Ars Lyrica Houston Sets 2016-17 Season

Ars Lyrica Houston, the Grammy nominated early music ensemble, announces a 2016/17 season that mixes beloved masterworks of the Baroque with rare gems from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Fables & Follies opens on September 9 with an encore visit to the world of King Louis XIV, with Marc­Antoine Charpentier's comic chamber opera Les Plaisirs de Versailles. Handel's late masterpiece Jephtha will be offered twice, on October 15 and 16, and will feature a stellar cast of soloists plus the award-­winning Moores School Concert Chorale from the University of Houston. On December 31 a festive program rings in the New Year with cantatas J.S. Bach wrote specifically for this holiday. Bachanalia also includes Ars Lyrica's annual holiday gala and silent auction following the program.

With Scalable Heights on February 12, Ars Lyrica visits the virtuoso world of Antonio Vivaldi and Alessandro Scarlatti, whose talents inspired some of the most spectacular music of the late Baroque. Classical Spectres on April 2 features musical depictions of the supernatural from J. C. F. Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven. Ars Lyrica's May 21 season finale, entitled Don Quixote's Excellent Adventures, explores one of history's greatest literary figures in a pan­European survey of Baroque music devoted to this Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha.

Highlights of the 2016/17 season include the return of countertenor Ryland Angel, tenors Derek Chester and Joseph Gaines, soprano Lauren Snouffer, violinist Adam LaMotte, mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte, and stage direction by Tara Faircloth. Making their Ars Lyrica debuts during 2016/17 are baritone Thomas Meglioranza, mezzo-soprano Sofia Selowsky, and soprano Dominique McCormick.

Ars Lyrica's 2016/17 season of Fables & Follies will include six subscription programs, all of which take place in the intimate and lively acoustics of Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Those who purchase season subscriptions prior to June 3 will receive additional perks, including a complimentary ticket to one of the 2016/17 programs and major discounts to the New Year's Eve Dinner & Fundraising Gala -- a holiday tradition for our Houston patrons!

Ars Lyrica also announces their world première recording of Alessandro Scarlatti's La sposa dei Cantici (Sono Luminus, Fall 2016) features soprano Meghan Lindsay and three of the world's leading countertenors-John Holiday, Jay Carter, and Ryland Angel-along with Ars Lyrica string and continuo players, all under the direction of Matthew Dirst.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.arslyricahouston.org or call the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts Box Office at 713.315.2525. (Press 4 for Ars Lyrica Houston)