[Draft: Stage Magic, or Stage Presence, with annotations] Page: 6 of 10
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in unison and kettledrum pounding-transported my thoughts to a dramatic mountain
vista.
After the show, as a bright half-moon hung between downtown skyscrapers as if a
set prop.
ACT THREE: Operatic Ball
Enroute to Act Three the next day, I passed sightseers in a horse-drawn white
carriage clip-clopping down Prairie Street near Wortham Theater Center, the venue for
my 2 p.m. opera.
Built with $70 million of donations raised, amazingly, during the 1980s oil bust,
the Wortham remains a tribute to local commitment to the arts. Inside the imposing pink-
brick structure I rubbed elbows with opera devotees, most dressed to the nines, but also
wearing regular street clothes like me. Founded in 1955, the Houston Grand Opera's
reputation rests not only on producing world-class new works (36 world premieres and
seven American premieres since 1973), but also on attracting diverse audiences to classic
operas.
I lucked into an aisle seat in the Wortham's 2,400-seat Brown Theater, near the
large stage and half-sunken orchestra pit. My seatmate, opera glasses in hand, pegged me
as a greenhorn and kindly explained that the narrow electronic panel above the stage
displays surtitles, the English translations of the Italian libretto.
The surtitles made it easy to follow the nonstop action of Giuseppe Verdi's three-
hour A Masked Ball. Its tragic story interweaves a love triangle and a royal assassination
diabolically dispatched during a masked ball. The leading roles and the 48-member
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Mallory, Randy. [Draft: Stage Magic, or Stage Presence, with annotations], text, 2008-07~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1924106/m1/6/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.