2009/10 Season at LA Opera House is Around the Corner |
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StubDog.com :: Event Information And Articles :: 2009/10 Season at LA Opera House is Around the Corner
The history of opera as
it is presented today in America goes back to the late Renaissance in
Italy, when a group of composers "invented" a new art form to
resemble what they thought music-drama was like in classical Greece. During
its 400-year history, European opera has been very diverse, though. The
only thing that never changes about the opera is the magnitude of a venture,
the breathtaking staging and thrilling voices. LA Opera has it all, and
will kickstart it all over again in September, opening a new season 2009/10
with The Elixir of Love by Gaetano Donizetti. The glimpse of what LA Opera
is going to treat us with by the end of the year, here:
Filled with light-hearted charm and bursting with feel-good laughs, The
Elixir of Love features engaging characters and such captivating Italian
melodies as the poignant "Una furtiva lagrima" ("A furtive tear"). Giuseppe
Filianoti stars as the lovesick Nemorino in search of a magic potion to
capture the heart of Adina, performed by Nino Machaidze in her U.S. debut.
Nathan Gunn takes the part of Belcore in his role debut, and James Conlon
conducts.
In the last days of September LA Opera is starting Wagner’s Siegfried
shows. The most magical installment of Wagner's Ring cycle, in Achim Freyer's
visionary production, features the young hero Siegfried
(John Treleaven) slaying a dragon with a supernatural sword, claiming
the ring and discovering love with the valiant warrior maiden, Brünnhilde
(Linda Watson). Also starring Oleg Bryjak, Graham Clark, Eric Halfvarson,
Vitalij Kowaljow and Jill Grove. James Conlon conducts. The production
will be shown through October.
November is going to be a thrilling month foe the opera-lovers in LA as
in G.F.Handel’s Tamerlano Plácido Domingo stars - in
the 126th role of his brilliant career! - as Bajazet, a Turkish sultan.
And what a role it is. With rapid coloratura, heart-rending arias, and
a death scene to rival Verdi's Otello, this is a welcome opportunity to
hear the "King of Opera" (Newsweek) in sparkling Baroque repertoire. Princess
Asteria will be Sarah Coburn, the gifted young soprano Opera News described
as "blissfully sublime" and one of today's leading countertenors, Bejun
Mehta, will sing the title role.
The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini in December.
For this effervescent comic opera, LA Opera has assembled an all-star
cast featuring two celebrated artists. The New York Times commented that
the "dashing Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez was a vocally brilliant
and charming Count Almaviva...and the perky, rich-toned and vocally brilliant
young American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato had a triumph as Rosina."
Principals include audience favorite Nathan Gunn as Figaro, who brings
to the role "unmistakable star power" (Opera News).
Also, there’s solo performances on schedule with LA Opera. Two magnificent
operatic voices Thomas Hampson (baritone) and Renée Fleming (soprano)
will be heard from Opera’s stage this year.
Thomas Hampson (baritone) began his professional career as a voice student
of Sr. Marietta Coyle, and at the age of 19 first appeared in an opera
production – portraying a very youthful father of the two title characters
in Humperdinck’s “Hänsel und Gretel”. In 1980 he came to Europe and had
his first permanent engagement at Düsseldorf’s Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
Four years later he joined the roster of the Zurich Opera where he collaborated
frequently with Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and Nikolaus Harnoncourt and where
he has since appeared every season. Thomas Hampson has been awarded several
honorary doctorates, honorary membership in the Royal Academy of Music,
the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and the Austrian Honorary
Medal (Ehrenkreuz) for Science and Art. October 3rd is a date of his LA
Opera debiut recital.
Renée Fleming (soprano) was born February 14, 1959 in Indiana, PA and
raised in Rochester, NY; while at the State University of New York (SUNY)
at Potsdam, she studied voice under Patricia Misslin, and after completing
her graduate studies at Rochester's Eastman School of Music she attended
the Juilliard School's American Opera Center from 1983 to 1987 under the
tutelage of Beverly Johnson. Fleming made her professional debut in 1986
as Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and a year later
earned top honors at the Eleanor McCollum Competition in Houston; the
exposure helped her land the star-making role of the Contessa in a revival
of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and in 1989 she made her New York City
debut in La Bohème. After making her London bow as Glauce in Cherubini's
Médée later that same year, Fleming returned to New York in 1991 to make
her Metropolitan debut with a return to Le nozze di Figaro. Just months
later she starred in the world premiere of Corigliano's The Ghosts of
Versailles. Other roles Fleming created include her 1994 turn as Madam
de Tourvel in Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons and her 1998 performance as
Blanche DuBois in André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire. On December
12th we’ll have an opportunity to listen to mrs. Fleming’s voice in the
LA Opera debut recital.
For details visit : http://www.laopera.com/index.aspx
