Henry VIII & Jordi Savall too

Go medieval on your ears: Early music heavyweights headed to Houston

The city exercises its musical acumen this upcoming fall and spring with the 2010-2011 season of Houston Early Music, an organization specializing in music from the Middle Ages through the 18th century.

Obscure? Yes.

A hotbed of talent? Indeed.

Witness the synergy of seasoned musicians and historical instruments in this medley of mesmerizing melodies:

Jordi Savall could steal a show in The Route to the New World: Spain to Mexico, a collaboration with Da Camera of Houston. An icon in early music pedagogy, research and performance, Savall is the star viol player, conductor and composer of contemporary Catalonia, and will be importing his own renowned Hespèrion XXI with soprano Montserrat Figueras and La Capella Reial de Catalunya.

"Jordi Savall is a huge name in early music and known worldwide," says Bettie Anderson, a past president of HEM and continuing board member. "He's a real heavyweight in the genre and should be extraordinary."

The baroque compositions of Old Spain will be buttressed by references to the Mexican Baroque and living huasteca and jarocho traditions by Mexico's Ensemble Tembembe in commemoration of the 200th year of Mexican independence. The Hispanic celebration comes together on Oct. 2 at the Cullen Theater at Wortham Center.

HEM honors the holiday spirit with "A Piper's Nöel" on Monday, Dec. 13, when Christ Church Cathedral will resound with a robust blending of voice, shawn, sackbut, recorder and bagpipes. Audiences can revel in the range of Renaissance polyphony and modest piper's tunes produced by the award-winning mixed ensemble.

With director Adam Gilbert's pre-concert lecture, spectators may brush up on the medieval carols of England, France, Spain, Italy and Germany and clue in to the present-day celebrations in Rome's Piazza Navona.

Salute the spring with "The Harmony of Nations" on March 28 at the Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, featuring English violinist and conductor Monica Huggett.

"Huggett is the most enchanting baroque violinist and an adventure to watch — a little show within a show," Anderson explains. "She's a dumpling of a woman, so you'd never guess she were so lightening fast. Her music is just riveting — even if you didn't know anything about the Baroque and violin, you'll be able to appreciate it."

Huggett brings a dynamic program from the United Kingdom, including Biber's "Mystery Sonatas" for virtuoso violin, exquisitely refined French music for the viola da gamba, sprightly tunes from Jacobean England and a sonata for violin and harpsichord by J.S. Bach. She'll be bringing her Trio Sonnerie group, considered one of the most imaginative, flexible and dynamic period instrumental ensembles, boasting the versatility to expand from a trio of violin, viola da gamba and keyboard into a full chamber orchestra.

Supplement the performance with a pre-concert lecture by the song-savvy Gregory Barnett of Rice University's Shepherd School of Music.

"The Six Wives of Henry VIII" represents HEM's season finale with the return of the internationally acclaimed Flanders Recorder Quartet. A guest appearance by soprano Cecile Kempenaers will give homage to the sheets of contemporary music by award-winning Belgian composer Piet Swert. Recorder quartet, voice and narrator will coalesce in this compilation of medieval and improvised music, a scene from Shakespeare, letters from King Henry and Anne Bolyen and original verse written specifically for the project.

Henry VIII may be a familiar story — but think of this rendition as a 21st-century remix being spun at Trinity Episcopal Church on May 2, 2011.

Little known fact: The king was an accomplished musician himself. Get the full scoop before the performance at a talk delivered by Thomas Crowe of the University of St. Thomas.

"Our concerts are really choice," Bettie Anderson says.

The eclecticism of the season, combined with the appealing tariff, places Houston Early Music's lineup among the not-to-be-missed music events of the months ahead.

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Movie Review

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is technically stunning but lacks emotion

Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures

Matt Damon in The Odyssey.

For a story that is 3,000 years old and has been referenced innumerable times since the advent of the moving picture, it’s striking that The Odyssey has not been adapted into a film more often. Christopher Nolan’s new film is, depending on your definition, just the fourth time in film history that someone has attempted to tell the original story (oddly, the third film — The Return — came out just two years ago).

Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, who has been gone from his home of Ithaca for over 20 years. Waiting at home for him is his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland), as well as a hall full of suitors — most notably Antinous (Robert Pattinson) — who are hoping that Penelope will finally believe that Odysseus is dead and choose to marry one of them.

In typical Nolan fashion, the film goes back-and-forth in time often to show what has happened to Odysseus in the past two decades. His sea voyages with his crew have him attacking Troy using the legendary Trojan Horse; taking on the cyclops Polyphemus (Bill Irwin); trying to escape the clutches of the witch Circe (Samantha Morton); living with the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron); communing with the vision of Athena (Zendaya); and more.

Nolan, who wrote and directed the epic film, has a clear reverence for the material and, perhaps more than any current filmmaker, has the chops to make the sprawling story feel coherent. With a plethora of characters who have names that take some time to understand for those not familiar with the ancient tale, it’s extremely tough to wrangle everything and everyone together, and Nolan and his team make that trick seem relatively easy.

However, there’s a difference between making the story comprehensible and making it compelling, and Nolan is not as successful on this front. As portrayed in this film, it’s difficult to care whether Odysseus ever finds his way home. His connection with Penelope and Telemachus is tenuous, at best, and his status as a hero is called into question on multiple occasions. Complicated protagonists are nothing new, but in a story where the hero’s journey is the whole point, Nolan fails to make the quest all encompassing.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some standout moments along the way. The sequence in Polyphemus’ cave is tremendous, as are a few other scenes in which Nolan’s reported reliance on practical effects make you wonder how the crew accomplished what they did. Damon has said this is the hardest movie he’s ever made, and that effort shows up in every scene, especially those on the water.

At 56 years old, Damon is getting close to elder statesman status in Hollywood, and he ably embodies the role of the respected and feared leader. Hathaway, Holland, and Pattinson get the next most screentime, and each makes their character interesting if not mesmerizing. The murderer’s row of the supporting cast — Theron, Lupita Nyong'o, Zendaya, Elliot Page, Morton, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, and more — give each scene a nice sheen whether or not their individual arc makes sense.

While the technical achievements of Nolan and his team in The Odyssey are admirable and occasionally awe-inspiring, the story he lays out is not quite as overwhelming. The structure he chose to use doesn’t allow the story to overcome the episodic nature of Odysseus’ brutal journey, keeping big emotions mostly at bay.

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The Odyssey opens in theaters on July 17.

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