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Houston Grand Operaâs Giving Voice concert last January was a triumphant celebration of Black voices in opera. Now Houstonians can give a standing ovationâalbeit from their living roomsâfor its sequel, which is available to stream through February 21. This yearâs concert features several of the most renowned African American opera singers in the country, including tenor Larry Brownlee and soprano Nicole Heaston as co-hosts and performers. Joining them are baritone Donnie Ray Albert, tenor Frederick Ballentine, mezzo-soprano and HGO Studio alumna Zoie Reams, and soprano Karen Slack, as well as four current HGO Studio artists: baritone Blake Denson, bass Cory McGee, soprano Raven McMillon, and bass-baritone Nicholas Newton. Kevin J. Miller, assistant conductor with HGO, accompanies them on piano. ....
This Friday, Houston Grand Opera will present a special digital concert: Giving Voice 2021: A Celebration of Black Artists in Opera and Song whose co-hosts are the acclaimed tenor Lawrence Brownlee and Houston- favorite, soprano Nicole Heaston. The idea s was Brownlee s, Heaston said, and the international star rounded up herself and other African American singers who will be performing a range of songs in concert from opera to Broadway to gospel. It follows a sold-out, in-person concert Brownlee put together in January 2020 (pre-COVID) along the same lines that attracted a diverse audience. A lot of the time people don t feel like opera is for everyone. They feel like it is for a certain, select few. Especially in the Black community a lot of them don t even recognize that there are a lot of African Americans that sing classical music, said Heaston. ....
There’s a certain experience that you’re probably familiar with at this point in the pandemic: You log into a Zoom meeting and are greeted by your own horrendous face. You needed a haircut a month ago, and it shows. The cruel, uncontrollable lighting does you no favors. Beauty is lost in virtual reality. Be that as it may, you are happy to see some other faces after weeks of seclusion either with yourself as your sole company or (even worse?) with a troupe of raucous family members. This is the mood with which Fort Worth Opera’s Bernadette’s Cozy Book Nook (with a libretto by Mark Campbell, and music by Joe Illick) opens, and it captures the all-too familiar atmosphere perfectly as the titular character (Brenda Harris) starts a Zoom meeting and quickly reckons with the struggles of technology. She is hosting her book club’s first meeting since the beginning of the pandemic, and is eager to have a successful virtual meeting. Bernadette is concerned by how uncome ....
Houston Grand Opera’s ‘Giving Voice’ gives platform for Black opera singers By Chris Gray, Correspondent Appearing in Houston Grand Opera’s production of “The Pearl Fishers” in early 2019, Lawrence Brownlee looked around him and experienced something of a revelation. “The cast was so beautifully diverse, and I just thought, ‘Wow, this is great,’ recalls the Ohio-born singer. “Houston Grand Opera has a longstanding tradition of doing color-blind casting anyway, and so to see that they were continuing that idea was something that spoke to me.” Brownlee is, simply put, one of the world’s leading operatic tenors. For HGO, he’s appeared in six productions since 2007, also including Mozart’s “The Abduction From the Seraglio” as well as Rossini’s “The Italian Girl in Algiers” and “The Barber of Seville.” Hoping to cultivate the same kind of diversity in the audience that he saw onstage, he used his connections wit ....
Review: Fort Worth Opera streams a new Zoom production. But the main messages fall flat ‘Bernadette’s Cozy Book Nook’ was composed by Joe Illick, with a libretto by Mark Campbell. Gabrielle Gilliam, Brenda Harris, William Burden, Donnie Ray Albert and Joyce Castle are the singers in Bernadette s Cozy Book Nook. (Fort Worth Opera) Bernadette’s Cozy Book Nook Thursday night. Composed by FWO’s artistic director Joe Illick, with a libretto by Mark Campbell, the 40-minute, one-act opera calls for five voices, accompanied by piano and string quartet. Assembled digitally from different locations, the singers appear in their own ....