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    The Review Is In

    Power & mercy: Houston Grand Opera's Don Carlos is an epic that hits on apersonal level

    Theodore Bale
    Apr 16, 2012 | 12:36 am
    • The chorus in Houston Grand Opera's production of Don Carlos
      Photo by Felix Sanchez
    • The heretic burnings in Houston Grand Opera's production of Don Carlos
      Photo by Felix Sanchez
    • Brandon Jovanovich as Don Carlos and Tamara Wilson as Elizabeth de Valois
      Photo by Felix Sanchez
    • Don Carlos and King Philippe
      Photo by Felix Sanchez

    Such a grand web of emotion, history, and musical thinking is contained in Verdi’s epic Don Carlos that the experience of it is psychologically complicated. I’m extremely grateful to Houston Grand Opera for presenting this masterpiece, especially in its original five-act version with a French libretto.

    It is an unstable work, allegedly existing in more permutations than any other Verdi opera, and the only thing that seems to be missing here is a ballet scene that even Verdi himself, in 1883, was willing to cut.

    Based on Friedrich Schiller’s dramatic story of the 16th century Don Carlos, Infante of Spain, and the long-standing struggle for power in the Houses of Habsburg and Valois, the opera might seem largely focused on history. Nonetheless, its enduring popularity is no doubt related to how it resonates with the contemporary viewer in a more personal manner.

     

      As I got into my car to leave, two priests were getting into the car next to mine. They were laughing and smiling, and I wondered what they had thought of the opera. 

    As it unfolded, I found my thoughts turning to my high-school philosophy teacher Mr. Harris. On days when he wasn’t teaching Intro to Kant or Camus, he would menace his mostly indifferent students with the irritating question, “Who shall rule?” It’s no small inquiry, and it certainly woke us up.

    Each class member had his or her own answer, and as a group we never did solve that most difficult conundrum by the end of the year. It’s just what we’ve been doing as humans throughout history, and for me, this the basic conflict contained in the plot of Don Carlos.

    And after witnessing the third-act auto da fé (“act of faith”) burning of heretics, not to mention the assassinations by the Inquisition in the subsequent two acts, certainly my mind turned to the matter of religion. As I got into my car to leave, two priests were getting into the car next to mine. They were laughing and smiling, and I wondered what they had thought of the opera.

    How are we to consider those who do not share our religious beliefs? If the first theme of Don Carlos is power, the second (no less subordinate to the first) is mercy.

    The third is musical invention. Premiered at the Paris Opera in 1867 (though HGO program notes say that Verdi had been thinking about composing it as early as 1850), the date seems notable as well, since it follows the Munich premiere of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde by only a couple of years.

    I don’t know enough about Verdi’s attitude towards, and experience of, Wagner, but the structure and texture of his Don Carlos seems much more through-composed than his earlier work. The ensemble writing is even richer, if you can imagine that. Verdi does not appear, however, to hint at the decay of diatonic harmony to the extent that Wagner did.

    He has composed distinct arias, but they are skillfully embedded into the larger structure, and the orchestral writing is often lush in a late-Romantic German manner. The second-act aria for Princess Eboli harkens to Bizet’s Carmen, but it couldn’t, since that opera didn’t premiere until 1875, so maybe it’s the other way around.

    Suffice it to say that Verdi, by the time of Don Carlos, starts to sound quite inter-European, and the overall skillfulness and sophistication carries the lengthy piece magnificently.

     Sticking To The Cross

    South African designer Johan Engels has contributed a fascinating set based on the powerful image of the cross. The opening scene, for a chorus of woodcutters, had (by my count) 21 looming black wooden crosses at slight angles, mimicking a forest. A small pile of firewood downstage center turns out later to be assembled from individual smaller crosses as monks file in and each chooses one from the pile.

    In a subsequent scene, these same crosses are bright red and held aloft by the chorus during the burning of the heretics. Later, they become the monuments in a cemetery.

    An arena of bleachers is effective at times, but in other scenes seems a bit at odds with the more intimate scenes. Engels perhaps wished to show that all personal events in the opera are played out within a public context. His colors are almost entirely red, black and gold, and they are enhanced by Nigel Levings’ classy lighting design.

     

      Goerke is a brilliant singer and an accomplished actor, and her overall deportment harkens back to the great heyday of golden divas. 

    Where Engels’ set design is successful at embodying archetypes rather than any specific historical period, Carl Friedrich Oberle’s costume ideas are fragmented and have a strange problem of dissonance. I noticed Pasolini-like gangsters in black baggy double-breasted suits, complete with Borsalino hats. There were women in bright blue satin 1950s evening gowns. And some of the dress for the central characters looked like 16th century “Spanish-lite.”

    The effect was somewhat reminiscent of Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater aesthetic, but it should be noted, that choreographer always used faded clothing that looked as if it came from the resale shop. There’s a metaphor in that, to be sure. Engels’ outfits, however, are a little too pristine and seem self-consciously metaphorical, particularly the Catholic processions in bright-red Ku Klux Klan hoods. I’m aware that such outfits are still worn in Europe by hooded penitents in Holy Week festivities, but they resonate differently with American audiences.

    The costuming throughout didn’t quite match the sophistication of Engels’ stage design.

    American tenor Brandon Jovanovich in the title role was having some pitch problems in the first act, as if he couldn’t quite hear himself. Those slight sags on the high notes made me worry that I was in for a headache by the finish, but it didn’t happen. It appeared to be a simple matter of warming up, or perhaps dealing with the acoustic situation in the hall.

    By the second act, Jovanovich was in fine form and by the fourth he was perfectly sublime. The circumstances of a four-hour opera are complicated in this way. They demand endurance, but the pay-off is that sometimes the length allows the singer to only get better as the scenes pass by. The latter situation occurred and Friday night the handsome young singer made a highly successful role debut at HGO.

    Soprano Tamara Wilson was a bit restrained as Elisabeth de Valois, though the clarity of her singing and the stunning consistency of her voice more than made up for it. When her precious jewel box is stolen in the fourth act and she responds with compassion towards the scheming Princess Eboli, she began to more fully embody the opera’s overall theme of mercy (this is already hinted at in the first act, where she takes pity on a crowd of peasants).

    Her fifth act aria, where she prays at a tomb and remembers her first meeting with Carlos at Fontainebleau was a highpoint, and we needed it late in the evening. Wilson, however, was a bit upstaged by the emphatic Christine Goerke in the role of Eboli. If you saw last season’s Ariadne auf Naxos, you know what I mean. Goerke is a brilliant singer and an accomplished actor, and her overall deportment harkens back to the great heyday of golden divas.

    In the fourth act, her character is admonished and told, “You must choose between a convent and exile; live in happiness!” and her reaction of incredulity, and the concomitant vocalizing was something quite memorable. She cursed beauty, “which makes women so proud,” with everything she had.

    Other notable performances include American bass Samuel Ramey as The Grand Inquisitor. He could take a simple phrase like, “De moi, que vouliez-vous?” and make it heartbreaking and terrifying at the same time. His is a rich, resonant, powerful voice and his blind character is a hard one to bring off, though program notes explain that he has a certain predilection for villains. Anyone who saw him on opening night would be hard-pressed to argue that point.

    Baritone Scott Hendricks brought convincing fervor to his portrayal of Rodrigue, and Italian Andrea Silvestrelli’s demanding bass, not to mention his overall stunning endurance, made for a thrilling Philippe II.

     HGO will perform Dob Carlos three more times — Thursday night at 6:30 p.m., April 22 at 2 p.m. and April 28 at 6:30 p.m.

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    Best July Art

    Where to see art in Houston now: 9 fun new exhibits opening in July

    Tarra Gaines
    Jul 9, 2025 | 4:30 pm
    ​Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
    Photo courtesy of Artechouse
    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"

    Art blooms in our world class museums but also on our city streets this July. From exhibitions featuring traditional paintings and sculptures to high tech immersive and interactive shows, we’re weaving art into the best of summertime fun and dreaming up beautiful new artistic creations all over Houston.

    “Town Meeting 1978-2028” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Pioneering Houston-based interdisciplinary artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin continue their decades-long project to create new and sometimes monumental artworks in response to little-known pre-Stonewall queer histories. For this latest exhibition, the duo explore a more recent and influential piece of Houston history, “Town Meeting I,” the pivotal convening of 4,000 LGBTQIA+ Houstonians at the Astro Arena in 1978. For this show at Art League, they’ve used their “wind drawing” technique of stenciling unfixed charcoal powder on paper and blowing it away, leaving a ghost-image. Using archival images of “Town Meeting I” as the bases of their stenciling, the finished “wind drawings” highlight the ephemerality, beauty, and loss of queer histories. In addition to these new works, Vaughan and Margolin hope to inspire, facilitate, and develop programming in 2028 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of “Town Meeting 1.”

    “Fragmentos de un sueño que yo también soñé (Fragments of a Dream I Also Dreamed)" at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    “Every house is a body, and every individual body is a house full of memories and hopes,” says award-winning Venezuela born, Chicago-based artist, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, of her artistic focus. Molina’s fragmented, layered, and figural compositions explore that idea of home and memories. Delving into memories and stories, these figurative compositions, depicting people and relationships, fluctuate between stories of the present, past, and future. Taken together, the works in “Fragmentos de un sueño” aim to visually capture the feelings of vulnerability, nostalgia, and hope embedded in the experience of many immigrants. Art League notes that Molina’s pieces emphasize optimism over hardship, specifically addressing the longing for a home that no longer exists while striving to create a new one.

    “Every Fiber of Their Bodies” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Working with natural fibers such as linen, paper collage, and hand-spun paper yarn made from calligraphy paper and book pages, textile artist Lin Qiqing weaves stories ofhuman relationships, gender, immigration, and language. As the title hints, the labor-intensive weaving process brings thematic depth to the images of bodies depicted in the pieces. The woven pieces also make connections to the natural world, as when Lin crumples then smooths handmade mulberry paper to resemble human skin, or when she uses handwoven fiber to mimic the body’s movement. Lin process includes research and experimenting with natural materials to explore themes of the internal human struggle for existence and our interactions with the world around us.

    “Annual Juried Exhibition” at Archway Gallery (now through July 31)
    For the 17th year, the artist owned Archway Gallery celebrates Houston artists with its juried exhibition of area artists who are not members of the space. This year’s exhibition is juried by Project Row Houses founder and MacArthur "genius" fellow, Rick Lowe. The acclaimed artist and social activist has selected work from over 35 area artists representing a diversity of medium and styles. Sales from the exhibition will go to Houston’s Brave Little Company, the theater company for Houston’s kids and their gown ups.

    “Foyer Installation: René Magritte” at Menil Collection (now through August 3)
    After a critically acclaimed trip to Australia, some of our favorite Belgian-born Houstonians are back home. Yes, the Magritte paintings have returned to the Menil Collection after taking a star turn in a monumental Magritte retrospective at Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales. Now the Menil is celebrating their return with a special installation in the main building foyer. The Menil Collection owns the largest collection of work by René Magritte outside the artist’s native Belgium, and this display focuses on a core group of paintings from the 1950s and ’60s that truly represent Magritte’s status as a master creator of impossible painted worlds and an icon of the Surrealist movement. The paintings were purchased within a couple years of their making by the museum’s founders, John and Dominique de Menil. They represent and important part of 20th century art history, as the de Menils became Magritte’s biggest champions in the United States, helping to shape the artist’s reception and reputation in the postwar American art world. Stop by to welcome them home and slip into their enigmatic wonder.

    “Blooming Wonders” at Artechouse (now through September)
    The latest immersive exhibition from the Houston venue that brings art, science, and technology home together, Artechouse, lets the flowers blossom. The exhibition contains several dynamic installations, including “Timeless Butterflies,” a 270 degrees projection space that puts visitors in the middle of a butterfly cloud. Audiences journey with a flock of butterflies into an immense garden of flowers. Another immersive piece, “Infinite Blooms” takes audiences on a journey through an endless digital forest of cherry blossoms. The installation, “Akousmaflore et Lux” creates a very different type of garden where plants transform into musical instruments. “Clay Pillar” by Interactive Items / Vadim Mirgorodskii invites visitors to sculpt new forms using clay and a little help from an AI program. Note that “Blooming Wonders” runs simultaneously with the rock ‘n’ roll exhibition, “Amplified” with “Wonders” open during the daytime.

    “Weci | Koninut” at Avenida Houston (now through September 1)
    Houston is a place for big dreams, and this wondrous outdoor exhibition near George R. Brown Convention Center gives us the space to do so. Created by First Nations artists Julie-Christina Picher and Dave Jenniss, this interactive installation weaves together visual arts, Indigenous storytelling and sensory technologies in the form of six immense sculptural dreamcatchers. Each of these dreamcatchers are unique and represent one of the six seasons from the Atikamekw culture, an Indigenous people in Canada. Activated by people passing by, the dreamcatchers come to life with lights, sounds, and story, making the whole installation truly interactive. “Weci | Koninut” creators say that they want the installation to offer a total immersion experience for visitors, to create a moment where nature and dreams converge. Each piece offers a place for the public to slow down, sit, reflect, and yes, dream.

    New Murals in the East End and Midtown (ongoing)
    We could spend days viewing all the new murals painted across town, just in the last few years. But in honor of summer outdoor art viewing, we thought we’d spotlight two noteworthy new additions to our city-wide gallery of murals. As part of his major exhibition last spring at the CAMH, Vincent Valdez worked with San Antonio muralist Rubio and local students to create “Memoria, Memory.” Dedicated to his mother Theresa Santana Valdez (1947–2020), the vivid mural on historic Navigation Boulevard features her favorite bird and flower. Over in Midtown, check out “Stellar Illumination,” the latest installation in the city’s Big Walls Big Dreams mural series. Created by Robin Munro, also known as Dread, the seven stories high “Illumination” depicts a celestial scene of an astronaut gazing at Earth from space.

    “The Weight of Place” at Anya Tish Gallery (July 11-August 23)
    This group exhibition will explore themes of memory and the emotional, psychological, and physical landscapes memories can evoke. The will showcase three contemporary Texas-based female artists: Megan Harrison, Marisol Valencia, and Lillian Warren. While these artists work in different mediums–including large-scale paintings, mixed media works, and elegant porcelain sculptures–they are inspired by personal reflection and nature to create artworks that reflect on the ways we hold onto the past through sensory experience.

    “In Residence: 18th Edition” at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (July 12-June 27, 2026)
    This annual exhibition celebrating the Center’s Artist Residency Program reaches it’s big 18th anniversary. Over the many years, the residency program has supported so many emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media. The program gives them a space for creative exploration, exchange, and collaboration with other artists, arts professionals, and the public. Now arts and craft lovers will get a chance to see the culmination of that work with this exhibition featuring pieces in fiber, clay, copper, and found objects by 2024-2025 resident artists Prerata Bradley, Stephanie Bursese, Atisha Fordyce, Nela Garzón, Gbenga Komolafe, Gabo Martinez, Preetika Rajgariah, Macon Reed, Jamie Sterling Pitt, Adam Whitney, and Dongyi Wu.

    “My Texas” at Our Texas Cultural Center (July 27-August 22)
    Award winning, Russian-born photographer, Anatoliy Kosterev, chronicles his personal exploration of Texas with photographs he took around the Lone Star State. The photos offer extraordinary views of Texas, from our dynamic cities to dramatic and sometimes lonesome landscapes. Kosterev’s photographic style blends science and technology with an artistic eye. He puts those two perspectives into practice when documenting all facets of life in Texas. Using HDR, drone imaging, macro photography, and traditional camera methods, he captures a diversity of subjects from quiet human moments to vast landscapes to delicate close-ups of insects and flowers.

    \u200bArtechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
      

    Photo courtesy of Artechouse

    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds."

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