Another week, another packed list of things to check out this week. We’ve got the return of a dance festival, the regional premiere of a contemporary opera, and a Steampunk-themed circus performance. Keep reading for these and more below.
Serendipity, a world premiere from Marcus Karl Maroney featuring baritone Timothy Jones and created with award-winning poet Shelley Wong, is on the program for INNER VOICES: Stories of Perseverance and Hope, a concert presented by Asia Society Texas in partnership with Musiqa on Thursday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m. Kinan Abou-afach’s Fiction, inspired by the gunshots he heard in the background while on a telephone call with his parents in Damascus, Syria, and Karim Al-Zand’s The Prisoner, a song cycle with text drawn in part from the letters of Adnan Latif, who was imprisoned in the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp for more than a decade until his death in 2012, will also be featured. The concert will be performed a second time on Friday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to either performance can be purchased here for $10 to $25.
As the French Cultures Festival – an annual celebration for Francophiles across Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas – comes to an end, you can enjoy one last activity when the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston screens François Ozon’s When Fall Is Coming (Quand vient l’automne) on Friday April 18, at 7 p.m. The film, an “elegant, slippery game of tonal bait-and-switch,” finds a grandmother dealing with the consequences when things go wrong during a visit from her daughter and grandson, leading to an “increasingly high-key melodrama in a low-key register” as the film goes from “ambling character study to cool-blooded thriller in the spirit of Simenon.” The film will be screened again on Saturday, April 19, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, April 20, at 5 p.m. Tickets to the screenings can be purchased here for $7 to $9.
Conductor Dalia Stasevska, who made her North American debut with the Houston Symphony in 2019 at Miller Outdoor Theatre, will visit Jones Hall on Friday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m. to again join the orchestra for Sibelius 5 and Stravinsky. Rebecca Zabinski, the Symphony’s senior director of artistic planning, has said that Stasevska “has a special flair for interpreting the music of Sibelius,” saying that the orchestra “loves to play Sibelius, especially with conductors who really have a strong affinity and a strong viewpoint on his music,” and Stasevska “definitely fits that bill.” The concert will be performed a second time on Saturday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. This show will also be livestreamed, and access can be purchased here for $20. In-hall tickets to either performance can be purchased here for $36 to $110.
Celebrate Latinx choreographers and identity when the 5th Annual Texas Latino/a/x Contemporary Dance Festival returns to the MATCH on Friday, April 18, at 8 p.m. The festival, presented by The Pilot Dance Project, will showcase 20 original dance works from dancemakers around the world presented across two nights. The opening night program includes Inertia Dance Company dancing Artistic Director Amberly Altamirano’s “Camina Conmigo,” a Frida Kahlo-inspired world premiere from Dorianne Castillo, and a performance by Deeper Than Dance, a non-profit dance company founded by Mariah Henry, an alumna of the University of Houston dance program. The second night features a different lineup, with only work from Pilot Dance Project’s Executive and Artistic Director Adam Castañeda being on both evening’s lineups. You can purchase general admission tickets for either night here for $15.
Houston Grand Opera will open the regional premiere of Breaking the Waves, a three-act opera based on Lars von Trier’s film of the same name, about a deeply religious woman named Bess who attempts to prove her love and faith in an unexpected way, on Saturday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the Wortham Theater Center. Soprano Lauren Snouffer recently told the Houston Press that Bess is “by far the most complicated role I’ve ever had to navigate,” but also says she thinks “one of the key takeaways from the piece is that love triumphs over this oppressive dogma that exists in that society.” Performances will continue at :30 p.m. Saturdays, Wednesday, and Friday, and 2 p.m. Sunday through May 4. Tickets are available here for $25 to $210.
On Saturday, April 19, at 8 p.m., circus troupe Cirque Mechanics will bring Pedal Punk – a Steampunk-inspired show where unicyclists, trapeze artists, and acrobats perform on and around a pedal-powered Gantry Bike standing 20 feet tall and weighing 3,000 pounds – back to Miller Outdoor Theatre. Preceding the troupe’s last visit in 2017, Chris Lashua, the creative director and founder of Cirque Mechanics, told the Houston Press they “really explore the relationship between the acrobat and the mechanical contraption,” adding that the “combination of the whimsical, lyrical comedy and beauty with this mechanical structure in a playful story is something everyone can enjoy.” The performance is free, and you can reserve a ticket here starting at 10 a.m. Friday, April 18, or you can plan to sit on the Hill (no ticket required).
DACAMERA will welcome Finnish string quartet Meta4 back to Houston for a performance at The Menil Collection on Monday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. for a program that will pay tribute to fellow Finn, composer Kaija Saariaho. DACAMERA world premiered Saariaho’s Rothko Chapel-inspired Sombre in 2013, and Meta4 – comprised of violinists Antti Tikkanen and Minna Pensola, violist Atte Kilpeläinen, and cellist Tomas Djupsjöbacka – will play her second quartet, 2006’s Terra Memoria, as part of Monday night’s program alongside Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 4 in D Major, Op. 83, and Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major, “an early demonstration of Ravel’s brilliant juxtaposition of formality and sensuality, and his incredible use of tone color.” A handful of tickets remain, and they can be purchased here for $63.50.
Next month, Main Street Theater will open the regional premiere of Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience, a dramedy about a Korean-Canadian family running a convenience store in Toronto that Choi has called a “love letter to my parents and to all first-generation immigrants who have made the country they’ve settled in their home.” You can get a sneak peek at the show on Tuesday, April 22, at 6:45 p.m. when Main Street hosts a first read-thru as part of their Part of the Art Series. The event is free, but you have to register here. If you can’t make it, you can catch the full production during its run at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays from May 17 to June 15. Tickets for the show can be purchased here for $45 to $64.
