Houston Grand Opera Presents: The First Annual HGO Family Day
HOUSTON—May 15, 2024—Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is proud to announce the company’s first annual HGO Family Day, a special performance of Rossini’s crowd-pleasing Cinderella, on Nov. 9, 2024, at 11 a.m., at the Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Theater. The brand-new initiative is part of a slate of HGO programming intended to serve students, families, and the entire Houston community. Single tickets to Family Day will go on sale at 10 a.m. on May 15, 2024, at HGO.org/FamilyDay.
Directed by Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, the Family Day show will be a 90-minute, English-language, relaxed-environment performance of Cinderella. Relaxed-environment performances offer a welcoming and supportive atmosphere for families with young children, with accommodations including low lighting and flexible entry and re-entry.
HGO’s Family Day was conceived to serve Houston families seeking world-class art and culture alongside fun, kid-centric activities. Children will enjoy coloring and crafts, photo experiences, costumed-character interactions, and much more, both before the show and during intermission in the Wortham Theater’s Grand Foyer.
“In the season to come, HGO will direct vast creative energy and resources toward meeting the needs of all Houstonians through multi-generational programming,” says HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor. “Cinderella is a wonderful opera for audience members of all ages. We cannot wait to welcome families to the Wortham Theater for an uplifting day of world-class art and music as we launch this new company tradition.”
Originally created by Spanish director Joan Font, the Family Day production is a whimsically bright and colorful take on Rossini’s opera, which shares the familiar story adored by audiences the world over, but with a few twists. The titular heroine is here renamed Angelina; she has a wicked stepfather, Don Magnifico; a pair of bracelets replace the glass slippers; and a group of hilarious life-size rats does its best to steal the show. But at its heart, the timeless tale of a sweet young beauty finding love with her prince remains.
Leonard, who regularly performs at the world’s great opera houses—and is also mom to a teenage son—will be making her directorial debut with this performance. “It was important to us to invite not only a leading opera star, but a mother, to direct our first-ever Family Day,” says Dastoor.
“Isabel is an incredible artist who has an intimate understanding of the needs of families and how to make their experience at the opera fantastic. Beyond that, at HGO we make it a priority to support artists and creatives who are working parents—particularly women, who have historically faced significant challenges from within our industry.”
HGO Family Day Presents Cinderella will take place on Nov. 9, 2024, at 11 a.m. at the Brown Theater, Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas Ave. Tickets range from $25 to $150. Groups of 10 or more receive 20% off tickets. For more information and to buy tickets, visit HGO.org/FamilyDay or call the Box Office at 713-228-6737.
The company is offering Family Day audiences the opportunity to make magical memories with a Fairytale Experience package. Tickets include a seat in the Brown Theater’s premium Founders Boxes, preshow brunch, valet parking, and a photograph with cast members on the set of Cinderella. Tickets for this experience are $1,000 and can be purchased at HGO.org/FamilyDay. $500 from each ticket will directly support HGO's programming for students and children.
HGO also will present a full-length, Italian-language version of Font’s Cinderella production from Oct. 25 through Nov. 9 at the Wortham Theater Center’s Brown Theater as part of its fall repertoire. In addition to directing HGO’s first Family Day, Leonard will perform as Angelina in the mainstage production.