In the 2026-27 Houston Grand Opera season beginning in October, there’s a reimagined Faust in which the title character is a composer rather than a philosopher and the opera is set in Belle Époque Paris rather than 16th Century Germany. Just as in the original, however, the pact he makes with Mephistopheles to swap his soul in exchange for youth and pleasure ends in tragedy.
There’s also a new production of Aida, good news to audiences of the 2020 version which by and large loved the talented artists doing the singing but found the scenic design drab and the choreography and costumes less than they’d expected. Also, good news, international star and Houston favorite Ailyn Pérez takes on the title role of the Ethiopian slave.
In all there will be six operas in the upcoming season, announced last week on the Wortham Theater Center stage by HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor with longtime Music Director Patrick Summers (this is his last season before he becomes Music Director Emeritus) at her side. Conductor James Gaffigan will assume the role of Music Director Designate before becoming Music Director during the 2027-28 season.
The first opera (October 23 through November 8) will be Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, with a new staging. Soprano Angel Blue is making her role debut in the story about the young woman whose life falls apart after church elders see her bathing in a creek. Floyd based this on the Biblical story of Susannah and the Elders. This is HGO’s 100th year celebration of the birth of American composer Floyd, who was associated for many years with Houston Grand Opera and was a co-founder of its Butler Studio for young artists.
That will be followed by Gounod ‘s Faust (October 30 through November 8) and then Verdi’s Aida (January 22 through February 7, 2027). Next up: the perennial favorite, Mozart’s The Magic Flute (January 29 through February 14, 2027). The matinee performances on February 12 and 13 have been designated Student Matinee and Family Day respectively and instead of being sung in German with projected English translation, will presented in English and Spanish with an alternate cast.
The Magic Flute is another one that’s been moved in time from the original. According to an HGO press release: “The action now unfolds in a whimsical 19th-century hotel, where a cigar-smoking Queen of the Night leads an underground suffragette movement and chef Sarastro’s kitchen staff guards culinary secrets like sacred Masonic rites.”
Next up: Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (April 23 through May 7, 2027) and yes it too has been transported in time. The comedy of manners has been moved from the 18th-century into the chic world of 1950s Vienna, where the glamorous Marschallin (soprano Tamara Wilson) is having an affair with the young Count Octavian. Then he spots the young and innocent Sophia, the fiancée of Baron Ochs.
The season ender is Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Showboat (April 30 through May 16), conducted by Summers, who has long argued that certain pieces of musical theater have their place on the opera stage.
“A century ago [Showboat] made history with its racially integrated cast and bold portrayal of injustice along the Mississippi. Set aboard the floating theater Cotton Blossom, the story traces the intertwined lives of performers navigating decades of love, loss, and prejudice—backed by a sweeping score that’s influenced by genres from spirituals to ragtime to jazz,” the HGO press statement said.