The Houston ballet presents “Manon”

Houston Ballet presents Manon. Music by Jules Massenet (1842 – 1912). Orchestrated and arranged by Leighton Lucas, with the collaboration of Hilda Gaunt. Choreography: Sir Kenneth MacMillan.

A modern classic, Manon charts the romantic adventures of an irresistibly beautiful femme fatale and her one true love, the impoverished student Des Grieux, from the demi monde of Paris to the bayous of Louisiana. Sir Kenneth has created a brilliant dance drama that explores the relationship between love, sex, and the corrupting power of money. The passion and danger of Manon’s central pas de deux have proven irresistible to audiences around the world, and have made it one of the most popular full-length ballets of the second half of the twentieth century.

Men will do anything to have her, and Manon will do anything for love. Or is it power she craves? Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s exquisite ballet charts the tale of a beautiful young girl, her penniless lover, and the ambition that is her downfall. This seductive, full-length production is highlighted by passion and accented with danger. One of the great narrative ballets of the late 20th century, this epic story provides dancer with a spectacular showcase for their theatrical gifts.

Age Recommendation: at least 12 years of age.

 

WHEN: At 7:30 pm on September 10, 12, 18, 19, 2009

At 2:00 pm on September 13, 20, 2009

 

WHERE: Brown Theater, Wortham Theater Center

501 Texas Avenue in downtown Houston

 

TICKETS: Call (713) 227 ARTS or 1 800 828 ARTS

Tickets are also available at www.houstonballet.org

and the Houston Ballet Box Office: Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas Avenue (at Smith Street).

Use the promotion code TFAA to receive a 25% discount on your Manon tickets

Click here to purchase tickets for Manon

Click here for the Manon press release

 

Pictured: Dancer(s): Amy Fote and Simon Ball. Photo by: Pam Francis.

Bernar Venet Monumental Sculpture

Project Description

Long known as a vital national art community, Houston has an opportunity to establish itself in the international art scene. Beginning in the winter of 2009, Houston will host a monumental sculpture exhibition by the internationally recognized artist, Bernar Venet. TFAA is participating in the development of the project and the promotion of Bernar Venet’s art.

In conjunction with Bernar Venet’s local agent we would like to place ten monumental outdoor steel sculptures in Hermann Park. Its central location within Houston has both vehicular and pedestrian access, and open land expanses for long vista views of artwork. This unique accessibility guaranties an outstanding exposure over a duration of nine months. Enclosed you may find a map with suggested locations for the sculptures in Hermann Park. The finalized spots would only be made with the cooperation and input of Hermann Park Directors and the artist, Bernar Venet.

Similar Bernar Venet monumental sculpture exhibitions have been celebrated in over 20 cities worldwide (New York, Chicago, Denver, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Brussels, Paris and more). His work has been acquired by the most notable international museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The National Gallery and Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. The timing for receiving a Houston exhibition could not be better.

In 2008, Bernar Venet received international attention by Sotheby’s sponsor: a Private Sale Retrospective, on the grounds of Isleworth Golf and Country Club in Windermere, Florida. The Houston Venet exhibition will follow on the heels of this Retrospective and a smaller city-wide exhibition in San Diego, California. The third quarter of 2009 is the earliest Venet’s sculptures can be made available for a Houston exhibition of monumental works.

Without question, our city leads internationally in many areas – oil technology, shipping and aerospace. Houston is also vibrant in many of the arts – performance, symphony, opera, theater, museums and non-profit art spaces. A critical piece to this civic fabric is internationally recognized public art for its citizens. Unlike the other arts, public art not only is an important piece of civic life but it also exudes prestige and pride to the world that is not accomplished in any other way.

The focus will be on the partners involved in this monumental exhibition as well as in Houston’s eminent and exciting future.

Visit the official website : www.bernarvenet.com

Bernar Venet installation at the MFAH, sculpture garden- click here

Click here to see an article about Bernar Venet’s exhibition in San Diego

This project is in part funded and supported by:

AXA Art Insurance Corporation

Becca Cason Thrash

Consulate General of France in Houston

City of Houston’s city’s Initiative program through the Houston Arts Alliance

City of Houston Park’s and Recreation Department

GDF SUEZ Energy North America

French Embassy

Hermann Park Conservancy

Richard Fant

Red Claw LLC

Sotheby’s

Total

and Over 100 Private Donors

Bastille Day 2009

 

 A celebration organized by the French Consulate in Houston, the French-American Chamber of Commerce and TFAA.

Photos from the event, by photographer Anthony Rathbun

By invitation only

Date: On July 14, 2009 from 7 to 9 pm.

Location: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Caroline Wiess Law Building, 1001 Bissonet, Houston 77005.

Entertainment provided by the Young Sounds of Houston jazz band – University of Houston Downtown Civic Music Program. Soprano coloratura Cherize Lukow, from the Franco American Vocal Academy (FAVA) will sing La Marseillaise.

There will be a raffle with wonderful prizes such as:

  1. 2 tickets from Air France
  2. $200 gift card from Le Mistral
  3. $100 gift certificate from Jacques Dessange
  4. and many more great prices

Announcement will be made at 8pm. Must be present to win. $5 per raffle ticket.

Buffet of French delicacies, French wines and champagne.

This event has received the generous support from the following sponsors:

Total Holdings USA, CGG Veritas, Technip USA, Schlumberger, GDF SUEZ, Vallourec & Mannesmann Tubes, Spec’s, MFAH, Brasserie Max et Julie, FAVA, Riviera Graphics & Printing, Aroma Italiano Inc., Young Sounds of Houston, University of Houston-Downtown Civic Music Program.

 

The raffle is made possible with the support of:
Air France, Le Mistral, Jacques Dessange, Specs, MFAH, L’Occitane en Provence, Glazer’s, Mercury Baroque


Make Music Houston !

Fete de la musique

 

The General Consulate of France in Houston and the Texan French Alliance for the Arts (TFAA) would like to invite you to Make Music Houston (MMH) on Sunday, June 21st at the West Alabama IceHouse (1919 W Alabama St, Houston).

For its premiere, MMH is offering a dozen of free concerts of all musical persuasions – from blues to hard rock, and from jazz to pop.

This event is open to anyone who wants to take part, enjoyed by everyone who wants to attend.

Created by the French Ministry of Culture 25 years ago, “la Fete de la Musique” is aunique festival of free concerts in public spaces. Given the great success of this spontaneous event, this gathering of professionals and amateur musicians has spread to more than 320 cities around the world.

In the United-States, Miami and New York launched their annual celebration several years ago.

Rendez-vous at West Alabama IceHouse, a classic Texan icehouse. This open-air beer bar is a great place to hang out while listening to live music. Other pleasant diversions include a waterslide and a stall of French food.

 

One day, 14 bands !  From 2 pm , in order of appearance:

Dualidade – Latin Pop

Melissa Savcic – Acoustic Pop Rock

Flutes ensemble – Classical music

Orents Stirner – Experimental Rock

Bobby Mitchell – Country

Deborah Boily – French pop (Jacques Brel)

Hot Club de Houston: French Gypsy Jazz

Geezus Rodreegus – Soul

Funky Mustard – Jazz, Rock, Fusion

Andrea Chase – Blues, Jazz, RnB
Unappreciated – Punk Alternative
Hidden Agenda – Soft Pop
The Blue Lefan – Pop Variety
The Liquid Kitchen – Rock

 

Visit www.myspace.com/makemusichoustonfor more information.

 

 

Mercury Baroque Armide

May 15 and May 16, 2009 at 8 p.m
Pre-concert lecture given at 7:15 p.m.

Cullen Theater, Wortham Center

Tickets for Armide are $20 – $52 (for discounted tickets use promotion code TFAA)

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.mercurybaroque.org or call 832-251-0706.


Armide – Isabelle Cals, Renaud – Zachary Wilder, Hidraot – Tyler Duncan – Phenice – Lauren Snoffer, Sidonie – Sarah Mesko, Haine – Beau Gibson

Pascal Rambert
, Stage Director and Production Designer

Antoine Plante
– Conductor

Albert Ledoux
– Choir Director

In collaboration with Texan-French Allliance for the Arts

 

Worlds collide and cultures clash as French stage director Pascal Rambert joins Mercury Baroque to revive Jean-Baptiste Lully’s opera Armide for its Houston debut May 15 and May 16, 2009 at 8 p.m., at the Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater. A pre-concert lecture will be given at 7:15 p.m.

Armide, which some consider Lully’s finest work, first premiered at the Paris Opéra February 15, 1686. The opera was based on a popular epic poem brought to life by Lully and French dramatist and librettist Philippe Quinault. Unlike most of their operas, Armide is particularly compelling because it focuses on the emotional struggles of a single character, the sorceress Armide.

Originally set in Damascus, Armide falls in love with the French Crusader and valiant hero Renaud, her sworn enemy. The drama just begins.

Armide casts a love spell and Renaud is left powerless. Her spell backfires when she realizes that his love for her is insincere. The spell is finally broken when Renaud’s fellow knights find him, and he abandons Armide. Finally, Armide’s castle is overtaken by demons, and she narrowly escapes in a flying chariot. Armide’s internal conflict is at the forefront of a story entwined with heroism, villainy, war, unrequited love, sorcery, hate and duty.

For the Houston premiere of Armide, Mercury Baroque has enlisted French director and multi-disciplinary artist Pascal Rambert. Rambert is known for his striking stage pictures and original choreography. With his unique vision, Rambert will bring Lully’s masterpiece into a contemporary context.

Rambert discovered his love for the arts early in life. At 20, he began writing and directing his own plays and by age 22 he created his company Side One Posthume Théâtre. From 2004-2006, Rambert was an associate artist with the Scène Nationale d’Annecy. In January 2007, he was appointed Director of Théâtre de Gennevilliers, succeeding founder Bernard Sobel. His plays have been produced throughout Europe, the U.S. and Japan.

Under conductor Antoine Plante, Mercury Baroque lends its enchanting sound to the productions. In contrast to the contemporary staging, the ensemble performs on period instruments. The opera also features the gifted French soprano Isabelle Cals in the role of Armide and Mercury Baroque favorite Zachary Wilder as Renaud.

Mercury Baroque’s highly imaginative programming brings music to a variety of audiences and venues. The ensemble does not limit itself to concerts—it presents a fully staged opera such as Armide each season.

Mercury Baroque will perform a concert version Sunday, May 17at 2 p.m. at The University of Houston, Clear Lake, 2700 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, Texas 77058. For tickets to Sunday’s performance, call 281-283-2560.

For more information, please see the links below:

Interview on YouTube with Antoine Plante and Pascal Rambert

Article in France Inter

Interview with Pascal Rambert, in French and English

Beyrouth Texas

Poetry and Music by Antoine Boulad and Mike Owen

 

A l’occasion du passage à Houston du poète Antoine Boulad, nous pensons faire une lecture-recital poésie-musique. Cela aura lieu au Cezanne sur Montrose le mercredi 15 avril à 8h du soir. Mr Boulad declamera plusieurs extraits de ses oeuvres, et il sera accompagné par le talentueux pianiste de jazz Mike Owen (que vous pouvez consultez sur son site: owensongs.com).

En bref M. Antoine Boulad est un nom dans la poésie libanaise francophone et a deja publié de nombreux recueils, dont “Le Passeur,” “Les Distances Magnétiques,” “Les Brindilles de la Memoire,” chez L’Harmattan, “Le Journal de la Guerre,” “Ruede Damas” chez Saqi. Il a fait plusieurs recitals de Poésie, dont deux à Montréal et à Quebec City , et a été invité au Festival de Poésie de Lodeve “Voix de la Méditerrannée.”

Il est directeur du français à L’IC (international college) de Beyrouth et est resposable de la page Poésie dans “L’Orient Littéraire” du quotidien L’orient-Le Jour, et puis il est membre fondateur de Assabil (organisation des bibliothèques publiques du Liban).

Il n’y aura pas de droit d’entrée, seulement une consommation que Cezanne exige.

Dance Salad

With Marie-Agnes Gillot and Kader Belarbi

TFAA and the French Consulate in Houston are proud to sponsor two Etoiles from Ballet de L’Opera National de Paris.

Please join us for remarkable performances presented in the Dance Salad Festival at 7:30 pm on April 9, 10 and 11, Cullen Theater, Wortham Center.

Please click Here to Read the “Dance MagazineReview of “Dance Salad”

Etoile, Marie-Agnès Gillot partnered by Etoile, Kader Belarbi will be performing l’Espirit du bleu, a section from Carolyn Carlson’s Signes composed by Rene Aubry. Also, Marie-Agnès will be dancing with Jiri Bubeníček, (choreographer and dancer in Dresden SemperOper Ballet) in his choreography, Unintended Consequence.

 

Marie-Agnès Gillot began her studies at the Paris Opera Ballet School in 1985, where she was immediately placed in the highest group. She completed all her studies and enrolled in the corps de ballet in 1990, at the age of 15. Only nine years later she was already promoted to première danseuse and after the performance of Carolyn Carlson’s Signes in 2004, Marie-Agnès Gillot was promoted to Etoile. She is a recipient of Prix du Cercle Carpeaux in 1997 and the Prix du Public awarded by l’AROP and also received the title of Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. Marie-Agnès Gillot’s dance repertoire includes choreographies by Balanchine, Duato, Bausch, Preljocaj, Nureyev, Forsythe, Neumeier, Bejart, Kylian and MacMillan. Both, Marie-Agnès Gillot and Kader Belarbi have also worked with Mats Ek in La Maison de Bernarda, Giselle and Apartment.

Kader Belarbi, well known French-Algerian dancer in the Ballet de L’Opera National de Paris, was promoted to Etoile by Rudolf Noureev in 1989. He was featured in works by such choreographers as Balanachine, Bejart, Forsythe, Kylian, Noureev, Bausch, and Carlson. After 28 years of dancing, he will continue his work as a choreographer for Ballet de L’Opera National de Paris as well as other companies worldwide.

Carolyn Carlson, choreographer of L’Espirit du Blue, an American born choreographer, graduated from San Francisco School of Ballet and University of Utah. In 1974 she became a star choreographer of the Ballet de L’Opera de Paris where she also run the opera house’s theatre research group. Carlson created more than 25 works between 1974 and 1980. From 1980-1985, she worked at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, creating her emblematic solo Blue Lady (1983), before returning to Paris and to her new base, the Théâtre de la Ville (1985-1991). She is now the Director and choreographer in residence at the Choreographic Center in Roubaix, France.

Classical, modern, and contemporary dance share the Dance Salad Festival stage to form a mix of movement and compelling choreographic invention. Members of some of the world’s best dance companies come to Houston to participate in this week long festival. Each night’s production is uniquely curated and designed as a coherent, expressive performance; to see the full range of the choreography presented requires attending two of the three evenings.

Other participating companies in Dance Salad Festival in 2009 include: English National Ballet (London, England), Mats Ek (Stockholm, Sweden), Royal Danish Ballet (Copenhagen, Denmark), Royal Swedish Ballet (Stockholm, Sweden), Dresden SemperOper Ballet (Dresden, Germany), William Forsythe (The Forsythe Company, Frankfurt, Germany), Göteborgs Operans Ballet (Gothenburg, Sweden), Staatstheater Ballet Wiesbaden (Wiesbaden, Germany), Carte Blanche (Bergen, Norway), Company Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Ansemble Micrologus (Antwerp, Belgium and Rome, Italy) and Xing Liang (Contemporary City Dance Company, Hong Kong).

Use the following code when booking your tickets and benefit from a special discount: TFAA009

Photos of the event HERE

For addtional information and to buy tickets online please visit www.dancesalad.org

Photos of the event HERE

French Cultures Festival

Mois de la francophonie

 

Used by over 200 million people and spoken on all 5 continents, the French language unites countries, institutions and individuals. The French-speaking community in different countries brings together people who speak French, a language of education, culture and communication, and who love French culture.

Throughout the month of March 2009, in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, The French Cultures Festival / Mois de la Francophonie will celebrate the French Cultures featuring lectures, films, theatrical shows, concerts, meetings with artists, receptions, parties and even a recreational afternoon for young children focused on discovering the French speaking world.

 

For more information on some of the events, please see the links below:

 

Houston Ballet – Marie

Museum of Fine Arts – French Films

Theater Under the Stars – Les Miserables

“In the Forest of Fontainebleu: Painters and Photographers from Corot to Monet”

On view through Sunday, October 19, 2008 at the Audrey Jones Beck Building of the MFAH

“A tree is an edifice, a forest a city, and among all the forests, the Forest of Fontainebleau is a monument,” Victor Hugo wrote in 1872, expressing the love and admiration of this magical place that he shared with his fellow Parisians and with generations of French landscape painters in particular.

This exhibition transports the viewers deep into the shady glens and dramatic gorges, over the rugged terrain of giant boulders, and to the edges marshes that make up the varied topography of this former royal hunting domain which became the cradle and crucible of French landscape painting.

The exhibition traces the steps of three generations of painters who sought out Fontainebleau as their ‘natural studio’ between the 1820s and 1870s. Located only 35 miles from Paris, virtually unspoiled and uninhabited yet easily accessible, it was the ideal site to develop plein air painting in France. Corot’s Little Easel Carrier, 1823-24, is not only an early and astonishingly fresh example, but also illustrates the logistics of working out of doors. Equipped with portable easels, folding umbrellas and stools, the artists set out from one of the surrounding villages like Barbizon or Chailly to grasp nature as she revealed herself directly before their eyes. Although the choice of motifs, scale, sense of color as well as brushwork techniques change from one generation to the next, the feeling of immediacy and the freshness of natural phenomena closely observed prevail throughout. Grouped together as the Barbizon School, painters like Rousseau, Daubigny, and Courbet took the genre of French landscape painting to new heights in a movement which was to culminate in the light-filled canvases of the young impressionists, beautifully represented by Monet’s The Bodmer Oak, Fontainebleau Forest, 1865.

Besides natural aspects of the forest, which fall under topography, weather, rocks and trees, village life is explored in depth. No one has ever captured the dignity of people working the land with more sensitivity and empathy than Jean-François Millet, whose affinity for village life was so great that he settled in Barbizon. His delicate pastels of the villagers, such as Shepherdess Knitting, outside the Village of Barbizon, 1860-62, have become icons of a simpler, better life. Although most artists continued to live in Paris, during the summer months as many as one hundred would descend upon Babizon, transforming it literally into the ‘colony of colonies.’ During the years of the hey-day of the painters’ colony a number of pioneers in the new medium of photography, including Gustave LeGray, Eugène Cuvelier, and John B. Green, first explored landscape photography in the Forest of Fontainebleau. The comparison of Cuvelier’s Beech Tree near the Bodmer, of the early 1860s, with Monet’s work reveals both the close proximity and the creative rivalry between artists working in different media, both inspired by the same monumentality to be found in the Forest of Fontainebleau.

TFAA Art Recognition Award and Auction

Co-sponsored by Paper City

October 15, 2008

Over 25 artists participated and over 30 art pieces were auctioned at the 1st TFAA Art Recognition Award and Auction. The goal is to raise funds to support the TFAA, so that TFAA can continue to promote artistic and cultural exchanges between Texas and France. Part of the net proceeds was donated to a local charity that supports artists, Project Row Houses. Live auction was conducted by a professional auctioneer from Sotheby’s New York.

Award presentation: 

1st price winner, a 10 day artistic residency trip to Paris, was handed to daniel-kayne by city council member, Peter Brown and Honorary Chair, Lynn Waytt

2nd Place winner: Terrell James

3rd Place winner: Jamal Cyrus

Exhibiting artists were selected by a distinguished Selection Committee:

  • Social and Fine Arts Editor of Paper City, Catherine Anspon
  • Curator of Contemporary Art Museum Houston, Valerie Cassel Oliver
  • Cultural Attaché of France, Mr. Dominique Chastres
  • Vice President of TFAA, Mrs. Rania Daniel
  • Former Director of CAMH, James Harithas
  • Curator and art advisor in Paris, France, Marc Pottier
  • Curator of the Blaffer Gallery, Claudia Schmuckli
  • Curator of The Menil Collection, Franklin Sirmans
  • Artistic Director, Fotofest, Wendy Watress

Participating Artists:

Artists Gallery

 

 

Sponsors