Houston Early Music to Present EL LAUREL DE APOLO: ZARZUELA FROM MADRID TO THE NEW WORLD

Houston Early Music's 2019-2020 season continues the organization's commitment to presenting historically informed musical performances with Sonnambula's concert of El Laurel de Apolo: Zarzuela from Madrid to the New World at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 31, 2020.

A Hispanic Heritage Series Concert, the performance will provide a visit through song to the Palacio de la Zarzuela, just outside Madrid, where this new genre of musical drama was first performed in 1657.

Award-winning soprano and Houston native Camille Zamora, considered a leading interpreter of classical Spanish music, will join Sonnambula musicians: Artistic Director Elizabeth Weinfield, (viol); Amy Domingues ('cello, viola da gamba); Shirley Hunt ('cello, viola da gamba); Toma Iliev (violin); James Kennerley (keyboard); Jude Ziliak (violin); and Esteban La Rotta (vihuela, lute) in their Houston Early Music debut.

"Camille is one of our favorite collaborators, and we're so excited to get to do this program in Houston, her hometown, no less," Sonnambula Artistic Director Elizabeth Weinfield said.

"I am thrilled to rejoin my wonderful collaborators, Sonnambula, led by the incomparable Elizabeth Weinfield," Zamora said of the upcoming performance. "Elizabeth and I first met five years ago, discovering our shared passion for early Spanish repertoire during a break in the rehearsals for Rameau's Pygmalion. Not long after, we performed a concert of Spanish Baroque zarzuela."

A proud graduate of Houston's Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and later The Juilliard School, Zamora said that although she has lived in New York for several years, she remains deeply connected to Houston. Her father, the late Steve Zamora, served as dean of the University of Houston Law Center and was founder of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law, and her mother, Lois Zamora, formerly the dean of the Humanities College at UH, continues to teach in the university's literature department. "I love Houston!" Zamora said.

When speaking of the importance of preserving early music, Zamora said: "Great institutions like Houston Early Music are key to keeping these cultural treasures alive for future generations.

"For me, what makes early music extra compelling is the quality of musical intensity that is somehow built into these works. The tonal palette is at once intimate and grand," she said. "And for a vocalist there are few bodies of repertoire more satisfying to sing. This is music that, to me, sounds like the paintings of its era look: soulful, richly colored and unabashedly spiritual yet grounded in raw human emotion. It's addictive to sing!"

SONNAMBULA - El Laurel de Apolo: Zarzuela from Madrid to the New World will take place at Christ Church Cathedral, 1117 Texas Ave., Houston, TX 77002, Friday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m.

Pre-concert talk by Elizabeth Weinfield, Sonnambula Artistic Director, at 6:45 p.m.

TICKET INFORMATION:

Individual tickets are available for $45 general admission, $35 senior admission and $15 for students with a valid student ID card. Children under the age of 15 receive free admission.

HoustonEarlyMusic.org

For more information, e-mail info@HoustonEarlyMusic.org or call 281-846-4222.