The Classical Imperative

There's certainly nothing staid and boring about Houston's cultural scene. No matter which way you turn you're likely to fall over some sort of avant garde/cutting edge production or another.

As NPR's Wade Goodwyn recently reported for All Things Considered, the Houston contemporary classical scene is thriving. Groups like Da Camera and Musiqa (and KUHF's own chamber music ensemble), show an on-going commitment to the latest classical compositions.

The same is true in the realm of the non-musical arts also. Look at the Max Ernst in the Garden of Nymph Ancolie exhibit currently on display at the Menil Collection for example, or the Jonah Bokaer The Invention of Minus One presentation this weekend at DiverseWorks.

Something I find intriguing, however, amongst all this "newness" is the strong presence of the "antique." By that I mean art from Classical Antiquity that is blended with contemporary performance values.

Several groups around town have done this recently. Last weekend Divergence Vocal Theater, Houston's newest "opera" company, made its debut with The Ottavia Project, Artistic Director Misha Penton's telling of the story of Octavia, scorned wife of the Roman Emperor Nero, through a fusion of elements from Monteverdi's opera L'Incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) and the tragedy Octavia, often attributed to the 1st century C.E. Roman dramatist Seneca, with dance and music.

The resulting spectacle was a satisfying melding of the old and the new very much in line with DVT's stated vision:

A progressive attitude to repertoire selection, fearless contemporary staging, and an exciting fusion of interdisciplinary arts characterizes our non-traditional approach to classical vocal repertoire. The result: boundary defying performances featuring historic and new opera, art song, solo piano pieces, theater, dance, and multimedia arts.

Not three days earlier I had another such ancient/modern experience at the University of Houston where the School of Theatre & Dance is in the middle of a run of Metamorphoses, Mary Zimmerman's 1996 play (which won her a 2002 Tony Award for best direction0.

As you might guess, Zimmerman's drama is based on the work of the same name by the Roman writer Ovid. The adaptation, with modern twists, of some of the most humorous and heartbreaking myths from the ancient text takes place in and around a large pool, giving the feel of a modern Roman atrium. As the UH PR material for the play states, "A masterpiece of contemporary storytelling, Metamorphoses follows an ensemble cast as they undergo the transformations that define the human experience."

Yet again the ancient and modern are merged in a production firmly rooted in Classical Antiquity.

Back in August Houston's Nova Arts Project presented The Bacchae, a daring adaptation of the Greek tragedy of the same name by Euripides, "written and directed" by Clinton Hopper, the NAP founding artistic director.

I was surprised to see the designation "writer" attributed to Hopper in the program as I assumed the production was the Euripidean version. But what I saw was an adaptation of the Greek tragedy; it is based on Euripides's play but is not a mere staging of it. Hopper had streamlined the action, the characters, the dramatic concerns, and in effect created a version of the original. The new and the old were interwoven.

What are we to make of this seeming trend back to ancient days? Perhaps no more than that the art of Classical Antiquity still has relevance today. The elements that make performances compelling today (inventive storytelling, compelling plots, human insight etc.) have been around for millenia and don't lose their lustre with the passage of time.

Maybe we should also be reminded that not everyone in the first years of the 21st century has necessarily been exposed to earliest texts of the Western cultural tradition; there may be a huge "virgin" audience for these works many of us are very familiar with.

But while these recent productions may harken back to the mists of time, their treatments are thoroughly modern and completely in keeping with Houston's commitment to the cutting edge.

Magna Opera

Yesterday I attended the opening night of the Shepherd School Opera's productions of Holst's Savitri and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. I had never seen either one-act work in performance before, although I was familiar with the Puccini courtesy of the famed aria "O mio babbino caro" (which is used in the soundtrack to the 1985 Merchant-Ivory movie A Room with a View). I received my first exposure to the Holst during the live performance segment I did with two of the Shepherd School Opera cast on Tuesday's The Front Row.

Unlike the well-known one-act pairing of Cav and Pag (Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci), you'll not at first glance find much that Savitri and Gianni Schicchi have in common. The former is an earnest setting of a legend from the ancient Indian epic poem, The Mahabharata, a text of primary importance to Hindu philosophy, while the Puccini romp traces its inspiration to a brief passage from The Inferno in Dante's Divine Comedy.

Both, however, are concerned with the triumph of love in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and with the cleverness that enables such true love to prevail. Both might also be termed comedies in that their trajectories follow the Aristotelian model moving from misfortune to happiness. And the two works premiered within two years of each other, the Holst in 1916 and the Puccini in 1918.

Maybe Savitri and Schicchi could become the new Cav and Pag after all?

The reason I mention my trip to the Shepherd School Opera's productions is because they are the first of a barrage of opera over the coming weekend here in Houston. There are also performances from Houston Grand Opera, and Opera in the Heights.

HGO's production of Berlioz's Beatrice and Benedict continues at the Wortham Center, while Opera in the Heights debuts "The Two Faces of Donizetti" this evening at Heights Church of Christ (1548 Heights Blvd), due to extensive repairs taking place after Hurricane Ike at Lambert Hall. Gaetano Donizetti's "two faces" are Act I of Lucia di Lammermoor, a tragedy, presented in concert form, and a fully-staged Don Pasquale, a comedy, in its entirety.

Where else in this country (New York City maybe?) do you get such operatic choice, and on such a regular basis? We are brimming over with opera companies here and I wonder if we realize how lucky we are?

• There is, of course, H-town's world class company, Houston Grand Opera, one of a select number of companies that more than hold their own on the international stage. (Listen to the production preview of HGO's Beatrice and Benedict on The Front Row.)


• Joining HGO is Opera in the Heights, now in its 12th season, which focuses on providing a stage for emerging young opera performers. (Listen to the production preview live segment of Don Pasquale on The Front Row.)


• Both university music schools, the Shepherd and the Moores, boast strong opera departments. In addition to the Shepherd School Opera evening I attended last night, I recently got to enjoy the Moores Opera Center's staging of Offenbach's riotous Orpheus in the Underworld. (Listen to the live preview segment of the Moores Opera Center's Orpheus in the Underworld on The Front Row.)


• Not to be forgotten is Houston Ebony Opera whose mission is to "sustain and expand the African American presence in voice-associated classical music." Its recent staged performance of excerpts from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park was a great evening of rich, black voices. (Listen to the production preview live segment on The Front Row.)


• "Modern opera for modern times" is how Houston's Opera Vista describes itself. The small company recently put on Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti under the stars at Bayou Bend. (Listen to the production preview live segment on The Front Row.)


• Opera to Go! is the HGO department that takes opera into area schools providing short, English-language productions designed to introduce students to the wonders of opera. (Listen to the production preview live segment of Opera to Go!'s Strega Nona on The Front Row.)

Now, I understand that, for many, opera is an acquired taste, and I'm not trying to change those minds. I do, however, want Houstonians, and others farther afield, to be aware of the depth and breadth of this particular manifestation of musical theater here in Houston. It's remarkable. It's quality. It's a bellwether of the broader cultural life of the nation's 4th largest city because opera encompasses so many performance arts: music, singing, drama, dancing etc.

I still have to fit Beatrice and Benedict and "The Two Faces of Donizetti" into my calendar. Although I've got other events to attend, I'm not worried about getting to see these productions because (and I couldn't not say it now, could I?) the fat lady hasn't yet sung!