Feb. 15 & 16, 2025 data-filter="[2025 02|2025 02|][jones-hall|jones-hall|][February|February|][[{|term_id|:7,|name|:|Classical Series|,|slug|:|classical-series|,|term_group|:0,|term_taxonomy_id|:7,|taxonomy|:|series|,|description|:||,|parent|:0,|count|:158,|filter|:|raw|}]][{|term_id|:2320,|name|:|2024\u201325|,|slug|:|2024-25|,|term_group|:0,|term_taxonomy_id|:2320,|taxonomy|:|season|,|description|:||,|parent|:0,|count|:67,|filter|:|raw|}]" A dark, mysterious castle. A husband keeping secrets. Seven locked doors, each masking a blood-stained surprise. It may sound like the perfect setup for a horror movie, but it’s actually the starting point for one of the greatest operas of the 20th century, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. Buckle up for an evening of chills, thrills, and astonishing theatrical power as the story unfolds before you. We’ll set the stage with musical highlights from other landmark operas of the 20th and 21st century. https://david-early-1.wistia.com/medias/iqe631fqa9 What to Expect: Prepare for suspense, chills, and psychological thrills with opera’s ultimate horror story
World-renowned singers bring the story to life
For those looking for an “Anti-Valentine’s” activity, look no further than Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. Sketchy husbands? Blood and gore? Check, check, and check. {|with_image|:[{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Juraj Val\u010duha|,|bio|:|Houston Symphony Music Director Juraj Val\u010duha is recognized for his effortless expressiveness and depth of musicianship. With sharp baton technique and natural stage presence, the impressive ease of his interpretations translates even the most complex scores into immersive experiences.\nBefore joining the Houston Symphony in June 2022, Juraj was Music Director of the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, from 2016 to 2022 and first guest conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He was Chief Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai from 2009 to 2016.\nThe 2005\u201306 Season marked the start of his international career on the podium of the Orchestre National de France followed by remarkable debuts in the United Kingdom with the Philharmonia London, in Germany with the Munich Philharmonic, in the United States with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and in Italy with Puccini’s La boh\u00e8me in Bologna.\nHe has since led the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome, Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, Montr\u00e9al Symphony, and the NHK and Yomiuri orchestras in Tokyo.\nHe enjoys regular collaborations with the Minnesota Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony. International touring with the Orchestra Sinfonica della Rai took them to the Musikverein in Vienna and Philharmonie in Berlin, Cologne, D\u00fcsseldorf, Zurich, Munich, to the Enesco Festival in Bucharest, and the Abu Dhabi Classics. With the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, he visited Riga, Vilnius, and Tallinn to mark the 100th anniversary of the Baltic nations.\nIn Europe, he is acclaimed on the podium of the Munich Philharmonic, the NDR Hamburg and Frankfurt Radio orchestras, as well as the Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony and Philharmonia London, and the Swedish Radio Orchestra.\nJuraj champions the compositions of living composers and aims to program contemporary pieces in most of his concerts. He has conducted world premieres, including Christopher Rouse\u2019s Supplica with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Steven Mackey\u2019s violin concerto with Leila Josefowicz and the BBC Symphony in Manchester, and Nico Muhly\u2019s Bright Idea with the Houston Symphony. In 2005, he conducted, in the presence of the composer, Steve Reich\u2019s Four Seasons at the Melos-Ethos Festival in Bratislava. Other composers he has supported and continues to follow with interest are Bryce Dessner, Steven Stucky, Andrew Norman, James MacMillan, Luca Francesconi, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Anna Clyne, Julia Wolfe and Jessie Montgomery, among others.\nIncluding his engagements in Houston, the 2023\u201324 Season took him to the Pittsburgh and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, San Francisco Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra as well as to the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra in Tokyo. On the European stage, he performed Fanciulla del West and Tristan and Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Jenufa at the Opera di Roma. He led concerts with the RAI Orchestra, the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestre National de France, the NDR, SWR, and the Bamberg Symphony, among others.\nIn the 2024\u20132025 Season Juraj will join the Semperoper in Dresden with Strauss\u00b4 Salom\u00e9 as well as the Paris Op\u00e9ra Bastille with Janacek\u00b4s The Cunning Little Vixen and the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Tchaikovsky\u00b4s Pique Dame. In the coming months, in addition to his concerts with the Houston Symphony, he will return to the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the London Philharmonic, the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchester, the San Francisco Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra in Tokyo.\nBorn in Bratislava, Slovakia, Juraj studied composition and conducting in his birthplace, then at the conservatory in St. Petersburg (with Ilya Musin), and finally, at the Conservatoire Sup\u00e9rieur de la Musique in Paris.\n|,|title|:|conductor|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Ekaterina Gubanova|,|bio|:|Ekaterina Gubanova studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Sibelius Academy Helsinki. She started her career as a member of the Young Artists Program at the Royal Opera House in London.\nShe regularly guests at the major opera stages, including the Met in New York; the Lyric Opera Chicago; La Scala in Milano; the Rome Opera; London\u2019s Royal Opera House; the Paris Opera; the state Operas in Vienna, Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg; the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres; the Gran Teatro del Liceu Barcelona; and the Teatro Real Madrid as well as the Bayreuth festival.\nHighlights of her 2024-25 Season are new productions of Das Rheingold (Fricka) in Munich with Vladimir Jurowski, Rusalka (Foreign Princess) at the Teatro di San Carlo, Tannh\u00e4user in Vienna, and a return to Paris for Don Carlos. Concert engagements take her to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Houston Symphony. She performs Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder in Naples, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Vienna, and with Mahler’s R\u00fcckertlieder in Valencia.\nIn the past two seasons, Ekaterina made her highly acclaimed debuts as Kundry (Parsifal) in Vienna and Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) in Athens. Among her most important roles are Brang\u00e4ne (Tristan und Isolde) and Fricka (Rheingold and Walk\u00fcre). Her vast operatic repertoire also includes roles such as Eboli (Don Carlos), Amneris (Aida), Adalgisa (Norma), Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena), Marina Mniszech (Boris Godunov), Lyubasha (The Tsar’s Bride), Marguerite (Damnation du Faust), M\u00e8re Marie (Dialogues des Carmelites), Venus (Tannh\u00e4user), and Ortrud (Lohengrin).\nShe is also a sought-after concert singer and works regularly with renowned orchestras and conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sir Simon Rattle, Myung-Whun Chung, Philippe Jordan, Kirill Petrenko, and Kent Nagano. Ekaterina is frequently engaged for Verdi’s Messa da requiem, which she has sung, for example, with Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, and Riccardo Chailly. Her concert repertoire also includes works such as Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and his symphonies No. 2 and No. 3; Beethoven’s 9thSymphony; and works by French and Russian composers.\n|,|title|:|mezzo-soprano (Judith)|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|G\u00e1bor Bretz|,|bio|:|In the 2024-25 Season, Hungarian bass-baritone G\u00e1bor Bretz, called \u201cvocal nobility\u201d by\u00a0The Guardian, returned to La Monnaie\/De Munt as Die Wanderer in Pierre Audi\u2019s new production of\u00a0Siegfried,\u00a0conducted by Alain Altinoglu, after acclaimed performances there as Wotan in Romeo Castellucci\u2019s new productions of\u00a0Das Rheingold\u00a0and\u00a0Die Walk\u00fcre in 2023-24. Additional projects this season have included Dmitri Tcherniakov\u2019s new production of\u00a0Rusalka\u00a0as Vodnik at Teatro San Carlo with Dan Ettinger and Salome\u00a0at the Grand Th\u00e9\u00e2tre de Gen\u00e8ve; as well as Gurnemanz in\u00a0Parsifal,\u00a0Filippo II in\u00a0Don Carlo,\u00a0M\u00e9phistoph\u00e9l\u00e8s in\u00a0Faust,\u00a0and the title role in\u00a0Bluebeard\u2019s Castle,\u00a0all at the Hungarian State Opera, where G\u00e1bor has been a regular performer since graduating from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. In concert, he will join the Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar for Bluebeard\u2019s Castle, and Pater Profundus in Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 8 with Alain Altinoglu at La Monnaie\/De Munt.\nHighlights of previous seasons include the title role of Don Quichotte (Paris Op\u00e9ra, Bregenzer Festival), Heinrich der Vogler in\u00a0Lohengrin\u00a0(Staatsoper Unter den Linden, La Monnaie\/De Munt, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Priest Grigoris in Martin\u016f\u2019s\u00a0Greek Passion\u00a0(Salzburg Festival), Jochanaan (Salzburg Festival, Festival d\u2019Aix-en-Provence), Don Pizarro in\u00a0Fidelio\u00a0(Theater an der Wien, Op\u00e9ra Comique in Paris); Scarpia in\u00a0Tosca\u00a0(Theater an der Wien, Teatro Comunale di Bologna), Escamillo in\u00a0Carmen\u00a0(Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper, New National Theatre Tokyo, Staatsoper Hamburg), Sarastro in\u00a0Die Zauberfl\u00f6te\u00a0(La Monnaie\/De Munt), Ferrando in\u00a0Il trovatore\u00a0(Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Philippe II in\u00a0Don Carlos\u00a0(Staatsoper Hamburg), Gurnemanz (Hall\u00e9 Orchestra), and the Four Villains in\u00a0Les contes d\u2019Hoffmann\u00a0(La Monnaie).\nA busy concert artist, G\u00e1bor is most notable as the title role in\u00a0Bluebeard\u2019s Castle\u00a0with the Berlin Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, Teatro Massimo Palermo, and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.\n|,|title|:|baritone (Bluebeard)|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |}],|without|:[]}
U. CHIN Alice in Wonderland: Prelude to the Mad Tea Party
PROKOFIEV The Love for Three Oranges: Symphonic Suite
BRITTEN Peter Grimes: Four Sea Interludes
BARTÓK Duke Bluebeard’s Castle