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This Christmas, be moved by Handel’s ever-glorious setting of the greatest story ever told. The Houston Symphony, chorus and guest soloists join forces to fill Jones Hall with joyous refrains and exultant arias, including the powerful “Hallelujah” Chorus.
Listen to a concert preview: https://www.houstonsymphony.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Messiah.mp3 Watch a concert preview: {|with_image|:[{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Jane Glover|,|bio|:|British conductor Jane Glover has been Music of the Baroque\u2019s music director since 2002. After making her professional debut at the Wexford Festival in 1975,\u00a0she joined Glyndebourne in 1979 and was music director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera from 1981 to 1985. Other posts have included artistic director of the London Mozart Players (1984-1991), director of opera at the Royal Academy of Music (2009-2016) and principal conductor of the Huddersfield and the London Choral Societies.\nJane has conducted all the major symphony and chamber orchestras in Britain, as well as orchestras in Europe, the United States, Asia and Australia. Jane has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, English National Opera, Royal Danish Opera, Glyndebourne, Berlin Staatsoper, Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, Op\u00e9ra National de Bordeaux, Opera Australia, Chicago Opera Theater, Op\u00e9ra national du Rhin, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Luminato, Madrid\u2019s Teatro Real and Teatro La Fenice. She has regularly conducted all of Mozart\u2019s operas all over the world since she first performed them at Glyndebourne in the 1980s. Her core operatic repertoire also includes Monteverdi, Handel and Britten.\nCurrent and future engagements include\u00a0Cos\u00ec fan tutte\u00a0with Lyric Opera of Kansas City;\u00a0continuing seasons with Music of the Baroque in Chicago; and concert appearances with the Cleveland, Minnesota and BBC Concert Orchestras, the San Francisco Symphony and the Oregon Bach and Aspen Music Festivals.\nJane\u2019s discography includes recordings of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Britten and Walton with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the BBC Singers. She has authored two critically acclaimed books,\u00a0Mozart\u02bcs Women\u00a0(2005) and\u00a0Handel in London\u00a0(2018). Jane holds a doctorate from St. Hugh\u2019s College, several honorary degrees, a personal professorship at the University of London, a fellowship of the Royal College of Music and an honorary membership in the Royal Academy of Music, where she is now the Felix Mendelssohn Visiting Professor. She is a visiting professor of opera at the University of Oxford. She was created a Commander of the British Empire in the 2003 New Year\u2019s Honours.\n|,|title|:|conductor|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Ying Fang|,|bio|:|Soprano Ying Fang has been hailed by the New York Times for her \u201cpure and moving soprano, phrasing with scrupulous respect for the line and traveling with assurance through the mercurial moods,\u201d as well as \u201csinging with a fresh, appealing soprano and acting with coquettish flair.\u201d\nThe 2017-2018 season launches with a house debut at Opernhaus Z\u00fcrich as Pamina in Mozart\u2019s Die Zauberfl\u00f6te. Additional opera highlights of the season include a return to the Metropolitan Opera to sing No\u00e9mie in Massenet\u2019s Cendrillon in a new production directed by Laurent Pelly, performances as Morgana in Handel\u2019s Alcina with Washington National Opera, and a house debut at Vancouver Opera as Adina in Donizetti\u2019s L\u2019Elisir d\u2019Amore. Concert appearances will include Schumann\u2019s Das Paradies und die Peri with the Los Angeles Philharmonic directed by Peter Sellars under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, a recital with pianist Ken Noda at Carnegie Hall featuring Schubert lieder, and Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 4 with the Montclair Symphony conducted by David Chan. Ms. Fang will return to the Verbier Festival for a solo recital, Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 4 conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, and\u00a0 a performance of the Faur\u00e9 Requiem under Mark Minkowski. She will also appear with the Verbier Chamber Ensemble at Schloss Elmau.\nMs. Fang\u2019s 2016-2017 season included Metropolitan Opera appearances as Ilia in Mozart\u2019s Idomeneo, Elvira in Rossini\u2019s L\u2019Italiana in Algeri, and Jano in Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s Jen\u016ffa. She also portrayed Susanna in Mozart\u2019s Le Nozze di Figaro in a Stephen Lawless production for Opera Philadelphia and sang Bellezza in Handel\u2019s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with conductor Emmanuelle Ha\u00efm with Op\u00e9ra de Lille. Ms. Fang appeared with the New York Philharmonic in a concert of Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 4 conducted by Alan Gilbert and an all-Mozart program under Bernard Labadie. She also performed Handel\u2019s Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann, sang Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 2 with the Pittsburgh Symphony under conductor Manfred Honeck, ventured to Chicago for Telemann\u2019s Der Tag des Gerichts with Music of the Baroque Orchestra conducted by Jane Glover, and joined St. Luke\u2019s Chamber Ensemble for a Schubertiade in New York.\nPrevious appearances for Ms. Fang include Barbarina in the season-opening new production of Le Nozze di Figaro conducted by James Levine at the Metropolitan Opera, where she also sang Giannetta in\u00a0 L\u2019elisir d\u2019amore, the Shepherd in Wagner\u2019s Tannh\u00e4user, and the Dew Fairy in H\u00e4nsel und Gretel conducted by Sir Andrew Davis; as well as Susanna in Mozart\u2019s Le Nozze di Figaro directed by Stephen Wadsworth at The Juilliard School, where she also performed the title role in Gluck\u2019s Iphig\u00e9nie en Aulide conducted by Jane Glover. In addition, she made her Verbier Festival and role debut singing Nannetta in Verdi\u2019s Falstaff alongside Bryn Terfel and led by Jes\u00fas L\u00f3pez Cobos, and returned to the Festival d\u2019Aix-en-Provence for its production of Handel\u2019s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. She also debuted at the Ravinia Festival in Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 2 under the baton of James Levine, joined the Mediterranean Youth Symphony for a European tour of Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 4 conducted by Carlo Rizzi, and was featured in the Metropolitan Opera and the Juilliard School\u2019s joint concert of comic operas conducted by James Levine, in which she sang Konstanze, Teresa, and Adina. She has also appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall as part of the Neighborhood Concert Series and at the Kennedy Center under the auspices of Vocal Arts DC, both with pianist Ken Noda. Other notable recent appearances include\u00a0Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare and Contessa di Folleville in Rossini\u2019s Il Viaggio A Reims, both\u00a0with the Wolf Trap Opera Company, the title role\u00a0in Mozart\u2019s Za\u00efde\u00a0with the New World Symphony, and Bellezza in Handel\u2019s oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with Juilliard 415 under the baton of William Christie at Alice Tully Hall. She also appeared at Aspen Opera Theater Center where she was heard as Maria in Bernstein\u2019s West Side Story and in the role of Pamina in Mozart\u2019s Die Zauberfl\u00f6te with the Aspen Opera Theater Center, of which the Aspen Times wrote: \u201cSoprano Ying Fang sang Pamina with a creamy tone and marvelous specificity in each moment.\u201d\nMs. Fang\u00a0made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the 2013-14 season singing the role of Madame Podtochina\u2019s Daughter in Shostakovich\u2019s opera The Nose.\u00a0At the Juilliard School, she has been seen as Zerlina in\u00a0Mozart\u2019s Don Giovanni,\u00a0Fanny in Rossini\u2019s La Cambiale di Matrimonio, and the Spirit of the Boy in Britten\u2019s Curlew River.\u00a0 She made her Alice Tully Hall debut performing Handel\u2019s motet Silete Venti with conductor Steven Fox leading the Juilliard 415, and appeared as the soprano soloist in Carl Orff\u2019s Carmina Burana with the National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap.\nA native of Ningbo, China, Ms. Fang is the recipient of the Martin E. Segal Award, the Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award, the\u00a0Rose Bampton Award of\u00a0The Sullivan Foundation, The Opera Index Award, and the 1st Prize Award of the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. In 2009, she become one of the youngest singers to win one of China\u2019s most prestigious awards \u2013 the China Golden Bell Award for Music. She has been hailed as \u201cthe most gifted Chinese soprano of her generation\u201d by Ningbo Daily.\nMs. Fang holds a Master\u2019s degree and an Artist Diploma in Opera Study from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor\u2019s degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera\u2019s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.\n|,|title|:|soprano|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Elizabeth Deshong|,|bio|:|When Elizabeth DeShong sang in Rossini\u2019s rarely-performed Maometto II at the Canadian Opera Company, the National Post wrote, \u201cEven more impressive was Elizabeth DeShong as Calbo, a bellicose Venetian general with a human side. . . there could be no better demonstration of the viability of a woman in a heroic male role. Vibrant tone, pyrotechnic technique, intense stage presence, spot-on-diction: this American mezzosoprano has it all.\u201d\nThis season, Elizabeth sang Adalgisa in Norma with the North Carolina Opera. She will tour with The English Concert performing Juno and Ino in Handel\u2019s Semele and sing Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito with the Los Angeles Opera. In addition to these Houston concerts, she performed in recital for Vocal Arts DC at the Kennedy Center and will perform in concert with Music of the Baroque. She debuts with the San Francisco Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic (as Ariel in Sibelius\u2019 The Tempest) and with the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Rossini Stabat Mater under the direction of Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin. In summer 2019, she will make her role debut in the title role in Handel\u2019s Rinaldo at Glyndebourne.\nLast season, she returned to Washington National Opera to sing Ruggiero in Alcina and Arsace in Semiramide at the Metropolitan Opera. In concert, she performed Mendelssohn\u2019s Elijah with Music of the Baroque and debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Schubert\u2019s Mass No. 6 and the world premiere of Three Lisel Mueller Settings by Maxwell Raimi, both conducted by Riccardo Muti. In Europe, Elizabeth returned to Glyndebourne to perform Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and made her debut with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and at the Proms in Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1, followed by her debut at the Edinburgh Festival singing Hansel in Hansel and Gretel in a concert performance with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.\nElizabeth DeShong received Washington National Opera\u2019s 2010 Artist of the Year award, as the Composer in Richard Strauss\u2019 Ariadne auf Naxos. On DVD, she can be seen as Hermia in the Metropolitan Opera\u2019s pastiche opera The Enchanted Island (Virgin) and as Maffio Orsini in the San Francisco Opera\u2019s production of Lucrezia Borgia (EuroArts Music and Naxos of America). Her recording of Handel\u2019s Messiah with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Andrew Davis (Chandos) received two Grammy nominations in the Best Choral Performance and Producer of the Year, classical categories for 2018.\n|,|title|:|mezzo-soprano|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Thomas Cooley|,|bio|:|Thomas Cooley is a singer of great versatility, expressiveness and virtuosity, in demand internationally for a wide range of repertoire in concert, opera and chamber music.\nHis repertoire on the symphonic stage includes works such as Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Ninth Symphony; Berlioz’ Requiem, Les nuits d’\u00e9t\u00e9 and L’enfance du Christ; Haydn’s The Seasons; Britten’s War Requiem and Serenade; Stravinsky’s Les Noces; Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang and Elijah; Mozart’s Requiem; Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius; Rihm’s Deus Passus; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde; and Penderecki’s Credo. Recent concert highlights include the world premiere and recording of Christopher Theofanidis\u2019 Creation\/Creator with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Kod\u00e1ly\u2019s Psalmus Hungaricus, Bruckner\u2019s Te Deum and his first foray into Wagner with an excerpt from Parsifal with the St. Louis Symphony.\nHe has collaborated with internationally prominent conductors, including Helmuth Rilling, Donald Runnicles, Osmo V\u00e4nsk\u00e4, Eiji Oue, Lan Shui, Michael Tilson Thomas, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Nicholas McGegan, Robert Spano, David Robertson, Markus Stenz, Carlo Rizzi, Franz Welser-M\u00f6st, Manfred Honeck and Bernard Labadie. He performs regularly with major orchestras and festivals such as the Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival; Atlanta (including an appearance at Carnegie Hall), Pittsburgh, Baltimore, National and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras; St. Louis and Oregon Symphonies; the Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; Orchestre Symphonique de Qu\u00e9bec; Coppenhagen Philharmonic; Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; Ottawa\u2019s National Arts Center Orchestra; the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; and the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra.\nParticularly renowned for his agility and skill in Baroque music, Thomas is in demand as an interpreter of the works of Bach and Handel, most especially in the role of the Evangelist in Bach’s Passions and in the great oratorios of Handel. He appears regularly with such historically informed groups as Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society, Music of the Baroque, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Akadamie f\u00fcr Alte Musik Berlin, Boston Baroque, the Carmel and Oregon Bach Festivals, Les Violons du Roy and the Munich Bach Choir. Named artist-in-residence for the 2015-16 season at Music of the Baroque in Chicago, he performed Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, a program of Bach cantatas and the title role in Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus.\n|,|title|:|tenor|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |},{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Christ\u00f2pheren Nomura|,|bio|:|Baritone Christ\u00f2pheren Nomura stands at the forefront of his generation of singers. He has performed throughout the world, hailed as one of classical music’s “rising stars” by The Wall Street Journal.\nHe has earned a prominent place on the operatic, concert and recital stages, appearing with orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra under conductors Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, James Conlon, Christopher Hogwood, Jane Glover and Nicholas McGegan, among others.\nChrist\u00f2pheren has been a regular guest with the Pacific Symphony, North Carolina Symphony and the National Philharmonic. He premiered Philip Glass\u2019 The Passion of Ramakrishna for the Pacific Symphony, reprised and recorded it there and showcased it at Carnegie Hall in 2017. A noted Bach specialist, he has performed with The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Oregon Bach Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, Music of the Baroque, Handel and Haydn Society and the Boston Early Music Festival.\nIn opera, Christ\u00f2pheren is a noted Mozartean who has likewise had a strong association with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and was Prince Yamadori in the Scorsese \/ Mitterand film, conducted by James Conlon. In 2015, he debuted on Broadway in Allegiance with George Takei, Lea Salonga and Telly Leung, subsequently recorded and shown in HD video broadcasts throughout the world. He has collaborated with the Borromeo, Brentano and St. Lawrence String Quartets as well as Martin Katz, Charles Wadsworth, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and William Bolcom at leading music festivals: Santa Fe, Marlboro, Tanglewood, La Jolla, Spoleto, Music@Menlo and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.\nKnown for his commitment to art song, he has given hundreds of recitals throughout North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. He has appeared at Lincoln Center, the Making Music series at Carnegie Hall, the Celebrity Series in Boston, Ravinia Festival, the John F. Kennedy Center and the Vancouver Recital Society. He was artist-in-residence with San Francisco Performances for four seasons.\nAmong many notable career highlights, he sang Bernstein’s Mass at the Vatican for the Jubilee Year in 2000 performing before an audience of 15,000 in the Sala Nervi, simulcast to some 200,000 people in Vatican Square. Christ\u00f2pheren Nomura’s discography includes recordings on the Sony, Dorian, Teldec, London, Denon, TDK and l’Oiseau Lyre labels.\n|,|title|:|baritone|,|small_image|:| \n |,|bio_image|:| \n |,|full_image|:| \n |}],|without|:[{|type|:|custom|,|name|:|Houston Symphony Chorus|,|bio|:||,|title|:|Betsy Cook Weber, director|,|small_image|:false,|bio_image|:false,|full_image|:false}]}
HANDEL Messiah
Click to view the program notes in InTune – the Houston Symphony magazine.
