By Charles Ward | September 25, 2012

Soprano Laura Claycomb has no opera dates in her home state this year. So she’s doing what singers of old did regularly: keeping in touch with a tour.

The crowd was thin Monday in Zilkha Hall, but the stalwarts heard a marvelous example of a medium that’s never taken hold in Houston: the vocal recital.

For me, Claycomb sealed the deal, as it were, with her first encore, Doretta’s aria from Giacomo Puccini‘s “La Rondine”, a piece from repertoire she doesn’t sing, she explained. It isn’t a great work, but it’s one of my favorite moments of operatic schmaltz. Monday, the only response was closing the eyes and letting the goose bumps rise….

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