Houston Grand Opera facts for kids

The Wortham Theater Center

The Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is an opera company located in Houston, Texas. It was started in 1955 by Walter Herbert and three Houston residents. The company performs at the Wortham Theater Center, which is also home to the Houston Ballet. The Houston Grand Opera is the only opera company in the world to have won a Tony Award, two Grammy Awards, and three Emmy Awards. The Houston Grand Opera Guild, formed in 1955, helps support the company.

History of HGO

In 1955, Walter Herbert, who was born in Germany, teamed up with Houstonians Elva Lobit, Edward Bing, and Charles Cockrell to create the Houston Grand Opera. Their very first season included two performances of two operas: Salome and Madama Butterfly.

David Gockley became the general director in 1972. During his time, HGO started asking composers to write new operas, especially American ones. Gockley led the company until 2005.

Anthony Freud took over as general director in 2005 and stayed until 2011. After he left, Patrick Summers and Perryn Leech shared leadership. Summers became the artistic and music director, and Leech became the managing director.

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey caused flooding that closed the Wortham Theater Center. For the 2017–2018 season, HGO performed in a temporary space called the 'HGO Resilience Theater' at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Perryn Leech left his role in 2020.

In 2021, Khori Dastoor was named the new general director and CEO, starting in 2022. She is the first woman to hold these important positions at HGO.

The Music Makers of HGO

The Houston Grand Opera Orchestra has 49 professional musicians who play for all HGO performances.

For many years, HGO did not have a music director. In 1971, Charles Rosekrans, who had been an assistant conductor, was named music director. Later music directors included John DeMain and Vjekoslav Šutej. Patrick Summers has been the music director since 1998. In 2019, Eun Sun Kim became the first female principal guest conductor.

The Houston Grand Opera Chorus has been led by chorus master Richard Bado since 1988. He is a former student of HGO's young artist program.

Helping Young Artists Grow

Houston Grand Opera Studio

The Houston Grand Opera Studio was started in 1977. It helps young singers and pianists move from their school training to professional careers in opera. The program can last up to three years. Each year, there's a competition called the Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers to find talented artists for the Studio. Many famous opera singers have come from this program, including Ana María Martínez, Jamie Barton, Joyce DiDonato, and Eric Owens.

Young Artists Vocal Academy

The HGO Young Artists Vocal Academy began in 2011. It's a one-week program for college students studying vocal music. Students get daily voice lessons, coaching, and classes on acting, movement, and language.

HGOco also offers training for high school students.

HGOco: Connecting with the Community

In 2007, HGO started HGOco to work with the community. One of its main projects is Song of Houston. This project creates new operas and musical works about the people and groups in Houston, which is a very diverse city.

For example, their first commissioned work, The Refuge (2007), was about immigrant communities in Houston. The story used the actual words of residents, and people from these communities even performed in the premiere.

HGOco has premiered 22 new works. This includes a four-year series called East + West, which featured eight short operas about different Asian communities in Houston. Other works include O Columbia, which was created with NASA astronauts and engineers.

HGOco also runs:

Houston Grand Opera's Bauer Family High School Voice Studio: A scholarship program for high school students who want to study vocal music in college.
Summer Opera Camps: Camps for students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade.
Opera to Go!: A touring group that performs short musical shows for children and families.

HGO and New Operas

HGO has been ordering and performing new operas since 1974. These include full-length operas for the main stage and shorter works for the community or for children.

New Operas Premiered by HGO

Full-length Operas

HGO has a long relationship with composer Carlisle Floyd. They have asked him to write five operas, including Cold Sassy Tree (2000) and Prince of Players (2016). Floyd also helped start the Houston Grand Opera Studio.

The famous opera Nixon in China by John Adams first opened at the Wortham Theater Center in 1987. HGO helped commission this opera.

Chamber Operas

HGO has also commissioned and premiered 15 shorter operas for children and families. These shows are about 45 minutes long.

First American Performances

HGO has presented seven operas for the first time in America. One important example is the first staged version of Handel's Rinaldo in 1975. Another was Weinberg's The Passenger in 2014, an opera about the Holocaust that had been kept hidden for a long time.

Different Kinds of Opera

In 2010, HGO commissioned and premiered the world's first "mariachi opera," called Cruzar la Cara de la Luna / To Cross the Face of the Moon. It was written by José "Pepe" Martínez. This opera has been performed in Paris and by many other opera companies in the United States.

HGO also helped bring other important works to the opera world. In 1976, they performed a "groundbreaking" production of Porgy and Bess. They put back parts of the opera that had been cut before, showing it as the composer originally intended. This production later went to Broadway and won a Tony Award. The recording also won a Grammy Award.

Scott Joplin's Treemonisha, sometimes called a "ragtime opera," had its first full stage performances at HGO in 1976. This production also toured to Broadway.

HGO and New Ideas

Supertitles

In 1984, Houston Grand Opera started using supertitles for all operas not sung in English. This made them one of the first opera companies in the United States to do so. Supertitles are like subtitles that appear above the stage, helping the audience understand the words.

Services for People with Vision Loss

HGO was one of the first opera companies to offer special services for people who have trouble seeing. Since 1987, they have provided descriptions of the stage action and costumes for these patrons.

The Genevieve P. Demme Archives and Resource Center

In 1989, HGO became one of the first performing arts groups in Houston to have its own archives and resource center. This center keeps records of the company's history.

Plazacasts

On November 10, 1995, Houston Grand Opera became the first performing arts company in the United States to show a live performance to an audience in another location. They projected a performance of Rossini's La Cenerentola from inside the theater onto a large screen outside. People could watch for free on the plaza, which is why it was called a "Plazacast." HGO continued to hold these free public Plazacasts for many years.

Awards Received by HGO

Emmy Awards

HGO: The Ring Cycle (2017)
Hitting the High Cs (1998)
Nixon in China (1988)

Grammy Awards

Nixon in China (1988)
Porgy and Bess (1977)

Tony Award

Porgy and Bess (1977) - for Most Innovative Production of a Revival

Performances, Recordings, and TV Shows

Operas First Performed by HGO (World Premieres)

The Seagull, 1974
Bilby's Doll, 1976
Willie Stark, 1981
A Quiet Place, 1983
Nixon in China, 1987
Florencia en el Amazonas, 1996
Little Women, 1998
Cold Sassy Tree, 2000
The Little Prince, 2003
Cruzar la Cara de la Luna / To Cross the Face of the Moon, 2010
It's a Wonderful Life, 2016
The Snowy Day, 2021

Operas First Performed in America by HGO (American Premieres)

Rinaldo (stage premiere), 1975
The Passenger, 2014

Video Recordings

Treemonisha, 1982
La Cenerentola, 1996
Little Women, 2010

Nationally Televised Productions

Willie Stark, PBS, 1981
Treemonisha, PBS, 1986
Nixon in China, PBS, 1988
La Cenerentola, PBS, 1996
Little Women, PBS, 2001

Audio Recordings

Porgy and Bess, 1977
Nixon in China, 1988
Florencia en el Amazonas, 2002
Cold Sassy Tree, 2005
Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, 2011
It's a Wonderful Life, 2017