photos: Lynn Lane

AFTER THE STORM

A 70-minute opera about hurricanes in Galveston, Texas,
commissioned by Houston Grand Opera/HGOco

music by David Hanlon
libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann
developed in collaboration with director Matthew Ozawa

production

premiere: Houston Grand Opera & Galveston 1894 Grand Opera House, May 13 & 15, 2016
directed and designed by Matthew Ozawa
lighting by Michael Clarke

with Sofia Selowsky (Eliza Goodman), Mane Galoyan (Lucy Goodman), Lindsay Russell (Bettie / Bea),
Cecilia Duarte (First Responder / Harriet), Mark Thomas (Isaiah / Pastor's Son), Mark Diamond (Cyclone / Wilbur) 

press
 

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

"Complex and layered, violent and cyclical, hurricanes are equal parts anticipation and emergency.
So too was David Hanlon's stirringly successful score for the Houston Grand Opera's world premiere After the Storm."

"Librettist Stephanie Fleischmann... spun flax into gold from fragments of the past: After the storm, we burned
corpses like cordwood,' or "Our magnificent oaks, skeletons against the sky.'"

HOUSTON PRESS / HGOco's World Premiere Draws from Hurricane Ike and the Great Storm of 1900

Suzy Tommaney I  May 4 2016

"As the hurricane storms outside, and as each letter succumbs to the water, the ancestors come alive,
one by one, to retell their story," says Ozawa. "[It's] powerful, beautiful, also so poignant and heartbreaking.
The idea of objects, memory, family, history is literally woven into this one moment."

GALVESTON MONTHLY / Story in Song: After the Storm

"An exquisite blend of music, drama, and history....After the Storm succeeds in painting a picture of the
legacy that the Galveston community lives with as a background and how that resonates with everyday life."

HOUSTON PUBLIC MEDIA / New Hurricane Opera Hits Close to Home for Houstonians

Amy Bishop I May 9, 2016