The Houston Ballet continues its season and now it is time to return to a story that has been a great success on the stage and that promises to place itself in the hearts of the audience at its performances under the direction of Stanton Welch AM.
It is about “Sylvia”, which, premiered atop Mount Olympus, fuses Greek mythology with a powerful love story where three fierce women drive the plot: Sylvia, the intrepid huntress; Artemis, the imposing goddess; and Psyche, the compassionate mortal.
As the central axis of the story, Sylvia, a warrior of Artemis’s army, is struck by Eros’s arrow, which leads her to fall in love with a mortal shepherd.
Welch’s multifaceted narrative dives between mythical and human realms as the three heroines embark on their own path toward love, giving rise to a tale of chaos, mischief, magic and romance. This story is told in three acts.
Premiered in Houston and Sydney in 2019, Sylvia, by Welch, has garnered critical acclaim for its modern revival of this little-performed classic. Welch creates a nuanced pas de deux for each protagonist, between dramatic sword fights and comic interactions.
Meanwhile, the reinvention unfolds with the ever-evolving modular set design by legendary theatre designer Jérôme Kaplan, creating the perfect stage for the supernatural projections by Wendall K. Harrington, a Tony Honors for Excellence recipient.
The lighting design by Lisa J. Pinkham masterfully brings the whole ensemble together, turning Sylvia into a genuine collaboration of artistic excellence.
To all this adds the masterful score by Léo Delibes, which Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky once praised for its “charm, elegance, melodic richness, rhythmic and harmonious.”
So deeply inspired by its masterful grandeur that Tchaikovsky famously remarked that he would not have composed “Swan Lake” if he had heard Sylvia first.
Performances will be between February 26 and March 8 at the Wortham Center; all information can be found at www.houstonballet.org.
In Detail
What: Sylvia
Who: Houston Ballet
When: February 26 – March 8, 2026
Where: Wortham Center
More information: www.houstonballet.org
