.
GIVING BACK TO HOUSTON
A leader of Houston’s energy sector, Vitol has graciously supported HGO since 2022. We are particularly thankful for the leadership of Kristin Muessig—Vice President and Head of Business Operations for Vitol, and the newest member of the HGO Board of Directors—whose dedication further strengthens the meaningful partnership between our organizations. Vitol’s generous underwriting of this year’s Opera Ball underscores the company’s commitment to HGO and affirms the value our Community & Learning programs have for Houston.
Emma Cooke, Jennifer Herndon, and Stacy Hollaway with new HGO Board of Directors member Kristin Muessig at this season's Concert of Arias.
OPERA LOVE STORIES ♥ PART 3 OF A SERIES
MLOVE AND DEATH AND THE
MEANING OF LIFE
Composer Missy Mazzoli on the unique power of opera.
By Khori Dastoor, General Director & CEO
issy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Breaking the Waves is a fearless, powerful, revelatory work of art. Which is why—for just a moment—during our Zoom conversation ahead of the critically acclaimed opera’s regional premiere at HGO, it surprises me as she tells me she initially balked at the idea.
“You know, the movie is chilling,” she says. “I remember watching it alone on my laptop, which is not the way anyone should watch Breaking the Waves, and then just slamming the laptop when it was done, and feeling freaked out.”
But it wouldn’t leave her alone. “I kept imagining this world and imagining the deep psychology that Lars von Trier creates, and most importantly, the fact that the film only is able to illuminate a certain part of that psychology, just by virtue of the nature of
the genre.” The movie left a lot of territory unexplored. “It’s a brilliant, perfect film,” she says. “But there’s all these layers to the characters that a film can’t explore and that an opera can.”
Laptop slamming aside, Missy soon realized it was just the kind of story she loves to explore. “All of my work, even if it doesn’t include voices, is about people and human struggles and complicated emotions,” she says. “I’m not interested in creating characters that are very clearly good guys or bad guys. I think that that’s completely uninteresting, and that’s a misuse of opera’s subtlety and power. I’m much more interested in creating characters, particularly female characters, that have a mystery to them, a subtlety, where you’re not sure if this path of behavior is right or good for them or for anybody.”
Missy and Royce, her longtime librettist, had found their next project—and a compelling, if unconventional, protagonist in Bess. “We don’t always know whether to root for her or to just try to stop her from doing whatever she’s doing,” she explains. “So I think that that conflict in the audience is very, very powerful.”
She began to build a sonic world around the story— one that, like all her work, whether she’s writing for a chamber ensemble or her own band—inhabits the in-between. “I’ve always been interested in creating sounds that are not wholly happy or sad, or dissonant or consonant. I’m always existing in the cracks between emotions, the cracks between genres, the cracks between different harmonies and tonalities and traditions.”
And though she’d written operatic works before, it was while writing Breaking the Waves that Missy’s own opera love story truly began.
“There was really a very specific moment when I fell in love with opera in a big way,” she shares. “I was working on Breaking the Waves at Opera Philadelphia, workshopping a scene. The director, Daniel Fish, started asking me about the psychology of the characters. And I realized I’d been waiting my whole life for someone to talk to me about music in this way, from a theatrical perspective. And it felt like this immediate homecoming.”
Breaking the Waves made its world premiere at Opera Philadelphia in 2016, and the love story it launched between Missy and opera was both powerful and mutual— Opera News named it one of the best operas of the 21st century. The experience, she says, was life-altering. “It changed the way that I thought about myself, and the way that I thought about my potential as an artist, and the way that I thought about opera’s potential to move people.”
From there, she dove deeper and deeper into the art form. In 2021, another opera Missy wrote with Royce, The Listeners, debuted in Oslo, to ecstatic critical acclaim, with the New Yorker calling it “mesmerizing.”
The duo’s next major world premiere is on the way, a hotly anticipated commission from the Metropolitan Opera: Lincoln in the Bardo, based on the novel by George Saunders. That work is set to debut at the Met in the 2026-27 season.
Following its breakout success, Breaking the Waves has continued to find new life on the world’s grand stages. In 2019, the opera made its European debut at the Edinburgh International Festival, in a new co-production from Opera Ventures, Scottish Opera, and HGO, in association with Bristol Old Vic, directed by Tom Morris. HGO’s presentation of the work was delayed by the pandemic, but during our conversation, Missy tells me she’s glad we’re featuring it as part of our truly, madly, deeply season-long exploration of love.
“I love that this is part of a love theme because I do think that at its core, Breaking the Waves is a love story. It is. And that gets sort of lost in the extreme nature of this fictional narrative,” she says.
“I keep thinking about this one random moment when this woman in Philadelphia—I’m going to cry just thinking about it because it was so crazy and surprising,” she says. “She came up to me after Breaking the Waves and said, I lost my husband a few years ago, and so I was so happy to see that you had taken this on as an opera, because I see this story as a true love story, and it was only in my grief after losing my husband that I was able to see it that way
“I had never met this woman before, and within a minute of meeting each other, she was explaining how her grief journey made her understand this story, and how she found a sense of peace and a modicum of comfort through this. And I love that. I love that about being an artist. I love that about being in opera, that within two seconds, you’re talking about love and death and the meaning of life.”
Mazzoli at Neist Point on Scotland's Isle of Skye, where Breaking the Waves takes place.
Houston audiences will be the first to experience director Francesca Zambello's new production of Tannhäuser
DIRECTOR'S NOTE: TANNH ÄUSER
A LOOK AT COMPOSERS AND ARTISTS THROUGH THE AGES.
By Francesca Zambello
Tannhäuser is part of a long list of operas that feature an artist as a central character—think of La bohème, Tosca, or all the Orpheus operas. These characters, often described as “larger than life,” give shape to the complex emotional underpinnings of the human experience. Do artists feel more deeply, or do they have better tools at their disposal for expressing these deep truths? Either way, their stories have given me many unforgettable nights in the theater. As we look forward to this new production of Tannhäuser—about possibly my favorite operatic artist—I wanted to reflect on this larger tradition.
When the first spectacles of opera were staged in the Renaissance courts of Italy, opera was already a multimedia entertainment: it combined dance, poetry, music, and powerful visuals to tell a new kind of
story. Claudio Monteverdi’s Orfeo, widely regarded as the first operatic masterpiece, premiered at the court of Mantua in 1607. Like Tannhäuser, Orfeo tells the story of an artist who was both poet and composer, a man whose song could enchant wild beasts and who nearly succeeded in overpowering death. Monteverdi’s writing, wedded to the libretto of Alessandro Striggio, combined the richness of late Renaissance dramatic performances with the simplicity of a story told in a flexible and expressive recitative. Most importantly, the composer had an exceptional talent for dramatic unity, transforming entire acts into cohesive musical units. His revolutionary work marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the baroque period.
When the 18th century arrived, Gluck brought his own spin to the Orpheus legend, which signaled
his ambition to reform an opera tradition that he felt was losing its way. It was the Age of Enlightenment and talk of revolution was everywhere—in the opera house and on the world stage. The playwright Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, who was active in both spheres, reflected on the changing landscape in his three Figaro plays, which have inspired several operas, most famously The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville. In both stories, the title character bears a number of similarities to the playwright himself.
As the 18th century drew to a close, Romanticism emerged, emphasizing individuality, emotional expression, and experimentation with form. Artists popped up as leading characters in a wide variety of operatic genres. Jacques Offenbach wrote his own Orpheus opera, Orpheus in the Underworld, but made it a campy comic operetta; later, in The Tales of Hoffmann, Offenbach took a more serious look at the role of the poet and composer. Goethe’s Werther depicted a similarly tortured soul and served as the inspiration for an opera by Massenet. And even Hector Berlioz got in on the act when he wrote the opera Benvenuto Cellini, based on the life of the 16th-century artist.
Puccini’s operas have presented some memorable portraits of struggling artists, beginning with La bohème’s painter (Marcello), philosopher (Colline), poet (Rodolfo), musician (Schaunard), fiber artist (Mimì), and singer (Musetta). In Tosca, the heroine is an opera diva, and her lover is a painter. I think Wagner would have loved Tosca’s passion and bravery. In her most famous aria, “Vissi d’arte,” she sings, “I lived for art.” It’s not that far afield from what Tannhäuser tells us in the song contest.
Why do all these operas featuring an artist at the center hold such widespread appeal? I believe every individual possesses an artistic spirit, a desire to create something of value for themselves and others. Often, artist-protagonists are set against the backdrop of a fractured world, showcasing the belief in one person’s potential to create change through art. This was our foundation as we developed the visuals for our production of Tannhäuser.
My designers and I considered it essential to define the world that Tannhäuser inhabits as strict and
stifling. We looked for something evocative of the 19th century, suggesting a closed society. Religion plays an interesting role in the story; it is both a unifying force and an instrument of repression. To me, the opera offers a clear parallel to Wagner’s own experience as he struggled to express an alternate worldview through his art.
Wagner wrote two versions of this opera, one for Paris and one for Dresden; we have opted for the Dresden version (1845), which has a shorter ballet. As the opera opens, we see the sublime natural world through the eyes of the great romantic painters of the late 19th century. Tannhäuser is a member of an austere religious community that has rejected the excesses of the Gilded Age. While it is not meant to be a specific representation of any one faith, its visual language is drawn from Amish, Quaker, and Hutterite communities.
As Tannhäuser reaches adulthood, he is permitted to experience life outside of the community. Having never felt completely comfortable within his own society, he travels and is intrigued by the boldness and creativity he encounters in “Venusberg,” a world that starkly contrasts with Tannhäuser’s rural world and simple life. Our Venusberg is set in a progressive New York salon where wealthy artists gather and challenge norms, none more so than “Venus” herself, who resembles a sort of Edith Wharton figure. Tannhäuser’s struggle between sacred and profane love makes for a compelling and thought-provoking journey.
The challenge of reconciling a unique inner life with the expectations of one’s community is not unique to artists; it has been part of the human experience since long before the first operatic experiments. It is no wonder that artists stand at the center of so many beloved operas, since their heroic struggle mirrors and magnifies our shared humanity.
WHAT WILL YOUR LEGACY BE?
Please consider a gift to HGO’s Laureate Society so future generations will continue
Joel Thompson
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH WITH A VOICE WITHIN STORIES THROUGH SONG
Join us for a world-premiere song cycle from HGO Composer-inResidence Joel Thompson and librettist Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, based on oral histories of Black Houstonians, featuring soprano Nicole Heaston, baritone Justin Austin, and pianist Donald Lee III.
TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2025. 7 P.M. EMANCIPATION PARK CONSERVANCY.
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� Music
HGO’s spring operas speak powerfully to each other.
By Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director
ur two final operas of this HGO season are both towering monuments to personal conflicts rendered as art, two operas that are profound Odyssean journey operas—and both are epics of spirituality. This spring, we present the provocative, beautiful, and disturbing Breaking the Waves, composed just under a decade ago, and the majestic medieval romance
Tannhäuser, composed by Wagner in 1845, based on a 13th-century legend. What on earth could these two disparate works have to say to each other and to us here now, a quarter of the way into the 21st century? Quite a lot, I think.
Rarely have two such diverse operas sat together with such thematic crossover.
Tannhäuser, the title character of Wagner’s opera, is a medieval knight locked between two worlds— Wartburg and Venusberg. Wartburg is a real place near the German town of Eisenach, which in medieval literature was a world of spirituality, the location of a famous song contest, and representative in this opera of the redemptive love of a faithful woman, Elisabeth. The Venusberg is a mythical place of hedonistic pleasure and indulgence, the world of the siren Venus. We meet Tannhäuser just at the height of his pleasures with Venus, and his rejection and guilt of that pleasure, with Venus attempting to seduce him into staying with her, which he rejects.
It is announced that the theme of the Wartburg song contest is to be: “Can You Explain the Nature of Love?” Elisabeth, hoping to revive her love for Tannhäuser, first greets the hall of song with great joy, then anxiously awaits Tannhäuser’s song, only to find that he sings about Venus, horrifying everyone, because his song is an admission of sin. The crowd grows violent toward him, saved only by Elisabeth, who explains that sins can find atonement. His life spared, Tannhäuser is exiled and ordered to join a band of pilgrims bound for Rome. The extraordinary third act of the opera is focused on Tannhäuser’s pilgrimage and what is at stake for various people within it. Elisabeth prays for him, but her prayers seem to foretell her own death. Wolfram, also in love with Elisabeth, doubts that Tannhäuser will find absolution. Wolfram sings a prayer on the Evening Star for her.
Tannhäuser returns from Rome, unabsolved and again seeking the hedonistic comforts of Venus. The pope has told him that just as his own staff will no longer sprout leaves, so is Tannhäuser’s soul unredeemable. Wolfram says the one word that he knows will change Tannhäuser’s heart: Elisabeth. Tannhäuser repeats her name, but it is too late—Elisabeth is dead, and the sight of her on a bier takes Tannhäuser’s life as well. The pilgrims with whom Tannhäuser ventured to Rome return, bearing a staff that is sprouting new life. They declare a miracle as Tannhäuser and Elisabeth enter into eternal life together. Love triumphs in Tannhäuser, but love is a destructive force in all of the remaining Wagner operas.
Breaking the Waves is set in the mid-1970s on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, in a small religious community so starkly observant that they have removed the local church bells and thrown them in the sea, thinking them too evocative and sensual. We immediately meet Bess McNeill, a grown woman with a childlike sensibility, which is possibly the result of some type of neurodivergence or even a learning disorder—we never know. Bess falls in love with the oil-rigger Jan, marries him, and experiences an extreme level of sexual enlightenment with him.
Jan, upon returning to the oil rig after their wedding, has a paralyzing accident which Bess somehow believes is her fault. Jan, knowing he will never again be able to be intimate with his wife, asks her to have sex with other men and report the encounters back to him as a way of remaining intimate with her. The idea, of course, shocks her, but she feels she must obey him to fulfill her vows. Indeed, when Bess has sexual relations with one particular man, Jan’s health stabilizes, so she sets out on a series of sexual liaisons, each of which increases in danger and extremity, and this ruins her reputation in their small and conservative community.
Wandering onto a large commercial ship, she is brutally raped, and she dies just as her husband is awakening from a successful surgery that has partially restored him to health. The religious community agrees to give her a funeral, but insists that her soul is consigned to hell. Unwilling to accept this, Jan steals her body before she is buried, and puts her soul in the sea, as within the sound of the breaking waves we hear the drowned church bells.
Tannhäuser is one of the great, majestic, romantic, grand operas, requiring huge forces of the highest accomplishment, with a redemptive and grand ending. What opera, I ask you, ends so thrillingly as does Tannhäuser? It is an expansive and lyrical vision–not for what our lives might be, but how we
might feel at moments of spiritual distress or joy. For all of its richness, Tannhäuser is ultimately a celebration of the power of singing, because music is an integral part of its plot, and right at the heart of a spiritual quest. The song contest in Tannhäuser is a metaphor for the tests we all face in life, and singing is the life force not only of the opera, but of the story within the opera. For such a sublime evocation of music itself in an opera, one would have to go back to the scene near the end of Mozart’s Magic Flute where, guided by the power of music, Tamino and Pamina safely pass through trials of water and fire.
Breaking the Waves is a chamber opera with one of the most disturbing and enigmatic stories ever put on the operatic stage. As a story, it is many things below the surface of its marvelously evocative title. It is an allegory of fundamentalism, of what happens when beliefs are not tempered by doubt, but it also goes much more graphically into the moral questions posed by Tannhäuser: what are the links between sexuality and spirituality, which are so often seen as polar opposites, each policing the other? In Tannhäuser, religious ecstasy is at war with sensuality; in Breaking the Waves, they are fused in Bess’s mind to the point of traumatic danger. What we see in these two operas are the pre- and post-Freudian mind played out in two separate works of art that are mirrors of each other.
Any artist’s place in cultural history should be viewed from three directions: by their influences, by the merits of their own works, and by the ones who came in their wake, the ones they influenced. Tannhäuser, in particular, is perhaps best understood in the context of these three views.
Wagner’s chosen influences were numerous: Beethoven; Goethe; Schiller; Carl Maria von Weber, especially his opera Der Freischütz; a host of philosophers; the Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini, whose operas Wagner delighted in conducting; Gluck, especially his opera Orfeo. But, curiously, not Mozart, except for Don Giovanni, which was a fairly common view of Mozart in Wagner’s era, about half a century after Mozart’s death.
Most influential on Wagner were ancient authors, those of the great Teutonic epics in which he was deeply immersed, as well as his chief muse, the Ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus, who was the composer’s artistic lodestar. What are the qualities of Aeschylus that made it into Wagner? Both wrote stark dramas that place characters in intense situations of moral ambiguity. And the famous role of the Greek chorus, those characters who interpreted the drama for the audience, was transferred into the orchestra by Wagner. Even if his works had an onstage chorus, he moved the actual dramatic role of the Greek chorus into the orchestra. This is but one of the reasons orchestras love Wagner so much: he places them at the center of the experience in a way most composers do not.
The second way to view Wagner is on the merits of his own works. Did they achieve his own goals for them? This is not just a question of do I like them?, which is private, and more a question of what did Wagner want to achieve?, and on this point Wagner is unassailable. Like it or not, very few composers achieved so close to what they set out to achieve. In the operas he completed—Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser,
Peter J. Davison's set model for the Venusberg in Act I of HGO's production of Tannhäuser.
Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, and Parsifal, his life’s achievements—artists and audiences everywhere are still discovering things.
His youthful works, Die Feen and Das Liebesverbot, along with the operas he did not complete, are also a great part of his story. One must wonder what the world might have been like had his unfinished operas been brought to fruition: Friedrich I, Jesus of Nazareth (for which his abhorrently antisemitic prose scenario exists, so we can be thankful he didn’t finish this one), Achilles (Ancient Greece yet again), Wieland der Schmied, Die Sieger, and Eine
Kapitulation (a nationalist farce about the Siege of Paris in 1870 by German forces).
And then there is the Wagner effect on what followed him. Here is where Wagner is almost incalculable, because every composer who followed him either imitated him or was forced to consciously try not to. It was an artistic reaction to Wagner that brought the Second Viennese School into existence, and Richard Strauss’s early operatic successes took the Wagnerian ethos to new levels. Many credible people thought Wagner stretched traditional harmony so far that he left no room for music to develop after him. Wagner himself said that “folk operas” were all opera’s future had room for after him, something one hears in different countries—in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, in Dvořák’s Rusalka, in Humperdinck’s Hansel and
Gretel, and even in the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, composed half a century after Wagner’s death. Today, from the distance of 2025, we are still, operatically, in a world Wagner created.
Missy Mazzoli, born in 1980 in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, has no ambitions to alter the thought processes of the world nor, thankfully, anything like the ego-driven self-importance of Wagner. She is shifting the trends of American opera, many of which have their origins in this company. One glaringly obvious aspect of operatic history, as with the history of so much, is the absence of women as creators. The list of female composers is disturbingly short, a reality that is rapidly changing, better late than never. This is not remotely the most fascinating thing about Missy or her art, but it is a part of operatic history in which she is also forever connected. Missy’s music is a response to the world, an artistic coping mechanism for the ambiguity of the world.
The Danish film director Lars von Trier, born in 1956, wrote the script for the 1996 film on which our opera is based, Breaking the Waves. In an interview that year, he offered an illuminating view of religion, in words one can almost hear Wagner uttering:
“As a child, you create all kinds of rituals to maintain control. I was very scared of the atom bomb, so every night when I went to bed I had to perform all these rituals to save the world. And from a psychological point of view, religion is a continuation of these childhood rituals, which are there to prevent everything from reverting back to chaos.”
Von Trier, like Wagner, is often described as arrogant and aloof, though it seems most of his behaviors are probably more a kind of self-protection. The extraordinary film Breaking the Waves, which was the breakout moment of the British actress Emily Watson, lingers long with anyone willing to take the journey, but not one thing about the film is easy, as it asks as much of an audience as does any opera. For von Trier, writing in the published screenplay of the film, Breaking the Waves is about “good,” or the concept of goodness, which seems immediately counterintuitive. But he explains:
“The character of Bess is ‘good’ in a spiritual sense. ... living mostly in the world of her imagination, never really accepting that things apart from ‘good’ might exist. ... Jan is ‘good’ in a much more difficult way, because he consciously aims to do ‘good’…by trying to save her, he loses her—by doing ‘good’! By trying to save him, by doing ‘good,’ the world that she loved turned against her.”
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Sydney Mancasola as Bess in Breaking the Waves (Scottish Opera, 2019, James Glossop)
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Beyond the searing subject of Breaking the Waves, one of the major effects of the film is visual: it was filmed largely with handheld cameras, then transferred to video, and then copied back onto film again, which gives the movie a grainy and hypnotic look. With Missy and Royce’s opera, where live visuals obviously have to be achieved solely with lighting and acting, the same hypnotic effect of the film is done through music. The score of Breaking the Waves is tonal and lyrical, disarmingly beautiful for the subject matter, and hallucinatory, the music of memory.
Von Trier’s prototype for Bess was the famous Justine as written by the Marquis de Sade, a character who is horribly exploited by men, only to thank God for having survived it all. The juxtaposition of sex and all of its distorting complications with religious faith is the ultimate subject of Breaking the Waves, both film and opera. As expected, the opera is a very different experience from the film, calling to mind the role of music in an opera as opposed to in a film. Music, as an abstract art, illuminates complex emotions, and the moment you name them they can lose their complexity, which is why the understanding of an opera, ultimately, lies fully in listening, not in reading or listening to anyone talk about it. Just as Bess sings in Royce Vavrek’s amazing libretto, she hears “strange beautiful music” when asked about Jan.
Missy Mazzoli’s musical palette, especially for someone still in their early forties, has emerged as something wholly new and personal, while retaining the influence of the band she founded, Victoire, which itself seems to absorb the influences of 400 years of musical history and fuse it into something relevant and vibrant. Though rooted in tonality, her music often feels haunted and ruminative. The first musical marking of Breaking the Waves is not Allegro or Andante or any other sort of standard musical marking. It is Brooding, a church service heard through a hurricane. Missy often distorts sonic expectations, beginning in traditional harmony and satelliting into other spaces.
The provocations of both Tannhäuser and Breaking the Waves move beyond the realms of opera, philosophy, and performance. They certainly delve into the worlds of religion, but no one will find religious conclusions confirmed or denied in either work. These operas ultimately land us in the netherworld of poets, the people who can distill the big questions into something digestible. Here is Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), who brings these worlds home:
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answers.”
Wagner died on February 13, 1883, in Venice, and just a month later, another Victorian era provocateur shuffled off this mortal coil: Karl Marx passed in London. In that same momentous year, there occurred the loudest sound ever known on earth with the eruption of the island of Krakatoa near Java, an event that altered
" TANNHÄUSER AND BREAKING THE WAVES DELVE INTO THE WORLDS OF RELIGION, BUT NO ONE WILL FIND RELIGIOUS CONCLUSIONS CONFIRMED OR DENIED IN EITHER WORK."
the world’s atmosphere for the years that followed. Not even the detonation of atomic bombs in the 20th century came close to the decibels that emerged from Krakatoa, which would be akin to a sound emanating from downtown Houston being heard in Machu Picchu. As the 1883 world bid a human farewell to Wagner and Marx, but not their controversial and consequential lives, the planet seemed to have a message for us as well. This sounds like the makings of a fine opera, with strange and beautiful music by Missy Mazzoli.
THE PERFECT FIRST WAGNER
There is so much to enjoy in Tannhäuser
By Patrick Summers
Tannhäuser is a perfect first Wagner opera, particularly for those interested in him but intimidated by all he so gleefully demands, starting with lots of your time. The source of some of the coldest feet lies in pronouncing large words like “Tannhäuser” (TAHN-hoi-zer), which is indeed an opera with lots of names that sound like ancient beer brands. Let the cast worry about all of that; your only task is enjoyment.
And there is so much to enjoy! Tannhäuser is, beyond everything else, a celebration of singing. You will enjoy the opera much more if you are not trying to follow the plot, so knowing an outline of that before you begin is a great way to prepare yourself. Glance at the supertitles, but don’t glue yourself to them, because reading and listening are two very different actions. Tannhäuser is a full-sensory experience, but it is primarily designed, with its broad and noble melodies, to be heard.
And oh, the extraordinary things you will hear in this opera! It is worth remembering, always, that a performance of Tannhäuser is entirely experienced in live sound. The large Brown Theater is vibrating with sounds that have no electronic enhancement or help, and that includes everything you hear, from the nearly 90 musicians in the orchestra including onstage trumpets, to the 80 singers in the chorus, to the magnificent solo voices of the principal singers, all of whom have trained their entire lives for the privilege of performing for you. Learning to sing Wagner takes many years of diligent and demanding training.
Wagner (VAHG-ner) had a uniquely epic vision for opera, only matched in history by Mozart and Verdi in their own unique ways. Wagner felt that only ancient stories connected mankind to whatever might be timeless, and he also felt something we can all understand: that too much of the past was being forgotten amidst the forces of modernity. He felt this all of his life, but particularly in the 1840s—imagine what he would feel now.
Tannhäuser represents Wagner’s first successful dive into epic German literature—a 13th century world that is obviously even more remote in our 21st century than in the composer’s 19th. The epic quest for meaning, told through the title character’s struggle between the sensual world of the body and the spiritual world of the mind, is a journey taken by nearly every feeling adult through history. We may not all do it with ancient song contests or papal pilgrimages, but those are symbols, and this is the great secret of Wagner and of all epic literature: not forcing the symbols to be some literal thing they cannot be. Our own journey will not literally be like Tannhäuser’s, but the searching that he feels, and the struggles between the attained and attainable, are as potent to anyone in the 21st century as they were to a knight in a long-lost kingdom. Tannhäuser invites that time-honored beginning of a story: “once upon a time.”
A set design for HGO's new production of Tannhäuser, directed by Francesca Zambello.
GIVING BACK PORGY
HGO’s legendary 1976 production restored the Gershwins’ classic to both its operatic origins and to the Black culture that inspired it.
By Joe Cadagin, Audience Education and Communications Manager
Donnie Ray Albert as Porgy in HGO's 1976 production of Porgy and Bess
was approaching, and producer Sherwin Goldman was looking to celebrate the United States bicentennial by mounting a quintessentially American opera: the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. He approached the Metropolitan Opera, but the company turned him down. They had a (mostly white) chorus under contract and couldn’t hire the additional African-American singers needed to portray the inhabitants of Catfish Row—a fictional Gullah community in South Carolina.
So Goldman proposed the project to Houston Grand Opera. David Gockley, recently appointed as general director, had quickly established himself as a champion of new and innovative programming. In fact, HGO had already staged an all-Black opera under his leadership in 1975—Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha. Gockley agreed, and preparations for Porgy began.
When he heard the news, John DeMain marched into Gockley’s office, insisting he was the best man to conduct the production. DeMain would eventually become HGO’s music director, but at the time, he was only a year into his position as head of the company’s now-defunct touring arm, Texas Opera Theater. Impressed by DeMain’s chutzpah, Gockley hired him. He also took DeMain’s recommendation that they bring on director Jack O’Brien, an up-andcoming talent who would go on to a successful Broadway career.
But in 1976, less than a decade after the civil rights movement, DeMain and O’Brien found themselves in a rather strange position. “Here were two young white guys in charge,” recalls DeMain. “We went out to dinner, and I said to Jack, ‘What would you do?’ And he said, ‘Give it back to the people it was created for.’”
Forty years after its premiere in 1935, Porgy and Bess had strayed from the work that George Gershwin and his collaborators envisioned. O’Brien and DeMain explain that the blame lay largely with a director named Ella Gerber, who had been involved with touring productions of Porgy since the 1950s. For years, Gerber had held exclusive rights to stage the opera. Ironically, DeMain had met Gerber as a boy in Youngstown, Ohio. “One day, you’ll grow up and do this piece,” she told him.
Gerber’s version contained numerous alterations that undermined the drama. “She cut it severely and reassigned songs,” says DeMain. “The big production numbers were too Hollywood—too Broadway. Ella was distorting, really, the essence of the piece.” At times, the staging even strayed into minstrel-show territory. “She had the chorus in white gloves on Kittiwah Island,” says O’Brien. “She had contempt for Black singers. She treated them disrespectfully. She never said a kind word to any of them.”
When O’Brien and DeMain traveled to New York to audition some 500 Black singers, they encountered a bass who had previously worked under Gerber. “He came up to the desk,” remembers DeMain, “and he said, ‘Is that woman directing?’ And we said, ‘No, we have a new director.’ And he said, ‘All right, I’ll sing.’ That’s the kind of animosity there was towards the piece from within.”
The goal of HGO’s Porgy, then, was a twofold restoration: to return the work to its operatic origins and—more importantly—to give the work back to the culture that had inspired it. To be sure, the groundwork for the first goal had already been laid. In 1975, Lorin Maazel conducted the Cleveland Orchestra on the world-premiere recording of the whole opera.
But HGO’s production would be the first major staged production of the complete score. Or, more accurately, the nearly complete score. For the HGO recording of Porgy, DeMain conducted every note Gershwin composed. But in live performance, cuts had to be made to fit the work into just under three hours, which is still standard practice today.
As for the second goal of how to reclaim Porgy for AfricanAmericans—that was far less clear for the squarely Caucasian conductor and director. “When I walked in on the first day of music rehearsals and faced that all-Black chorus, there was not a smile on anybody’s face,” says DeMain. “All I could feel was, ‘Okay, show us what you’re going to do.’”
O’Brien’s solution was to acknowledge his ignorance to the cast. “I was open and honest and said, ‘I do not understand this community. I’m not part of it. Help me, tell me what to do.’ And they did.”
The director’s first move was to incorporate the chorus members as co-creators. “I said, ‘I’m going to give you 20 minutes to get married. You can go around and decide yourselves, who’s married to whom? Do you have families? Are you widowed? Are you alone? Because then I’ll put you in the community the way you’re most comfortable.’”
O’Brien understood that the prominent role of the chorus in Porgy reflected the importance of community in Black life. “In the show,
they were up in their apartments, on their porches. They were watching everything that happened onstage, because it was their story as well.”
African-American artists were also brought in as consultants or members of the creative team. Notably, choral-leader Eva Jessye, who served as Gershwin’s music director for the original 1935 production, attended the first HGO preview. At a pre-show dinner, she offered invaluable insight into Southern culture. “I sat at her feet, and she dropped wisdom into my lap,” O’Brien remembers.
“For the first time, maybe in 30 years,” he adds, “Black artists’ information, knowledge, and experience were being worked into the show.”
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Donnie Ray Albert was just 26 years old when David Gockley called to offer him the part of Porgy. The baritone was fresh out of grad school and only had a handful of professional credits under his belt, including a small role in HGO’s Treemonisha. Unfamiliar with the score and daunted by the magnitude of such an undertaking, Albert turned Gockley down. It took a “verbal pounding” from a mentor to finally convince him.
To prepare, Albert was sent off to New York for an intense week of one-on-one coaching with William Warfield, who had toured as Porgy opposite Leontyne Price in the 1950s. “By the end of that week, I had memorized the role,” says Albert. “I sang it
Members of the cast and chorus in HGO's 1976 production of Porgy and Bess.
cover to cover, and Uncle Bill listened at a distance. At the end of it, I noticed that he was weeping. And he said, ‘I think you’re ready to do this.’”
Albert also received advice from Todd Duncan, who premiered the role of Porgy. “I remember very distinctly, he said, ‘Son, you cover this stage like a marathon runner. But once that gal comes out here in that red dress, nobody pays attention to you!’ He said, ‘You’re going to have to slow down. You are going to wear yourself out.’”
It’s a wonder how Albert mustered the energy. While contemporary Porgys tend to get about on a crutch, Albert played the disabled beggar on his knees for the entire duration of the show. “I was usually thoroughly drained at the end,” he admits. “If I had to do that at 75 years old right now, I’d say, ‘We’re going to use a Volkswagen, and he’s going to be rolled out.’”
Albert’s greatest teacher was a real-life Porgy that he encountered while driving to rehearsal. “I pulled up to a 7-Eleven, and sitting right out in front was a crippled beggar—a well-built African-American man. I sat in my car and just watched him. His physical movements helped me with imagining how I would be on my knees for three hours.”
It was important to director Jack O’Brien that the character be portrayed with dignity—“that this ‘broken’ man was not broken.” The most iconic moment of his staging came during the love duet “Bess, You Is My Woman Now.” The soprano playing Bess, Clamma Dale, was a six-foot-tall woman that O’Brien calls “the most beautiful thing you’ve ever laid eyes on in your life. I said to Clamma, ‘I want you to drop to your knees, and I want you to crawl to him. But I don’t want you to see him lower. When you kneel down, see him rising up.’
“The least-qualified member of the community was redeemed by his love,” O’Brien continues, “and he obtained superpowers of sort.” Indeed, in the production, Porgy works his disability to his advantage by executing an aerial
sneak-attack on Bess’s abusive ex-boyfriend. “I decided that he could claw his way up on the roof of the shed he lived in,” says O’Brien. “So when Crown came looking for him, he would never think to look up to see a crippled person.”
After his breakout role, Donnie Ray Albert portrayed Porgy "well over 450 times on my knees and hundreds of times in concerts,” most recently in 2007 in Austria. At the same time, he was careful to expand his repertoire. He was worried about being typecast solely as Porgy for the rest of his career, which was a danger in those days for Black basses and baritones. Albert discovered first-hand how common it was for African-American singers to be pigeonholed when he was seeking management after the HGO production. “One or two of them told me, ‘Well, we already have a Black artist on our roster, so we don’t need another one.’”
Albert now serves as a Senior Lecturer in Voice at UT Austin’s Butler School of Music. He continues to give recitals and has become an enthusiastic performer of Black composers. But even if Porgy wasn’t written by a Black songwriter, “the color of the composer doesn’t matter.” For Albert, Gershwin captured the sense of hope and perseverance at the heart of the African-American experience—especially in Porgy’s curtain-closer, “O Lawd, I’m on My Way.”
DeMain discovered that this number, in which Porgy sets off on the impossible task of finding his lost Bess, had been sped up over the years and treated like a Broadway grand finale. But the conductor learned from choristers who had sung under Eva Jessye that she originally took it at a broader, mid-range tempo that lent it the qual ity of a prayer. “It’s a spiritual and a gospel number at the same time,” says Albert. “Gershwin intended for Porgy to have that drive that says, ‘I am not a defeated man. I will go on in spite of my condition, in spite of my circum stances. I’m going on.’”
Following the 1976 HGO run of Porgy, the production moved to Broadway, where it played eight times a week with three rotating casts. During the day, Albert, Dale, and their colleagues in the main cast recorded the score with DeMain at RCA Studios in New York. It was awarded the Grammy for Best Opera Recording the year after Maazel’s Porgy same award. At the Tonys, the production earned
Clamma Dale as Bess and Donnie Ray Albert as Porgy in HGO's 1976 production of Porgy and Bess.
Ray Albert and
speak with the original 1935 Porgy, Todd Duncan, after a Wolf Trap Opera performance of HGO's 1976 Porgy and Bess production.
six nominations, including nods for both Dale and O’Brien. It won Most Innovative Production of a Revival.
After closing on Broadway, the show toured throughout the U.S. and Europe. Albert joined for most of it, dropping out after the Italian cities near the end of the tour. There in the birthplace of opera, he noticed that there was none of the hairsplitting operavs.-musical debate over Porgy that obsessed Americans. “The Italian critics said that Gershwin wrote something that compared to anything lyrical that Puccini could have written, as well as the drama of Wagnerian opera.”
Up until Porgy, HGO was still a regional opera house. “It wasn’t on everybody’s circuit,” says DeMain. “When the critics went to see something, they’d go to Chicago, they’d go to San Francisco. But after Porgy, suddenly people started making Houston a destination.”
With a new global reputation, the company began to attract a higher caliber of singers. DeMain remembers a post-Porgy production of Tosca in 1984 starring Éva Marton and Plácido Domingo. “At the end of the first act, the audience gave a standing ovation. I think what they were saying was, ‘This is what we want. Thank you.’ The company was raising itself to a new level.”
HGO revived O’Brien’s Porgy a decade later, in 1987, with DeMain conducting and Albert reprising his role. In 1995, the company mounted a new staging that subsequently toured to Japan, La Scala, and the Paris Opera. But then something odd happened. Porgy and Bess—the opera that had put HGO on the international map—completely disappeared from the company’s repertoire.
After a 30-year absence, the Gershwins’ classic is finally returning to the Wortham. Next fall, HGO will stage a production by Francesca Zambello, director of last season’s Sound of Music and this
season’s West Side Story and Tannhäuser Zambello’s dynamic interpretation—which has been a hit across the U.S.—updates the story slightly, to the 1950s. The monumental sets by her usual designer, Peter J. Davison, re-envision Catfish Row as a decaying industrial space. The Kittiwah Island scene unfolds against the postapocalyptic backdrop of an abandoned amusement park.
In the title roles will be bass-baritone Michael Sumuel and soprano Angel Blue, who last sang at HGO in 2022 as Violetta in La traviata. DeMain first heard Blue sing “Summertime” in the smaller role of Clara when he conducted the 2009 San Francisco Opera performance of Zambello’s Porgy. “That’s going to be a Bess one day,” he thought. “Because that voice had such amplitude to it and such richness to it.” Nine years later, DeMain conducted Blue in her first run as Bess at Seattle Opera. Since then, her name has become synonymous with the role.
Albert will return in the cameo role of Lawyer Frazier—a shyster who sells a divorce to the unmarried Bess. (“He’s the spam of the culture,” says Albert.) His appearance helps to bridge HGO’s storied history with Porgy and Bess. Nearly 50 years after that 1976 production—and 90 years after its world premiere—it remains the quintessential American opera that producer Sherwin Goldman rightfully believed it to be. Thanks to the nurturing efforts of HGO artists like Albert, DeMain, and O’Brien, the work has been restored to its former operatic glory and re-entrusted to the Black population it portrays.
“Gershwin wrote this piece to celebrate his source of musical inspiration, which was from the African-American community,” says DeMain. “The HGO production paved the way for opera companies all over the world to produce it on their own—and to capture the essence of that community: the way they thought, the way they made love, the way they sang, the way they prayed.”
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PRINCIPAL GUARANTORS
PRODUCTION FUNDERS
National Endowment for the Arts
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
Carol Franc Buck Foundation
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
Mr. William J. Altenloh and Dr. Susan Saurage-Altenloh
Mr. Eliodoro Castillo and Dr. Eric McLaughlin
Mathilda Cochran
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
Terrylin G. Neale
Elizabeth Phillips
Katherine Reynolds
Mr. and Mrs. David Rowan
Torras Foundation
John C. Tweed
Helen Wils and Leonard Goldstein
Alan and Frank York
UNDERWRITERS
Barrow Family Endowed Fund
Nana Booker, Booker•Lowe Gallery
Ms. Kiana K. Caleb and Mr. Troy L. Sullivan
Dr. Linda Hart
Cheryl and Michael Clancy
Marianne Kah
Latham & Watkins LLP
Renee Margolin
Prof. and Mrs. D. Nathan Meehan
SPONSORS
Mrs. Carol W. Byrd
Rebecca and Brian Duncan
Houston Saengerbund
Carey Kirkpatrick
Bryant Lee
Mary Lee and Jim Wallace
Michele Malloy
Judy Miner
Mr. Juan Moreno
Samuels Family Foundation
Loretta and Lawrence Williams
CONTENT ADVISORY
This production is not suitable for young audiences. It contains explicit material including simulated sex acts, sexual violence, and nudity. It also contains strobe light effects.
April 19, 26, 30, May 2, 4m
AN OPERA IN THREE ACTS MUSIC BY Missy
LIBRETTO BY Royce Vavrek
BASED ON THE FILM BY Lars von Trier
A Co-Production of Houston Grand Opera, Opera Ventures, Scottish Opera, Théâtre National de l’Opéra Comique, and Adelaide Festival
Sung in English with projected English text
Brown Theater, Wortham Theater Center
The performance lasts approximately 2 hours and 41 minutes, including one intermission.
Breaking the Waves by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek is presented under license from G. Schirmer Inc. and Associated Music Publishers, copyright owners.
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.
Mazzoli
QUICK START GUIDE
THE OPERA IN ONE SENTENCE
Bess is shunned by her strict religious community for carrying out a series of extramarital encounters she believes are miraculously healing her paralyzed husband, Jan.
BACKGROUND
Breaking the Waves is based on a 1996 film by Danish director Lars von Trier. Starring Emily Watson and Stellan Skarsgård, the movie was awarded the Grand Prix at Cannes. It’s part of von Trier’s “Golden Heart Trilogy,” which also includes The Idiots (1998) and Dancer in the Dark (2000). Each of these unconnected stories deals with a virtuous heroine who holds so steadily to her morals and convictions that she’s driven to self-destruction, sacrificing herself for a cause or for a loved one.
Premiered by Opera Philadelphia in 2016, Breaking the Waves is the second of six operatic collaborations between composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek. In researching the work, the pair traveled throughout Scotland, including to the Isle of Skye where the opera takes place. Here, they drew inspiration from natural land scapes, local dialects, and bagpipe music. They also consulted with members of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland,
gradually lengthen into joyous flights of bell-tone lyricism. After her wedding, she and Jan share an intimate love duet, “Your body is a map,” in which their voices intertwine like the converging lifelines Bess traces on Jan’s skin. During the orchestral interludes, listen for the overlapping, downward scales in the orchestra that recall the ceaseless roll of waves.
Act II introduces Dr. Richardson, whose baroque-influenced vocal line is filled with Handelian coloratura runs. When Bess attempts to seduce him, she dances to a pre-recorded track—Mazzoli’s convincing imitation of 1970s rock. In Act III, Bess’s Mother rebukes her daughter on a rigid oscillating figure resembling a ticking clock. Just before Bess interrupts the church service, listen for the elders’ stag gered chanting. This technique, indebted to Gaelic psalm singing of the Scottish Highlands, can also be heard throughout the opera, whenever the male choristers
FUN FACT
Breaking the Waves is the second of three major operas based on the films of Lars von Trier. Selma Ježková (2007), by Danish composer Poul Ruders and librettist Henrik Engelbrecht, is an adaptation of Dancer in the Dark. More recently, in 2023, Breaking the Waves librettist Royce Vavrek collaborated with Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson on an
CAST & CREATIVE
CAST
(in order of vocal appearance)
Bess McNeill Lauren Snouffer‡ Councilman Michael Mayes
Dodo McNeill Maire Therese Carmack *
Jan Nyman Ryan McKinny ‡
Terry Sam Dhobhany †
Dian and Harlan Stai Fellow
Mother Michelle Bradley *
Dr. Richardson David Portillo
Sadistic Sailor Johnny Salvesen
Young Sailor Andrew Surrena *
Tenor Solo Jon Janacek
CREATIVE TEAM
Composer
Librettist
Conductor
Original Director
Revival Director and Movement Director
Scenic and Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Projection Designer
Sound Designer
Video Programmer and System Designer
Associate Video Programmer and System Designer
Intimacy Director
Fight Director
Chorus Director
Diction Coach
Musical Preparation
Stage Manager
Assistant Director
Missy Mazzoli *
Royce Vavrek
Patrick Summers
Sarah and Ernest Butler Chair
Tom Morris *
Sara Brodie *
Soutra Gilmour *
Richard Howell *
Will Duke *
Jon Nicholls *
David Butler *
John A. Costa *
Samantha Kaufman *
Adam Noble
Richard Bado ‡
Sarah and Ernest Butler
Chorus Director Chair
Kathryn LaBouff
Jenny Choo †
Dr. Laura E. Sulak and Dr. Richard W. Brown Fellow
Kyle Naig ‡
Teddy Poll
William Woodard
Annie Wheeler
Colter Schoenfish
* Mainstage debut
† Butler Studio artist
‡ Former Butler Studio artist
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Supertitles by Jeremy Johnson, adapted by Alexa Lietzow. Supertitles called by Matthew Neumann. 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. This production is being recorded for archival purposes.
SYNOPSIS
Setting: Isle of Skye, Scotland, mid-1970s
ACT I
Bess, a young Scottish woman, addresses the Councilman and elders of her Calvinist congregation. She asks them permission to marry her sweetheart Jan, a Norwegian oil-rigger who is an outsider to their small village on Skye. Sometime later, Jan arrives by helicopter from the rig, and he and Bess are wed. Dodo, a nurse and the widow of Bess’s departed brother, gives a speech at the reception praising her sister-in-law’s golden heart. Bess leads Jan to the bathroom where they make love for the first time—a moment of sexual awakening for the virgin Bess. Alone, she thanks heaven for her husband, answering her own prayers in the gruff voice she imagines belonging to God.
The couple lies naked in bed after the wedding, and Bess traces an imaginary map of their life together on the contours of her new husband’s body. Jan asks why there were no church bells to celebrate their wedding, and Bess explains that her strict congregation flung them into the sea long ago. When Jan reminds Bess that he will soon have to return to the rig, she breaks down. Bess’s Mother reprimands her daughter, telling her that it’s a woman’s duty to endure. After his departure, Jan phones Bess from the rig, and the two share an intimate conversation. The call is cut short, and Bess begs God to bring her husband home sooner than the ten days until his next visit. Back on the rig, Jan suffers a brain injury while saving his friend Terry and is rushed by helicopter to a hospital on Skye.
INTERMISSION
ACT II
Dr. Richardson, an English physician, explains to Bess that Jan will be paralyzed for the rest of his life. Humiliated by his inability to satisfy his wife, Jan sets Bess with a task that will grant him the will to live. She is to have sex with other men, and when she describes these encounters to him afterward, it will be as if Jan and Bess are making love themselves. Hesitant to commit adultery, Bess consults with the voice of God, which commands her to prove her devotion. Following a humiliating attempt at seducing Dr. Richardson, Bess manages to pick up a man at a bar. Meanwhile, Jan’s heart stops during surgery but restarts at the moment of Bess’s liaison.
ACT III
Bess’s Mother warns her daughter that she risks being cast out of the church for her increasing promiscuity, which neighbors have begun to notice. But Bess believes her acts of love are healing Jan. Dodo and Dr. Richardson worry Bess is falling victim to the delusions of Jan’s addled mind. Bess propositions a pair of sailors aboard a red boat, but she flees when their treatment turns violent. Seeking refuge at church, she interrupts the Councilman’s sermon and is excommunicated by the elders. Rejected by her mother and abused by the villagers, Bess learns from Dodo that Jan is dying. In a last-ditch effort, Bess gives herself over to the sadistic sailors on the red boat, who brutally rape and mutilate her. Bess dies, and Jan immediately recovers. He and Terry bury her body at sea as the sound of unseen church bells miraculously peals over the waves.
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*
Rachel Shepard
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
Wendy Smith-Butler*
Dana Rath*†
Chennie Sung*
Shino Hayashi
DOUBLE BASS
Dennis Whittaker*, Principal
Erik Gronfor*, Assistant Principal
Carla Clark*
FLUTE
Henry Williford*, Principal
Tyler Martin†
OBOE
Elizabeth Priestly Siffert*, Principal
Mayu Isom†
CLARINET
Eric Chi*, Acting Principal
BASSOON
Amanda Swain*, Principal
Quincey Trojanowski†
HORN
Sarah Cranston*, Principal
Kimberly Penrod Minson†
TRUMPET
Tetsuya Lawson†, Principal
Randal Adams†
TROMBONE
Thomas Hultén*, Principal
Mark Holley*†
Jordan Milek Johnson†
TUBA
Mark Barton†, Principal
TIMPANI
Alison Chang†, Principal
PERCUSSION
Christina Carroll, Acting Principal
MELODICA
Spencer Park
HARP
Caitlin Mehrtens*, Principal
PIANO/SYNTHESIZER
William Woodard
GUITAR
Mark Moore
* HGO Orchestra core musician
† HGO Orchestra core musician on leave this production
Richard Bado, Chorus Director
Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Director Chair
Nathan Abbott
Dennis Arrowsmith
Christopher Childress
Scott Clark
Patrick Contreras
Dallas Gray
Jon Janacek
Wesley Landry
Alejandro Magallón
Norman Mathews
Lance Orta
Patrick Perez
Saïd Henry Pressley
Nicholas Rathgeb
Roberto J. Reyna
Matthew Reynolds
Francis Rivera
Johnny Salvesen
Kellen Schrimper
Andrew Surrena
In Memory: Richard Brown
Houston Grand Opera mourns the passing of our longtime principal percussionist and orchestra personnel manager, Richard Brown.
“He was one of the most important engines of the artistic growth of the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra,” shares HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers. “Richard was forever busy, both out front in the percussion section, where he played countless performances at HGO, or behind the scenes on his phone or computer, concentrating on the next thing in the schedule. I will miss him enormously, as both a colleague and friend, and will always remember him with gratitude and admiration.”
We extend our deepest sympathies to all of Richard’s family, friends, and colleagues, and will never forget his wonderful support of the HGO Orchestra.
WHO'S WHO
MISSY MAZZOLI (UNITED STATES)
COMPOSER
Missy Mazzoli is making her HGO debut. Breaking the Waves, her second opera and one of her many collaborations with librettist Royce Vavrek, made its acclaimed world premiere in 2016. Mazzoli’s music has been performed all over the world by the Kronos Quartet, eighth blackbird, pianist Emanuel Ax, Opera Philadelphia, Scottish Opera, LA Opera, Cincinnati Opera, New York City Opera, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, and many other eminent soloists and ensembles. Mazzoli’s most recent opera, The Listeners (commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, Norwegian National Opera, and Chicago Lyric Opera), was created with Vavrek and playwright Jordan Tannahill and premiered in 2022 in Oslo in a production directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz. Another upcoming project with Vavrek is Lincoln in the Bardo, based on the bestselling novel of the same name by George Saunders and commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. In 2018, Mazzoli was nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Classical Composition” for her work Vespers for Violin, recorded by violinist Olivia De Prato. Proving Up, commissioned by Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha, and New York’s Miller Theatre, premiered at the Kennedy Center in January 2018. Earlier projects include Mazzoli’s much-acclaimed opera Song from the Uproar (2012). Mazzoli has also earned renown as a composer for film and television, and she is an active pianist and keyboardist.
ROYCE VAVREK (CANADA)
LIBRETTIST
Royce Vavrek is a librettist and lyricist whose opera Angel’s Bone with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music. He made his HGO debut in 2015 with HGO’s world premiere of O Columbia (composer Gregory Spears), followed by HGO world premiere The House Without a Christmas Tree in 2017 (composer Ricky Ian Gordon). He is known for his diverse collaborations with composers Missy Mazzoli (Song from the Uproar, Proving Up, The Listeners); Mikael Karlsson (Melancholia, Fanny & Alexander); David T. Little (Dog Days, Am I Born, JFK ); Ricky Ian Gordon (27 ); Joshua Schmidt (Midwestern Gothic); Paola Prestini (The Hubble Cantata, Silent Light); Mary Kouyoumdjian (Adoration); and Luna Pearl Woolf (Jacqueline). Upcoming projects with Mazzoli include two grand operas: The Galloping Cure, an original work developed with Karen Russell and Tom Morris about the opioid epidemic, commissioned by Opera Ventures, as well as an adaptation of George Saunders’s Booker Prize-winning novel Lincoln in the Bardo for the Metropolitan Opera. Vavrek is Artistic Director of Toronto’s experimental opera
company Against the Grain. He is an alumnus of Concordia University (Montreal), NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and American Lyric Theater’s Composer/Librettist Development Program.
PATRICK SUMMERS (UNITED STATES) CONDUCTOR
Sarah and Ernest Butler Chair
Patrick Summers has been a central figure at HGO for over 25 years, conducting a vast range of repertoire during his tenure. First appointed to the company in 1998 as Music Director, he then was appointed Artistic and Music Director in 2011 with the chief task of elevating the company’s artistic quality. Highlights at HGO include conducting Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungen, Tristan und Isolde, and Lohengrin; Verdi’s Requiem, Don Carlo, Rigoletto, and La traviata; Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, Don Giovanni, and The Marriage of Figaro; Britten’s Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, and The Turn of the Screw; Handel’s Saul and Julius Caesar; Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, and Turandot; Smyth’s The Wreckers; premieres of Tarik O’Regan’s The Phoenix; André Previn’s Brief Encounter; Christopher Theofanidis’s The Refuge; Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life, The End of the Affair, and Three Decembers; Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree; Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince; Tod Machover’s Resurrection; Joel Thompson’s The Snowy Day ; and the American premiere of Weinberg’s The Passenger, both at HGO and the Lincoln Center Festival. At the Metropolitan Opera, he has conducted Lucia di Lammermoor, Rodelinda, Salome, I puritani, and The Enchanted Island, among others. He has enjoyed a long association with San Francisco Opera and was honored in 2015 with the San Francisco Opera Medal, the company’s highest honor. In 2017, Summers was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by his alma mater, Indiana University. At Aspen Music Festival and School, he currently serves as Co-Director of the Aspen Opera Theater and Vocal Arts alongside Renée Fleming. During HGO’s 2024-25 season, he conducts Il trovatore and Breaking the Waves
TOM MORRIS (UNITED KINGDOM) ORIGINAL DIRECTOR
Tom Morris is making his HGO debut. He was Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic from 2009 to 2022, where he re-established the theater’s program after closure, conceived and directed two landmark festivals (Bristol Proms, a festival of world-class music and integrated digital technology in collaboration with Watershed Bristol and Universal Music, and Bristol Jam, Britain’s first festival of improvised performance). He also oversaw a major restoration and refurbishment of Britain’s oldest continuously working theater, creating direct visibility from the street for the very first time. He was Artistic Director of BAC
from 1995 to 2004, where he established the scratch developmental program; restructured the organization; and set up and curated A Sharp Intake of Music, Playing in the Dark, the British Festival of Visual Theatre, the Sam Shepard Festival, and BAC Opera, where he produced Jerry Springer the Opera. Morris has been Associate Director at the National Theatre since 2004, was founding Chair of the JMK Trust, is the current Chair of Complicité, has honorary doctorates from the University of West England and Bristol University, and was recognized with an OBE for services to theater. His major productions include Dr Semmelweis, Juliet and her Romeo, Cyrano, King Lear, The Grinning Man, Swallows & Amazons, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (all at the Bristol Old Vic and/or West End/International Tour); Monteverdi’s Orfeo (Vienna Opera); and War Horse (National Theatre, Lincoln Center, World Tour), for which he and co-director Marianne Elliott won numerous awards, including a Tony Award for Best Director.
SARA BRODIE (NEW ZEALAND)
REVIVAL DIRECTOR/MOVEMENT DIRECTOR
Sara Brodie is making her HGO debut. In 2024, Brodie served as intimacy director and choreographer for Breaking the Waves at Detroit Opera, and in 2019 she was associate/movement director for the same work at Scottish Opera. She has directed operas including Lucia of Lammermoor (2023), Don Giovanni (2021), and La traviata (2022) for Wellington Opera; Don Giovanni (2014) for New Zealand Opera; Ainadamar (2014) for the New Zealand Arts Festival; the premiere of Jenny McLeod’s Hohepa (2012) for New Zealand Opera & the New Zealand Arts Festival; Nixon in China (2016) and The Bone Feeder (2017) for Auckland Arts Festival; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2011) for New Zealand School of Music; and Fatal Desire (2007) for the Asia Pacific Arts Festival. Brodie has a long association with Days Bay Opera, having directed all eight of their productions. In 2019, she was appointed production director for a newly formed opera company in Christchurch, Toi Toi Opera. She founded Stage Left with Sarah Hutchings and Andrew Brettell in order to further pursue interdisciplinary works. Brodie specializes in Laban Movement Analysis for actors. She taught movement and acting at East 15 Acting School in London and was appointed Programme Leader of The New Zealand National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art.
SOUTRA GILMOUR (UNITED
KINGDOM) SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER
Soutra Gilmour is making her HGO debut. Her operatic credits include this production of Breaking the Waves for Scottish Opera, Jack the Ripper for English National Opera, The Turn of the Screw at Regent’s Park, Quartett at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, and Iris at Opera Holland Park, as well as Carmen, Saul, Hansel and Gretel, and Anna Bolena for Opera North. Among her theater credits in London’s West End are
Romeo and Juliet, Sunset Boulevard, & Juliet, City of Angels, The Commitments, From Here to Eternity, The Lover and The Collection, Apologia, Richard III, The Maids, The Homecoming, Macbeth, Urinetown, Cyrano de Bergerac, Pinter at the Pinter, and Betrayal. On Broadway, Gilmour was a scenic and costume designer for A Doll’s House and Merrily We Roll Along, both in 2023. Gilmour has been recognized with five Olivier Award nominations and two Tony Award nominations, including Best Set Design for Betrayal and Best Costume Design for Cyrano de Bergerac
RICHARD HOWELL (UNITED KINGDOM) LIGHTING DESIGNER
Richard Howell is making his HGO debut. His designs have been seen in productions at The Old Vic Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Almeida Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Royal Court, Young Vic Theatre, Public Theater New York, Kiln Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange, Chichester Festival Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith, Sheffield Crucible, Bristol Old Vic, Theatre Royal Bath, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Opera Holland Park, Gothenburg Opera, Danish National Opera, Scottish Opera, and Sadlers Wells. Recent projects include Passing Strange at Young Vic and Chariots of Fire and A Doll’s House at Sheffield Crucible. Among his credits are Tartuffe and Coriolanus with Royal Shakespeare Company; The Writer at Almeida; Aristocrats and Privacy at Donmar Warehouse; All My Sons and Jekyll and Hyde at Old Vic in London; The Watsons, Pinter 5 & 6, Glengarry Glen Ross, Bad Jews, and Killer Joe on London’s West End; Breaking the Code, A Doll’s House, and Little Shop of Horrors at Manchester Royal Exchange; Labyrinth at Hampstead Theatre; The Wild Party at The Other Palace; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Wizard of Oz, and Playing for Time at Sheffield Crucible; The Grinning Man, The Crucible, Cyrano, and The Life And Times of Fanny Hill at Bristol Old Vic; The Madness Of George III at Nottingham Playhouse; Breaking the Waves and Flight at Scottish Opera; Il trittico and La fanciulla del West at Opera Holland Park, and Madame Butterfly at Danish National Opera. In 2017, Howell won a Knight of Illumination Award for Guards at the Taj at the Bush Theatre.
WILL DUKE (UNITED KINGDOM)
PROJECTION DESIGNER
Will Duke is making his HGO debut. Elsewhere this season his work can be seen in San Francisco Opera’s The Handmaid’s Tale. In the 2023-24 season, his credits included Peter Grimes at Teatro alla Scala, Wozzeck at Festival D’Aix en Provence, Nixon in China at Teatro Real in Madrid, and Aida with Royal Danish Opera. Duke’s other recent operatic work includes Carmen with Scottish Opera, Breaking the Waves at Opéra Comique in Paris, The Handmaid’s Tale with Royal Danish Opera, and Don Giovanni at Greek National Opera. Among his theater credits are Passing Strange (Young Vic); Principles of
Deception (Royal and Derngate); Girl on an Altar at The Abbey Theatre; Macbeth with English Touring Theatre and Shakespeare North, and on international tour; A Tale of Two Cities and Lost Dog Dance on their U.K. tours; The Meaning of Zong at The Bristol Old Vic; Coppelia at Scottish Ballet Edinburgh International Festival, Scotland Tour, and Sadlers Wells; Into the Woods at Theatre Royal; and Cabaret at Le Lido Theatre in Paris. Duke is the recipient of the 2016 Knights of Illumination Award for Best Projection Design for his work on The Encounter. He was nominated for a Stage Award in 2022 as part of the design team for Into the Woods. As a visual artist, he has exhibited his art throughout the U.K. and internationally. His video work is part of museum and gallery collections in Scotland and Norway, as well as the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
JON NICHOLLS (UNITED KINGDOM) SOUND DESIGNER
Jon Nicholls is making his HGO debut. Nicholls has worked extensively in theater as both a composer and sound designer. Highlights include Dark with Excessive Bright, an immersive ballet work at the Royal Opera House with music by Missy Mazzoli; April de Angelis’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend at the National Theatre; Iqbal Khan’s revival of East Is East at the National Theatre; working with John Malkovich on Good Canary at the Rose; and collaborating with Jamiroquai’s Sola Akingbola on the score for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Hamlet. He composed and sound-designed the world premiere of the stage adaptation of Joe Simpson’s Touching the Void, which went on to a sold-out West End run and international tour, and created the music and sound design for Theatre Royal Bath’s production of Florian Zeller’s The Mother, nominated for Best New Play in the WhatsOnStage Awards. Other highlights include Owen Sheers’s Pink Mist at Bristol Old Vic and the Bush, which was nominated for best sound design, Off-West End Awards; Idomeneus and Dear Elizabeth at the Gate; and the National Theatre’s European premiere productions of Spring Storm and Beyond the Horizon. Nicholls is the winner of the Best Use of Sound award at the 2022 BBC Audio Drama Awards and was nominated again for the same award in 2023. He was also nominated for Best Sound Design at the 2023 Audio Production Awards.
DAVID BUTLER (UNITED KINGDOM)
VIDEO PROGRAMMER AND SYSTEM DESIGNER
David Butler is making his HGO debut. Butler is a video/media server programmer and creative video/projection projects consultant for the live events, theater, TV and film industries. Previous projects include Passing Strange at Bristol Young Vic (2024), Macbeth with English Touring Theatre (2023), Carmen with Scottish Opera (2023), Coppélia with Scottish Ballet (2022), Sleepless The Musical at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre (2020), Nixon in China at Scottish Opera (2020), Orlando at
Vienna State Opera (2019), A History of Water in the Middle East at Royal Court Jerwood Theatre (2019), this production of Breaking the Waves at Scottish Opera (2019), Peer Gynt at the Olivier Theatre (2019), White Teeth at Kiln Theatre (2018), and Against at Almeida Theatre (2017).
SAMANTHA KAUFMAN (UNITED STATES) INTIMACY DIRECTOR
Samantha Kaufman is making her HGO debut. Kaufman has taught theatrical intimacy across the nation at schools such as Florida Atlantic University, Ohio Northern University, Jacksonville University, Indiana University, University of Indianapolis, University of Findlay, Ball State University, and Eastfield College. Additionally, she has taught at organizations such as Prague Shakespeare Company, Neutral Chaos in New York, Riot Act Inc in Wyoming, Bloomington Academy of Film and Theatre, Ohio Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Play House, Texas Intensive Stage Combat Workshop, and the Flying V Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Regionally, Kaufman has worked with theatres such as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and Cleveland Play House, among others. In Chicago, she has worked with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lookingglass Theatre, First Folio Theatre, First Floor Theater, Metropolis Theater, Steep Theatre, Babes with Blades Theatre Company, and Idle Muse. Kaufman has been a resident artist at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Prague Shakespeare Company. She won a Regional Broadway award for Best Actress in a Play for her work as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet with Florida Shakespeare Theatre. She was also nominated for a Jeff Award for Fight Direction in 2019 for the Babes with Blades Theatre Company’s production of The Lady Demands Satisfaction
ADAM NOBLE (UNITED STATES) FIGHT DIRECTOR
Adam Noble is a movement specialist with over 25 years of experience in theater, opera, and film. He is the former movement instructor for the Butler Studio, and during the 2024-25 season serves as fight director for both of HGO’s spring productions. In the 2023-24 season, he served as fight director and intimacy director for Parsifal, Madame Butterfly, and Don Giovanni
Additional HGO engagements include serving as the company’s fight director and intimacy director for The Wreckers, La traviata, and Romeo and Juliet (2022); Werther, The Marriage of Figaro, Salome, and Tosca (2023); Carmen (2021); and Don Giovanni (2019). He also served as fight director for Rigoletto (2019) and Julius Caesar (2018). Notable credits include The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Alley Theatre, Opera Carolina, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, Dayton Opera, the Public Theatre, and more. Noble is the co-founder and artistic director of the Dynamic Presence Project, a theater company focused on the revitalization and proliferation of movement theater and embodied
physical storytelling. He teaches movement both nationally and internationally, and has choreographed the physicality, violence, and intimacy for well over 200 productions. As the Associate Professor of Acting & Movement at the University of Houston, he serves as Head of the MFA acting program. He is also the resident Fight Director & Intimacy Specialist for The Alley Theatre.
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 other leading artists in recital. 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.
LAUREN SNOUFFER (UNITED STATES)
SOPRANO—BESS MCNEILL
Previously for HGO, Butler Studio alumna
Lauren Snouffer performed the roles of Sister Constance in Dialogues of the Carmelites (2022), Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro (2016, 2023), Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel (2016), Ellie May Chipley in Show Boat (2013), Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia (2012), and Elvira in The Italian Girl in Algiers (2012). Elsewhere during the 2024-25 season, she performs the role of Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande at The Dallas Opera and the title role in Semele with The Atlanta Opera. During the 2023-24 season, Snouffer created the role of Justine in the world
premiere of Mikael Karlsson and Royce Vavrek’s Melancholia, based upon the film by Lars von Trier, for the Royal Swedish Opera. Other recent roles include Agnes in Written on Skin with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and La Musica in L’Orfeo with Santa Fe Opera. Additional highlights include The Magic Flute with the Zürich Opera House and the Glyndebourne Festival; The Barber of Seville at Austin Opera; Xerxes with Detroit Opera; Rusalka, La clemenza di Tito, and a new production of Orpheus and Eurydice at Lyric Opera of Chicago; La Comtesse Adèle in Rossini’s Le comte Ory in her debut at Seattle Opera; The Magic Flute at Seattle Opera and at Lyric Opera of Kansas City; a new production of Handel’s Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo with Philharmonia Baroque; and Max Emanuel Cencic’s new production of Siroe at the Royal Opera of Versailles. She was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording, for Handel’s Ottone
RYAN MCKINNY (UNITED STATES) BASS-BARITONE—JAN NYMAN
Butler Studio alumnus Ryan McKinny’s many roles for HGO include Amfortas in Parsifal (2024); Leporello (2024) and the title role (2019) in Don Giovanni; Jokanaan in Salome (2023); and Gunther in Götterdämmerung (2017). McKinny opened the Metropolitan Opera’s 2023-24 season opposite Joyce DiDonato in the company premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, which was simulcast in theaters in more than 70 countries via Met Live in HD. During the same season, he also created the lead role of Mac in the world premiere of Heggie’s Before It All Goes Dark, with performances in Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago. Engagements during the 2024-25 season include the title role in Der fliegende Holländer with Des Moines Metro Opera. He has made additional appearances at LA Opera (Scarpia in Tosca); Boston Lyric Opera (Bluebeard in Bluebeard’s Castle); Seattle Opera (Kurwenal in Tristan and Isolde); San Francisco Opera and Los Angeles Philharmonic (Clarence in John Adam’s Girls of the Golden West); Lyric Opera of Chicago (Joseph De Rocher in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Don Giovanni); Metropolitan Opera (Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Biterolf in Tannhäuser, Speaker in The Magic Flute, Kothner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Lieutenant Ratcliffe in Billy Budd); Dutch National Opera (debut in Pierre Audi’s production of Parsifal); Santa Fe Opera; Washington National Opera; Staatstheater Wiesbaden; English National Opera; Semperoper Dresden; Hamburg State Opera; Deutsche Oper Berlin; Deutsche Oper am Rhein; Teatro Colón; and many other companies.
MICHELLE BRADLEY (UNITED STATES) SOPRANO—MOTHER
Michelle Bradley is making her HGO mainstage debut. Engagements during the 2024-25 season include an opera gala at Temple Emanu-El in New York City. During the 2023-24 season, Bradley performed the title role in Aida with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In concert she was heard as the
soprano soloist in Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 with the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra and Robert Spano; as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Des Moines Symphony; in a concert of opera arias and gospel, Morris and Friends, in Takoma Park; and in recital with the Tulsa Opera. In spring 2022, she gave a Live from the Cullen recital with Patrick Summers for HGO Digital. Notable recent roles include Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the Carmelites with the San Francisco Opera; the title role in Aida with Fort Worth Opera, the Savonlinna Opera Festival, and Prague State Opera; the title role in Tosca with Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Diego Opera, and Tulsa Opera; Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Japan’s Hyogo Performing Arts Center; Liù in Turandot with the Metropolitan Opera; and many others. Bradley is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She is the 2017 recipient of the Leonie Rysanek Award from the George London Foundation, the 2016 recipient of the Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award, and a first-place winner in the Gerda Lissner and the Serge and Olga Koussevitzky vocal competitions. She is the 2014 grand prize winner of The Music Academy of the West’s Marilyn Horne Song Competition.
MAIRE THERESE CARMACK (UNITED STATES)
MEZZO-SOPRANO—DODO MCNEILL
Maire Therese Carmack is making her HGO debut. She has upcoming debuts at houses including Semperoper Dresden and Opéra de Monte-Carlo. Carmack is a 2024 graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and recently made debuts with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and San Francisco Opera. Previous roles include Marguerite in La damnation de Faust, Princess Eboli in Don Carlo, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Dulcinee in Don Quichotte, and the title role in Carmen. Carmack is a third-prize winner of the Operalia World Opera Competition, winner of The Opera Foundation’s Björn Eklund Scholarship, first-prize winner of the Gerda Lissner Lieder and Song Competition, second-prize winner of the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, and winner of Opera Index's Felix Popper Award.
DAVID PORTILLO (UNITED STATES)
TENOR—DR. RICHARDSON
David Portillo created the role of Dr. Richardson in Breaking the Waves during its 2016 world premiere in Philadelphia. Previously for HGO, he performed the roles of Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville (2018) and Tamino in The Magic Flute (2015), a role he has also performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Opera Frankfurt, and Pittsburgh Opera. During the 2023-24 season, Portillo’s engagements included Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at Santa Fe Opera, Jacquino in Fidelio at LA Philharmonic and on tour,
Septimus in Theodora at Theater an der Wien, and Pirro in Ermione at Washington Concert Opera. Engagements during the 2024-25 season include Tamino in The Magic Flute holiday presentation at the Metropolitan Opera, the roles of Natura, Pain, and Furia in La Calisto at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Bénédict in Béatrice et Bénédict with Irish National Opera, and Bajazet in Handel’s Tamerlano with Haymarket Opera in Chicago. At the Metropolitan Opera, Portillo has performed Steuermann in The Flying Dutchman, Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, Eduardo in Adès’s The Exterminating Angel, Camille de Rosillon in The Merry Widow, Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Jacquino in Fidelio. He is an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where his roles have included Arbace in Idomeneo, David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Andres in Wozzeck
MICHAEL MAYES (UNITED STATES) BARITONE—COUNCILMAN
Previously with HGO, Michael Mayes performed the role of Travis Briggs in the world premiere of Intelligence with HGO (2023); the title role in Rigoletto (2019); and as Captain von Trapp in My Favorite Things (2020), the company’s outdoor singalong featuring songs from The Sound of Music Elsewhere this season, Mayes performs the title role in Macbeth with Atlanta Opera. He made his critically acclaimed debut as Joseph De Rocher in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking in 2018 with Teatro Real and went on to engagements at houses including Staatsoper Stuttgart, English National Opera, The Barbican, Theatre of Sound, and Bergen National Opera. Other highlights include the title role in Bluebeard’s Castle with The Atlanta Opera, the Edinburgh International Festival, and Theater of Sound (U.K.); Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life at English National Opera; Alberich in Das Rheingold at The Dallas Opera and Seattle Opera; the title role in Saint François d’Assise at Staatsoper Stuttgart; Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music and Daddy in Taking Up Serpents at The Glimmerglass Festival; Il Conte di Luna in Il trovatore with Seattle Opera, Central City Opera, and The Glimmerglass Festival; the title role in Wozzeck with Des Moines Metro Opera; Rigoletto with Boston Lyric Opera and Nashville Opera; Richard Nixon in Nixon in China and Alberich in Das Rheingold at Staatstheater Stuttgart; and David in The Righteous at Santa Fe Opera.
SAM DHOBHANY (UNITED STATES)
BASS-BARITONE—TERRY
Dian and Harlan Stai Fellow
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. Other roles this season included Alidoro in HGO Family Day Presents Cinderella and Customs Officer in La
bohème. In summer 2024, Dhobhany 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, he 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 the second-place winner of the 2024 Rocky Mountain Region and the winner of the 2025 Arizona District of The Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
JOHNNY SALVESEN (UNITED STATES)
BASS—SADISTIC SAILOR
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 and this season, performed the role of Sargeant in La bohème. Salvesen 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. He 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.
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A Co-Production of Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera, and Canadian Opera Company
Sung in German with projected English translation Brown Theater, Wortham Theater Center
The performance lasts approximately 3 hours and 42 minutes, including two intermissions.
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.
QUICK START GUIDE
THE OPERA IN ONE SENTENCE
The minstrel knight Tannhäuser is shunned by his community for consorting with the goddess Venus, but he’s miraculously redeemed by the sacrifice of his admirer Elisabeth.
BACKGROUND
Wagner’s opera, like much of his output, is based on medieval German myths. His libretto combines two tales of minnesingers—minstrel knights who sang songs of courtly love. While the 13th-century minnesinger Tannhäuser really existed, his journey to the Venusberg and his pilgrimage to Rome to beg forgiveness from Pope Urban IV are the stuff of legend. The portions of the opera set in the Wartburg are taken from another story that didn’t originally involve Tannhäuser. In 1207, the Landgraf (or Count) of Thuringia held a singing festival at his castle. All the minstrel characters in Wagner’s opera were real-life minnesingers who allegedly took part in this epic competition.
Wagner wrote Tannhäuser in 1845 when he was living in Dresden and serving as the court conductor to the King of Saxony. After being exiled from Germany for his left-wing politics, Wagner eventually relocated to Paris. He revised the opera in 1861 to suit French tastes—including the addition of an expanded ballet sequence during the Venusberg scene. HGO’s production restores the earlier Dresden Version of the score.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
Pay close attention to the iconic overture, which lays out a kind of musical roadmap to the opera. It presents three central leitmotifs—that is, recurring themes
associated with people, places, and ideas. First, we hear the solemn yet hopeful hymn that the pilgrims intone as they traverse the stage on their way to Rome. A sudden shift to shimmering orchestral textures marks the transition into the Venusberg music, a bacchanalian dance that climaxes in a throbbing evocation of erotic ecstasy. Finally, the overture introduces Tannhäuser’s ode to Venus, a rousing, heroic number that will land the protagonist in hot water during the singing contest.
Act II opens with Elisabeth’s ebullient “Dich, teure Halle,” in which she rapturously greets the Wartburg’s music hall. Listen for the rapid triplet figures in the orchestra and the wide, upward leaps in the vocal line that convey her giddy excitement at seeing Tannhäuser again. While the minstrels who take part in the competition were real historical figures, Wagner’s harp-accompanied minnesing er songs are mostly German Romantic reimaginings of medieval music.
Act III features Wolfram’s
leitmotif that reappears forebodingly throughout his speech.
FUN FACT
The Tannhäuser overture serves as the soundtrack to the 1987 film Epidemic by Lars von Trier, whose Breaking the Waves is the basis for HGO’s other spring opera. The closing credits even feature a Ghostbustersstyle pop theme-song based around a chord progression from the pilgrims’ hymn. István Szabó’s 1991 film Meeting Venus depicts a behind-the-scenes drama of an opera company staging a production
CAST & CREATIVE CAST
Venus Sasha Cooke
Tannhäuser Russell Thomas
Shepherd Ani Kushyan †
Ken and Donna Barrow / Mr. and Mrs. D.
Patrick McCelvey / Ms. Jill A. Schaar and Mr. George Caflisch / Mr. and Mrs. James W. Crownover Fellow
Landgraf Hermann Alexandros Stavrakakis *
Walther von der Martin Luther Clark * Vogelweide
Biterolf Cory McGee ‡
Wolfram von Eschenbach Luke Sutliff ‡
Heinrich der Schreiber Shawn Roth *†
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
Reinmar von Zweter Ziniu Zhao †
Carolyn J. Levy / Jill and Allyn Risley / Dr. Peter Chang and Hon. Theresa Chang and Friends / Dr. Ron Galfione and Carolyn Galfione Fellow
Elisabeth Tamara Wilson ‡
Four Noble Pages
Sabine Lesniewicz *#
Sara Springett *#
Emma Vogelsang *#
Jennifer Williamson *#
CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor Erik Nielsen *
Director Francesca Zambello
Scenic Designer Peter J. Davison
Costume Designer Constance Hoffman
Lighting Designer Amith Chandrashaker
Projection Designer S. Katy Tucker
Choreographer Eric Sean Fogel
Fight Director/ Adam Noble Intimacy Director
Chorus Director Richard Bado ‡
Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Director Chair
German Diction Coach Anja Burmeister
Musical Preparation Laura Bleakley † Ms. Lynn Des Prez / Dr. and Mrs. Miguel Miro-Quesada Fellow
Peter Pasztor ‡
Teddy Poll
Madeline Slettedahl
Maureen Zoltek
Mr. and Mrs. Albert B. Alkek Chair
Stage Manager Brian August
Assistant Director Ian Silverman
* Mainstage debut
† Butler Studio artist
‡ Former Butler Studio artist
# Bauer Family High School Voice Studio member
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.
This production is being recorded for archival purposes.
SYNOPSIS
ACT I: VENUSBERG AND THE FOREST
Tannhäuser, a poet and musician, is a member of an austere religious community that has rejected the excesses of the outside world. As Tannhäuser reaches adulthood, he is allowed to explore life beyond the community. As an artist, he has never felt entirely comfortable within his society, so he travels and is captivated by the boldness and creativity in an urban landscape dominated by the excesses of Venus, the Goddess of Love. She has established a progressive urban salon where artists and intellectuals unite to challenge the norms of art and society.
Plagued by guilt over abandoning his community, he leaves Venus and returns to them in the spring. Upon arrival, he follows a shepherd’s song and hears a group of pilgrims traveling to Rome in search of repentance for their sins. He finds the men of his community who are out hunting and is drawn back into their circle with news of Elisabeth, for whom he once had strong feelings. Together with Tannhäuser, the men and their leader, the Landgraf, decide to reinstate the song contest that had been absent from their lives since his departure.
INTERMISSION
Act II: THE SONG CONTEST
Elisabeth warmly greets Tannhäuser at the community gathering hall before the song competition begins. The Landgraf announces a challenge to sing about the true nature of love. Each contestant presents a song, and Tannhäuser, having experienced a different world of sensual and creative inspiration to comprehend love, mocks his friends’ contributions. Suddenly, Venus appears as a vision to Tannhäuser, inspiring his song. His community is shocked by his words and casts him out into exile. Elisabeth intercedes on his behalf, defying the men. The Landgraf offers a compromise to Tannhäuser: to join the pilgrims going to Rome to see the Pope and seek forgiveness for his sins. Tannhäuser decides to atone and joins the group of pilgrims. He leaves behind Elisabeth and his close friend Wolfram.
INTERMISSION
Act III: THE VALLEY IN WINTER
The many facets of love, as opposing forces in the opera’s universe, battle within Tannhäuser’s psyche as his pilgrimage unfolds. The pilgrims return in the dead of winter, but Tannhäuser is not among them. Elisabeth offers her life for his salvation. Wolfram laments Elisabeth’s pain as he, too, seeks the meaning of love. Suddenly, a single pilgrim returns; it is Tannhäuser. However, he despairs as he tells Wolfram that the Pope proclaimed he could no longer be forgiven for his sins than the papal staff can bear green leaves again. He decides to return to Venus when, suddenly, Elisabeth’s funeral procession appears. Tannhäuser abandons Venus and implores Elisabeth to pray for him in heaven. As dawn breaks, another group of pilgrims arrives, telling of a miracle: the Pope’s staff, which they carry with them, has blossomed. Elisabeth’s death is tied to a miracle: the flowering of a Pope’s staff, signaling Tannhäuser's repentance, which has led to his salvation.
HGO PERFORMANCE HISTORY
HGO previously performed Tannhäuser in the 1971-72, 1987-88, and 2001-02 seasons.
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
Will Joseloff
Kana Kimura
Maria Lin
Fiona Lofthouse
Mila Neal
Jacob Schafer
Augusta Schubert
Rachel Shepard
Trung Trinh
Hannah Watson
Emily Zelaya
VIOLA
Eliseo Rene Salazar*, Principal
Lorento Golofeev*, Assistant Principal
Gayle Garcia-Shepard†
Elizabeth Golofeev*
Erika C. Lawson*
Suzanne LeFevre†
Matthew Weathers*
Matthew Carrington
Gabe Galley
Meredith Harris
Nicholas Lindell
Sarah Mason
CELLO
Barrett Sills*, Principal
Erika Johnson*, Assistant Principal
Wendy Smith-Butler*
Dana Rath*
Chennie Sung*
David Dietz
Shino Hayashi
Kristiana Ignatjeva
DOUBLE BASS
Dennis Whittaker*, Principal
Erik Gronfor*, Assistant Principal
Carla Clark*
Hunter Capoccioni
Paul Ellison
Austin Lewellen
FLUTE
Henry Williford*, Principal
Tyler Martin*
Izumi Miyahara
OBOE
Elizabeth Priestly Siffert*, Principal
Mayu Isom†
Pablo Moreno
CLARINET
Eric Chi*, Acting Principal
Justin Best
BASSOON
Amanda Swain*, Principal
Quincey Trojanowski*
HORN
Sarah Cranston*, Principal
Kimberly Penrod Minson*
Spencer Park*
Kevin McIntyre
Gavin Reed
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
Christina Carroll, Acting Principal
Craig Hauschildt
Karen Slotter
HARP
Caitlin Mehrtens,* Principal
BANDA
Spring Hill, English horn
Aaron Griffin, Horn
Jamie Leff, Horn
Luke Chong, Horn
Logan Fischer, Horn
Alessandra Liebmann, Horn
Chris Shelburne, Horn
Nick Engle, Trumpet
Philip Scoles, Trumpet
Paul Armitage, Trumpet
Chris Boulais, Trumpet
Danny Kirgan, Trumpet
Colin Sieg, Trumpet
* HGO Orchestra core musician
† HGO Orchestra core musician on leave this production
HGO CHORUS HGO CORPS DANCERS
Richard Bado, Chorus Director
Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Director Chair
Nathan Abbott
Ofelia Adame
Asa Ambrose
Maggie Armand
Dennis Arrowsmith
Cody Ryan Arthur
Tarryn Ballard
Sarah Bannon
Alyssa Barnes
Megan Berti
Steve Buza
Christopher Childress
Scott Clark
Jennifer Coffman
Robert Dee
Callie Denbigh
Ashley Duplechien
Zack Scott Frank
Dallas Gray
EJ Grayson
Nancy Hall
Sarah Jane Hardin
Austin Hoeltzel
Nathan Holmes
Audrey Hurley
Q. Terry Jackson
Jon Janacek
Cole Jones
Katherine Jones
Joe Key
Alison King
Melissa Krueger
Alexandra Kurkjian
Wesley Landry
Carolena Belle Lara
David Le
Sarah L. Lee
Sabine Lesniewicz
Laura Lisk-McCallum
Aarianna B. Longino
Alejandro Magallón
Neal Martinez
Norman Mathews
Katherine McDaniel
Erin McDaniels
Jason Milam
Jeff Monette
Natasha Monette
Tristan G. Montaque
Leah Moody
Iván Moreno
Matthew Neumann
Lance Orta
Grant Peck
Patrick Perez
Abby Powell
Saïd Henry Pressley
Namarea Randolph-Yosea
Nicholas Rathgeb
Brad King Raymond
Gabrielle Reed
Roberto J. Reyna
Matthew Reynolds
Christina Rigg
Francis Rivera
Hannah Roberts
Emily Louise Robinson
Benjamin Rorabaugh
Johnny Salvesen
Kellen Schrimper
Valerie Serice
Kade I. Smith
Sara Springett
Kaitlyn Stavinoha
Andrew Surrena
Rebecca Tann
Samantha Taylor
Tori Trahan
Gabrielle Tyler
Lisa Borik Vickers
Emma Vogelsang
Miles Ward
John Weinel
Jennifer Williamson
Hannah Zin, dance captain
Hana Delong
Sierra Noelle Jones
SUPERNUMERARIES
David Akinwande
Luke Fedell
Hunter Christian Garcia
Matthew Goodrum
Anthony May
David A. Quiroz
Dariel Silva
Russell Tautenhahn
ERIK NIELSEN (UNITED STATES) CONDUCTOR
Erik Nielsen is making his HGO debut. He is the chief conductor of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra and the music director of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl. Previously, he was music director of Theater Basel and kapellmeister at Frankfurt Opera. In 2009, he made his London debut conducting The Magic Flute for English National Opera, and the next year he made his U.S. opera debut with Ariadne auf Naxos for Boston Lyric Opera, followed by The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera. Opera engagements in recent years include Krenek’s Karl V, Das Rheingold, and Peter Grimes for the Bavarian State Opera; a double bill of Oedipus Rex and Il prigioniero, Hartmann’s Simplicus Simplicissimus, Henze’s Gisela! and We Come to the River, as well as Lohengrin, Pelléas et Mélisande, and Rusalka at the Semperoper Dresden; the world premiere of Trojahn’s Eurydice for Dutch National Opera; La traviata for Deutsche Oper Berlin; Così fan tutte with Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos, Lisbon; Reimann’s Lear for Malmö Opera; Otello, Norma, Giulio Cesare, Billy Budd, and Ariane et Barbe-bleue in Frankfurt; Salome, Peter Grimes, and Trojahn’s Oreste for Opernhaus Zürich; The Merchant of Venice at the Bregenz Festival; the world premiere of Dai Fujikawa’s Solaris at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris; La forza del destino in Luxembourg; Die Tote Stadt and Salome in Bilbao; The Rake’s Progress for Hungarian State Opera; Elektra, Eugene Onegin, Macbeth, Die Tote Stadt, and Lucio Silla in Basel; and Carmen and Peter Pan for Welsh National Opera. In summer 2023, Nielsen completed The Ring at the Tiroler Festspiele, directed by Brigitte Fassbaender, and he conducted the complete Ring cycle in summer 2024. Other 2024 engagements include Oedipus Rex in Amsterdam, Aida in Frankfurt, and The Love for Three Oranges in Dresden.
FRANCESCA ZAMBELLO (UNITED STATES) DIRECTOR
The internationally recognized opera and theater director has been the Artistic Director of the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center since 2013. She is also the Artistic & General Director Emerita of the Glimmerglass Festival. She served as the Artistic Advisor to the San Francisco Opera from 2005 to 2011 and the Skylight Theatre’s Artistic Director from 1987 to 1992. This season for HGO, she also directed West Side Story, the same production she directed for the company in 2018. In 2024, she directed the company’s record-breaking The Sound of Music production. Zambello’s 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. She debuted in Europe at Teatro la Fenice in Venice with Beatrice di Tenda and has since staged new productions at major theaters and opera houses in Europe, Asia, Australia, Russia, and the U.S. She has worked at
more than 50 international opera houses, and her theatrical work has been seen on Broadway, regional theaters, and European stages. She has been named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, a Knight with the Order of the Star of Italy, and received the Russian Federation’s Arts Medal for her service to culture. Other honors include three Olivier Awards from the London Society of Theatres and two Evening Standard Awards, and she has twice received the French Grand Prix des Critiques for her work at the Paris Opera. She also received the Medallion Society Award from San Francisco Opera, recognizing 30 years of work for the company, including directing the Ring cycle in 2011 and 2018.
PETER J. DAVISON (UNITED KINGDOM) SET DESIGNER
During the 2024-25 season for HGO, Peter J. Davison also served as set designer for West Side Story, which the company also presented in 2018. Also for HGO, he served as set designer for The Sound of Music (2024), 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); C armen, 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.
CONSTANCE HOFFMAN (UNITED STATES)
COSTUME DESIGNER
Previously for HGO, Constance Hoffman was the costume designer for Carmen (2006, 2000), Salsipuedes (2004), Lucia di Lammermoor (2003), La traviata (1999), and The Flying Dutchman (1998). Hoffman has designed costumes for opera, dance, and theater. Her work has been seen on many stages in New York City, including the Public Theatre, The New Victory Theatre, The Second Stage, The Theatre for a New Audience, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, The Joyce, and The New York City Opera. On her Broadway debut, she earned a Tony nomination and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her
designs for The Green Bird, directed by Julie Taymor. Hoffman’s collaborations in opera have taken her to the Glyndebourne Festival, the Paris Opera, the New Israeli Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, and the Tokyo Opera Nomori, among others. In the United States, she has designed costumes for the San Francisco Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, LA Opera, the Minnesota Opera, the Portland Opera, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Lincoln Center Festival, and she has had a long association with the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, New York, whose productions have traveled regularly to the New York City Opera. At the New York City Opera, Hoffman’s designs for the critically acclaimed Paul Bunyan, Tosca, and Lizzie Borden have been televised in the Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts. Hoffman was honored in 2001 with The Theatre Development Fund’s Irene Sharaff Young Masters Award, and in 2003, 2007, and 2011 with an invitation to exhibit her work in the Prague Quadrennial. She is an associate arts professor in the Department of Design for Stage and Film at the Tisch School of the Arts.
Amith Chandrashaker is a lighting designer for theater, dance, opera, television, concerts, and events. Previously for HGO, Chandrashaker was lighting designer for The Flying Dutchman (2018). Recent opera engagements include Turandot at Washington National Opera (2024), Rinaldo at Glimmerglass Festival (2023), and Carmen at Glimmerglass and Minnesota Opera (2022). Chandrashaker’s work has been seen off-Broadway, at major regional theaters, The Joyce Theater, CNN, NBC, and on Virgin Cruise Ships. He has worked internationally at the National Dance Co. of Wales, the State Theater of Nuremberg, Aalto Theater Essen, Lyon Opera Ballet, and the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Chandrashaker sits on the executive board of his union, United Scenic Artists Local 829. He is an assistant professor of dance/theater design and production at the University of Maryland, and a former adjunct professor at Pace University and New York University. In 2024, he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Lighting Designer of a Play for Prayer for the French Republic, and won a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for The Comeuppance. He has won two Drama Desk Awards, for Prayer for the French Republic and Boesman and Lena, and two additional nominations.
S KATY TUCKER (UNITED STATES)
PROJECTION DESIGNER
Previously for HGO, S Katy Tucker designed projections for Florencia en el Amazonas (2019), The Flying Dutchman (2018), and HGO Digital works Suite Española (2022) and The Impresario (2020). Tucker began her career as a painter and installation artist, exhibiting her work at a variety of galleries, such as the Corcoran Museum in Washington, D.C. and Artist’s Space in New York City. Her work in theater and opera has been
seen around the world, including on Broadway, Off-Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera, the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, the New York City Ballet, the Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and The Park Avenue Armory, among others. Recent and upcoming engagements include Das Rheingold at Teatro alla Scala directed by Sir David McVicar, as part of the full Ring cycle; Turandot, Macbeth, and Fidelio at Washington National Opera; Medea at the Canadian Opera Company and Greek National Opera; The Light and The Dark (the life and times of Artemisia Gentileschi) at Chautauqua Theater Company; Lunar Eclipse directed by Kate Whoriskey at Second Stage; The Pianist, written and directed by Emily Mann, at George Street Playhouse; Klangewolke 23: Odyssey at Brucknerhaus in Linz, Austria; and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs for Washington National Opera, Calgary Opera, and Opera Utah.
ERIC SEAN FOGEL (UNITED STATES) CHOREOGRAPHER
During HGO’s 2024-25 season, Eric Sean Fogel also served as associate director for West Side Story, which the company also presented in 2018. Previously for HGO, he served as associate director/choreographer for The Sound of Music (2024), 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, Linzer Klangwolke, Lyric Opera Kansas City, Los Angeles Opera, Metropolitan Art Museum, Milan Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, Opera Philadelphia, Paris Fashion Week, Royal Opera of Versailles, Seattle Opera, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Théâtre du Capitole, Theater St. Gallen, and Washington National Opera.
ADAM NOBLE (UNITED STATES) FIGHT DIRECTOR/ INTIMACY DIRECTOR
For information on Adam Noble, please see page 41.
RICHARD BADO (UNITED STATES)
CHORUS DIRECTOR
Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Director Chair
For information on Richard Bado, please see page 42.
RUSSELL THOMAS (UNITED STATES)
TENOR—TANNHÄUSER
Previously for HGO, Russell Thomas performed the title role of Parsifal (2024) and as Radames in Aida (2020). In the 2023-24 season, Thomas’s engagements include Álvaro in La forza del destino with Den Norske Opera, Radames in Aida at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Calàf in Turandot at LA Opera, Cavaradossi in Tosca with London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, and the title role in Don Carlos at Hamburg State Opera. Elsewhere, he performed at the Edinburgh International Festival and offered the world premiere of Joel Thompson’s Fire and Blue Sky at LA Opera. Recently, he joined the MET Orchestra’s international tour of Otello at Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Thomas has enjoyed a string of operatic triumphs in key Verdi roles, including Ernani at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Don Carlos at the Metropolitan Opera, Otello at Los Angeles Opera and London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, Manrico in Il trovatore at Bavarian State Opera, and Álvaro in La forza del destino at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Paris Opera. Engagements during the 2024-25 season include Florestan in Fidelio with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Met, and Enée in Les Troyens à Carthage in concert with the Seattle Opera. Thomas is the former Artist in Residence at LA Opera.
TAMARA WILSON (UNITED STATES)
SOPRANO—ELISABETH
Previously for HGO, Grammy Award-winning artist Tamara Wilson, a Butler Studio alumna, performed the title roles in Tosca (2023), Turandot (2022) and Aida (2020); Chrysothemis in Elektra (2018), Leonora in Il trovatore (2013); Elisabeth de Valois in the five-act French Don Carlos (2012); Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw (2010); Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio (2008); and Amelia in A Masked Ball (2007). Highlights of her 2023-24 season included debuts with Opéra national de Paris for Turandot and a new Peter Sellars production of Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda. Engagements during the 2024-25 season include Nabucco with the Canadian Opera Company, Macbeth with Oper Frankfurt, and Die Walküre with The Santa Fe Opera. Wilson regularly appears on the stages of the world’s leading opera houses including The Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro La Fenice, The Santa Fe Opera, Dutch
National Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Teatro alla Scala, Arena di Verona, Washington National Opera, English National Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro de la Maestranza, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Opera Australia, and Théâtre du Capitole. She is the recipient of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, an Olivier Award nomination, first prize in HGO’s 2005 McCollum Competition Concert of Arias, and the Grand Prize in the annual Francisco Viñas Competition held at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
SASHA COOKE (UNITED STATES)
MEZZO-SOPRANO—VENUS
Previously for HGO, Sasha Cooke performed as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (2024), Thirza in the company’s new production of The Wreckers (2022), in Verdi’s Requiem (2017), and as Magnolia Hawks in Show Boat (2013). Her 2023-24 season included the roles of Laurene Powell Jobs in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with San Francisco Opera and Brangäne in Tristan and Isolde at Opéra de Rouen; and performing in the world premiere of Joby Talbot and Gene Scheer’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly at Dallas Opera. Engagements during the 2024-25 season include the role of Emilie Ekdahl in the world premiere of Fanny and Alexander at La Monnaie, Brangäne in Tristan and Isolde at the Gstaad Festival, and Marguerite in The Damnation of Faust at the Bard Music Festival. Cooke has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others. She is a recipient of the 2011 and 2019 Grammy Awards for Best Opera Recording for her performances in Doctor Atomic and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, respectively. In 2022, her album with pianist Kirill Kuzmin, How do I find you, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo Album. She is the co-director of the Lehrer Vocal Institute at the Music Academy of the West.
LUKE SUTLIFF
(UNITED STATES)
BARITONE—WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH
Butler Studio alumnus Luke Sutliff’s previous HGO roles include a Cappadocian in Salome (2023), Brühlmann in Werther (2023), Harvey in The Wreckers (2022), M. Javelinot/ Thierry in Dialogues of the Carmelites (2022), and El Dancairo in Carmen (2021). Sutliff has been named a Winner of the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. Elsewhere during the 2024-25 season he performs Marcello in La bohème and Papageno in The Magic Flute with Atlanta Opera. Other recent operatic appearances include Belcore in The Elixir of Love with Santa Fe Opera, Silvio in Pagliacci at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Figaro in The Barber of Seville with Seattle Opera and North Carolina Opera, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Atlanta Opera, and a concert performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with NHK Symphony Orchestra. At the Rice Shepherd School of
Music, he appeared as Kaiser Overall in Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Johannes Zegner in Proving Up. Sutliff was awarded the 2nd Prize in the 2023 Operalia Competition and recently received the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation. He received the Richard Tucker Career Grant and the Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation and a Career Development Grant from The Sullivan Foundation. He is the first-place winner of the 7th Annual Saengerbund Awards. In 2021, he was a finalist in the 33rd Annual Eleanor McCollum Competition at HGO.
ALEXANDROS STAVRAKAKIS (GREECE)
BASS—LANDGRAF HERMANN
Alexandros Stavrakakis is making his HGO debut. Stavrakakis is a regular guest at Semperoper Dresden, where his roles for the 2023-24 season included Alidoro in Cinderella, Filippo II in Don Carlo, and Colline in La bohème, among others. He also returned to Bavarian State Opera, where he performed the role of The King of Egypt in Aida, and debuted at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris as Alidoro in Cinderella During the 2024-25 season, Stavrakakis’s engagements include the role of Vodnik in Rusalka with Gran Teatre del Liceu and a new commission by Fazil Say at KKL Luzern Concert Hall. He returns to Semperoper Dresden for several productions, including Chelio in a new production of The Love for Three Oranges. In seasons past, Stavrakakis marked his house debuts at the Metropolitan Opera as The King of Egypt in Aida (2023), the Bolshoi Theatre as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville (2020), and Opera National de Bordeaux as Gudal in The Demon (2018). Concert appearances include Verdi’s Requiem Mass at Deutsche Oper Berlin (2018), as well as performances at Teatro Massimo di Palermo, the Verbier Festival, and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. In addition to his victory at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Stavrakakis won the Third Wagner International Competition in Leipzig, and won the audience prize and second place at the prestigious 2018 Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition in Riga.
CORY MCGEE (UNITED STATES) BASS-BARITONE—BITEROLF
This season for HGO, Butler Studio alumnus Cory McGee also performed the roles of Alidoro in Cinderella and Colline in La bohème. 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.
MARTIN LUTHER CLARK (UNITED STATES)
TENOR—WALTHER VON DER VOGELWEIDE
Martin Luther Clark is making his HGO debut. In the 2024-25 season, he also debuts with Seattle Opera as Frederick Loudin in Jubilee, joins the Madison Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem, and sings Handel’s Messiah with the Apollo Chorus of Chicago and Camerata Chicago. Future engagements include a return to Dallas Opera. In the 2023-24 season, he sang the title role in Candide (Madison Opera), Luis Griffith in Champion (Lyric Opera of Chicago), and Orderly in the world premiere of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Dallas Opera). In summer 2024, he joined Wolf Trap Opera for the Brother in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and Jonathan Dale in Silent Night. He created the role of CJ in the world premiere of Will Liverman and DJ King Rico’s The Factotum for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Other recent engagements include Master Slender in Sir John in Love (Bard Music Festival) and Tenor 3 in Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (Detroit Opera, Opera Omaha). He is a previous young artist at the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Britten Pears Young Artist Program, George Solti Academia, Central City Opera, and Opera North. He holds a Master of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. He is a Richard F. Gold Career Grant recipient from the Shoshana Arts Foundation.
SHAWN ROTH (UNITED STATES)
TENOR—HEINRICH DER SCHREIBER 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
First-year Butler Studio artist Shawn Roth, from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is making his HGO debut. In the 2024-2025 season, he competed in the final round of the Neue Stimmen competition in Gütersloh, Germany, and was named a finalist in the Houston Saengerbund Awards. He makes his debut with the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra as Don José in Carmen, and will return to Des Moines Metro Opera to perform Pásek in The Cunning Little Vixen and cover Erik in Der fliegende Holländer. In spring 2024 Roth earned his artist diploma from the Academy of Vocal Arts, where he performed the roles of Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. In the 2023-2024 season, he won the Pittsburgh District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, covered the role of Narraboth in Salome at Des Moines Metro Opera, and took the top
prize in the Wagner Society of New York’s 2024 Grant Awards. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin Conservatory and is a three-time fellow of Music Academy of the West, where he won the Marilyn Horne Song Competition in 2021.
ZINIU ZHAO (CHINA)
BASS—REINMAR VON ZWETER
Carolyn J. Levy/ Jill and Allyn Risley/ Dr. Peter Chang and Hon. Theresa Chang and Friends/ Dr. Ron Galfione and Carolyn Galfione Fellow
Ziniu Zhao, a first-year artist in the Butler Studio from Shandong, China, was the second-place winner at HGO’s 2024 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias and a winner of the San Francisco District in the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. This season at HGO, he made his company debut as Don Magnifico in the Family Day production of Cinderella. Zhao was a member of the Opera Talent Training Program of the China National Arts Foundation and has won several prestigious awards, including first prize at the Colorado International Music Competition, the Rossini Singing Award at the Fiorenza Cedolins Opera Competition in Italy, and the Maria Callas Award at the Vincerò International Opera Competition, also in Italy. In 2023, he performed a solo concert in Shandong. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where his operatic roles included Don Pasquale (title role), Colline in La bohème, and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte. There, he was awarded the Outstanding Student Scholarship for four consecutive years.
ANI KUSHYAN (GEORGIA/ARMENIA) MEZZO-SOPRANO—SHEPHERD
Ken and Donna Barrow/ Mr. and Mrs. D. Patrick McCelvey/ Ms. Jill A. Schaar and Mr. George Caflisch/ Mr. and Mrs. James W. Crownover Fellow
Second-year Butler Studio artist from Tbilisi, Ani Kushyan was a finalist in HGO’s 2023 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. Her roles during the company’s 2023-24 season included Flower Maiden/2nd Esquire in Parsifal and Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music. In 2023, she made her Carnegie Hall debut in a concert dedicated to Rachmaninoff’s 150th anniversary. In 2024, she performed as a soloist in Houston Ballet’s production of Mayerling. Kushyan was a member of the young artist program at Armenian National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet from 2021-23, making her company debut as Third Girl in Anoush by Armenian composer Armen Tigranyan. She was named a 2024 National Semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the first-prize winner in the 2022 Premiere Opera Foundation Vocal Competition, the audience prize winner at the SOI Fiorenza Cedolins competition in Italy, first-prize winner in the 2021 Armenian Romanciade, and winner of a special prize at the Ottavio Ziino International Singing Competition in Rome. Kushyan received her bachelor’s degree from the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory and her master’s degree from the Tbilisi State Conservatory in Georgia. She continued her studies at the Riga Jāzepa Vītola Latvian Music Academy and the Lübeck Academy of Music in Germany.
Adrift A Dream Photography for the Santa Fe Opera
THE OPERATIC CINEMA
LARS VON TRIER OF
The Danish director’s Wagnerian films lend themselves to the stage.
By Joe Cadagin, Audience Education and Communications Manager
Photo: Christian Geisnæs
ilmmaker Lars von Trier isn’t German. He’s Danish. But it’s easy to mistake his nationality. Technically, he has some German ancestry. Many of his movies are set or shot in Germany, and he’s held a lifelong fascination for all things Deutsch. Take that “von” in the middle of his name—it’s a mark of aristocracy in Germany and Austria. Born Lars Trier in 1956 in a suburb of Copenhagen, he bestowed the “von” upon himself as a young man, an expression of what he called an inner “nobility of the spirit.”
This name-change—half-joking, half-serious— encapsulates von Trier’s most notorious qualities: his tendency to provoke; his constant need to reinvent himself; and his grandiose, sometimes megalomaniacal ambition. The closest personality on these proportions is, unsurprisingly, a German: Richard Wagner. Von Trier is a great admirer of the composer, whose epic music dramas have rubbed off on his films. In turn, von Trier’s cinema has inspired a string of recent operatic adaptations like Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Breaking the Waves
Von Trier’s first commercial films of the 1980s and early ’90 were, like Wagner’s operas, virtuosic displays of illusion. His methods were highly reminiscent of Wagnerian stagecraft—von Trier employed the technical aspects of cinema to generate a mesmerizing and all-absorbing experience. He would even blast recordings of Parsifal and Tristan during shoots to set a phantasmagorical mood.
While these early films were visually impressive, they were rather cold and lifeless. This stemmed from von Trier’s obsession with control. He meticulously storyboarded every frame and treated actors as mere puppets in his creations. To free himself of this perfectionism, von Trier took a counterintuitive step in the mid-1990s by drafting a set of rules. Titled “Dogma 95,” this manifesto consisted of ten commandments designed to strip away the fluff of filmmaking and prioritize the storytelling. All filming had to be done on location with handheld cameras. Special effects were forbidden. No soundtrack could be added during post-production.
The rules weren’t intended to be used in every film. Von Trier only made one pure Dogma 95 movie, his controversial The Idiots (1998). But all his films from that point on showed the influence of this cinematic “Vow of Chastity.” It completely transformed his style—the up-close-and-personal camerawork lent his movies a new rawness and immediacy. His stories, too, became more human, his characters more vulnerable.
This was a deliberate rebellion against the values instilled by von Trier’s hyper-progressive parents, who forbade anything that smacked of sentimentality. In films like Breaking the Waves (1996) and Dancer in the Dark (2000), he fully embraced the tragic and the pitiful, pushing his heroines to impossible extremes. These two films, along with The Idiots, formed von Trier’s “Golden Heart Trilogy,” named after a Danish picture-book from his childhood. In the story, a little girl gradually gives up her clothing to the needy until she’s left naked and cold. Similarly, von Trier’s trilogy depicts women who hold unwaveringly to their moral convictions, to the point of destroying themselves.
The emotional intensity of these films, while overwhelming and even uncomfortable to witness onscreen, is right at home in another medium: opera. Von Trier even declared he was striving for “something that is more like the emotion of an opera” with these melodramas. It’s no wonder, then, that composers and librettists have been drawn to his films as the basis for operas.
Operatic adaptions of films have become increasingly common in the last decades. HGO commissioned two such works: André Previn’s Brief Encounter (2009) and Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life (2016), both based on classic flicks of the ’40s. Typically, composers gravitate toward films with minimal or forgettable soundtracks, so as not to erase the work of a fellow artist.
It’s unusual, then, that two of the three major von Trier-inspired operas are based on films that already feature iconic scores. The 2007 Selma Ježková, by Danish composer Poul Ruders, is an operatic take on Dancer in the Dark—itself a movie-musical with songs by its leading lady, Björk. And von Trier’s Melancholia (2011), which makes exquisite use of Wagner’s Tristan prelude, was set as an opera by Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson in 2023.
By contrast, music is all but absent from von Trier’s Breaking the Waves—a holdover from the Dogma 95 stricture on soundtracks. Each chapter of the film opens with a title card displaying a sublime landscape on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, where the film takes place. To evoke the time setting, these panoramic views are paired with short clips of hits by 1970s rockstars like David Bowie and Elton John. Otherwise, the movie is—sonically speaking—a blank canvas for a composer like Missy Mazzoli to paint on.
What’s more, the screenplay is highly reminiscent of standard operas. The Scottish environs as well as the heroine’s struggle against her patriarchal oppressors recall Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. And Britten’s Peter Grimes, with its small-minded, seaside village and outcast protagonist, also contains parallels. But given von Trier’s operatic tastes, it’s most likely that the filmmaker was influenced by Wagner’s music dramas. Bess’s final act resembles the redemptive self-sacrifices of Wagnerian heroines: Senta in The Flying Dutchman, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung, Kundry in Parsifal
Above: Emily Watson as Bess and Stellan Skarsgård as Jan in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves; below: Duncan Rock as Jan and Sydney Mancasola as Bess in the operatic adaptation (Scottish Opera, 2019)
But even if the original film is intentionally operatic in tone and scope, a screenplay can’t simply be set to music as a libretto. There are forms and conventions that have to be followed when transferring a celluloid work to live theater. In his adaptation, librettist Royce Vavrek seizes on some of the more idiomatically operatic moments of the film. For instance, he expands the phone-sex scene into a full-fledged love duet. While Bess and Jan are separated during this sequence in the film—both physically and through editing—the characters are able to embrace onstage in Tom Morris’s production of the opera.
Vavrek also endows the libretto with a poetic sensibility that’s lacking in von Trier’s script. The other love duet,
following Bess and Jan’s wedding, is an entirely new text of Vavrek’s invention. Its central metaphor—that the couple’s life paths are mapped out on the lines and contours of Jan’s body—is the kind of lyrical language that’s out of place in realist cinema, but essential in opera to fire a composer’s imagination.
Even if the original film is almost completely devoid of music, it’s rife with opportunities for an attentive composer like Mazzoli to bring to sonic life. During the church scenes in the opera, for instance, the Calvinist elders intone their admonitions in austere, hymnlike harmonies. In a nod to von Trier’s title-card interludes, Bess dances to a convincing pastiche of a ’70s pop tune. The bells that the congregation cast into the sea are mostly absent from Mazzoli’s orchestration, only symbolically imitated by different instruments. In a highly original move, Mazzoli also evokes bells vocally in Bess’s ebullient opening aria. She repeats Jan’s name over and over with all the brightness of a ringing church chime.
One of the most fascinating compositional devices in the opera is the everpresent male chorus, which looms over Bess like the imposing pillars of Soutra Gilmour’s set. They alternately portray the congregation elders, the oil-riggers, and the men of the village. Elsewhere, they stand in for the ultimate patriarchal authority: God himself.
In the original film, Bess’s prayers take the form of a one-sided dialogue. The character answers her own petitions with the gruff, paternal voice she imagines belonging to the Almighty. In the opera, Bess’s “God voice” is amplified and echoed by the male choristers. It’s a nod to Arnold Schoenberg’s 1957 biblical opera Moses und Aron, in which the voice of God is assigned to an unseen chorus.
Then there are the waves of von Trier’s title. Mazzoli doesn’t take this literally—she largely avoids any buoyant aquatic textures redolent of Debussy or Britten’s sonic seascapes. Yet there are passages when we might hear metaphorical waves in the orchestra’s endlessly descending scales. By staggering these plunging lines in different instrumental voices, Mazzoli creates the impression of a vortex or undercurrent pulling us toward oblivion. It’s a striking musical representation of Bess’s downward spiral.
"MAZZOLI’S SCORE IS VISCERAL AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY PROBING, BUT IN THE SPIRIT OF VON TRIER’S FILM, IT DOESN’T TELL AUDIENCES HOW TO THINK."
Bess herself is a frustrating character who has raised debate among feminist film critics and religiousstudies scholars alike. Von Trier defended himself against charges of misogyny by pointing out that Bess is ultimately in control of her own fate and goes willingly to her demise out of boundless love for Jan. Yet there’s a disturbing uncertainty about the story. Do we take it on faith that Bess truly possessed saintlike powers of healing? Or have we witnessed a vulnerable woman fall victim to the abuses of the men around her—including her husband and her warped conception of God?
Von Trier’s distaste for soundtracks stems from his irritation with directors who employ a film’s score to manipulate viewers emotionally. In this sense, Mazzoli is the ideal composer to adapt his work. She’s by no means unsympathetic toward the characters. But her
musical language, indebted to the post-minimalist style of John Adams, leaves ample space for interpretation. Her harmonies, in particular, are shrouded in ambiguity. Mazzoli sends out progressions that never seem to settle on any firm resolution. She will often pivot unexpectedly from a major chord to its minor version, producing a subtle yet strangely disorienting shift in affect. Or else, she’ll allow these two incompatible harmonies to hang in the air simultaneously—apprehensive, irreconcilable, inconclusive.
Mazzoli’s score is visceral and psychologically probing, but in the spirit of von Trier’s film, it doesn’t tell audiences how to think. Instead, the opera confronts us with insolvable dilemmas, forcing us to reconceive our views on morality, spirituality, and sexuality. But ultimately, Breaking the Waves —like every lasting work of opera—is a profound meditation on the greatest mystery of all: what it means to love another person. As Bess puts it, “That is perfection.”
Sydney Mancasola as Bess in Breaking the Waves (Scottish Opera, 2019, James Glossop)
CONCERT OF ARIAS JANUARY
17, 2025
Reinnette and Stan Marek, Chairs
On January 17, 2025, HGO hosted the Concert of Arias, the thrilling final round of its annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers. This year’s competition saw seven finalists perform two arias each, vying for top prizes and coveted spots in the prestigious Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio. For the first time, the finalists were accompanied by the HGO Orchestra under the baton of Maestro James Gaffigan, elevating the evening to new artistic heights.
Following the competition, guests gathered in the Wortham Theater Center’s Grand Foyer for a celebratory seated dinner by City Kitchen Catering. The Events Company set the stage for an elegant evening honoring the next generation of opera stars. Chaired by Reinnette and Stan Marek, the event welcomed 460 generous supporters and raised over $773,000 to support the Butler Studio and HGO’s community initiatives.
Reinnette Marek, Geonho Lee, Stan Marek
Michael Heaston, Patrick Summers, Geonho Lee, Khori Dastoor, Ana María Martínez
Butler Studio Director Colin Michael Brush with the 2025 Concert of Arias finalists
Estela Cockrell, Luba Bigman
Kristen, Eleanor, and Matthew Loden
Janet and John Carrig
Brian Faulkner, Jackie Macha
Allyn and Jill Risley, ND Maduemezia
Dr. Peter Chang, Hon. Theresa Chang, Ziniu Zhao
Marty Dudley, José and Teresa Ivo
Albert and Anne Chao
Michael Heaston, Drs. Rachel and Warren Ellsworth
CONCERT OF ARIAS
Alfredo and Marcia Vilas
The scene set for the post-concert dinner
Aaron, Sarah, Tate, Emerson, and Harlan Stai
Angela Lee, Myrtle Jones
Astrid Van Dyke, Edward and Rini Ziegler, Astley Blair, Joel Thompson, Anna Dean
Beth Madison, Steve Hamilton
Alfred Frazier, Allyson Pritchett, Shayla Ferguson, Elisa Villanueva Beard, Jeremy Beard
Gregoria and Fran Vallejo, Joe Greenberg and Claire Liu
VINSON & ELKINS CAST PARTY
JANUARY 24, 2025
After a stunning performance of Puccini’s La bohème, HGO patrons and company members gathered to celebrate with a party hosted by the generous opera lovers at Vinson & Elkins LLP. Held in the firm’s breathtaking offices with panoramic views of Houston, the celebration featured delicious catering by City Kitchen and a lively atmosphere honoring the show’s incredible cast, crew, and supporters. The night was a true tribute to the talent and collaboration behind this unforgettable production.
YOUNG PATRONS CIRCLE STUDIO DINNER
FEBRUARY 18, 2025
On February 18, HGO’s Young Patrons Circle enjoyed a memorable dinner at Steak 48, celebrating the incredible talent of HGO’s Butler Studio artists. Guests were treated to exquisite cuisine, lively conversation, and a beautifully curated ambience that set the stage for an unforgettable evening. This event provided an exclusive opportunity to mingle with the artists, who shared insights into their journey and the work they are doing with the company. It was a true celebration of art, community, and the future of HGO.
Members of the HGO Chorus
The La bohème cast
Alfredo and Marcia Vilas with guests
Members of the La bohème Children's Chorus
Lynn Gissel, John Caird, Susan Bloome, Gerri Gill
Jenny Choo, Jacob Carr
Stephanie Webber, Paul Muri
Ilana Walder-Biesanz, Gabriella Tantillo, Rebekah Wilkinson, Ellen Liu
Madeline Nassif, Emily Bivona
HGO AND THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE
On the company’s new Torras Family Foundation Prize.
By Colin Michael Brush, Butler Studio Director
Opera, at its core, is about connection—connection to the music, to the story, and to the shared experience of an audience coming together. It is an art form that transcends time, language, and geography, reminding us of our shared humanity. This belief has guided my work as Director of the Butler Studio at Houston Grand Opera, where my mission is to seek out and cultivate the most extraordinary talent, no matter where in the world it may be found.
Houston, after all, is one of the most international cities in America, and we wear that as a point of pride. Our city’s vibrancy comes from the varied perspectives and lived experiences of its people, and HGO reflects that same global richness. Opera is where generations meet—where the great traditions of the past converge with new voices to create something larger than the sum of its parts.
When I joined HGO, I was tasked with traveling extensively to identify emerging talent and forge relationships with the companies and decisionmakers shaping opera today. The more we engage with the international opera community, the more we position Houston as a dynamic part of that ecosystem. As a mentor to the 11 artists in the Butler Studio, I work to cultivate these relationships so that industry leaders get to know our artists and the work we do in Houston. That creates opportunities, opens doors, and ultimately helps our singers achieve their full potential.
At the same time, we recognize that the most extraordinary voices don’t come from any single place. We want the best of the best, no matter
where they’re from—but the reality is that many promising artists across the globe don’t have the financial means or logistical ability to travel to the U.S. for auditions. If we truly want to discover the most exciting talent, we need to meet them where they are. Establishing a Butler Studio recruiting tool in Europe, where the opera market is vibrant, is essential to making that happen.
Vocal competitions are a valuable tool for identifying extraordinary talent. Those who have attended Concert of Arias know firsthand how thrilling it is to witness young artists rise to the occasion in an environment that challenges them to deliver their best performances. Competitions allow us to hear dozens of singers in a condensed period and discover voices we may not otherwise encounter. HGO and many other opera companies use them as a vital recruitment tool.
So this winter, when we at HGO saw an opportunity to do the same on an international level, we didn’t hesitate. Thanks to the generosity of Ignacio Torras, a longtime HGO family member, the company has created the Torras Family Foundation Prize, an award given by HGO to an emerging artist at the Tenor Viñas Competition, held each year at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu.
This special $25,000 prize is designed to recognize an artist who not only demonstrates extraordinary vocal ability, but is also a consummate musician and compelling communicator—someone with clear potential for a major international career. Thanks to Ignacio, a Barcelona native, this prize also marks the beginning of an exciting new collaboration between HGO and the Liceu, one of Europe’s most important cultural centers.
Founded in 1963, the Tenor Viñas Competition is one of the most prestigious of its kind in Europe, attracting hundreds of young singers each year. Named after the great Catalan tenor Francisco Viñas, it has long been a proving ground for the next generation of opera stars. The competition is rigorous, demanding artistry, technique, and depth of interpretation across multiple rounds, with a jury composed of casting directors and artistic leaders from the world’s most renowned houses.
In January of this year, I was fortunate to join the jury of the Viñas Competition, traveling to Barcelona to present the Torras Family Foundation Prize on behalf of HGO. There were so many artists from all over the world—many incredible voices and compelling performers. However, one artist stood out from the very start as the embodiment of this prize—not just for his voice, but for how his artistry deepened with each round. Mihai Damian, a 28-year-old Romanian baritone, possesses an instrument with both warmth
and bite—a voice that fills a hall with effortless presence. His technical consistency, deep musical understanding, and natural dramatic instincts set him apart.
But what made Mihai truly exceptional was his artistry, a quality that goes beyond vocal beauty. Before becoming a singer, he trained as a conductor, giving him an extraordinary sense of phrasing, structure, and storytelling. Every note carried precision and purpose, revealing a rare ability to shape and inhabit the musical line. His artistry was sophisticated yet deeply expressive— the kind of talent that doesn’t just show promise; it demands attention. We will certainly be following Mihai’s career closely, and who knows?
Perhaps one day, we’ll have the opportunity to welcome him to the HGO stage. He is undoubtedly a name to watch.
Beyond awarding an extraordinary artist, this experience also reinforced the immense value of international collaboration. Sitting on the Viñas jury was an incredible opportunity—not only to hear exceptional voices, but also to engage with colleagues from the Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro alla Scala, The Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Real, and of course, the Liceu. These conversations were rich and illuminating, providing deep insights into how artistic standards are evolving and reinforcing our shared commitment to discovering and nurturing the next generation of opera singers.
Brush traveled to Barcelona, where attended the Gran Teatre del Liceu's Tenor Viñas Competition—and selected the winner of a new $25,000 prize on behalf of HGO and the Torras Family Foundation.
The CEO of the Liceu, Valentí Oviedo, shared an insight that epitomizes the significance of this kind of cultural exchange. Opera and European history, he told me, are inseparable. The art form has always mirrored their society, capturing its struggles and triumphs, its transformations and cultural shifts. This resonated with me, particularly as I thought about the way Houston embodies the very spirit of global artistic exchange. Just as many operas tell the story of Europe, our operatic tradition at HGO tells a uniquely American story—one shaped by ambition, excellence, and the belief that great artistry can come from anywhere.
We will return to the Viñas Competition next year to celebrate another extraordinary young talent, continuing to build on the relationships we have established. The most exciting part? You never know who will walk through that door, which voices will emerge, and which stories will unfold.
MEET THE NEW BUTLER STUDIO ARTISTS!
Three new members will join the program for the 2025-26 season:
Luka Tsevelidze
Tenor, second-place winner at Concert of Arias 2025
Geonho Lee
Baritone, first-place and Audience Choice winner at Concert of Arias 2025
Tzu Kuang Tan Pianist/coach
Returning Butler Studio artists include Alissa Goretsky, Elizabeth Hanje, Michael McDermott, Shawn Roth, Demetrious Sampson, Jr., Sam Dhobhany, Ziniu Zhao, and Jenny Choo.
OUR ATTORNEYS
Scott Gaille
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL
Scottow King
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Max Stubbs
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SCHOOL OF LAW
Walter Daniel
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SCHOOL OF LAW
Will Brumfield
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL
GAILLE
Tanner Harris
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL
Adam Decker
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL
Bailey Swainston
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL
Luke Riel
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL
Since 2015, GAILLE PLLC has advised on energy construction projects and services matters in excess of $25 billion
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, Ms. Rita Leader, 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
John Churchwell, 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
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.
By Catherine Matusow
RYAN MCKINNY, LAUREN SNOUFFER, AND SARA BRODIE CHARACTER OUT OF
THE IDEA OF INTIMACY COORDINATION FOR MOVIES AND TV IS FAMILIAR BY NOW. LESS KNOWN IS THAT THE PRACTICE IS FAST BECOMING STANDARD IN THE OPERA INDUSTRY. THE STARS AND REVIVAL/MOVEMENT DIRECTOR OF BREAKING THE WAVES SHARE WHY IT’S IMPORTANT.
What is challenging about directing Breaking the Waves?
Sara Brodie: It is such a psychologically complex piece, which I think makes it challenging but incredibly interesting to unpack: what drives these characters to do what they are doing? But because of the story and where it takes us—sort of down this very strange rabbit hole—the other challenge for me is to make sure, from my perspective, that the pastoral care of everyone involved is held. There’s a lot of challenging material here in terms of Bess’s story and what she ends up doing for love.
Tell us about Jan and Bess.
Ryan McKinny: Well, Jan’s an offshore oil rig worker, so very blue-collar guy and—I think, in comparison to the world that she lives in—a very earthy sort of guy. He is very much in love with his wife, and an intensely sexual person also, which is a big part of the story of the two of them. I think he’s really, really, truly devastated in the end. But he tries to figure out how to help his wife have more of a life while he thinks he’s going to be bedridden forever. It’s deeply tragic.
Lauren Snouffer: Bess is a really complicated character. In the film, she is portrayed as being extremely impressionable, possibly having kind of a low IQ, and then also growing up in this incredibly rigorous religious community. For the opera’s purposes, we’re envisioning her as a perfectly mentally capable person who grew up with a very strict structure around her and therefore wasn’t able to develop in a natural way mentally. So the way that she deals with a huge, unexpected conflict, and grief, is unusual. She really believes that she’s a part of healing someone else by doing the things that she does.
Sara Brodie: With this opera, it’s a case of trying to really find the internal logic for the two main characters of Jan and Bess. One touchstone we have always had is that everyone is trying to do good. The church elders are trying to do good. Bess’s mother who rejects her is trying to do good. You know, everyone’s trying to save the situation in the best way they know how to.
Why does this piece need an intimacy coordinator?
SB: Any production that has scenes of a sexual nature is deemed to need an intimacy coordinator. And it’s a relatively new role within the industry. But the need has always been there. You want to make sure that you are keeping your performers safe within staging very intimate scenes, whether that be involving nudity and scenes of a sexual nature or dealing with sensitive subject material. You have to make sure everyone is safe within that journey. And you want to do things that they feel comfortable with, and make sure they are comfortable with the way that you’re telling the story.
LS: I did a production recently where we had to do this lovemaking scene on a staircase, and the director just said, can we just leave you alone and you can figure it out? to me and this other guy. And I said, absolutely not. First of all, there need to be other people in the room. It doesn’t need to be 15 other people, but to just close the doors and say, sort it out? There really does need to be a plan and a choreography. I like the word “choreography.”
And especially with contemporary music, it’s not easy music, and you don’t want to be improvising where your head and hands are going on another person while you’re singing in a strange meter and thinking about what pitches you’re singing. You need to know exactly where you’re going to be, what you’re going to be doing, what to expect when, and when you’re going to be able to make contact with the conductor. There is some flexibility within that, but it’s like technique in general: when you have a plan and you have like a solid technique, you can be even freer on top of that.
RM: I’ve been a big advocate for having an intimacy director. Just like you want music staff watching to be specifically hearing music, and you want a director to be thinking about the storytelling, it really helps to have someone whose whole job it is to think about, first of all, how to make the scene work from the audience’s perspective, but more importantly probably, how to help the actors be comfortable and safe. The more comfortable and safe and choreographed we are in
these things, the better actors we can be and the more freedom we can feel in the scene. It’s both having an advocate and having someone who makes the story work really well. It just makes the whole piece better. How has the industry changed?
LS: What we do can be very physical, and to tell a compelling story on stage, you have to have chemistry with your stage partners. If you don’t have chemistry, you have to find it. Especially with a piece like this, there’s a lot of raw material. I think as audiences, we really want to be a part of something that feels honest and not sugarcoated. And intimacy and sex are all a part of our experience as humans. If you do Romeo and Juliet and you just kind of float on the surface of that, it doesn’t tell the full story, you know?
When casting happens, you get cast with people who are the best singers for their parts and who are also good actors, but they might not be people that you know well or have an instant comfort with. Just because we’re all different people, and we all come from different places. So I think it really helps us do our jobs better when there’s a third person in the room who’s helping us all get on the same page—just making sure that it’s not up to one person’s whim what happens on stage. I know a lot of singers who have stories about, oh, we were doing the finale, and this tenor put his tongue in my mouth. These kinds of stories—they’re a common part of our experience, unfortunately. Intimacy coordination deters that kind of behavior.
RM: I’m a person who always wanted to make sure—even before I understood language around it— that my scene partners were comfortable. And also, that I was comfortable with whatever we were doing, even if it’s simpler stuff, like you’re doing The Marriage of Figaro and Figaro and Susanna are hugging a lot, and maybe they kiss a few times. But it was a very awkward thing to have to have that
discussion, deciding with your scene partner what’s okay and working that out on the side, which is often what happened. I watched lots of other people who I worked with be inappropriate around that multiple times over the years. And they would get talked to, but it was always kind of after the fact.
SB: I’ve been choreographing intimate scenes for a long time. There’s more language around it now, because people are sharing techniques that they’ve found really effective and useful. There’s more awareness in general about trauma, and trauma held in the body, within our world and communities and the health profession. I think we’re getting better at it.
Are you looking forward to bringing Breaking the Waves to Houston audiences?
RM: I’m really excited about it. I love Missy’s music. I think she writes really well for singers, although it’s very challenging. It’s a really intense acting role, and I love that kind of challenge. It’s great that HGO does these kinds of pieces that push the boundaries a little bit.
LS: Absolutely. I think audiences will love it. It’s a really cool piece to listen to. The music is epic. And the harmonies that Missy writes into it—they’re very modern, but not in the way that people think of modern music, like it’s hard to listen to. You can feel it deeply. And you can really feel, in a contemporary way, what all of the musical language is trying to convey.
SB: I’m always a supporter of doing new work, and that we need to look at stories that come from our world and our times. It’s all about probing humanity, and who we are, and what makes us tick, and what makes another person tick, and being able to look into that, delve into it, and relate it to ourselves. Or at least start to think about, oh my goodness, how could that happen to somebody?
Lauren Snouffer and Ryan McKinny, with baritone Michael Mayes (back), in rehearsals for Breaking the Waves.
INTIMACY DIRECTION 101
Sara
Brodie on the five Cs.
Sara Brodie has extensive experience and training in intimacy direction, including for this same production when it was presented by Detroit Opera last spring.
“Breaking the Waves was probably my first job with the official title of intimacy director,” Brodie shares. “But prior to that, because I worked as a choreographer and director, I’d been brought in to productions to do movement direction and, as part of that, had done the intimate scenes.”
Here in Houston, Samantha Kaufman will serve as intimacy director for Breaking the Waves. But as the opera’s revival and movement director, Brodie makes
it her business to ensure artists’ needs are being met. In fact, she started conversations with both Lauren Snouffer and Ryan McKinny long before they arrived in Houston, beginning with the characters and their motivations.
“And then from that, you start having the more intimate conversation about comfort levels and boundaries,” she explains. “It’s hugely important to make sure that no one walks away from their work environment feeling traumatized by what they’re doing.”
We asked Brodie to break down what is commonly referred to in the business as “the five Cs” for intimacy direction:
CONTEXT
“An intimacy director will go through a script and pinpoint every possible moment for intimacy where they need to be involved. What’s driving it? What is the context for the people involved?”
COMMUNICATION
“It’s all about trying to have these conversations, about the director’s vision in relation to the material, and then, the performer being part of that conversation. I think that’s the biggest thing. In the past, that conversation didn’t necessarily happen, or it happened on the first day of rehearsal. And now that’s shifting, which is a great thing.”
CONSENT
“What the performer agrees or doesn’t agree to. And if they don’t agree, then what’s the alternative? It’s all about looking for different pathways to tell the story.”
CHOREOGRAPHY
“When it comes down to creating the scene, we know what’s driving these people, but behind that, the job is like choreographing. It’s exactly the same. You’ve got the same steps in place.”
CLOSURE
“At the end, we all kind of sign off on it. Quite often, that’s just a physical thing, like a fist pump or a high five to go, ‘and that’s the end of the scene,’ and put a lid on it. And then go home to your dog and partner.”
Lauren Snouffer and Sara Brodie
Ryan McKinny and Lauren Snouffer
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 was 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.
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
Judy Miner, San Francisco, CA
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Misamore, Sedona, AZ
Mr. Juan Moreno, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Ms. Heidi Munzinger and Mr. John Shott, Coronado, CA
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
Charlie and Arienne Williams, Dallas, TX
David Woodcock, College Station, TX
Drs. Edward Yeh and Hui-Ming Chang Little Rock, AR
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
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
Mr. John Egbert and Mrs. Kathy Beck
Dr. Patricia Eifel
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
Mr. and Mrs. Damian Gill
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
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
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. Rie Kojima Angeli
Dr. and Mrs. Lary R. Kupor
Mr. Kenny Kurtzman
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
Erik B. Nelson and Terry R. Brandhorst
Mrs. Bobbie Newman
Ms. Geri Noel
Ms. Lisa L. Ng
Drs. John and Karen Oldham
Mrs. Maria Papadopoulos
Carl and Julie Pascoe
Linda Peterson
Mr. and Mrs. Harry C. Pinson
Mr. and Mrs. Elvin B. Pippert Jr.
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
Mr. David D. Schein and Ms. Karen Somer
Drs. Daniel and Ximena Sessler
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
Ellen Susman
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
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
Madeline Nassif
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
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
HGO DONORS
NATIONAL PATRONS—$2,500
OR MORE
Ms. Cynthia Akagi and Mr. Tom Akagi, Madison, WI
Yoko and Tom Arthur, Santa Fe, NM
Mr. Murray Beard, Cordova, TN
Kathy Boyle and James Parsons, Dallas, TX
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. Chris Miller and Mr. Gary Glaser, Fort Worth, TX
Mr. William Nicholas, Georgetown, TX
John and Elizabeth Nielsen-Gammon, College Station, TX
James Parsons and Kathy Boyle, Dallas, 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
Mr. and Mrs. Kirk Weaver, Washington, D.C.
Martin R. Wing, Oklahoma City, OK
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
Mr. and Mrs. V. G. Beghini
Ms. Sonja Bruzauskas and Mr. Houston Haymon
Kenneth T. Chin
Vicki Clepper
Mr. Jerry Conry
Ms. Joyce Cramer
Mr. John Dazey
Ms. Linnet Frazier Deily
Elena Delauney
Peggy DeMarsh
Mr. and Mrs. Blake Eskew
Travis Fenstermaker
Ms. Julie Fischer
Susan Giannatonio and Bruce Winquist
Mr. Michael Gillin and
Ms. Pamela Newberry
Mr. David Gockley
Ruzena Gordon
Dr. and Mrs. Carlos R. Hamilton, Jr.
Mr. and Mrs. Michael F. Henderek
Mr. Stanley A. Hoffberger
Mr. Steven Jay Hooker
Dr. Alan J. Hurwitz
Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Jackson
Linda Katz
Mr. John Keville
Lynn Lamkin
Ms. Nadine Littles
Mr. Robert Lorio
Mr. Joel Luks
Mr. and Mrs. J. Stephen Marks
Ana María Martínez
Mrs. Barbara Mayer
Mr. James L. McNett
Mr. Nicolo Messana
Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Moynier
Mr. and Mrs. Marvin H. Mueller
Ms. Maria C. (Macky) Osorio
Suzanne Page-Pryde and Arthur Pryde
Mr. Rick Pleczko
Ms. Felecia Powell-Williams
Dr. and Mrs. Florante A. Quiocho
Mr. Edgar Rincon
Mr. and Mrs. Risher Randall
Ms. Jo Ann W. Schaffer
Christopher B. Schulze, M.D.
Ms. Diana Skerl
Mr. Arthur Smith
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
Joan Alexander
Mrs. Linda Alexander
Mr. and Mrs. Neil Ken Alexander
Dr. Robert E. Anderson
Mr. Robert K. Arnett Jr.
Ms. Dorothy B. Autin and Mr. Daniel Coleman
Mrs. Deborah S. Bautch
Ms. Jessica Burton
Dr. Claude Cech
Mr. and Mrs. James Collins
Mr. and Mrs. Larry Corona
Mr. Carl R. Cunningham
Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Davis
Mr. and Mrs. Warren Dean
Dr. John Edwards
Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Ferenz
Israel and Pearl Fogiel
Mr. Enrico R. Giannetti
Mr. and Mrs. Kirk Girouard
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Goldgar
Ms. Suzanne Green
Dr. James E. Griffin III and Dr. Margo Denke
Mr. and Mrs. Ira Gruber
Mr. and Mrs. David Guenther
Mr. and Mrs. Philip Gunnels
Mr. Donald Hang
Ms. Eliane S. Herring
Dr. Ralph J. Herring
Dr. Janice L. Hewitt
Ms. Susan Hirtz
Kay and Michael W. Hilliard
Ms. Susan Hirtz
Deronica Horn
Greg Ingram
Mr. Francisco J. Izaguirre
The Jewels
Mr. and Mrs. John Jordan
Mr. David K. Johnson
Mr. and Mrs. John Jordan
Rachel Keen
Lynda and Frank Kelly
Ms. Nancy J. Kerby
Dr. Milton and Gail Klein
Mr. and Mrs. John Lattin
Mr. David Leebron and Ms. Ping Sun
Mr. Marshall Lerner
Dr. Robyn T. Lincoln
Mr. and Mrs. Karl R. Loos
Dr. Robert Louis
Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Y. Lui
Ms. Nancy Manderson
Dr. and Mrs. Moshe H. Maor
Mr. H. Woods Martin
Onalee and Dr. Michael C. McEwen
Dr. Gilda McFail
Dr. Mary Fae McKay
Mr. Bob McLaughlin
Mr. and Mrs. Ernie McWilliams
Keith and Shawntell McWilliams
Alexandra and Frank Meckel
Mrs. Theresa L. Meyer
Mr. Frank Modruson
Mr. and Mrs. Marvin H. Mueller
Mr. and Mrs. Mike Newman
Barbara Paull
Mr. Rawley Penick and Mrs. Meredith L. Hathorn
Mrs. Davonda and Dr. Eric Peterson
Mr. and Mrs. Dennis Phillips
Mr. and Mrs. Phil Plant
Ms. Helen B. Preddy
Dr. Eamonn Quigley
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
Sharon Ruhly
Dr. Mo & Mrs. Brigitte Saidi
Ramon and Chula Sanchez
Dr. and Mrs. Dan Sauls
Alan J. Savada
Kathleen and Jed Sazama
Mr. Frederick Schacknies
Mr. Alan Schmitz
Ms. Valerie Serice
Dr. Paul E. Setzler
Ms. Joan M. Shack
Mr. Nick Shumway and Mr. Robert Mayott
Mr. Herbert Simons
Len Slusser
Mr. Cooper Smith
Ms. Linda F. Sonier
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Stoddard
Mr. Leon Strieder
Mr. Kiyoshi Tamagawa and Mr. Bill Dick
Ann Tornyos
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
J. M. Weltzien
Mr. Peter J. Wender
Mrs. Dolores Wilkenfeld
Mr. and Mrs. Bert B. Williams
Kay Wilson
Robert and Michele Yekovich
3 Anonymous
CORPORATE, FOUNDATION, AND GOVERNMENT SUPPORTERS
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
SPONSOR—$10,000 OR MORE
Infosys
MEMBERS—$1,000 OR MORE
Texas Mutual Insurance
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. †
The Wortham Foundation, Inc. †
Anonymous
PRINCIPAL GUARANTORS—
$500,000 OR MORE
The Brown Foundation, Inc. †
City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance †
Anonymous
GRAND GUARANTORS—
$250,000 OR MORE
The Alkek and Williams 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 †
Carol Franc Buck 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 Humanities Texas
The Nathan J. Klein Fund
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
Ms. Janet Hassinger
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. Helen Lane
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 McLanahan
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
Mr. Joseph Sims and Ms. Janis Doty
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
20 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
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
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
Kristen E. Burke, Director of Production *
Jennifer Davenport, Chief Marketing and Experience 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
Joel Thompson, Composer-in-Residence
Tyler Thormählen, Governance Administrator
ARTISTIC
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, Music Librarian
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
Dr. Lisa Vickers, Bauer Family High School Voice Studio Manager
William Woodard, Assistant Conductor
HOUSTON GRAND OPERA MANAGEMENT
Maureen Zoltek, Head of Music Staff and Butler Studio Music Director
Mr. & Mrs. Albert B. Alkek Chair
AUDIENCES
Marc Alba, Customer Sales and Service Specialist
Vince Balkcom, Jr., Customer Sales and Service Representative
Ellen Bergener, Customer Sales and Service Representative
Steve Butler, Video Producer
Joe Cadagin, Audience Education and Communications Manager
Gray Campbell, Customer Sales and Service Representative
Gabrielle Castillo, Customer Sales and Service Coordinator
Nicholas Chavez, Group Sales Coordinator
Chelsea Crouse, Sr. Creative Manager
Juan Flores, Customer Sales and Service Specialist
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 Sales and Service Specialist
Ashlyn Killian, Communications Coordinator
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
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
Fernando Barajas, Administrative Manager
Patty Holley, Program Manager of School & Educator Engagement
Dr. Kiana Day Williams, Associate Director of School & Educator Engagement
FINANCE AND OPERATIONS
Christian Davis, Human Resources Manager
Ariel Ehrman, Business Intelligence Manager
Luis Franco, Office Services Coordinator *
Matt Gonzales, Associate Director of Information Services *
George Heathco, Programs Coordinator, Programming & Engagement
Sarah Bertrand, Assistant Director of Philanthropy
Brooke Caballero, Philanthropy Associate
Katherine Cunningham, Associate Director of Signature Events
Kedrienne Day, Director of Institutional Giving
Kelly Dolan, Donor Events Specialist
Kelly Finn, Director of Foundation 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, Prospect Researcher and Manager
Claire Padien-Havens, Senior Director of Institutional Giving
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
Madeline Sebastian, Director of Philanthropy
PRODUCTION
Philip Alfano, Lighting Associate & Principal Draftsman *
Brian August, Stage Manager
Elliott Carnell, Assistant Technical Director
Michael James Clark, Head of Lighting & Production Media *
Andrew Cloud, Properties Manager *
Norma Cortez, Costume Director *
Dung Bui, 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 *
Beth Goodill, Assistant Stage Manager
Bridget Green, Wig and Makeup Assistant
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
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 *
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
SAVE THE DATES
THROUGH MAY 12
Opera to Go! Presents Mo Willems’s Bite-Sized 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
APR. 19, 26, 30, MAY 2, 4M
Performances of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek'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.
MAY 4
Bauer Family High School Voice Studio Recital. Enjoy a celebratory end-of-season performance by talented high schoolers and aspiring opera singers from around the region. University of Houston’s Dudley Recital Hall. 6 to 8 p.m.
MAY 5
Patrons Circle Recital: HGO presents a private recital for Patrons Circle members featuring soprano Tamara Wilson, with pianist Maureen Zoltek.
JUNE 9-13, JUNE 23-27, AND JULY 7-11
Create an Opera summer camp. Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. daily. Grades 3-8. For more information, visit HGO.org or email HGOCamp@HGO.org.
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: VISIT HGO.ORG
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 spring 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: 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.
