Nola Richardson to Perform in FATAL ATTRACTIONS at Ars Lyrica Houston

Ars Lyrica Houston will continue its 2025/26 Twists of Fate season with Fatal Attractions, an intimate and emotionally charged Valentine's Day program featuring French Baroque solo cantatas and chamber music. The performance takes place Saturday, February 14 at 5:00 PM in Duncan Recital Hall at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music.

The program features two mythological cantatas that explore love's tragic extremes. Louis-Nicolas Clérambault's Léandre et Héro dramatizes the fatal passion between a priestess and her lover, separated by a stormy sea. Hero's lamplight, meant to guide Leander across the Hellespont, is extinguished by a tempest—leading to their deaths and, in a rare poetic turn, a final reunion by Neptune. Jean-Philippe Rameau's Orphée follows the legendary musician's descent into the underworld to reclaim Eurydice. His desperate failure, and the aria that follows, capture the frailty of devotion tested by fate. These intimate tragedies are rendered with poetic depth by soprano Nola Richardson, joined by an ensemble of period specialists under the direction of Matthew Dirst.

Known for her crystalline tone and expressive clarity, Richardson is one of early music's most captivating interpreters—offering Houston audiences a rare opportunity to hear one of early music's most compelling voices at the height of her powers.

Interwoven between the cantatas are chamber works that highlight the expressive range of French Baroque music and the rich timbral palette of period instruments. Violinist Carla Moore and harpsichordist Matthew Dirst lead Jacquet de la Guerre's Sonata in D Minor, while traverso player Colin St‑Martin is featured in selections from Boismortier's Suite in E Minor. Antoine Forqueray's La Mandoline and La Buisson showcase the virtuosic viola da gamba playing of Eric Taeyang Mun. Deborah Dunham (violone) and Michael Leopold (theorbo) round out the continuo team, providing vivid texture and support throughout the program.