Metropolitan Opera Guild news: April 2010
On Tuesday, April 20, two days before bidding farewell to her New York fans in a concert at Carnegie Hall, the beloved mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade will be honored at the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s 75th Annual Luncheon. With “Flicka and Friends – A Loving Tribute to Frederica von Stade,” the Guild will gather together colleagues and friends to salute the legendary artist in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel, with a musical tribute by baritone Thomas Hampson and a spoken tribute by one of Flicka’s long-time colleagues and friends, soprano Evelyn Lear. Among the many artists who be there to help celebrate Flicka will be Martina Arroyo, Rockwell Blake, Dave Brubeck, Chris Brubeck, Vladimir Chernov, Tyne Daly, Angela Gheorghiu, Marilyn Horne, Kristine Jepson, John Macurdy, Terrence McNally, Mildred Miller, Paul Plishka, Regina Resnik, Julius Rudel and Richard Stilwell. The afternoon will include the screening of a new video biography of the honoree, video performances and many more surprises.
The April issue of Opera News spotlights Rossini’s bel canto tour de force Armida, the Metropolitan Opera’s final new production of the season. The magazine’s cover story, about the six tenors who perform opposite Renée Fleming’s eponymous heroine, is one of a number of features to shed light on this rarely-staged opera, which premieres at the Met on April 12. Highlights of the April issue also include a profile of beloved American mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, honoree of the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s 75th Annual Luncheon on April 20, two days before her farewell recital at Carnegie Hall.
Never previously staged at the Met, Armida opens on April 12, with Fleming in the title role, Riccardo Frizza conducting, and Mary Zimmerman returning to direct, bringing her fine-tuned theatricality to a work she describes as “a buried treasure, a box of jewels.” The fanciful story of a sorceress who enthralls men in an island prison of sensual delights, Zimmerman says, “has an epic, enchanted quality and a tremendous visual element.” It takes a sextet of tenors to counterbalance a prima donna as powerful as Armida, and, in “Six of One,” Jennifer Melick examines the distinctive musical and dramatic qualities that characterize the legendary enchantress’s multiple foils. The Met’s current contenders, led by modern virtuoso Lawrence Brownlee as Rinaldo, share thoughts on their respective roles with Scott Barnes, in Opera News’s April cover story. Also noteworthy as Rossini’s sole foray into the realm of the supernatural, Armida brought out otherworldly colors and textures that the bel canto maestro had never used before. In “Magic Time”, David J. Baker explores the secrets of the composer’s musical sorcery.
The forthcoming issue of Opera News pays tribute to Frederica von Stade, who has virtually defined the lyric-mezzo repertoire for a generation of opera-lovers. As Tim Page explains in “How Strange the Change from Major to Minor,” she was an artist that was not only admired, but beloved.
Representing a new generation of mezzos, Sasha Cooke – praised by the New Yorker’s Alex Ross for “a luminous tone, a generously supported musical line, a keen sense of verbal nuance, and a flair for seduction” – is the subject of Opera News’s next “Sound Bites”, by Editor in Chief F. Paul Driscoll.
As Polly Frost reports in “Original Story”, for Seattle Opera’s upcoming new commission, composer Daron Aric Hagen bypasses the tried and true, building his opera Amelia on a modern American tale of war, human loss, and the search for healing and rebirth. With an intensely personal libretto by American poet Gardner McFall, the world premiere production opens on May 8.
Highlights of April’s Opera News also include “The Eternal Feminine”, in which Richard Speer identifies the stylistic fingerprints that set Puccini’s indelible stamp on his myriad leading ladies. The soaring, yearning melodies for the lirico-spinto voice he favored make it abundantly clear that the composer’s heart was with his heroines.
As ever, there are special extras exclusively for subscribers and Met patrons at the Opera News web site, www.operanews.com, including chats with Maestro Leonardo Vordoni, about pacing this month’s performances of Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto at Chicago Opera Theater, and Ian Judge, director of the American stage-premiere of Die Gezeichneten at Los Angeles Opera, who talks about producing Schreker’s unsettling masterpiece.
The Metropolitan Opera Guild offers a wealth of lectures and other events this April, with an opportunity to hear insights from Armida’s talented cast and crew into the creative process behind the new production on April 5, and “Armida Delivered”, a lecture preceding the production’s April 12 opening from famed conductor and educator Joseph Colaneri, who demonstrates how amply the opera’s glorious music repays the difficulties faced in staging it. Full details of these and other upcoming lectures and public events from the Metropolitan Opera Guild follow below.
Upcoming lectures and public events from the Metropolitan Opera Guild
Monday, April 5 at 6pm – 7pm
OPERA OUTLOOKS: NEW PRODUCTIONS AT THE MET
Armida: The Temptress and the Tenors
Metropolitan Opera House
Rossini’s take on this tale requires a tremendous cast, including six tenors! Members of the talented cast and crew share insights into the creative process behind this exciting new production.
Price: $20; Met subscribers: $15; Guild members: $10
Saturday, April 10 at 11am – 12:15pm
COUNTDOWN: GREAT MOMENTS IN OPERA
Presented by F. Paul Driscoll
Some of opera’s most prominent commentators count down their top five musical moments. Was it opening night at the new Met in 1966? Unforgettable debuts? Breathtaking productions? Hear what caught the attention of these astute opera-goers and has kept them glued to their seats and enchanted with the art form for years.
Price: $16; $20 at door
Sunday, April 11 at 4pm – 6pm
MASTERLY SINGING: Bach to the Beginning: Baroque Oratorio
Presented by Kent Tritle
Opera’s next of kin takes center stage under the masterly guidance of oratorio specialist and choral conductor Kent Tritle as he works with singers on fine-tuning the details of stylistic approach, as well as musical and dramatic interpretation characteristic of 18th-century sacred works.
Price: $20; $25 at door
Monday, April 12 at 6pm – 7:15pm
OPERA OUTLOOKS: NEW PRODUCTIONS AT THE MET
Armida Delivered
Presented by Joseph Colaneri
Based on an episode from Tasso’s epic, Jerusalem Delivered, Rossini’s Armida is rarely performed – no doubt because of its demanding title role and its curious requirement of no fewer than six tenors in important parts. But, as Joseph Colaneri illustrates, the glories of its music make its performance worth the challenge of fielding a cast equal to the task.
Price: $20; Met subscribers: $15; Guild members: $10
Tuesday, April 13 at 6pm – 7:15pm
BEL CANTO: THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS
Becoming Bel Canto
Presented by Jane Marsh
The bel canto era emerged in early 19th-century Italy and produced masterpieces that have remained in the standard operatic canon ever since. Jane Marsh explores the early works and vocal-musical evolution of the dominant composers of this style, notably Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. SOLD OUT
Tickets are available for an Encore Presentation: Sunday, April 25 at 4:00-5:15pm
Price: $16; $20 at door
Thursday, April 15 at 2pm – 3:15pm
LAST WRITES: FINAL WORKS OF GREAT COMPOSERS
Mozart
Presented by Fred Plotkin
The last operatic works of great composers are inherently fascinating: what were these towering artists trying to achieve and to communicate in their final statements? Ever the prolific composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in the final year of his life, produced some of his greatest works, which represent both the pinnacle and summation of his achievements. These works include a piano concerto, a clarinet concerto, a string quintet, the motet Ave verum corpus, his famous Requiem, and two vastly different operas: La Clemenza di Tito, a refined opera in classical form, and his populist masterpiece, Die Zauberflöte.
Price: $16; $20 at door
Saturday, April 17 at 11am – 12:15pm
COUNTDOWN: GREAT MOMENTS IN OPERA
Presented by Heidi Waleson
Some of opera’s most prominent commentators count down their top five musical moments. Was it opening night at the new Met in 1966? Unforgettable debuts? Breathtaking productions? Hear what caught the attention of these astute opera-goers and has kept them glued to their seats and enchanted with the art form for years.
Price: $16; $20 at door
Tuesday, April 20 at 6pm – 7:15pm
BEL CANTO: THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS
Down and Dirty with Donizetti
Presented by Martin Bernheimer
Gaetano Donizetti composed a vast volume of works in his prolific lifetime, including such favorites as Lucia di Lammermoor, L’Elisir d’Amore, and La Fille du Régiment. Martin Bernheimer shows that there is more to Donizetti than glorious melody and opportunities for high-flying vocalism.
Price: $16; $20 at door
Thursday, April 22 at 2pm – 3:15pm
LAST WRITES: FINAL WORKS OF GREAT COMPOSERS
Verdi
Presented by Fred Plotkin
The last operatic works of great composers are inherently fascinating: what were these towering artists trying to achieve and to communicate in their final statements? Throughout his career, Giuseppe Verdi drew great inspiration from the works of William Shakespeare. His two final masterpieces, Otello and Falstaff, are not simply among Verdi’s greatest works but are also two of the finest adaptations of Shakespeare in the operatic canon.
Price: $16; $20 at door
Saturday, April 24 at 11am – 12:15pm
COUNTDOWN: GREAT MOMENTS IN OPERA
Presented by Nimet Harbachy
Some of opera’s most prominent commentators count down their top five musical moments. Was it opening night at the new Met in 1966? Unforgettable debuts? Breathtaking productions? Hear what caught the attention of these astute opera-goers and has kept them glued to their seats and enchanted with the art form for years.
Price: $16; $20 at door
Tuesday, April 27 at 6pm – 7:15pm
BEL CANTO: THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS
Clips from the Barber
Presented by Martin Bernheimer
From Figaro’s ebullient entrance aria through Rosina’s sly “Una voce poco fa” and other vocal sparklers, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia brings its characters to vibrant life. Martin Bernheimer leads a listening tour of this opera’s hit tunes and their great interpreters.
Price: $16; $20 at door
Thursday, April 29 at 2pm – 3:15pm
LAST WRITES: FINAL WORKS OF GREAT COMPOSERS
Wagner
Presented by Fred Plotkin
The last operatic works of great composers are inherently fascinating: what were these towering artists trying to achieve and to communicate in their final statements? Richard Wagner worked for more than 20 years to complete Der Ring des Nibelungen, and it was through this work and his final opera, Parsifal, that he came closest to achieving his vision of Gesamtkunstwek: the synthesis of all art in its highest form.
Price: $16; $20 at door
All events will be held in the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Opera Learning Center on the 6th floor of the Samuel B. & David Rose building at Lincoln Center, unless otherwise noted.
And don’t forget “Flicka and Friends – A Loving Tribute to Frederica von Stade”: the 75th Annual Metropolitan Opera Guild Luncheon on April 20 at the Waldorf=Astoria!
Call (212) 769-7009 or visit the Guild’s web site at www.metguild.org for tickets.
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© 21C Media Group, March 2010