University of Houston’s Moores Opera Center to Stage World Premiere of Tom Cipullo’s HOBSON’S CHOICE
Performances run October 23–26 at Moores Opera House.
By: A.A. Cristi Sep. 16, 2025
The University of Houston’s Moores Opera Center will launch its 2025–26 season with the world premiere of Hobson’s Choice, a new comic opera by acclaimed American composer Tom Cipullo, October 23–26 at the Moores Opera House. Best known for Glory Denied, Cipullo turns to comedy for the first time with this adaptation of Harold Brighouse’s 1915 play.
Set in turn-of-the-century working-class Boston, Hobson’s Choice follows Maggie Hobson, a determined young woman who takes her future into her own hands when her father forbids her and her sisters from marrying. With wit and courage, she upends her father’s authority, reshaping her family, her love life, and her community in this sharp, heartfelt tale of independence and reinvention.
“Operatic comedies are a risky business because no one can say for certain what is funny until the piece is before an audience,” Cipullo says. “But the young UH performers brought such talent and timing to our 2024 workshop that I’m optimistic Houston audiences will enjoy themselves.”
Director Kathleen Smith Belcher, artistic director of the Moores Opera Center, adds: “At the heart of Hobson’s Choice lies a deeply resonant tale of resistance and reinvention — a story where gender roles and social class collide with humor, heart, and a fierce sense of justice.”
The opera is double-cast, with Giselle Bautista and Chelsea DeLorenz sharing the role of Maggie, John Allen Nelson and Micah Zimmerman as her father Hobson, and Gabriel Chona Rueda and Grant Peck as her love interest, Will.
Performances will be conducted by Jorge Parodi, the new music director of the Moores Opera Center, with design by Jefferson Ridenour (sets), Mary Webber and Shaun Heath (costumes), and Christina Giannelli (lighting).
Performance Schedule
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Thursday, October 23 at 7:30 PM
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Friday, October 24 at 7:30 PM
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Saturday, October 25 at 7:30 PM
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Sunday, October 26 at 2:00 PM
Venue: Moores Opera House, University of Houston, 3333 Cullen Blvd., Houston, TX
Tickets: $25 ($20 seniors, UH staff, and alumni; free for UH students)
Available at 713-743-3388 or bit.ly/HobsonOpera
About Tom Cipullo
Hailed by the American Academy of Arts & Letters for his “inexhaustible imagination, wit, expressive range and originality,” Tom Cipullo is one of the most widely performed American opera composers of his generation. His work Glory Denied is among the most frequently staged 21st-century operas. Cipullo’s honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Arts & Letters Award, the Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize, and the National Opera Association’s Argento Chamber Opera Award. His music has been recorded on the Naxos, Albany, and CRI labels, and published by Oxford University Press and E.C. Schirmer.
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