Hunter’s Prey

Concert Broadcast Premiere:
Friday, September 25, 2026 at 7:30PM
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Our 2026/27 Visions & Visionaries season begins with musical depictions of the hunt, a favorite aristocratic pastime with potentially lethal consequences. Charpentier’s chamber opera Actéon tells the tale of a hunter whose brief vision of Diana proves fatal, while Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie relates the story of two lovers who, while fleeing a vengeful stepmother, enjoy a brief hunt in the forest. Both feature tenor Richard Pittsinger in his Ars Lyrica debut. Heinichen’s Concerto in F Major spotlights the horns and oboes, traditional instruments of the hunt.

Featured artists:
Richard Pittsinger, tenor
Alicia Gianni, soprano
Amia Langer, soprano
Andréa Walker, soprano

On the program:
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Actéon
Johann David Heinichen, Concerto in F Major
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Hippolyte et Aricie (Act IV, Scenes 1-3)

Haunted Spirits

Concert Broadcast Premiere:
Saturday, October 31, 2026 at 5:00PM
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

For Halloween we’ve cooked up a devilish stew of mad scenes and eerie instrumental music from Henry Purcell through C. P. E. Bach. Come in costume to experience fully the scary sounds of Rebel’s Les Élemens, which begins in “Chaos,” or the hysteria of Dejanaria’s meltdown at the end of Handel’s Hercules. Mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz makes a much-anticipated Ars Lyrica debut, and violin virtuoso Manami Mizumoto braves Tartini’s fearsome “Devil’s Trill” Sonata.

Featured artists:
Nikola Printz, mezzo-soprano
Manami Mizumoto, violin

On the program:
Jean-Féry Rebel, Les Élemens
G. F. Handel, Mad Scenes from Alcina and Hercules
Giuseppe Tartini, Sonata in G Minor (“Devil’s Trill”)
Henry Purcell, From Silent Shades (“Bess of Bedlam”)
C. P. E. Bach, Symphony in E Minor, Wq 177

Magnificat

Friday, December 4, 2026 at 7:30PM
St. Philip Presbyterian Church

After learning that she will bear a son, the Virgin Mary offered a hymn of praise now known as the Magnificat. In 1723 J. S. Bach set these words to music, mixing jubilant choruses with poignant solos. Our holiday offering pairs Bach’s beloved Magnificat with a coronation anthem Handel composed just a few years later and a concerto for three trumpets by their contemporary and good friend George Philipp Telemann. This program is the first of two 2026/27 collaborations with the Moores School of Music, University of Houston.

Featured artists:
The Moores School Concert Chorale
Anthony Maglione, director

Gloria M. Deveraux, soprano
Julia Cecilia Starr, soprano
Cecilia Duarte, alto
Thomas O’Neill, tenor
Jacob De Sett, baritone

On the program:
George Philipp Telemann, Concerto for Three Trumpets TWV 54 D3
George Frideric Handel, Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened HWV 259
Johann Sebastian Bach, Magnificat BWV 243

Viennese Dreamers

Concert Broadcast Premiere:
Friday, January 15, 2027 at 7:00PM
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Lifelong friends Joseph Haydn and Marianne Martines helped each other realize their respective dreams: he was her first music teacher, and she later connected him with influential figures in Viennese society. This program explores this famous friendship with a Classical era sampler that includes a symphony, a concerto, a cantata, and selected songs. We’re delighted to welcome back fortepianist Patricia Garcia Gil and countertenor Key’mon Murrah, two Ars Lyrica audience favorites from recent seasons.

Featured artists:
Patricia Garcia Gil, fortepiano
Key’mon Murrah, countertenor

On the program:
Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 63 in C Major and selected songs
Marianna Martines, Concerto in A Major and Amor timido

Soy La Diosa

Saturday, March 6, 2026 at 7:30PM
St. Philip Presbyterian Church

Our March subscription program celebrates the goddess who nourishes us, protects us, and provides us with beauty. Its centerpiece, Soy la Diosa (I am the Goddess), is a joint commission by Ars Lyrica and Les Délices from Nicaraguan American composer Gilda Lyons. Set to a libretto based on Latin American folklore and historical legends, this new work features soprano Estelí Gomez in her Ars Lyrica debut alongside a colorful chamber ensemble of Baroque oboe, strings, guitar, and harpsichord. A companion Spanish-language cantata from the Baroque era plus instrumental dances complete this all-Hispanic program.

Featured artists:
Estelí Gomez, soprano
Debra Nagy, Baroque oboe

On the program:
José de Torres, Reloj que señala
Gilda Lyons, Soy la Diosa
Anonymous dances from Peruvian and Guatemalan sources

Soy La Diosa

Concert Broadcast Premiere:
Saturday, March 6, 2026 at 7:30PM
St. Philip Presbyterian Church

Our March subscription program celebrates the goddess who nourishes us, protects us, and provides us with beauty. Its centerpiece, Soy la Diosa (I am the Goddess), is a joint commission by Ars Lyrica and Les Délices from Nicaraguan American composer Gilda Lyons. Set to a libretto based on Latin American folklore and historical legends, this new work features soprano Estelí Gomez in her Ars Lyrica debut alongside a colorful chamber ensemble of Baroque oboe, strings, guitar, and harpsichord. A companion Spanish-language cantata from the Baroque era plus instrumental dances complete this all-Hispanic program.

Featured artists:
Estelí Gomez, soprano
Debra Nagy, Baroque oboe

On the program:
José de Torres, Reloj que señala
Gilda Lyons, Soy la Diosa
Anonymous dances from Peruvian and Guatemalan sources

Handel’s Oreste

Opera Broadcast Premiere:
Sunday, April 18, 2027 at 2:00 PM
Moores Opera House at the University of Houston

Inspired by Euripides's Iphegeneia in Tauris, Handel's 1734 opera Oreste is a family drama of arbitrary cruelty and hard-won justice. It is filled with some of the composer’s favorite arias, many of which he adapted from his previous Italian operas. For this local premiere of Oreste, Ars Lyrica collaborates with the Moores Opera Center at the University of Houston. An all-student cast is accompanied by the Moores School Symphony Orchestra, augmented by key players from Ars Lyrica Houston.

Featured artists:
Kathleen Belcher, stage director and producer
Matthew Dirst, music director and conductor

Join us upstairs at Diana American Grill following the performance of Viennese Dreamers for a fundraising dinner with Ars Lyrica artists and fellow patrons!

When: Friday, January 15th at 9:00pm
Where: Diana American Grill, upstairs at The Hobby Center
Sponsor Table (6 seats): $3,000
FMV: $900

Table sponsors will receive:
- Recognition as a VIP Table Sponsor on the Ars Lyrica website and Soirée signage (in all printed and digital materials)
- Premier Table of 6 at post-concert soirée at Diana American Grill
- 6 seats to the performance of Viennese Dreamers at 7:30 PM in Zilkha Hall*

*Complimentary performance seats can only be guaranteed if tables are reserved by November 1, 2026.

This dinner is the 25/26 major fundraising event for Ars Lyrica's Opera Circle. Your ticket will go directly towards funding our goal to present Baroque operas annually. Thank you for sponsoring a table and supporting the future of Baroque opera in Houston!

Please contact Kinga Ferguson at kferguson@arslyricahouston.org or 281-636-4951 with any questions or special requests.

To pay by check, mail to:
Ars Lyrica Houston
4807 San Felipe, Suite 202
Houston, TX 77056

Join us upstairs at Diana American Grill following the performance of Viennese Dreamers for a fundraising dinner with Ars Lyrica artists and fellow patrons!

When: Friday, January 15th at 9:00pm
Where: Diana American Grill, upstairs at The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
Tickets: $500 per seat
FMV: $150 per seat

This dinner is the 26/27 major fundraising event for Ars Lyrica's Opera Circle. Your ticket will go directly towards funding our goal to present Baroque operas annually. Thank you for purchasing a ticket and supporting the future of Baroque opera in Houston!

*Please email kferguson@arslyricahouston.org with any table requests. Most tables will be tables of 6 seats.

To pay by check, mail to:
Ars Lyrica Houston
4807 San Felipe, Suite 202
Houston, TX 77056

Monteverdi’s Orfeo

Concert Broadcast Premiere:
Saturday, May 30, 2026 at 7:30 PM CT
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Monteverdi’s Orfeo brings one of opera’s earliest masterpieces to life in a new Ars Lyrica Houston production created in collaboration with the New York Baroque Dance Company. First performed in 1607, Orfeo tells the mythic story of a musician whose extraordinary song moves gods, mortals, and the spirits of the underworld. This landmark production features Grammy Award-winning tenor Karim Sulayman in the title role, with direction and choreography by Catherine Turocy and musical direction by Ars Lyrica Artistic Director Matthew Dirst.

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed. With a Digital Single Event Pass, you can watch and re-watch whenever you want.

Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo

Concert Broadcast Premiere:
Saturday, March 14, 2026 at 7:00PM
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

The lovers Acis and Galatea, another famous couple from Ovid, must contend with a meddling monster: a cyclops named Polyphemus, whose lust leads to Acis’s death and his metamorphosis as a river. Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (Naples, 1708) is Handel’s first setting of this tale; a decade later he created the better-known Acis and Galatea. Ars Lyrica is delighted to present the Houston premiere of the former serenata, whose fiery score provides abundant opportunities for vocal display.

Featured artists:
Lauren Snouffer, Aci
Cecelia McKinley, Galatea
Douglas Williams, Polifemo

Love Untamed

Concert Broadcast Premiere:
Saturday, October 25, 2025 at 5:00PM
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Love Untamed explores deeply felt emotions with a Haydn solo cantata and a song cycle by Houston’s own David Ashley White. Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos treats the legend of Ariadne, whose abandonment by Theseus elicits a torrent of feelings, from despair to wrath. In contrast, White’s contemporary song cycle, set to poetry of Wendell Berry, finds balm for the troubled soul in the natural world. Surrounding these stormy narratives are spirited instrumental works in a more peaceful mode, by G. P. Telemann and Vittorio Rieti.

Featured artists:
Erin Wagner, mezzo-soprano
Colin St-Martin, traverso
Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin
Barrett Sills, cello

Bach’s Divine Comedy

Concert Broadcast Premiere:
Friday, September 19, 2025 at 7:30PM
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Our 2025/26 Twists of Fate season begins with a dazzling singing contest from the pen of J. S. Bach: his dramma per musica “Phoebus & Pan,” who argue the virtues of artful and populist song styles, respectively. Thankfully, Bach’s secular cantata, as filtered through the Roman storyteller Ovid, comes to a happier conclusion than the original myth: in the ancient Greek tale, Apollo (god of music) flays Pan (god of nature) for his clumsy singing. A stellar cast of eight also offers an intricate double-chorus motet, and the orchestra a beloved suite.

Featured artists:
Hannah DePriest and Andréa Walker°, sopranos
Jay Carter and Michael Skarke, countertenors
Matthew Newhouse° and Thomas O’Neill, tenors
Tom Meglioranza and Timothy Jones, bass-baritones

°Ars Lyrica debut

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed. With a Digital Single Event Pass, you can watch and re-watch whenever you want.

Classical Collaborations

Concert Broadcast Premiere:
Friday, May 23, 2025 at 7:30PM CT
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Classical Collaborations brings together the central genres of the Viennese classical “school”—concerto, sonata, symphony, and variations—while foregrounding the contributions of women to this fabled musical culture. Featured works include Marianna Martines’s Concerto in G Major for Fortepiano and Orchestra, Mozart’s “Auernhammer” Sonata in F Major (K. 376), Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 48 (“Maria Theresia”), and Josepha Auernhammer’s “Papageno Variations.”

Featured artists:
Patricia Garcia Gil, fortepiano°
Cynthia Roberts, violin°

°Ars Lyrica debut

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed. With a Digital Single Event Pass, you can watch and re-watch whenever you want.

Handel’s Theodora

Concert Broadcast Premiere:
Saturday, March 29, 2025 at 6PM CT
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Handel’s final masterpiece tells the story of Theodora, an early Christian martyr, who is persecuted by a corrupt and wicked Roman president. Bacchanal and piety compete in this deeply moving oratorio, which features five soloists, chorus, and orchestra. Its central message, that faith triumphs over death, is common across religious traditions.

Featured artists:
Nola Richardson, soprano (Theodora)
Cecilia Duarte, mezzo-soprano (Irene)
Douglas Williams, bass-baritone (Valens)
Cody Bowers, countertenor (Didymus)°
Brian Giebler, tenor (Septimus)°
The Moores School Concert Chorale

°Ars Lyrica debut

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed. With a Digital Single Event Pass, you can watch and re-watch whenever you want.

Madrigals of Love & War

Concert Broadcast Premiere:
Friday, November 8, 2024 at 7:30PM CT
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Claudio Monteverdi’s Madrigals of Love and War transformed a venerable genre—the Renaissance part song—into dramatic scenes that rival the flamboyant art of Caravaggio or Bernini. By updating an old musical form, Monteverdi created a repertoire that is both timeless and singular: few madrigals from any age hold a candle to these masterworks for multiple voices and instruments.

Featured artists:
Erica Schuller, soprano
Amia Langer, soprano
Michael Skarke, countertenor
Steven Brennfleck, tenor
Thomas O'Neill, tenor
Enrico Lagasca, bass-baritone

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed. With a Digital Single Event Pass, you can watch and re-watch whenever you want.

Amadigi di Gaula

Concert Broadcast Premiere: Saturday, May 25, 2024 at 7:30 pm CT
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

The most ambitious undertaking of our 2023/24 season is a new production of Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula, one of a handful of “magic” operas he produced during his long career in London. Our cast includes four rising stars of the operatic firmament, all ideally suited to this exceptionally beautiful score. Tara Faircloth directs and Matthew Dirst conducts this Houston premiere.

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed. Replay access is included, so you can watch and re-watch whenever you want.

Visions & Reveries

Concert Broadcast Premiere: Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 7:30 pm CT
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Visions and Reveries showcases a select ensemble of period-instrument specialists and one of our favorite singers in an all-French program. Its delectable prix-fixe menu includes lyric cantatas on mythological themes by Elizabeth Claude Jacquet de la Guerre and Jean-Philippe Rameau, whose contributions to the genre elevate it to high art, and a sumptuous instrumental suite by François Couperin.

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed. With your purchase, you will be able to watch and re-watch the concert whenever you want.

Ecstatic Visions

Concert Broadcast Premiere: Friday, November 3, 2023 at 7:30 pm CT
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Handel’s Silete venti, the major work on this program, is a spectacular solo motet for soprano and Baroque orchestra, one that rivals his best operatic scenes. It places a deeply religious soul within a naturalistic context, where rustling leaves and blooming flowers prompt a lush meditation on love and happiness.

Ecstatic Visions spotlights members of the ensemble as well, in rapturous instrumental music by Ciprano da Rore, Johann Schmeltzer, and Jean-Philippe Rameau.

Only one Digital Single Event Pass per household is needed. Replay access is included, so you can watch and re-watch whenever you want.

Fallen Angels

Concert Broadcast Premiere: Friday, September 22, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

Fallen Angels highlights the paranormal in Baroque music, from Giacomo Carissimi’s harrowing Judgement of Solomon to spirited masques from Henry Purcell’s Fairy Queen. With five extraordinary singers and a colorful Baroque orchestra of period strings and winds, this otherworldly program inaugurates an entire season devoted to musical magic of various kinds.

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed. With a Digital Replay Pass, you can watch and re-watch whenever you want.

Songs of Zion
Concert Broadcast Premiere: Saturday, May 13, 2023 at 7:30 pm
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

From the rich legacy of psalm settings, our season finale juxtaposes music from the Jewish and Christian traditions. In convertendo (Psalm 126) from the operatic master Jean-Philippe Rameau infuses the psalmist's words with flair and passion, while companion pieces by Salamone Rossi and J. S. Bach infuse psalm texts with sonorous counterpoint.

Featuring:
Erica Schuller, soprano
Elijah McCormack, male soprano ˚
Scottie Rogers, countertenor ˚
Steven Brennfleck, tenor 
Mark Diamond, baritone
Timothy Jones, bass-baritone

˚ Ars Lyrica debut

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed. With a Digital Replay Pass, you can watch and re-watch whenever you want.

Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno

Premiered Sunday, March 26, 2023 at 4 pm

Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

A delightful musical romp, Handel's Clori, Tirsi e Fileno includes spectacular arias that the composer later borrowed for his Italian operas. A cast of young operatic stars, all singing en travesti as the opposite gender, brings a new twist to this timeless story of a wily shepherdess and her two suitors.

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed. Single Event Pass buyers, Digital Replay Pass buyers, and subscribers will have access to the concert broadcast permanently.

Red Priest of Venice

Premiered Saturday, November 12 at 7:30 pm

Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

This virtuosic tribute to Antonio Vivaldi, the famous “Red Priest” of Venice, features breathtaking concerti from this pioneer of the genre, colorful arias from a 1735 operatic pastiche, and his beloved setting of the Stabat Mater for solo voice and strings.

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed.

Hail, Bright Cecilia!

Concert broadcast premiere: Friday, September 23 at 7:30 pm
Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

The patron saint of the “celestial art” of music, the legendary Cecilia has inspired countless poets, composers, and musical organizations over the years. Our harmonious season opener spotlights two splendid Cecilian odes by Henry Purcell for multiple voices and a colorful Baroque orchestra of period strings, winds, keyboards, lutes, and percussion.

Only one Digital Replay Pass per household is needed.