Latest news with #HGO
Time Out
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The Eternaut: Latin America's ‘The Last of Us' is Already a Hit – Everything You Need to Know Before It Hits Netflix
A sweltering summer night in Argentina's capital city, Buenos Aires. The honking of nighttime traffic is accompanied by echoes of protests on the streets. The urban sounds die out as thunderclaps rumble within the clouds. A pitter-patter on the ground signals a break from the summer heat. Only this isn't the arrival of rain but a deadly snowstorm that quickly envelops all life. As the Argentine Netflix miniseries The Eternaut plays out, it becomes clear that this toxic snowfall represents a threat from beyond this world. Based on a trailblazing comic of the same name, The Eternaut is a Latin American The Last of Us. The Spanish-language drama might echo the frozen dystopia of Bong Joon Ho's Snowpiercer (based on the 1982 French graphic novel). And its political commentary and psychological tension might resonate with fans of The Last of Us (currently in its second season). But The Eternaut was a long time coming, and its influential source material predates any influences that might spring up in the viewer's mind. So, before you binge on the four-episode series and enter a subzero world of fear, we break down the essentials behind The Eternaut. 1. The Eternaut is a Latin American classic The Eternaut borrows its title from a cult graphic novel originally serialised in the Argentine magazine Hora Cero from 1957 and 1959. Penned by journalist-writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld and illustrated by Francisco Solano López, it's a gripping page-turner, with sharply realistic black-and-white artwork and tense dystopian drama. The story follows protagonist Juan Salvo and his friends and family surviving the aftermath of an apocalyptic snowstorm. Breathing through masks and blanketed in layers, they roam around a ravaged Buenos Aires in what seems like a modern Ice Age. Juan and co encounter survivors teaming up, scavenging for food, or turning against each other. In his seemingly endless journey for survival, Juan becomes the titular Eternaut, an eternal 'naut' (Greek for navigator). The threat behind their misery becomes clearer by the end, but Oesterheld's focus is on toying with existentialist dread instead of just hurling monsters in the readers' face. 2. It's an anti-fascist allegory While The Eternaut 's fears of a nuclear winter and unknown enemies in the sky can be interpreted as allusions to the Cold War, HGO was largely apolitical at this point in his life. This changed in the 1960s with the US intervening in Latin American governments and armed guerrillas rising in resistance. Marking his shift to the political left, HGO's post- Eternaut comics included a biography of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara and The Eternaut 1969, a reboot of his magnum opus. The latter remains unfinished as its overtly political themes of collective resistance alerted the close-to-fascist government, and Alberto Breccia's gnarly horror artwork disillusioned readers. Come March 1976 and Argentina entered an era of a draconian military coup. The censorship on HGO's works only strengthened with the writer forced into hiding, much like the characters of his comic. By this time, he and his daughters had joined the leftist anti-military guerrilla group Montoneros. And even in hiding, he managed to complete a sequel comic to The Eternaut. In a tragic turn of events, Oesterheld and his daughters were kidnapped by the military junta in 1977, and the whereabouts of their bodies still remain unknown. 3. This isn't the first attempt to adapt it Efforts to adapt The Eternaut for television go back to 1968 when an ad agency acquired the rights for an animated Eternaut series. Each episode would be introduced by Oesterheld and use costly rotoscoping. All that emerged was a 24-minute pilot, followed by a series cancellation. Many more attempts followed in subsequent decades, including a planned film by Adolfo Aristarain. The Argentine filmmaker eventually backed out because the only way to get this project on board would be with American funding, American actors, and the English language. Aristarain felt this would only water down the graphic novel's Argentine context. Fast forward to the present, and Netflix has managed to adapt The Eternaut in the desired fashion: a Spanish-language miniseries filmed in Buenos Aires with Argentine actors. 4. The snowflakes are lethal – and complicated The radioactive snow that triggers the events of The Eternaut looks like… well, snow. But snow is a rarity in Buenos Aires, where the series was filmed. To build its wintry dystopia in interior sets (which were later paired with background shots of real-world locations), the production design team came up with five different kinds of snowflakes. So, kitchen salt was used as the base for the snow on the floor because it's good to replicate footprints. Dry foam soap was rained down by propellers to double as the snow falling from the skies. Perlite, the volcanic glass rock that looks like ash, was also used in some of the snow scenes. Some of the snow-covered objects on set were also caked in cellulose, which, when mixed with water, can make for convincing artificial snow. 5. It's set in a tech-free world Netflix's series sticks closely to the source material, even if the setting shifts from the 1950s to present-day Argentina. With exposure to the snow leading to instant death, the characters brave the outdoors in makeshift hazmat suits, echoing pandemic-era realities more than Cold War anxieties. Masks are a life-saving choice, and when Juan and others do venture out, you can spot disinfectant spray ads in the background. Despite its modern sensibilities, The Eternaut adaptation is also rooted in some old-school style. With phone signals and electricity lost, the characters resort to everything from vintage gizmos and cycle-powered engines to walkie-talkies and radios. 6. Ricardo Darín is its answer to Pedro Pascal The ensemble cast is led by Argentina movie star Ricardo Darín, best known for Oscar-nominated films like Wild Tales and The Secret in Their Eyes. The role of Juan is his full-fledged debut in a lead role for a streaming series. 7. It's already a sensation in South America While the Netflix series will introduce a new generation to The Eternaut, the comic book is already a cultural mainstay in Argentina and beyond. Ever since the fall of the military junta, The Eternaut has been a symbol of collective resistance, class struggle and antiwar sentiment. Former Argentine president Néstor Kirchner also campaigned for his wife (later also President) Cristina Kirchner with an advertisement of himself as 'the Eternaut' (complete with the mask and visor). The date of the publication of the first-ever Eternaut comic strip, September 4, is the official 'Day of the Argentine Comic', while the Ministry of Education ordered copies to be distributed to secondary schools in 2010. The masked helmet cover is further immortalised in graffiti and subway murals in Colombia and Uruguay. Héctor Germán Oesterheld didn't live to see his homeland's freedom, but The Eternaut's legacy continues. Will The Eternaut get a second season? There's no word on a second run yet but given that Oesterheld wrote a sequel to the comic in 1975, don't rule it out. Where can I watch The Eternaut? All four episodes of The Eternaut land on Netflix worldwide from April 30. The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far). .
Axios
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
At the Houston Grand Opera, two spring shows wrestle with love, faith and fate
Both of the spring shows at the Houston Grand Opera lean into the season's "truly, madly, deeply" theme — with heavy doses of religion — but they are distinctly different in story, tone and experience. State of the opera:" Breaking the Waves" is a contemporary opera that premiered in 2016, composed by Missy Mazzoli. It's sung in English and is unsettling and strange, but you will get hooked with the plot line. "Breaking the Waves" is about a devout young woman in a conservative religious community who believes sacrificing herself — emotionally and sexually — is the only way to save her paralyzed husband. The intrigue:"Breaking the Waves" was supposed to make its HGO debut in the 2020-2021 season, but it was delayed by the pandemic. The piece is sexually explicit in a way you don't expect on the opera stage — it has profanity, nudity and graphic scenes. Mazzoli wasn't sure she'd ever compose the piece. When her librettist suggested adapting Lars von Trier's 1996 film, she was hesitant — but she said "the idea wouldn't leave me alone." What they're saying: Mazzoli is part of a small group of composers bringing opera into the 21st century. She tells Axios, "I love being part of the operatic tradition … I'm not out here to destroy the tradition and burn it all down and build it again." "I see this film and this story as the story of a woman in an impossible situation where everyone is telling her what to do, and she's left only with her own agency and her own idea of what is moral and what is good," Mazzoli says. My experience:"Breaking the Waves" was a haunting, twisted story. I still don't know exactly how I feel about the plot, but I know the production and its ethical questions will stay with me. The opera is no doubt a talker for its hard-to-shake themes. I was also struck by the multipurpose set design and the dramatic, nautical-influenced score. Meanwhile, Richard Wagner's " Tannhäuser" is a traditional opera. It follows a knight torn between sacred love and earthly desire, wrestling with redemption and damnation. It's big. It's slow. It's full of Wagner's famous dramatic and soaring music. The production is grand, with beautiful, ornate set design. Wagner's music in "Tannhäuser" is as rich and sweeping as always but he continues to test my attention span with a four-hour opera. As beautiful as his productions are, I'm starting to realize the stories just might not be for me — at least now. That said, I'm probably in the minority, as plenty of people around me were excitedly analyzing the symbolism. If you go: "Breaking the Waves" runs through May 4, and "Tannhäuser" is on through May 11.
Time Out
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
‘The Eternaut': everything you need to know about the Latin American ‘The Last of Us'
A sweltering summer night in Argentina's capital city, Buenos Aires. The honking of nighttime traffic is accompanied by echoes of protests on the streets. The urban sounds die out as thunderclaps rumble within the clouds. A pitter-patter on the ground signals a break from the summer heat. Only this isn't the arrival of rain but a deadly snowstorm that quickly envelops all life. As the Argentine Netflix miniseries The Eternaut plays out, it becomes clear that this toxic snowfall represents a threat from beyond this world. Based on a trailblazing comic of the same name, The Eternaut is a Latin American The Last of Us. The Spanish-language drama might echo the frozen dystopia of Bong Joon Ho's Snowpiercer (based on the 1982 French graphic novel). And its political commentary and psychological tension might resonate with fans of The Last of Us (currently in its second season). But The Eternaut was a long time coming, and its influential source material predates any influences that might spring up in the viewer's mind. So, before you binge on the four-episode series and enter a subzero world of fear, we break down the essentials behind The Eternaut. 1. The Eternaut is a Latin American classic The Eternaut borrows its title from a cult graphic novel originally serialised in the Argentine magazine Hora Cero from 1957 and 1959. Penned by journalist-writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld and illustrated by Francisco Solano López, it's a gripping page-turner, with sharply realistic black-and-white artwork and tense dystopian drama. The story follows protagonist Juan Salvo and his friends and family surviving the aftermath of an apocalyptic snowstorm. Breathing through masks and blanketed in layers, they roam around a ravaged Buenos Aires in what seems like a modern Ice Age. Juan and co encounter survivors teaming up, scavenging for food, or turning against each other. In his seemingly endless journey for survival, Juan becomes the titular Eternaut, an eternal 'naut' (Greek for navigator). The threat behind their misery becomes clearer by the end, but Oesterheld's focus is on toying with existentialist dread instead of just hurling monsters in the readers' face. 2. It's an anti-fascist allegory While The Eternaut 's fears of a nuclear winter and unknown enemies in the sky can be interpreted as allusions to the Cold War, HGO was largely apolitical at this point in his life. This changed in the 1960s with the US intervening in Latin American governments and armed guerrillas rising in resistance. Marking his shift to the political left, HGO's post- Eternaut comics included a biography of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara and The Eternaut 1969, a reboot of his magnum opus. The latter remains unfinished as its overtly political themes of collective resistance alerted the close-to-fascist government, and Alberto Breccia's gnarly horror artwork disillusioned readers. Come March 1976 and Argentina entered an era of a draconian military coup. The censorship on HGO's works only strengthened with the writer forced into hiding, much like the characters of his comic. By this time, he and his daughters had joined the leftist anti-military guerrilla group Montoneros. And even in hiding, he managed to complete a sequel comic to The Eternaut. In a tragic turn of events, Oesterheld and his daughters were kidnapped by the military junta in 1977, and the whereabouts of their bodies still remain unknown. 3. This isn't the first attempt to adapt it Efforts to adapt The Eternaut for television go back to 1968 when an ad agency acquired the rights for an animated Eternaut series. Each episode would be introduced by Oesterheld and use costly rotoscoping. All that emerged was a 24-minute pilot, followed by a series cancellation. Many more attempts followed in subsequent decades, including a planned film by Adolfo Aristarain. The Argentine filmmaker eventually backed out because the only way to get this project on board would be with American funding, American actors, and the English language. Aristarain felt this would only water down the graphic novel's Argentine context. Fast forward to the present, and Netflix has managed to adapt The Eternaut in the desired fashion: a Spanish-language miniseries filmed in Buenos Aires with Argentine actors. 4. The snowflakes are lethal – and complicated The radioactive snow that triggers the events of The Eternaut looks like… well, snow. But snow is a rarity in Buenos Aires, where the series was filmed. To build its wintry dystopia in interior sets (which were later paired with background shots of real-world locations), the production design team came up with five different kinds of snowflakes. So, kitchen salt was used as the base for the snow on the floor because it's good to replicate footprints. Dry foam soap was rained down by propellers to double as the snow falling from the skies. Perlite, the volcanic glass rock that looks like ash, was also used in some of the snow scenes. Some of the snow-covered objects on set were also caked in cellulose, which, when mixed with water, can make for convincing artificial snow. 5. It's set in a tech-free world Netflix's series sticks closely to the source material, even if the setting shifts from the 1950s to present-day Argentina. With exposure to the snow leading to instant death, the characters brave the outdoors in makeshift hazmat suits, echoing pandemic-era realities more than Cold War anxieties. Masks are a life-saving choice, and when Juan and others do venture out, you can spot disinfectant spray ads in the background. Despite its modern sensibilities, The Eternaut adaptation is also rooted in some old-school style. With phone signals and electricity lost, the characters resort to everything from vintage gizmos and cycle-powered engines to walkie-talkies and radios. 6. Ricardo Darín is its answer to Pedro Pascal The ensemble cast is led by Argentina movie star Ricardo Darín, best known for Oscar-nominated films like Wild Tales and The Secret in Their Eyes. The role of Juan is his full-fledged debut in a lead role for a streaming series. 7. It's already a sensation in South America While the Netflix series will introduce a new generation to The Eternaut, the comic book is already a cultural mainstay in Argentina and beyond. Ever since the fall of the military junta, The Eternaut has been a symbol of collective resistance, class struggle and antiwar sentiment. Former Argentine president Néstor Kirchner also campaigned for his wife (later also President) Cristina Kirchner with an advertisement of himself as 'the Eternaut' (complete with the mask and visor). The date of the publication of the first-ever Eternaut comic strip, September 4, is the official 'Day of the Argentine Comic', while the Ministry of Education ordered copies to be distributed to secondary schools in 2010. The masked helmet cover is further immortalised in graffiti and subway murals in Colombia and Uruguay. Héctor Germán Oesterheld didn't live to see his homeland's freedom, but The Eternaut's legacy continues. Will The Eternaut get a second season? There's no word on a second run yet but given that Oesterheld wrote a sequel to the comic in 1975, don't rule it out. Where can I watch The Eternaut? All four episodes of The Eternaut land on Netflix worldwide from April 30. The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far). .
Axios
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
What to know about the 2025-2026 theater season
Theaters are pulling back the curtain on their upcoming season — and the calendar is packed with drama, mayhem and laughter. Why it matters: The 2025-2026 lineup announcements help theaters lock in subscribers and boost revenue ahead of the fall, while giving audiences a glimpse of what's to come. The big picture: Houston is home to one of the country's most active theater communities, with a mix of major institutions and smaller companies that stage work year-round. Here's a snapshot of what the theater scene next season will look like: Broadway at the Hobby Center This season brings a mix of Houston premieres, high-energy newcomers and returning fan favorites. The lineup opens with the first national tour of the Tony Award–winning "Kimberly Akimbo," followed by new-to-Houston productions like "Water for Elephants" and "The Great Gatsby." Fan favorites such as "Hadestown" and "Six" return. Eight-show package subscriptions begin at $359. Houston Grand Opera HGO's theme this season is meant to "honor the light we hold for our art form, and the great composers and storytellers through the centuries — but for all the artists and creatives who bring light into our world," says CEO Khori Dastoor. The company revisits "Porgy and Bess," which helped launch HGO as a trailblazer and went on to earn a Tony and a Grammy. The season also includes the company's first-ever production of Puccini's "Il trittico" and a revised version of the Pulitzer Prize–winning "Silent Night" by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell. Full subscriptions start at $100. Theater Under the Stars Next season at TUTS leans into stories rooted in the past. "Million Dollar Quartet" recreates a 1956 recording session that brought together Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and other rock legends. "Back to the Future: The Musical" brings the beloved '80s film to the stage. The season kicks off with "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," set at a fictional middle school spelling competition. Subscription packages will be available April 21. Houston Ballet A mix of beloved classics and contemporary works awaits this season, with world premieres, audience favorites, and celebrated guest choreographers in the spotlight — from the haunting romance of "Giselle" to a vivid tribute to Frida Kahlo in "Broken Wings." Season packages start at around $135. The Alley Theatre The Alley's upcoming season blends world premieres with inventive takes on well-known stories. Highlights include "English," the 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner about five students grappling with identity and language in an English class; a stage adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code"; and "The Body Snatcher," a spine-tingling love story arriving just in time for spooky season. Three-play subscription packages start at $195.
Axios
08-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Houston Grand Opera hosts its first Noche de Ópera
Houston Grand Opera's winter season focuses on the all-consuming feeling of young love with "La Bohème" and "West Side Story." State of the opera: HGO brings back Giacomo Puccini's "La Bohème," the opera that helped popularize the "starving artist" trope, portraying youthful struggle and romance in Paris. Meanwhile, "West Side Story," about an overwhelming love caught in a turf war, brings the music to the opera stage, with the production score amplified by a full orchestra and some operatic singing. Driving the news: For the first time, HGO is hosting a Noche de Ópera on Feb. 15 as part of its new themed affinity nights initiative. "West Side Story" will feature Spanish and English supertitles translating the performance. The evening will also include live entertainment in the lobby, themed booths, Spanish educational displays and literature, and more festivities. What they're saying: HGO general director and CEO Khori Dastoor calls hosting the Noche de Ópera a "no-brainer," saying it celebrates Houston's multicultural identity while aligning with the group's business strategy of introducing opera to more people — and this musical-turned-opera is a great entry to the art. "We want to make space to honor and celebrate the Hispanic Latino community of Houston, which represents such a large part of our city, and these themes around immigration, assimilation, bigotry, hatred, gun violence — these issues are not some relic from the past," she tells Axios, adding that the opera provokes reflection on society. Flashback: Both productions have been part of HGO's lineup in recent years— with "La Bohème" in the 2018-2019 season and "West Side Story" in the 2017-2018 season. The latter was staged in a temporary theater after Hurricane Harvey, so this production marks its first time being fully realized at HGO's home venue. Fun fact: Soprano Shereen Pimentel, who plays Maria, the lead, in HGO's "West Side Story," also starred as Maria in the musical's 2020 Broadway revival. Shafaq's experience: "La Bohème" is a classic worth seeing at least once, and the older audience seemed to enjoy reminiscing. The singer who performed Mimi, the main love interest, was phenomenal. "West Side Story" captured the ache, emotion, and clash of prejudice and love. The dancing brought energy, the voices carried weight, and the production delivered. If you go: " La Bohème" runs through Feb. 14, and " West Side Story" runs through Feb. 15. Tickets, including for the Noche de Ópera, start at $25.
