DACAMERA Presents A WOMAN'S LIFE: THE DIARY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF

DACAMERA of Houston's 2019-20 season continues with A Woman's Life: The Diary of Virginia Woolf at Zilkha Hall, The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, November 9 at 7:30 p.m. Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano joins DACAMERA Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg in this performance of two song cycles, composed 135 years apart, depicting radically different views of two artist-women's lives. The program juxtaposes Robert Schumann's Fraunliebe und Leben, a romantic vision of wife and mother; and Dominick Argento's From the Diary of Virginia Woolf, musings of a literary genius struggling to find her voice and place in the world.

Schumann composed Fraunliebe und Leben the same year he married accomplished pianist and composer Clara Wieck. Wieck, who had gained notoriety by the time she was 18, eventually gave up composing herself in favor of performing her husband's compositions and introducing them to the world. A mother of seven who toured and taught her entire life, she resembled the modern career mother nearly two centuries ahead of her time. Wieck, who often served an instrumental role as a close musical advisor to her husband, inspired the composition, which tells the story of a woman whose identity exists outside of herself.

The inner world of one of the 20th century's most brilliant writers comes alive in Argento's Pulitzer Prize-winning monodrama, From the Diary of Virginia Woolf. Woolf began writing at a young age, developing a highly individual writing style marked by deep introspection and poetic musicality. But it was her intimate personal diary entries, edited by her husband and published posthumously by the company the couple founded together, that inspired Argento's composition. The cycle features seven of the author's most candid and questioning private musings, tracing moments in her fragile yet productive career from 1919 to 1941.

World-renowned mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano will bring both women's stories to life. Since graduating from the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera, Johnson Cano has appeared in more than 100 performances with the group. She has also performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony.

DACAMERA's chamber music series continues with Mozart and Aucoin on Friday, December 6, and Music and Isolation: Aizuri Quartet on Monday, January 27 and Tuesday, January 28.

Tickets for A Woman's Life: The Diary of Virginia Woolf start at $37.50. Tickets are available by contacting DACAMERA, 1402 Sul Ross, at 713-524-5050 or online at www.dacamera.com. Tickets for students and senior citizens are always half-price. $5 student rush tickets are available 30 minutes before the concert begins.