Best Bets: Frida Fest, Ruddigore and Moon Party

Interestingly, tomorrow (July 19) is National Daiquiri Day, and we wouldn’t blame anyone for needing a drink after the last couple of weeks. But below, we’ve got yet another list of our picks of the best bets around town – all perfect distractions that we think might be able to get your mind off Beryl-related things for a few hours. Keep reading for great music, a not-oft-performed operetta, and a classic murder mystery.

On Friday, July 19, at 8:30 p.m. the Houston Symphony will bring “one of the greatest pieces of the 19th century” to Miller Outdoor Theatre during the third of four Summer Symphony Nights, Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Conductor JoAnn Falletta will lead the Symphony in Edward Elgar’s “series of variations, each a musical depiction of a person in the composer’s life” and ending with the composer’s own self-portrait. Violinist Annelle Gregory will also join the program for a performance of Alexander Glazunov’s Violin Concerto in A minor, Opus 82, a piece noted for its “beauty, lyricism, virtuosity, and romantic appeal.” Tickets for the free show can be reserved here starting today, July 18, at 10 a.m., or you can opt to sit on the no-ticket-required Hill instead.

Frida Kahlo utilized a “naïve folk-art style to explore questions of identity, post-colonialism, gender, class and race in Mexican society,” and her work led to her becoming “not only a celebrated artist in Mexican history and culture,” but “also among the most famous artists of the 20th century.” On Saturday, July 20, from 5 to 10 p.m. join other Kahlo aficionados and share in the love of the artist during Frida Fest at Karbach Brewing Co. You can expect live music from EZ Band, food trucks, local vendors and artists peddling their Kahlo-inspired art works and wares, and a Frida lookalike contest, so don’t be afraid to dig out the bright colors and “rebozos (fringed shawls), embroidered huipiles (square-cut tops), enaguas (skirts) and holanes (flounces).”

Variety’s chief critic Peter Debruge recently wrote that Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 film, Le samouraï, “might be the coolest film ever.” On Saturday, July 20, at 7 p.m. the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will show the digital restoration of the “existential study of a lone killer, told with radically little dialogue,” that stands as “a cross between American crime films and Eastern chivalry, transposed to the streets, subways and shadier corners of Paris” – which also “stars the most handsome actor ever to have appeared on-screen, Alain Delon.” Le samouraï will screen a second time, this time with an introduction by Adam Sanders of the Houston Film Critics Society, on Sunday, July 21, at 5 p.m. Tickets to either screening can be purchased here for $7 to $9.

A man attempts to hide from curse, finds himself in a love triangle and has to contend with demanding ghosts in Ruddigore by Arthur Sullivan and W. S. Gilbert. The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston will stage the comic opera, also called The Witch’s Curse, at the University of Houston’s Cullen Performance Hall on Saturday, July 20, at 7 p.m. Eiki Isomura, who serves as music director for the production, recently told KPRC 2 that the titular curse refers to the first Baronet of Ruddigore, who a witch “cursed with the obligation to perform a crime every day of his life or else he will perish in agony.” Additional performances of Ruddigore are scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, July 27, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, July 21 and July 28. Tickets for any of the performances can be purchased here for $49 to $84.

The summer of 1969 will always be remembered “as the time humans first landed on the Moon.” Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” as well as the Apollo 11 “space flight, the lunar landing, and the crew’s safe return to earth were seen as epochal events, worthy of intense media coverage” and “international celebration.” Celebrate the anniversary of man’s first step on the Moon at The Menil Collection on Saturday, July 20, at 8 p.m. during their Moon Party. Enjoy the view from Earth using telescopes while listening to music by Peter Lucas, taking in projections of NASA footage, and listening to Dr. Gary H. Kitmacher of the NASA Johnson Space Center. The program is free and open to all.

The final installment of this season’s Summer Symphony Nights at Miller Outdoor Theatre, titled Haydn and Dvořák, is set for Saturday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. For the finale, the Houston Symphony will evoke the “bucolic euphoria, the sheer joy of being alive in a world of natural wonders,” found in Antonín Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony, while cellist Charles Seo tackles Joseph Haydn’s first cello concerto, “a genuine masterpiece” that went missing “for almost exactly two centuries.” Rounding out the program, helmed by guest conductor Dionysis Grammenos, will be a performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade in A minor, Opus 33. You can reserve tickets for the free concert here starting Friday, July 19, at 10 a.m., or you can sit on the Hill (no ticket required).

Strangers on an isolated island, each accused of a crime and seemingly being target one by one – sounds like Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, which will kick off the Alley Theatre’s 78th season on Wednesday, July 24, at 7:30 p.m. Christie herself was “really pleased” with her book, because she “knew better than any critic how difficult it had been,” proudly pointing out that it is “clear, straightforward, baffling, and yet had a perfectly reasonable explanation; in fact, it had to have an epilogue in order to explain it.” Performances will continue through September 1 and are scheduled for 7:30 Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets can be purchased here for $31 to $110.

This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.