Baroque opera offers full immersion in the world of 17th  and 18th-century culture with elaborate scenic design, virtuosic singing, stylized dances, colorful orchestras, and profoundly human stories. No other musical genre from this era has quite the same capacity to move, excite, and inspire audiences.

During the 2018/19 season, Ars Lyrica Houston offered its first full-length Baroque opera: Agrippina, Handel’s first operatic masterpiece. Since then, Ars Lyrica has offered an opera production every other season, with two operas, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Jonathan Dove’s The Other Euridice, offered during the 2021/22 season. Handel’s stunning magic opera, Amadigi di Gaula, is slated for May 2024. 

Members of Ars Lyrica’s Opera Circle guarantee that we can keep our cultural stories and history alive. Your gifts allow us to make opera resonate anew through imaginative staging in collaboration with the world’s most respected experts in dance, theater, and music. Through your donations, we are able to grow the organization as curators and caretakers of this exceptional art form.

Ars Lyrica Operatic Highlights

• The 21/22 season opera reviews: Jonathan Dove’s L’altra Euridice and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

• Review: Inaugural Opera Circle production of Handel’s Agrippina opened in Fall 2018 to rave reviews

• Article and album: Grammy nomination for Best Opera 2011 for the world première recording of J.A. Hasse’s Marc Antonio e Cleopatra featuring mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and soprano Ava Pine

• Video: Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants, produced in collaboration with the New York Baroque Dance Company

• Video: Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Les Plaisirs de Versailles

• Video: Handel’s Acis and Galatea

Sponsorship Opportunities 

Ars Lyrica Opera Circle sponsorships offer a range of benefits, including behind-the-scenes access to artists, recognition, special invitations to exclusive events, and much more. Please explore the options below for more information on specific sponsorship opportunities.  

Praise for ALH’s Opera Circle

“Ars Lyrica’s vibrant and provocative performances of a historically informed repertoire speak to us as lovers of history and live music.  Under a passionate artistic and professional team, they exemplify tradition and excellence in all they do.”
- Ed and Marianne  Grusnis,
The  Antiquarium

“We support Ars Lyrica because we found a unique passion within the organization that brings beautiful and rarely appreciated music to amazing life. We are also fully engaged in ALH’s exciting artistic vision of bringing baroque opera to Houston.”
-Sara and Gabriel Loperena 

“Ars Lyrica’s decision to stage a new production of Handel’s Agrippina immediately fired my imagination. As a life-long fan of baroque music in general and Handel in particular, I was determined to make a contribution to the success of a project so dear to my heart. Ars Lyrica's musical interpretation, the orchestra and soloists are always of the finest, and with Tara Faircloth as stage director, the result will be memorable. I am thrilled to underwrite her services - all that remains is for every lover of baroque music in Houston to come and applaud the results.”
-Maurice Isaac

Praise for ALH’s operas

"...Theatrical works have become the calling card of Ars Lyrica... They seem to evoke inspired performances by the group.” -Houston Chronicle

“Faircloth imagines a Gatsby-era Game of Thrones, with glorious vocal fireworks in place of bloody swordplay.”
-Arts & Culture Texas

“The music, under Matthew Dirst’s capable direction, soared, and the singer/actors delivered riveting performances.”
-CKW Luxe

“Cohen’s voice boasted a warmth that few countertenors share; combined with the fluency and poise of his singing, his voice let Ottone’s arias exude forthrightness and nobility. The emotional climax came halfway through the story–when Ottone, though no fault of his own, suffers rejection by everyone around him. Cohen made Ottone’s response, “Voi che udite il mio lamento,” a musical portrait of desolation, from pianissimo phrases that were pale as death to surges of vibrant, plaintive sound.”
-Texas Classical Review

“Stage director Tara Faircloth emphasized comedy, as in Claudio’s preening demeanor on his first entrance; Pallante and Narciso’s fawning over Agrippina; and the fluttering of the servant Lesbo, played by Eduardo Tercero. But for Handel’s serious moments–as in Ottone’s big aria,–Faircloth quieted everything down, and the poignant results helped Handel’s extraordinary music tell its story.”
-Texas Classical Review

“Selowsky’s wealth of vocal colors brought Agrippina’s stratagems to life—whether the power-hungry woman was working her wiles on her admirers, relishing her successes or reacting to surprise twists of fate. Even her recitatives crackled.” -Texas Classical Review

For more information about sponsorship opportunities and benefits, please contact Kinga Ferguson, Executive Director, at 713-622-7443 or kferguson@arslyricahouston.org.

Praise for Ars Lyrica Operas

“Theatrical works have become the calling card of Ars Lyrica… they seem to evoke inspired performances by the group.” 
-Andrew Dansby, Houston Chronicle

“The music, under Matthew Dirst’s capable direction, soared, and the singer/actors delivered riveting performances.”
-Shannon McKirchy, CKW Luxe 

“Ars Lyrica Houston’s production of Dido and Aeneas (May 21-22 at Zilkha Hall) was a captivating triumph. From the moment the flamboyant Sorceress Nicholas Garza pounded his staff thrice offstage as the instrumental ensemble finished tuning, the narrative pulse and dramatic intensity never waned.”
-Steven Brown, Arts and Culture Texas

Watch: Impact of the Opera Circle