On Sept. 23 and 24, Houston was host to Beyoncé’s brilliance.
Beyoncé began with the operatic, before dipping coolly into a deep trill. Beyoncé vogued with a team of glowing dancers. Beyoncé rapped, as brash and present as your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. There was no peak—her performance simply escalated, ascending a mountain of precision with no visible climax, and then it ended.
But, in many ways, the Renaissance tour, which Beyoncé completed on Oct. 1, was an extension of her overarching ambition: over nearly three decades, she has constantly reinvented herself. Her sound, her presentation, and her audience’s expectations for what a performer can, or should, be or do have risen alongside her. The Renaissance album itself further underlined her prowess’ scope: it is a celebration, among other things,…