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Opera news

Fort Worth Opera unveils daring new direction for landmark 75th anniversary season

Stephanie Allmon Merry
Jul 13, 2021 | 8:46 am

It’s out with the old and in with a new vision for Fort Worth Opera’s historic 75th anniversary season.

Unveiled Tuesday, July 13, FWO’s calendar of events for 2021-22 looks, at first glance, to be filled with many things that are not actually opera. That’s because the eyes must adjust to the dramatic shift away from FWO’s routine from the past 14 years:

There’s no opera festival.

Instead of staging a few operas over a few weeks in spring and calling it a season — a format that worked well in 2007 when critics could fly in and review all the operas at once (now: what critics?) — the company will present recitals, concerts, children’s programs, and yes, a couple of operas, too, at various venues throughout the city, throughout the year.

“Fort Worth Opera will return this upcoming season as ‘The People's Company,’ focusing more on concerts and performances in the community and building strong relationships with other arts and civic organizations,” says general director Afton Battle in a release.

The schedule will include celebrations of Hispanic Heritage Month in October and Black History Month in February. Performance venues will include Whiskey Ranch, Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Fort Worth libraries, Rose Marine Theater, I.M. Terrell Academy, and Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium.

The one opera staged at Bass Hall (of which FWO is a resident company), will pay homage to the company’s roots: La Traviata was the very first opera presented by FWO, to a sold-out house at Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium on November 25, 1946. More than 75 years later, La Traviata will be presented as a modern-day, streamlined, 90-minute chamber version of Verdi’s grand romantic masterpiece. Two performances in April 2022 will be accompanied by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

“For the 75th, I wanted to honor the women (Eloise MacDonald Snyder, Betty Berry Spain, and Jeanne Axtell Walker) who started FWO 75 years ago,” Battle says.

Of the three 2020 festival operas canceled amid the pandemic, one — Zorro — will be reprogrammed next year. (La Boheme and Die Fledermaus will not.) Zorro will finally get its big world premiere in January 2022, and will include a special collaboration with the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.

One event longtime FWO patrons won’t see on the schedule is the annual Frontiers showcase of new works. It has not been forgotten.

In this year of post-COVID recovery, Battle says, reining in the number and scale of FWO’s commitments — like Frontiers — will position the company better for continued success.

“Coming out of this extended pause, it’s important that FWO focus on what we have become known for over the past 10 months — building community through our civic activities and engagement, and building a fiscally responsible and sustainable company post-COVID,” she says. “Producing three full length and mid-large scale operas is not honoring that commitment to being fiscally responsible and sustainable. (And) we have to bring our beloved programming, like Frontiers, back slowly.”

The schedule also does not include The Last Dream of Frida and Diego, which FWO announced in 2017 it had co-commissioned with San Diego Opera, the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin, and DePauw University. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz and Latin Grammy winner and composer Gabriela Lena Frank, the work was originally set to premiere in 2020.

“This piece continues to be developed by the composer and the librettist, and Fort Worth Opera looks forward to continuing to follow its development,” Battle says.

Here’s the Fort Worth Opera’s 2021-22 season at a glance:

Entre Amigos: A Concert in Celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month
October 9, 2021 at Rose Marine Theater
A live concert of arias, art songs, and folk music as part of FWO’s fall Noches de Ópera community programming.

Fort Worth Opera’s Children’s Opera Theatre Presents: Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World
Music by Joe Illick; Libretto by Mark Campbell
October 9 & 10, 2021 at Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT)
October 16, 2021 at Reby Cary Youth Library

Fort Worth Opera’s Children’s Opera Theatre Presents: Stone Soup
Music by Joe Illick; Libretto by Mark Campbell
November 20, 2021 at Northwest Branch of the Fort Worth Public Library

75th Anniversary Fall Preview
November 6, 2021 at Firestone & Robertson Distilling Co.'s Whiskey Ranch
Star-studded concert featuring live performances, an open bar with craft cocktails, and catered hors d’oeuvres courtesy of Chef Juan Rodriguez.

Holiday in the Garden
December 2021 (Date & Time TBD) at Fort Worth Botanic Garden Parking Lot
Free concert of arias, duets, Christmas songs, and holiday classics.

Zorro (World Premiere)
Music and libretto by Héctor Armienta
January 26, 28, 2022 at Rose Marine Theater
January 30, 2022 at Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium (Note: A Fort Worth Stock Show Experience Package, including the FWSSR PRORODEO Tournament, family dinner at Reata at the Backstage Club, and final performance of Zorro will go on sale in September.)

A Night of Black Excellence
February 20, 2022, at I.M. Terrell Academy for STEM and VPA
Co-curated by American soprano Karen Slack and FWO General Director Afton Battle

Fort Worth Opera Spring Gala
April 9, 2022 at City Club of Fort Worth
Starring Elaine Alvarez, Nathan Granner, & Kenneth Overton and Joe Illick, piano

La Traviata
Music by Giuseppe Verdi; libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
April 22 and 24, 2022 at Bass Performance Hall
Featuring the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

FWO Lesley Resident Artist Recital
Featuring Brandon Bell, Gabrielle Gilliam, and Megan Koch
May 2022Location TBD

For more information and tickets, visit www.fwopera.org.

Karen Slack will co-curate and star in "A Night of Black Excellence."

Karen Slack
Photo by Kia Caldwell
Karen Slack will co-curate and star in "A Night of Black Excellence."
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Way out West

Texas' Big Bend named one of the world's must-see destinations for 2023

Hannah J. Frías
Nov 2, 2022 | 4:00 pm
Big Bend National Park
Photo by Adan Guerrero on Unsplash

Big Bend made National Geographic's Best of the World 2023 list.

The pandemic took a toll on pretty much every industry, including travel. But some destinations suffered less than others: Big Bend National Park out in far west Texas became a hot spot for road trippers from Texas and beyond. To that end, National Geographic Travel included the vast natural wonder in its recent Best of the World 2023 list.

The annual list rounds up 25 global destinations "under the radar, ahead of the curve, and ready for you to start exploring," according to the article. National Geographic editors frame the list within five categories: Community, Nature, Culture, Family, and Adventure.

Big Bend landed in the Nature category, "5 wildly underrated natural escapes for 2023," and it's in good company: The list also includes the Azores, Botswana, Slovenia, and the Scottish Highlands.

According to a release, the list is themed around "travel destinations and experiences that leverage the benefits of tourism to strengthen their local communities, natural and built environments, and sense of place." Big Bend fits right into that criteria, attracting tourism to small-town communities near the park such as Marfa, Alpine, Presidio, Marathon, and Fort Davis, which all benefit from the influx of people passing through to Big Bend.

The park itself welcomed over 394,000 visitors in 2020, about 15 percent fewer than 2019. 2021 more than made up for that deficit, though: Big Bend welcomed a record 581,000 visitors as travelers continued to seek open spaces and natural wonders.

Apart from contributing to the local economy, the National Geographic article touts the park's locale in a "remote and arid part of west Texas," which "nurtures more cactus species than any other national park, as well as birds such as roadrunners and bright yellow Scott’s orioles, and mammals such as javelina."

So pack the car and plan your next trip out west, and don't forget some of our top tips for off-the-grid adventures in the area.

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Concert news

Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks join forces for iconic concert at AT&T Stadium

Alex Bentley
Nov 2, 2022 | 3:20 pm
Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks join forces for iconic concert at AT&T Stadium
Billy Joel Facebook

Billy Joel comes to Arlington for the first time since 2019.

Music legends Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks will co-headline a special concert at AT&T Stadium on April 8, 2023, the first time the two have ever performed on the same stage in Texas.

Two of the most loved and universally respected entertainers of all time, Joel and Nicks are responsible for some of the most iconic music of the 20th century.

Joel had a run from the late '70s to the early '90s that is rivaled by few, with all eight of his albums during that time going multi-platinum. Songs like "Piano Man," "Just the Way You Are," "My Life," "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me," and "We Didn't Start the Fire" remain a big part of the American music lexicon.

Nicks accomplished something even more difficult, becoming a legend both as part of band and a solo singer. Her time with Fleetwood Mac yielded one of the best-selling albums of all time, Rumours, and classic songs like "Go Your Own Way," "Landslide," and more. She is the first woman to have been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Joel last played in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2019, while this Nicks' first appearance in the area since 2016.

AT&T Stadium is on a roll with the big concerts, as it was just announced that Taylor Swift will play back-to-back concerts there a week prior to this concert. Additionally, they have big shows from Luke Combs and Ed Sheeran on their schedule in the coming months.

Tickets for the concert, announced November 2, will go on sale to the general public beginning on Friday, November 11, at 10 am at LiveNation.com or SeatGeek.com.

Billy Joel
Billy Joel Facebook

Billy Joel comes to Arlington for the first time since 2019.

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String fever

Fort Worth music group promises rock 'n' roll experience with weeklong Beethoven extravaganza

Cecilia Lenzen
Nov 2, 2022 | 10:15 am
Miro Quartet
Courtesy photo

Miro Quartet will play the Beethoven quartets.

In a first for Dallas-Fort Worth, the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth will present all 16 of Ludwig van Beethoven's string quartets in a series called the Quartet Cycle.

The Miró Quartet, a classical string quartet based in Austin, will perform the Quartet Cycle with five concerts over seven days, November 7-13, at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. (The Miró knows the pieces well, as they've released a recording of them; listen here.)

Gary Levinson, CMSFW artistic director, says the Quartet Cycle will resemble a resume of Beethoven’s life’s work as a musician, composer, and pianist. Throughout the concert series, the quartets will be divided into three distinct areas of Beethoven’s career: his early work, the middle of his career, and his late work up until he died.

All 16 quartets are rarely performed together as part of one event, Levinson says. Although the Quartet Cycle has been performed internationally, it has never been performed in its entirety in the DFW area, he adds. Performing all 16 quartets is an “enormous emotional commitment” for the performing musicians, which makes it hard to produce often.

“The actual physics of performing it is not such a big deal, but to perform and connect with audiences at such a high level of music, which requires so much emotionally, is a huge deal,” says Levinson, the Dallas Symphony senior principal associate concertmaster and a renowned violinist who has played chamber music all his life.

The Beethoven super-event was originally planned for 2020, in celebration of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CMSFW has had to postpone the event three times.

Levinson says it’s hard to say whether the delays will have significantly impacted the performances. A year or two’s worth of delays won’t make the Miró Quartet’s performance better or worse — it’ll just be different because they will have evolved and grown as people and musicians since 2020, he explains.

“It’s just going to be a different interpretation than if the event had happened in 2020,” Levinson says.

Levinson says part of what makes the Quartet Cycle so special for listeners is the ability to connect with the music and the musicians on an emotional journey each night. That’s what sets the series apart from even the greatest concerts, he says.

“In many ways, this is much less like a concert and much more like a journey — much more like almost an evolution for the group and for the listener,” Levinson says. “You won’t be the same afterwards.”

Although audiences should attend every concert if they can, those who can only come to one or two will still experience great music and a great time, he says.

The concert series will be almost like a mini music festival within the society’s fall schedule, Levinson says. In addition to the concerts, Bill McGlaughlin, host of the public radio program Exploring Music, will give a 45-minute lecture about all the quartets before performances. Levinson says all are welcome to attend the lectures but especially encourages those who are not familiar with chamber music to consider attending.

The Quartet Cycle promises to excite and entertain chamber music fans, and those who are not classical or chamber music aficionados can expect a “rock 'n' roll” experience, Levinson says, adding that those who have not attended this kind of event before may be “blown away” by the power and energy that a four-person classical music group can produce.

“If I was inviting someone who has never been to a chamber music concert, I would say, ‘Get ready for a really exciting experience,’” Levinson says. “And the kind of energy that you feel from your fellow audience members is second to none. It’s really like being at a sporting event.”

The performance schedule includes concerts at 7 pm on November 7, 9, 10, and 11 and at 2 pm on November 13. The evening concerts will be preceded by a pre-concert lecture at 6 pm, and the afternoon concert’s lecture will be held at 1 pm. Tickets are $35 per person.

More information is available at the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth’s website.

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