Houston Grand Opera wastes a Figaro

By Sydney Boyd, 23 January 2016

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Reviewed at Wortham Theater Center: Brown Theater, Houston on 22 January 2016

Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)

Houston Grand Opera

Harry Bicket, Conductor

Michael Grandage, Director

Christopher Oram, Set Designer, Costume Designer

Adam Plachetka, Figaro

Heidi Stober, Susanna

Ben Edquist, Count Almaviva

Ailyn Pérez, Countess Almaviva

Lauren Snouffer, Cherubino

Peixin Chen, Doctor Bartolo

Catherine Cook, Marcellina

Chris Bozeka, Don Curzio

Keith Jameson, Don Basilio

Pureum Jo, Barbarina

Houston Grand Opera Orchestra

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Houston Grand Opera's new production is fully digital combining live singing with animated backgrounds.

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Edward Sava-Segal, 27th November

Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton seemed to have a lot of fun taking up the role of Julia Child once again.

***11

Fear in future past: Siegfried at Houston Grand Opera

Sydney Boyd, 16th April

The production is a disconcerting combination of cold metallic future and Neanderthal aesthetics – a startling pairing of humanity’s beginning and its end.

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Magical debuts make the myth alive in Houston Grand Opera's Rusalka

Sydney Boyd, 29th January

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***11

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Sydney Boyd, 4th December

As part of the season of Scrooges and Santas, it’s a refreshing reminder of sweet simplicity in a complicated world.

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HGO's Onegin stars an unlikely hero

Sydney Boyd, 30th October

Re-imagining this opera with Prince Gremin as the show-stealer was no doubt a happy accident.

****1

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Sydney Boyd

Sydney Boyd is an arts writer, scholar, and violinist. She has been a music critic in Houston since 2012 and is the blog author of Girl at the Opera. She has a Ph.D. in English literature from Rice University, where she currently holds a post-doctoral Spatial Studies fellowship in the Humanities Research Center.