MUSIC

Ars Lyrica’s new production of Handel’s pastoral masterpiece Acis and Galatea debuts on March 10th at The Hobby Center, with additional performances in San Miguel de Allende and Mexico City. In conjunction with the Texas Early Music Festival.

This new production of Handel’s pastoral masterpiece Acis and Galatea, is directed by Tara Faircloth and conducted by ALH Artistic Director Matthew Dirst, and features a vibrant cast: soprano Blair Doerge, countertenor Ryland Angel, tenors Derek Chester and Michael Kelly, and bass-baritone Timothy Jones.

Stage director Tara Faircloth’s work has been seen in opera houses around the nation. In addition to three company mainstage debuts last season (Wolf Trap Opera, Utah Opera and Opera Colorado) she directed her second world premiere at the Houston Grand Opera, The Bricklayer. In summer 2012, she returns to Wolf Trap to present a new production of The Rake’s Progress.

Ms. Faircloth has directed much traditional repertoire including works such as Die Zauberflöte, Hänsel and Gretel, Carmen, Don Pasquale and La Traviata. In upcoming seasons she will be mounting La Fille du Regiment at Tulsa Opera and Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Utah Opera. She has created her own productions of Dido and Aeneas for Ars Lyrica Houston at the Festival di Musica Barroca in Mexico, and Mercury Baroque in collaboration with the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater. The baroque repertoire is of special interest to Ms. Faircloth, who made her directorial debut with ALH’s production of Cain: Il primo omicidio in 2003, and has since designed and directed a number of shows for the company, including Charpentier’s Actéon and La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers.

Praised by the New York Times for his “beautifully shaped and carefully nuanced singing,” tenor Derek Chester is steadily making a name for himself in the world of classical music. He holds voice degrees from the University of Georgia and Yale University and is in the final stages of his doctoral work at the University of North Texas. As a Fulbright Scholar, he spent a year in Germany working as a freelance musician and furthering his training. He has appeared as soloist at the Oregon Bach Festival and Toronto Bach Festival under Helmuth Rilling, and in Monteverdi’s Vespers with Ars Lyrica.

Recent concert appearances have included Britten’s War Requiem with the Korean Broadcasting System Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.2 the “Lobgesang” with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus, Bach’s St. John Passion with the Dallas Bach Society, Händel’s Messiah with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra and the South Dakota Chorale, Händel’s Theodora with the Bach Collegium San Diego, Bach’s St. Mark Passion (reconstruction) with Barokksolistene in Norway, the Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra and New York City’s Voices of Ascension, and Bach’s Mass in B minor and Weihnachts Oratorium with American Bach Soloists.

“Lively, well-rehearsed production
by Tara Faircloth.”
— The New Yorker

“ beautifully shaped and carefully nuanced singing”
— New York Times

“delivered exquisitely self-effacing performances”
— San Francisco Chronicle

Texas Early Music Festival: The “Big Baroque Four” of Houston team up to showcase Houston’s innovative Early Music programming in March, setting the stage for an annual state-wide festival. On one weekend in March 2013, all four of the “Big Baroque” organizations in Houston – Mercury (formerly Mercury Baroque), Ars Lyrica, Da Camera and Houston Early Music – will have back-to-back early music programs.

This “lunar eclipse” of Houston’s early music leaders is an opportunity for the early music scene that cannot be passed up. The leaders of Mercury, Ars Lyrica and Houston Early Music have created a special promotion – the Houston Baroque Marathon weekend - and have set the stage for a Houston-based, Texas Early Music Festival in spring 2014.

Friday, March 8, 2013 at 8:00 pm | Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater (Mercury – The Orchestra Redefined) Wortham Center, Cullen Theater

A program of dramatic and intimate vocal compositions featuring three of the Baroque era’s finest sacred works. Soprano Amanda Forsythe and countertenor Tim Mead join Mercury for an evocative evening at the Cullen.

Saturday, March 9, 2013 at 8:00 pm | Le Poéme Harmonique: Venezia (Da Camera and Houston Early Music), Wortham Center, Cullen Theater

In its Houston debut, the award-winning ensemble performs music from 17th-century Venice.

Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 6:00 pm | Acis & Galatea (Ars Lyrica), Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Ars Lyrica performs Handel’s pastoral masterpiece Acis and Galatea, directed by Tara Faircloth and featuring a vibrant cast: soprano Blair Doerge, countertenor Ryland Angel, tenor Derek Chester, baritone Michael Kelly, and bass-baritone Timothy Jones.