The CultureMap Interview

Goodfellas: New top dogs Patrick Summers & Perryn Leech preview Houston GrandOpera's future

Patrick Summers, left, and Perryn Leech

Photo by Eric Melear
HGO's season kicks off with The Barber of Seville
Karita Mattila stars in Fidelio next month

After Houston Grand Opera general director Anthony Freud announced he was leaving for the head job at Lyric Opera of Chicago last spring, the HGO board turned to an in-house team to take his place, with Patrick Summers as artistic and music director and Perryn Leech as managing director, overseeing the business end.

Instead of one person at the top of the organization, the duo are jointly determining the opera company's future, with Gregory Robertson as chief development officer.

With a packed HGO season about to get underway, CultureMap caught up with Leech at his Wortham Center office in late August and by phone with Summers, who was in San Francisco preparing to conduct the world premiere of the San Francisco Opera production of Heart of a Soldier, to gauge how the new relationship is working out.

(Summers is in Houston for the opening of The Barber of Seville Friday night, but will not be fully back in the city until January, when rehearsals for La Traviata begin.)

Here are some excerpts from the conversation:

CultureMap: This professional arrangement seems to be different from most opera organizations. How is it working now and how do you envision it in the future?

Patrick Summers: It's actually a much more normal setup for arts organizations. European opera companies by and large function with an artistic director and a managing director. Nearly every ballet company in the world functions that way. It's actually not such an uncommon structure, although it is an uncommon structure for the Houston Grand Opera, which has only ever had a single general director.

"No one in any era, especially in 2011, can pretend that every artistic decision isn't also a financial one and vice versa. So when I look out into the future about what repertoire I'm going to do, my main objective is artistic but I also must also look at it from a practical standpoint as well."

Perryn Leech: There's an argument that it makes a lot more sense to spread that workload between two people who have different skill sets and therefore as a team can cover more of the bases. It's a very rare thing to find somebody who's both a brilliant artist and a brilliant businessman rolled into the same person.

Therefore the success of this hopefully will be the fact that I also have a strong artistic side and Patrick also has a very keen interest in the business side of running things. The two dovetail very nicely if you have the right skill sets within the people.

PS: No one in any era, especially in 2011, can pretend that every artistic decision isn't also a financial one and vice versa. So when I look out into the future about what repertoire I'm going to do, my main objective is artistic but I also must also look at it from a practical standpoint as well. You balance what you know will be difficult financially with something artistically that will be more friendly at the box office. It's about balance.

CM: What happens if you disagree? Who is the ultimate decider?

PS: In this structure Perryn and I occupy one office, the general director's office, that is split in two. It simply means that if there is a disagreement, we close the door and we don't come out until there is an agreement. And that of course is very invigorating. It's very good for an artist to have to justify every decision. I think that's fantastic. A lot of artists hate that. The conversation is, 'I'm an artist and you just go raise money for this.' Those times are long, long gone.

PL: When it comes to decision making it has to be based on trust. I know there is a trust between us. There's no crying wolf.

PS: What's important for me is that those decisions happen elegantly and privately. We will present a united front always. Some of our sister organizations that air all of these disagreements in public, I don't see where that benefits the art in any way.

CM: Patrick, in the past you have traveled a lot. Will that change?

PS: I am away this fall, because at the time this conversation happened with the Houston Grand Opera Board, there were things that I could not give up. But going out into the future, I certainly will not be traveling to the extent I did when I was only music director. But I will still continue my relationships with several organizations. like the San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, where I have worked for many years because that work is very important to make me the type of artist that will be really vibrant in Houston.

PL: It's fantastic for us because Patrick gets to see those young singers that are coming through, artists programs in other cities and other countries. He represents HGO fantastically on the world stage. It's a win-win.

"It's fantastic for us because Patrick gets to see those young singers that are coming through, artists programs in other cities and other countries. He represents HGO fantastically on the world stage. It's a real win-win."

CM: What are the priorities of HGO under your leadership?

PS: I think inevitably as the years of The Ring approach (2014-17), really delivering a Wagner Ring Cycle in a way that is unique to the Houston Grand Opera is a real priority. And for me, regular commissioning of American works is a priority.

PL: My priority has to be to continue to refine our business model to make us as sustainable as possible, to allow us the platform to do this quality of work. Because ultimately all of Patrick's ambitions fall by the wayside if the company is a bust company. You can have the loftiest artistic ideals you want, if there is not business there to support it and no proper business structure, it all becomes a moot point.

PS: If you don't have the money you can't put on the artistic work, but likewise, if you don't put on the artistic work that is really vibrant, you can't raise the money. So it's a constant balancing act. But it's a perfect democracy in that way, because people vote with their donations.

CM: At what point will you put your stamp on HGO both artistically and financially?

PS: Even as soon as the season after next will bear quite a lot of imprint of the new administration, although Anthony and I planned very closely together the next five years, which includes part of the Ring Cycle. But certainly three seasons from now you'll be seeing the new administration's vision, and that's pretty much the normal planning cycle. Seasons in American opera houses are planned about five to six years in advance and really solidified three years in advance.

PL: You don't go through an economic downturn without picking up most of the stones in the company and looking under them. To stay as a major international world-class company you have to be as busy as you possibly can be, because it allows you to grow and to have a bigger audience. It's about us getting back to a busier company rather than hunker down because the hurricane's coming. We want to grow the company. We want people around the world talking about Houston Grand Opera as one of the great American companies. It has that reputation.

"To stay as a major international world-class company you have to be as busy as you possibly can be, because it allows you to grow and to have a bigger audience. It's about us getting back to a busier company rather than hunker down because the hurricane's coming. We want to grow the company."

CM: What are you most excited about in the upcoming season?

PL: The production I'm most excited about is The Rape of Lucretia (Feb. 3-11, 2012). It's the conclusion of our Britten series. Arin Arbus, the director, is a fantastically talented young lady who just brings a freshness and a new look at the piece, which is a fantastic piece of theater with music.

We open with a new production of Barber of Seville. It will be fun. In opera, there's a lot of laughing behind your program, but this will be genuine laughing. The team that is doing it is immensely talented. For me it's always the new productions that really gets a company going.

And Don Carlos (April 13-28, 2012). I actually did this production in Wales when it was new. There's something about that sheer force of human numbers that blows you away.

PS: Certainly Traviata in Houston carries a special place for me. It was the opera of my own debut at the company in 1998. And then I conducted Traviata again the next time we did it, which was Renée Fleming's first Violetta. So coming back to Traviata again, in Houston, with a soprano (Albina Shagimuratova) singing Violetta for the first time is extraordinarily exciting to me (Jan 27-Feb. 12, 2012). To usher a new Violetta into that part again is something I'm really looking forward to.

The two Schiller operas in the spring— Mary Stuart (April 21-May 4, 2012) and Don Carlos — for me that is such a dream pairing of operas. I've been looking forward to that repertoire for five years. And we have Fidelio back in this company after so many years and with such an extraordinary star, Karita Mattila — she's the sole reason we're doing it (Oct. 28-Nov. 13). I think that's going to be a really really riveting event for Houston audiences.

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best july art

MFAH celebrates America 250 and 7 more must-see art openings for July

Photo courtesy of Art Club

Orkhan Mammadov’s “Visions” at Art Club

The middle of summer is traditionally a time for Houston art galleries, museums, and institutions to take a bit of a breather, allowing art lovers a chance to catch up with spring exhibitions in cool art spaces. But this July keeps the art openings coming as the month brings several celebratory shows and intriguing exhibitions of local artists. Let’s enjoy a sizzling summer of art as the MFAH honors our nation’s big 250; Art Club unveils a new lineup of exhibits; and Avenida Houston expands our art horizons.

Art Club’s New Season at POST (ongoing)
When Art Club, the immersive space and DJ venue opened over a year ago, it promised Houston art lovers and club goers this techno art museum would continue to change and evolve over time with new artists and large-scale installations. Now with 12 fresh, radical, and cutting edge, gallery-sized works for the summer, it has certainly delivered on that promise. Created by individual artists, collectives, and international design studios, the new exhibits send visitors into kinetic light space and beguiling soundscapes. Many of the installations merge ancient cultures and practices with some of the most high tech art mediums, taking visitors into a different strange, alien world with each gallery, but ones that always echo with human connection.

One highlight of the new season is Lina Dib’s “Here and Now,” where beautiful yet eerie flower descend from a darkened sky, blooming to a soundscape of migratory bird sounds made by human immigrants to Houston. Art Club’s mirrored "infinity room" gets a new resident in Orkhan Mammadov’s “Visions,” which merges a thousand years of art history with machine learning.

Light artist Sasha Kojjio processes large bodies of text through sorting and generating algorithms, spinning the results into light until meaning dissolves and only movement remains. For Sphere³ II, international design studio Radugadesign, explores ancient Greek geometry through light, mirrors, and sound, creating an object that feels as if it could transport humans across space and time.

“This season, we’ve continued to bring new media art from around the world to Houston with digital art ranging from the Islamic world to the Incan traditions of the Andes,” said Kirby Liu, founder and curator of Art Club Houston and managing director of POST. “The theme is the conviction that the binaries we use to see the world – whether analog versus digital, human versus machine, or tradition versus technology – are no longer doing the work we ask of them.”

“Horizon” at The Plaza at Avenida Houston (now through September 7)
Outdoor art gets expansive with these new interactive installations set between George R. Brown Convention Center and Discovery Green. Created by acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and set designer, Olivier Landreville, in collaboration with sound and light designer, Serge Maheu, “Horizon” invites Houstonians to take a seat inside these domed art structures and contemplate the sculpted skies. Gently rocking the chairs within the pieces will trigger a series of light and soundscapes.

Houston First Corporation has partnered with international public art producers Creos and Init to present Horizon with the hope it gives Houstonians and all the national and international visitors we’ve had this summer to slow down, unwind, and enjoy one of our favorite community spaces.

“George Washington: America's Enduring Icon” at Bayou Bend (now through November 22)
The MFAH celebrates America's first president with this fascinating decorative art exhibition at its Bayou Bend house museum. “Enduring Icon” includes objects from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries featuring images of George Washington during his lifetime, as well as many that mourned or honored him after his death. The exhibition examines the many ways that Americans have recognized, honored, celebrated, memorialized, and appropriated Washington as both a man and icon.

“America 250” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (now through January 3)
The 4th of July might have passed, but Houstonians and visitors from around the world can continue to celebrate the United States’ 250th birthday by taking this special marked journey through the MFAH. Instead of a contained exhibition, museum curators have chosen over 70 artworks from the collection across the campus to tell a uniquely American story through art.

From golden antiquities to Native American pottery to vast painted landscapes to large-scale installations of futuristic cities, these pieces reflect the complexity and diversity of the American experience, while drawing connections between our nation and the MFAH's history as a collecting institution. As visitors explore the museum, indoors and out, they’ll find guides to the artworks, along with newly created audio stops and labels that discuss each artwork from these historical and cultural perspectives.

"On the occasion of the nation’s 250th anniversary, we saw a singular opportunity to look at our collections and select objects that reflect the multitudes of individuals who have contributed to the identity of our nation,” describes MFAH director, Gary Tinterow. “The curators’ choices will allow our visitors to experience our collections framed within a series of illuminating and sometimes surprising narratives.”

"Representation of Form" at MATCH (July 9-12)
Photography and choreography dance together as Group Accord and photographer Christopher Peddecord collaborate in the creation of this multidisciplinary art event. Peddecord has taken photographs of Group Acorde dance artists and layers the images with one another. Those photographs will then be displayed and projected throughout the MATCH Box 1 space. During live performances, the dancers will move within the images of themselves. Audiences will also be free to move about the space, immersing themselves within the installation.

“Casa de Cultura: The Living Archive” at the Fresh Arts Gallery in Winter Street Studios (July 9-August 22)
Fresh Arts’ ongoing Space Taking Artist Residency invites traditionally underrepresented local artists to experiment and “take over” Fresh Arts’ gallery space at Sawyer Yards. The initiative has produced some stunning and surprising artwork and live performance experiences over the past few years.

For “Casa de Cultura,” Violeta Alvarez, an award-winning local photographer, will present work inspired by her mother’s life and journeys. Alvarez will create a “Living Archive” exploring cultural identity, migration and collective memory. The project will feature two photography exhibitions: one a curated selection of Alvarez’s music photography, including her early work with Justice Records, and the second built entirely from open-call live portrait sessions of individuals with ancestral ties to Mesoamerica. Several live events and performances will take place throughout the residency, including community photo sessions, panel discussions, a podcast recording, Aztec dance performances, Chicanx artist vendors for Second Saturdays, and community drives.

"World of Color” at Laura Rathe Fine Art (July 16-August 14)
This exhibition brings together a group of artists working in different mediums and producing very distinct imagery, but all their art explores vivid colors and manifests a sense of wonder and play. "World of Color" explores color as both a meaningful and nostalgic force, brought to life through Miriam Fitzgerald’s intricately folded paper, Gian Garofalo’s flowing stripes of pigmented resin, Pablo Dona’s miniature figures swimming within teacups, and Lynn Sanders' layered colorscapes. Exhibition organizers note that through curious and intuitive explorations of color, each artist engages with combinations that create a childlike sense of discovery.

"Learning Curve 18” at Houston Center for Photography (July 16-August 16)
This annual exhibition celebrates the HCP students’ work over a given year, and for the 18th iteration, the exhibition will showcase students from various programs at the Center doing a range of photographic work from digital to alternative processes. Jessi Bowman, the Houston-based photographer, curator, and founder of FLATS, a community darkroom and photo lab, is this year’s juror. Bowman has intentionally selected pieces exploring photography from a multitude of approaches, subjects, and perspectives in order to create an show that reveals artists working in community.

“As a juror, I was drawn to work that embraced curiosity and possibility. The strongest images often reflected a willingness to take risks,” explains Bowman in a statement about the selections, adding “Many of these photographs show artists pushing beyond technical proficiency toward a more personal visual voice.”

$\u200bOrkhan Mammadov\u2019s \u201cVisions\u201d at Art Club$

Photo courtesy of Art Club

Orkhan Mammadov’s “Visions” at Art Club

openings visual-art museums