Katricia Lang - Page 8

Peter Brook's pared down LA TRAGEDIE DE CARMEN is perfect for Opera in the Heights, but it lacks the magic and richness of Georges Bizet's CARMEN. However, if you combine all that is good about Brook's LA TRAGEDIE DE CARMEN with the talented cast and crew of Opera in the Heights, you have a good time on your hands.

I talk to Banks Brothers Productions' Vincent Victoria, the Houston playwright responsible for BLAQUE TCHERIE. BLAQUE TCHERIE chronicles the creation and launch of the first black 'girlie' magazine.

For the first time at the Houston Ballet, children on the autism spectrum will be able to experience and enjoy a ballet in an environment crafted specifically for them. With a special performance of MY FIRST BALLET: COPPELIA, the Houston Ballet Academy makes its first foray into autism-friendly performances. To accommodate the children during this special performance, house lights will be kept on, audience members will be able to easily enter and exit the theater as needed, and sensory toys will be available.

Theatre Suburbia does what it does best in this titillating production of Tim Kelly's light and fluffy piece of popcorn theatre MURDER BY NATURAL CAUSES.

Houston Ballet's MODERN MASTERS is excellence personified. It is an electrifying demonstration of the precision, perfection and artistry in movement.

This weekend the presents their fourth annual New American Voices Play Reading Series featuring MY FRIEND DAHMER by Jake Arky, EBENEZER CREEK by James McLindon, directed by Cheramie Hopper, LILY'S BLUE by David Alan Brown, directed by Jacey Little, and finally, THE ME GENERATION by Catherine Rush, directed by Paige Kiliany.

Audra Mcdonald is returning to Houston. In 2006, McDonald made her opera debut in the Houston Grand Opera's double bill of LA VOIX HUMAINE and SEND. This is where she met music director and pianist Andy Einhorn. In 2006, Einhorn was hired to coach McDonald vocally. Now, he is her music director and pianist.

'Sex joke. Sex joke. Sex joke. Sex joke. Profound philosophical statement. Sex joke. Sex joke. Sex joke. Marriage.'

In honor of Houston Grand Opera's 60th anniversary season, the Houston Grand Opera is holding a special concert featuring Joyce DiDonato with Patrick Summers, the HGO Orchestra, and HGO Studio Artists. I got the chance to ask DiDonato a few questions about her ties to Houston and the HGO.

Three years and millions of dollars in the making, Stanton Welch's take on ROMEO AND JULIET is magnificent. This is not empty praise for the Houston Ballet's artistic director. Plot complexities aside, ROMEO AND JULIET is a simple story: two teens are in love in a world where their love is impossible. And for all of the spectacle, Welch trusts this simple story.

Houston Ballet continues its Shakespeare series with Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch's premiere of his interpretation of ROMEO AND JULIET, Shakespeare's ever relevant treatise on the perils of vengeance and love, on February 26. The ballet will be set to Sergei Prokofiev's masterful score and will feature sets and costumes by acclaimed Italian designer, Roberta Guidi di Bagno.

The three-time Academy Award winner will be back at the Oscars this year after receiving her eleventh nomination for Best Costume Design.

When all 'round here was green fields, the men in the Price family were content to live in Northampton and care for the feet of strangers, but the current Price - Charlie Price - wants something more. He doesn't know what more is, but he knows it's not shoe-making. He and his high school sweetheart make their way to London, away from Northampton and away from the family business.

No one weaves a tangled web of a plot into a $4,000 designer play like Shakespeare. And the Alley Theatre wears that play well. It's been hanging out with the Kardashian-Wests lately and really getting into the fashion life. So AS YOU LIKE IT is a joy to write about. Sometimes, the stars just align.

At one point, I think someone threw underwear on the stage, but I can't verify this, because I'm lying. At any rate, there were more whistles and cheers than applause. That's not customary for a ballet.

I found myself rapt when Chicago-born soprano Nicole Heaston spoke. She was warm, passionate and driven about her art, and generous and unguarded with her thoughts and opinions. Heaston is Pamina to David Portillo's Tamino in Houston Grand Opera's production of THE MAGIC FLUTE.

AS YOU LIKE IT is pastoral romantic comedy featuring two heroines and, as always, starcrossed lovers, cross dressing and mistaken identities. Elizabeth Bunch is Rosalind, the beautiful, quick witted daughter of an exiled duke. Emily Trask is Celia, Rosalind's loyal cousin and closest friend. Together, Celia and Rosalind travel through the forest getting themselves in and out of hijinks.

On January 30, Houston's two major opera houses will begin performances of Mozart's final two completed operas - LA CLEMENZA DI TITO and THE MAGIC FLUTE. Opera in the Heights will open LA CLEMENZA DI TITO for the first time in Houston since 1991, and Houston Grand Opera will open THE MAGIC FLUTE.

CAKE is a dark, dark film with comic moments, but it deals with love as much as it deals with tragedy. We still have star-crossed lovers (Aniston and Worthington) along with our substance abuse. There's nothing more appropriate for a woman who wants depth and starred in HORRIBLE BOSSES and F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

CLOUD TECTONICS is an uncommon and complex love story.