January & February Arts & Events
It is time to showcase the January and February arts events in Houston.
HOUSTON GRAND OPERA
HGO opens its winter repertoire with Richard Wagner’s magnificent final opera, Parsifal. Personally, I go back well over 40 years with Parsifal, preparing myself with multiple listening for my first trip to Vienna. To me this is a special piece of music. In the early 1990’s, HGO presented the work with the Houston Symphony conducted by Christoph Eschenbach conducting. The stage director was none other than Robert Wilson and the production was mesmerizing. I recall that it was mentioned often in subsequent years in the New York Times indicating it as a benchmark event.
Parsifal is the story of an ancient group of knight’s who guard the Holy Grail, the cup that Jesus was to have drunk out of. The leader of the group, Amfortas, has a lingering wound inflicted by the magician Klingsor by means of the same spear that had pierced Christ on the cross. He and the order of the knights must be saved by a “tor,” “holy fool,” or “pure innocent” who turns out to be Parsifal.
Parsifal now returns to HGO in a co-production with Chicago’s Lyric Opera. Conducted by Eun Sun Kim with lead roles by Russell Thomas as Parsifal, Elena Pankratova as Kundry, Kwangchui Youn as Gurnemanz and Ryan McKinney as Amfortas. Andrea Silvestrelli returns from his multiple roles in HGO’s Ring of the Nibelungen as the evil Klingsor. Directed by Tony Award – winning John Caird, this again promises to be a powerful show. Running nearly five hours with two intermissions, it is most highly recommended.
Five performances at the Brown Theater, January 19, 21 (matinee), 27, 31 and February 2 (matinee). Due to the length of the performances, the opera begins at 6pm and the normal 2pm for the matinees.
Also in its winter rep, Pucinni’s Madama Butterfly is scheduled.
Butterfly tells the tragic story of a Japanese woman who is betrayed by an American Navy officer. It is one of Pucinni’s favorite operas. This revival is of Tony Award-winning director Michael Grandage and is conducted by Patrick Summers.
Again, five performances at the Brown Theater, January 26, 28 (matinee), February 3, 7 and 9. Performances are at 7:30pm and 2pm for the matinee.
HOUSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
HSO begins 2024 with five programs. The first, features the Mendelssohn Symphony 3, the “Scottish” conducted by Music Director, Juraj Valčuha as well as the Bartok Violin Concerto 2, with Yoonsin Song, violinist. January 12, 13 at 8pm and 14 (matinee) at 2:30pm.
The next weekend brings back Valčuha and the Houston Symphony Chorus and the massive “A German Requiem” of Brahms. January 19, 20 at 8:pm and 21 (matinee) at 2:30pm.
February begins with the Tchaikovsky Symphony 5 conducted by Itzhak Perlman. February 8, 10 at 8pm and 11 (matinee) at 2:30pm.
Then comes “THE BIG ONE” – the Bruckner Symphony 8, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. There is a fascinating story line here. In 1985 the Houston Symphony went on an American tour with key stops in Chicago and New York City. The music director at that time was Sergiu Comissiona. Comissiona fell ill and the assistant conductor took over the Chicago performance. What about New York, obviously the most important concert on the tour, however? A frantic call went to Christoph Eschenbach in Europe to see if he was even available to conduct on short notice. He was but there was one notable (no pun intended) problem – he was not prepared to conduct the listed program with virtually no rehearsal time in the already tight schedule, the names of the pieces now evade me. Eschenbach had recently conducted the Bruckner Symphony 6 in Jones hall to critical acclaim, however. So the orchestra and he were certainly prepared but could they obtain the score from the publisher – had it already been rented out to another orchestra? Amazingly, it had not, and the parts were rushed to NYC. Even luckier was the fact that the bowing marks and instructions that Eschenbach had given to the players remained penciled in each part. The performance was another big hit before the major classical critics in the crowd. This emergency role by Eschenbach began the relationship that only two years later, in 1988, he was appointed as Music Director of the Houston Symphony.
To many, if not most Brucknerians, his Symphony 8 is the favorite of the composer’s oeuvre. Like his other works, it is a massive piece and is always the single piece in a performance.
Two performances only, February 24 at 8pm and 25 (matinee), 2:30pm. These promise to be stunning performances and all efforts should be made to attend.
Keep sending comments to me at classicalmusicberquist@gmail.com.
See you next issue of Intown Magazine.