Baroque opera offers full immersion in the world of 17th  and 18th-century culture with elaborate scenic design, virtuosic singing, stylized dances, colorful orchestras, and profoundly human stories. No other musical genre from this era has quite the same capacity to move, excite, and inspire audiences.

During the 2018/19 season, Ars Lyrica Houston offered its first full-length Baroque opera: Agrippina, Handel’s first operatic masterpiece. Since then, Ars Lyrica has offered an opera production every other season: Jonathan Dove’s The Other Euridice (2021), Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (2022), and Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula (2024). The 2025/26 season marks an exciting new chapter: Ars Lyrica will now present a Baroque operea annually, beginning with Monteverdi’s Orfeo in May 2026.

Members of Ars Lyrica’s Opera Circle guarantee that we can keep our cultural stories and history alive. Your gifts allow us to make opera resonate anew through imaginative staging in collaboration with the world’s most respected experts in dance, theater, and music. Through your multi-year financial commitments, we are able to grow the organization as curators and caretakers of this exceptional art form.

sponsor opera circle today

Sponsorship Opportunities 

Ars Lyrica Opera Circle sponsorships offer a range of benefits, including behind-the-scenes access to artists, recognition, special invitations to exclusive events, and much more. Please explore the options below for more information on specific sponsorship opportunities.  

Production Guarantor: $15,000 and up 

Production Guarantors help secure the future of Baroque operas by pledging a minimum of $15,000 annually with a three-year commitment.  Production Guarantors receive special recognition and benefits, including invitations to Opening Night events with principal artists, ALH Directors and Board, cast parties, backstage tours, and VIP performance tickets.

Thank you to our Production Guarantors:

Robin Angly & Miles Smith

Kathryn & Brendan Godfrey

Jeanie Flowers
in support of Hannah De Priest & Thomas O’Neill

Drs. Elizabeth Grimm & Jack Roth

John A. Lemen

 

Principal Artist Sponsor: $10,000 and up

Principal Artist Sponsors make a multi-year commitment towards principal artists to ensure the highest caliber of artistic excellence for ALH opera productions. Principal Artist Sponsors enjoy special access to the artists by hosting cast parties and appreciation events; they also receive VIP performance tickets, and backstage tours invitations.

Thank you to our Principal Artist Sponsors:

Dr. Ellen R. Gritz & Milton D. Rosenau, Jr.
in support of Karim Sulayman

Connie Kwan-Wong and CKW LUXE Magazine

Kathleen Moore & Steve Homer
in support of Cecilia Duarte

Artist Underwriter: $4,000 and up

Artist Underwriters provide vital multi-year funding for supporting artists and orchestra musicians. They receive invitations to appreciation events, cast parties, and backstage tours, plus VIP performance tickets. 

Thank you to our Artist Underwriters:

Jano & John Kelley
in support of Thomas Meglioranza

Wil McCorquodale & Mark Hitt
in support of Steven Brennfleck

Dr. William H. & Teresa C. Reading
in support of Amia Langer

Ed & Janet Rinehart
in support of Barrett Sills

John & Monica Santarelli

Kevin Topek & Mindy Vanderford

Helen Wils & Leonard Goldstein
in support of Tzvi Bat Asherah
in memory of Tzvi (Harry) Wils

Gule & Tayab Andrabi
in honor of Connie Kwan-Wong

Anonymous

Sonja Bruzauskas & Houston Haymon
in support of Erin Wagner

Robert Chanon

Mr. Francis & Flora Choy
in support of Erica Schuller

James Cowan & William Taylor
in support of Enrico Lagasca

Maryke Cramerus
in support of Kathryn Montoya
in honor of Pieter A. Cramerus

Supporting Producer (Costume/Set/Lighting Underwriter): $2,500 and up 

Supporting Producers provide vital multi-year funding for productions staff, sets, costumes and lighting design. They receive invitations to appreciation events,  cast parties, and backstage tours, plus VIP performance tickets. 

Thank you to our Supporting Producers:

Christopher Bacon & Craig Miller

Anna Dean

Henry & Jean May

Linda C. Murray
in memory of Robert J. Murray

Joan & Mike Weltzien

Sustaining Contributor: $1,000 and up

Sustaining Contributors provide vital multi-year funding for staff and production needs. They receive invitations to appreciation events.

Thank you to our Sustaining Contributors:

Diana Davis & Andrew Blocha

Debbie Feuer
in memory of Katherine Medley

Geraldine Gill

Ed & Janet Hess

Irena Witt



“Annual Baroque operas present Ars Lyrica with a golden opportunity: to advocate for an exceptional and seldom heard repertoire, on par with major companies around the world.”
- Matthew Dirst,
Artistic Director


Praise for ALH Opera Circle

“Ars Lyrica’s vibrant and provocative performances of a historically informed repertoire speak to us as lovers of history and live music.  Under a passionate artistic and professional team, they exemplify tradition and excellence in all they do.”
-  Ed and Marianne  Grusnis,
The  Antiquarium

“We support Ars Lyrica because we found a unique passion within the organization that brings beautiful and rarely appreciated music to amazing life. We are also fully engaged in ALH’s exciting artistic vision of bringing baroque opera to Houston.”
- Sara and Gabriel Loperena 

“Ars Lyrica’s decision to stage a new production of Handel’s Agrippina immediately fired my imagination. As a life-long fan of baroque music in general and Handel in particular, I was determined to make a contribution to the success of a project so dear to my heart. Ars Lyrica's musical interpretation, the orchestra and soloists are always of the finest, and with Tara Faircloth as stage director, the result will be memorable. I am thrilled to underwrite her services - all that remains is for every lover of baroque music in Houston to come and applaud the results.”
- Maurice Isaac

Praise for ALH operas

"Theatrical works have become the calling card of Ars Lyrica... They seem to evoke inspired performances by the group.”
- Houston Chronicle

“Handel’s music for Amadigi di Gaula is extraordinary, the range of vocal and orchestral colors, the vareity of inventive musical ideas, all serve to portray the emotional depth of his characters and the very human drama in which they are engaged. Ars Lyrica has brought a 300-year-old masterpiece into the present, with a production that speaks to the heart.
- Arts and Culture Texas

“Soprano Nola Richardson was radiant as Oriana. Her voice was resolute and triumphant, with depth and clarity, powerful yet supple.”
- Arts and Culture Texas

“Faircloth imagines a Gatsby-era Game of Thrones, with glorious vocal fireworks in place of bloody swordplay.”
- Arts and Culture Texas

“Ars Lyrica Houston’s production of Dido and Aeneas was a captivating triumph. From the moment the flamboyant Sorceress Nicholas Garza pounded his staff thrice offstage as the instrumental ensemble finished tuning, the narrative pulse and dramatic intensity never waned.”
- Arts and Culture Texas

“The music, under Matthew Dirst’s capable direction, soared, and the singer/actors delivered riveting performances.”
- CKW Luxe Magazine

“Saturday night in Zilkha Hall, [Douglas Williams’s] sepulchral tones laid the foundation for one of Houston’s most riveting operatic portrayals in recent years.”
- Texas Classical Review

“Cohen’s voice boasted a warmth that few countertenors share; combined with the fluency and poise of his singing, his voice let Ottone’s arias exude forthrightness and nobility. The emotional climax came halfway through the story–when Ottone, though no fault of his own, suffers rejection by everyone around him. Cohen made Ottone’s response, “Voi che udite il mio lamento,” a musical portrait of desolation, from pianissimo phrases that were pale as death to surges of vibrant, plaintive sound.”
- Texas Classical Review

“Stage director Tara Faircloth emphasized comedy, as in Claudio’s preening demeanor on his first entrance; Pallante and Narciso’s fawning over Agrippina; and the fluttering of the servant Lesbo, played by Eduardo Tercero. But for Handel’s serious moments–as in Ottone’s big aria,–Faircloth quieted everything down, and the poignant results helped Handel’s extraordinary music tell its story.”
- Texas Classical Review

“Selowsky’s wealth of vocal colors brought Agrippina’s stratagems to life—whether the power-hungry woman was working her wiles on her admirers, relishing her successes or reacting to surprise twists of fate. Even her recitatives crackled.”
- Texas Classical Review

Sponsor Opera Circle Today

For more information about sponsorship opportunities and benefits, please contact
Kinga Ferguson, Executive Director, at 713-622-7443 or kferguson@arslyricahouston.org.

Watch: Impact of the Opera Circle

Opera Circle Co-Chair Gabriel Loperena on the importance of ALH’s opera productions to Houston’s arts community.

Countertenor John Holiday performs "Come nube" from Handel’s Agrippina.

Mezzo-Soprano Abigail Fischer performs Dido’s Lament in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas

Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte performs "Volo pronto" from Handel’s Agrippina.