Two common features of virtually all music, regardless of era or national culture, are its capacity for storytelling and its value as sheer sounding matter. Over the years, music has been mingled with epic poetry, drama, myth, and all kinds of poetic verse. Our earliest ancestors likewise recognized the pleasure and usefulness of pitch, rhythm, and timbre long before the idea of “music” came into being.

Ars Lyrica’s 2016/17 season of Fables & Follies celebrates these two fundamental aims of music with six programs that juxtapose potent stories with gratuitous fun. The season opens on September 9 with a work that is both fable and folly: Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Les Plaisirs de Versailles, in which Music herself tries to prove her superiority to mere Conversation, with hilarious results. A much darker tale animates Handel’s Jephtha, which will be given its Houston première on October 15 & 16. One of this composer’s last efforts, Jephtha brings its Biblical characters to life with great power and poignancy. Bachanalia on New Year’s Eve 2016 features seldom-heard seasonal works from the great Leipzig cantor plus a folly-filled holiday gala.

Spring offerings include a February 12 program of virtuosic Baroque showstoppers, an April 2 evening of musical apparitions from J. C. F. Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven; and a May 21 season finale featuring music inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’ beloved Don Quixote.

In this brochure you will find more details about the 2016/17 season plus a subscription order form. For the best seats and prices, subscribe now and take advantange of early discounts on either a four or six concert subscription. Please consider making a donation along with your subscription as well. Your support is much appreciated!

With many thanks for your continued patronage and our best wishes!

Matthew Dirst
Artistic Director

Kinga Ferguson
Executive Director

Jacqueline Altobelli
Marketing & Administrative Director