Diana Damrau Returns in Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" on Met's Saturday Matinee Broadcast

St. Louis Public Radio will carry the Met Opera broadcast of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia on their HD channel, KWMU-3 beginning at 12 noon. Approximate running time 3 hours, 5 minutes with an intermission at approximately 1:30 p.m.

The Met says

Diana Damrau returns as Rosina in Bartlett Sher's popular production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Rodion Pogossov sings the title role, and Colin Lee, John Del Carlo, and Ferruccio Furlanetto round out the cast.

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Announces Casting for 2012 Spring Festival Season

With the return of many St. Louis favorites and debuts by international stars, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis' 2012 casts are filled with fresh and exciting talent. The season begins with rising sensation Kendall Gladen in Bizet’s Carmen and continues with 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions winner Rachel Willis-Sørensen making her company debut as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte.

Two-time Grammy nominee Rod Gilfry and Tony Award-winner Karen Ziemba make their debuts as the conniving pair at the center of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.

The 2012 season comes to a close with the return of Ashley Emerson as Alice in the American premiere of Alice in Wonderland, the captivating new opera by Unsuk Chin and David Henry Hwang.

In addition to 27 principal artists, 34 singers were chosen for the 2012 Gerdine Young Artist program, Opera Theatre’s renowned program for developing young artists.

Single tickets to the 2012 Festival Season start at $25 and go on sale Saturday, February 25.

The 2012 Repertory

*Debut artist

Carmen (1875) by Georges Bizet, Henri Meilhac, and Ludovic Halévy.

Nine performances: May 19, 23, 25, 31, June 8, 10, 13 (matinee), 16, 23 (matinee).

Conductor: Carlos Izcaray*; stage director: Stephen Barlow*; costume and set designer: Paul Edwards*; lighting designer: Christopher Akerlind.

Carmen – Kendall Gladen; Don José – Adam Diegel*; Escamillo – Aleksey Bogdanov; Micaëla – Corinne Winters; Zuniga – Bradley Smoak; Frasquita – Jennifer Caraluzzi*; Mercedes – Shirin Eskandani*; Remendado – Michael Kuhn*; Dancairo – Thomas Gunther*; Morales – Hernan Berisso.

After over a century, Carmen remains perhaps the world’s most popular opera. This all-new production evokes a sand-swept, lusty Seville. Carmen will be the first starring role at Opera Theatre for St. Louis’s own Kendall Gladen, whose blazing talent first emerged in Opera Theatre’s Monsanto Artists-in-Training program when she was only 16 years old.

Adam Diegel*, recently seen as Froh in the Metropolitan Opera’s new staging of Das Rheingold, debuts as Don José. Three former Gerdine Young Artists (GYAs) return to the stage in principal roles –- Mabel Dorn Reeder Foundation Prize-winner Corinne Winters as Micaëla, Aleksey Bogdanov as the bullfighter Escamillo, and Bradley Smoak as Zuniga. Six smaller roles will also allow several current GYAs to shine.

Stephen Barlow* and Carlos Izcaray* make St. Louis debuts as director and conductor.

Sweeny Todd (1979); Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler.

Eight performances: May 26, 30, June 1, 7, 12 (matinee), 16 (matinee), 20, 24.

Conductor: Stephen Lord; stage director: Ron Daniels*; set designer: Riccardo Hernandez*; costume designer: Emily Rebholz*; lighting designer, Christopher Akerlind.

Sweeney Todd - Rod Gilfry*; Mrs. Lovett – Karen Ziemba*; Anthony Hope – Nathaniel Hackmann*; Johanna – Deanna Breiwick*; Tobias Ragg – Kyle Erdős Knapp*; Judge Turpin – Timothy Nolen; Beggar Woman – Susanne Mentzer; Beadle – Scott Ramsay*; Pirelli – Anthony Webb*.

Hailed in theaters and opera houses around the globe, this masterpiece of contemporary American music theater will be led by the powerhouse team of OTSL music director Stephen Lord and director Ron Daniels*.

Rod Gilfry*, whose opera credits include numerous roles at the Metropolitan Opera, makes his OTSL debut as Sweeney Todd. Gilfry last performed the role in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtèlet, drawing praise from the New York Times: “Gilfry sings magnificently as Todd and invests the character with an almost wholesome candor, that, through it all, keeps one mindful of the barber’s vulnerability.”

Karen Ziemba*, who received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for Contact at Lincoln Center Theatre, debuts as his partner-in-crime, the batty Mrs. Lovett. Acclaimed opera stars Susanne Mentzer (Beggar Woman) and Timothy Nolen (Judge Turpin) both make highly-anticipated returns to the OTSL stage. The cast also includes debuts by Nathaniel Hackmann* (Anthony Hope), Deanna Brewick* (Johanna), Kyle Erdős Knapp* (Tobias Ragg), Scott Ramsay* (Beadle), and Anthony Webb* (Pirelli).

Così Fan Tutte (1790); Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte; Six performances: June 3, 6, 9, 14, 20 (matinee), 22.

Conductor: Jean-Marie Zeitouni; stage director: Michael Shell; set and costume designer: James Schuette; lighting designer: Christopher Akerlind.

Fiordiligi – Rachel Willis-Sørensen*; Dorabella – Kathryn Leemhuis; Ferrando – David Portillo; Guglielmo – Liam Bonner; Despina – Jennifer Aylmer; Alfonso – Matthew Lau.

This shimmering romantic comedy features Mozart’s most unabashedly beautiful score and is the finale to OTSL’s cycle of Mozart and Da Ponte’s great operas. Rachel Willis-Sørensen* and former Gerdine Young Artist Kathryn Leemhuis (Zerlina in 2011’s Don Giovanni) match wits with Liam Bonner (Pelléas in OTSL’s 2011 season) and David Portillo (Don Ottavio in 2011’s Don Giovanni), as Così’s star-crossed lovers. Jennifer Aylmer is the cunning maid Despina and Matthew Lau is Alfonso. Michael Shell directs and Canada’s Jean-Marie Zeitouni conducts. “His dynamically nuanced… approach to the score [was] filled… with the kind of vitality that transcends centuries of cultural change,” said the Toronto Star.

Alice in Wonderland (2007); Unsuk Chin and David Henry Hwang.

Six performances: June 13, 15, 17, 19 (matinee), 21, 23; American premiere.

Conductor: Michael Christie; stage director: James Robinson; set designer: Allen Moyer; costume designer: James Schuette; lighting designer: Christopher Akerlind.

Alice – Ashley Emerson; Cheshire Cat – Tracy Dahl; Mad Hatter/Duck – Aubrey Allicock; White Rabbit – David Trudgen; Queen of Hearts – Julie Makerov*; Mouse/ Dormouse/Pat/Invisible Man – Matthew DiBattista; King of Hearts – Bradley Smoak; Caterpillar/Mock Turtle (dancer) – Seán Curran; Caterpillar (bass clarinet) – James Meyer.

Unsuk Chin’s dazzling musical invention finds captivating new voices for familiar friends in an unforgettable journey down the rabbit hole. Ashley Emerson, who received glowing reviews for her 2011 performance as Marie in The Daughter of the Regiment, stars as Alice. “Armed with a bright smile... and a gift for physical comedy, Ms. Emerson was captivating,” wrote the New York Times. The production features Aubrey Allicock as the Mad Hatter, Matthew DiBattista as the Dormouse (both featured in 2011’s The Death of Klinghoffer), Tracy Dahl as the Cheshire Cat, and David Trudgen as the White Rabbit (both featured in 2010’s The Golden Ticket). Making a much anticipated debut as the Queen of Hearts is Julie Makerov*, with Bradley Smoak (2011’s Masetto in Don Giovanni) as the King of Hearts. Choreographer Seán Curran dances the role of the Caterpillar.

About Opera Theatre of Saint Louis

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is one of the leading American festival opera companies, known for a spring season of inventive new productions, sung in English, featuring the finest American singers and accompanied by members of the St. Louis Symphony. As of 2011, Opera Theatre has presented 22 world premieres and 22 American premieres – which is perhaps the highest percentage of new work in the repertory of any U.S. company. Described by the Sunday Times of London as “one of the few American companies worth the transatlantic fare,” and by Opera Today as “the leading summer opera destination in the United States,” Opera Theatre of Saint Louis welcomed visitors from 45 states and 12 foreign countries in 2011. Although the size of the theater limits box office income to 26% of the budget, the company has consistently produced work of the highest quality while never accumulating a deficit.

Deborah Voigt Stars in "Götterdämmerung" on Met Saturday Matinee Broadcast and HD Transmission

St. Louis Public Radio will carry the Met Opera broadcast of Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung on their HD channel, KWMU-3 beginning at 11 a.m. (Note one hour earlier than usual start time.) Approximate running time 5 hours, 50 minutes, with intermissions at approximately 1:00 p.m. and 2:50 p.m.

The Met says:

With its cataclysmic climax, the Met’s new Ring cycle, directed by Robert Lepage, comes to its resolution. Deborah Voigt stars as Brünnhilde and Jay Hunter Morris is Siegfried -— the star-crossed lovers doomed by fate. Fabio Luisi conducts.

The New York Times reported on February 7, 2012 that

Deborah Voigt withdrew from the Tuesday evening performance of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung because of illness, the Metropolitan Opera said. Katarina Dalayman will take her place in the role of Brünnhilde.

Voigt is scheduled to perform on Saturday, February 11.

In the January 28, 2012, New York Times, Anthony Tommasini writes:

Götterdämmerung, the final installment in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle, which opened on Friday, is the most theatrically effective staging of the four works in this epic series, and the clearest representation of the director Robert Lepage’s vision. That’s because with each installment Mr. Lepage has simplified the staging and used fewer of the capacities of Carl Fillion’s 45-ton set: the machine, as it has been called, a huge gizmo of 24 planks that rotate on an axle in combination with video projections to evoke rivers, cliffs, mountain passes, forest dwellings and more.

The old-fashioned imagery reveals how, at its core, Mr. Lepage’s Ring is quite a traditional production. Call it high-tech traditional. When summoned by Hagen, the vassals (the phenomenal men of the Met chorus) appear in woodsmen garb with spears and swords. Sentries are positioned atop the rafters to guard the hall. François St-Aubin’s costumes, if unremarkable, are handsomely realistic.

Instead of continually twisting into different contortions, as in earlier installments, the set remained stationary during extended scenes. On Friday this allowed you to focus on the exciting musical performance. Fabio Luisi has taken over the conducting of the Ring from James Levine, who continues to grapple with health problems and has withdrawn from all performances at the Met through next season. Mr. Luisi drew an uncommonly articulate and nuanced account of this daunting opera (a nearly six-hour evening with two intermissions) from the Met orchestra.

At his best in years past Mr. Levine revealed more mystery and awe in the score. But Mr. Luisi’s lucid, textured and urgent conducting was distinguished. He received a huge ovation.

The American tenor Jay Hunter Morris, who took over the title role in Siegfried on short notice in October, was again impressive here. He has found his own way to sing this heldentenor role with a lighter yet athletic and youthful sound. His clarion top notes project nicely over the orchestra. With his barrel chest and limberness, he inhabits the headstrong young Siegfried. When he stumbles upon the flirtatious Rhinemaidens in Act III, Mr. Morris waves an endearing hello, like a gawking adolescent saying, “Hi there, girls.”

The soprano Deborah Voigt received a rousing ovation for her Brünnhilde, and it is hard to imagine that she has ever been as gratified. In recent years she has gone through a rough period as a singer. Whether her vocal problems were precipitated by weight-reduction surgery in 2004, which she discussed openly the following year, is hard to say. But her voice has lost gleam, warmth and power.

The High Definition transmission of Götterdämmerung will be presented at AMC Esquire 7, 6706 Clayton Road; St. Louis Mills 18; 5555 Saint Louis Mills Boulevard; AMC Chesterfield 14, 3000 Chesterfield Mall; O'Fallon 14, 900 Caledonia Drive; and The Hett, McKendree College, 701 College Road, Lebanon, IL. Click here to buy tickets.

Anna Netrebko Stars In Donizetti's "Anna Bolena" On Met's Saturday Matinee Broadcast

St. Louis Public Radio will carry the Met Opera broadcast of Gaetano Donizetti's Anna Bolena on their HD channel, KWMU-3 beginning at 11 a.m. (Note one hour earlier than usual start time.) Approximate running time 3 hours, 30 minutes, with an intermission at approximately 1:45 p.m.

The Met says:

Anna Netrebko opens the Met season with her portrayal of the ill-fated queen driven insane by her unfaithful king. She sings one of opera's greatest mad scenes in this Met premiere production by David McVicar. Ekaterina Gubanova is her rival, Jane Seymour, Ildar Abdrazakov sings Henry VIII, and Marco Armiliato conducts.

In the September 27, 2011, New York Times, Anthony Tommasini wrote:

Since arriving at the Metropolitan Opera as general manager in 2006, Peter Gelb has been angling to make the soprano Anna Netrebko a house prima donna in the old-world sense: a first among equals. On Monday night Mr. Gelb must have felt that the plan was working.

To open the Met’s season, Ms. Netrebko sang the punishing title role of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena in the company’s first production of this breakthrough Donizetti work from 1830. The extended last scene was the high point of Ms. Netrebko’s performance as the distraught British queen (based on the historic Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII). Having been falsely condemned for betraying her husband, Anna drifts in and out of sanity.

Ms. Netrebko sang an elegantly sad aria with lustrous warmth, aching vulnerability and floating high notes. When the audience broke into prolonged applause and bravos, Ms. Netrebko seemed to break character and smile a couple of times, though her look could have been taken as appropriate to the dramatic moment, since the delusional Anna is lost in reverie about happy days with her former lover.

Then, at the end of this “Mad Scene,” Anna, restored to horrific reality, curses the “wicked couple,” the king and his new queen, and stalks off to her execution, insisting implausibly that she is not seeking divine retribution but going to her grave with mercy on her lips. Ms. Netrebko dispatched Donizetti’s cabaletta, all fiery coloratura runs and vehement phrases, with a defiance that brought down the house.

Review of Winter Opera's "Araidne auf Naxos"

Winter Opera’s ambitious production of Strauss’s seriocomic Ariadne auf Naxos was impressive, given the size of the cast and intellectual complexity of the piece.

The combination of mythological drama and bel canto–style comedy might have been a bit of a stretch for the fledgling company, but ultimately the problems were more with the material itself and the venue than with the performance.

Ariadne auf Naxos is an odd duck by any standard. It was originally written as a one-act postlude to a German translation by Strauss’s frequent collaborator Hugo von Hofmannsthal of Moliere’s comedy “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme” in 1912. The difficulty and expense of mounting a play and an opera on the same bill eventually forced Strauss and Hofmannsthal to produce a rewrite that allowed the opera to stand on its own. It was first performed in 1916 and has been in circulation ever since.

The comic Prologue sets up the situation: the “richest man in Vienna” has engaged both a production of the tragic opera “Ariadne auf Naxos” and a commedia dell’arte troupe as after-dinner entertainment for his guests. To save time, he decrees that both shows must take place simultaneously. The performers can work out the details. The resulting conflicts between the opera company’s Composer, Music Master, Prima Donna, and Tenor on one side and Zerbinetta and her group of buffoons on the other generate plenty of laughs, most of them at the expense of the self-important composer and his egotistical leading lady.

After intermission, we see the hybrid opera within an opera set up in the Prologue. Abandoned on Naxos, Ariadne (with the help of three nymphs) yearns for death, but her lamentations are repeatedly interrupted by Zerbinetta and company, who are determined to cheer her up. Drama eventually wins out, however, when Bacchus arrives, declares his love, and joins Ariadne in a long, rapturous love duet.

The opera within an opera has been a bit of a problem from the beginning. At least one early British critic, for example, found the scene with Bacchus to be tedious. My view is that getting the audience to take Ariadne seriously is a tough sell, considering how effective Strauss and Hofmannsthal have been at making fun of the pretensions of operatic tragedy. Strauss’s music shifts the mood appropriately, but you still need fully committed and compelling performances by Ariadne and Bacchus to pull off that big a change in tone.

Winter Opera had a pair of strong voices in soprano Meredith Hoffman-Thompson and tenor Scott Six, but neither of them were particularly convincing in that final scene. Ms. Hoffman-Thompson’s stock theatrical gestures, which worked so well when Ariadne was a foil for Zerbinetta and company, felt out of place, and Mr. Six seemed not to be acting at all. They made beautiful music, but I don’t think that’s enough to compensate for the problem Strauss and Hofmannsthal created.

Comedy was king in this Ariadne. Soprano Mary Thorne wowed the crowd with her coloratura fireworks and was convincingly seductive in her scenes with the terribly serious young Composer, a “pants” role sung with appropriate intensity by mezzo Sarah Heltzel. As Zerbinetta’s four clowns, John-Andrew Fernandez, Charles Martinez, Zach Rabin, and Jon Garrett impressed with their fine quartet singing and physical comedy. Director Marie Allyn King’s decision to make them into the four Marx Brothers, complete with choreography lifted from Duck Soup, was an inspired one.

Baritone Eric McCluskey was all wisdom, authority, and precise diction as the Music Master. His scenes with Philip Touchette’s pompous Major-Domo (a spoken role) set the comic tone for the “Prologue” nicely. The voices of Megan Higgins, Sara Gottman, and Rachel L. Smith blended beautifully as Ariadne’s long-suffering nymphs.

The costumes by Teresa Doggett (a.k.a. The Hardest-Working Woman in Show Biz) were unfailingly appropriate, and I loved the Marx Brothers outfits. Rebecca Hatelid is credited with the English supertitles, which are easily visible above the stage. The translation struck me as a bit clumsy, but it did the job.

Conductor Timothy Semanik’s small orchestra (20 players vs. the 30 or more Strauss calls for) had a surprisingly big sound, some opening night intonation issues aside. There were certainly balance issues with the singers, but fewer than I would have expected given then physical limitations of the venue.

Speaking of which: Ariadne was staged in the opulent second-floor ballroom of The St. Louis Woman’s Club, a converted 1895 mansion at 4600 Lindell in the Central West End. Given that the opera takes place in the ballroom of a mansion, that added a bit of extra-musical resonance, especially when you consider that there was an optional dinner preceding the show downstairs. The downside was that the orchestra had to be placed on the ballroom floor in front of the stage, with the audience behind them on freestanding chairs. There were no risers, so sightlines are a problem for all but the first few rows.

It was not, in short, an ideal arrangement. It’s a testament to Winter Opera’s skill and dedication that their Ariadne was, despite these limitations, both artistically satisfying and highly entertaining for most of its length.

Now in its fifth season and with a new home at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts on the campus of Chaminade Preparatory School, Winter Opera stands poised to be an important player in the growing opera scene locally. If this production was any indication, we can expect great things from them.

Winter Opera’s Ariadne auf Naxos was presented on Friday and Sunday, January 27 and 29. Their season concludes with “La Boheme” at the Viragh Center on March 2 and 4. For more information, you may visit winteroperastl.org.

Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic at 88.1 KDHX, where this review originally appeared.

The Critics on "Ariadne auf Naxos"

Winter Opera Saint Louis' production of Ariadne auf Naxos opened last night. Here's a sample of what Sarah Bryan Miller of the Post-Dispatch and Chuck Lavazzi of KDHX had to say about the production:

Sarah Bryan Miller:

"Soprano Meredith Hoffmann-Thomson's Prima Donna/Ariadne has the goods for this demanding role, with a big, soaring voice that never stinted with the high notes. ... Sarah Heltzel, the Composer, has a gorgeous instrument and was a believably angst-ridden young man. Soprano Mary Thorne brought the requisite knowing sexiness, effortless coloratura runs and solid acting skills to the role of Zerbinetta."

Chuck Lavazzi:

"Comedy is king in this 'Ariadne'. Soprano Mary Thorne wowed the crowd with her coloratura fireworks and was convincingly seductive in her scenes with the terribly serious young Composer, a 'pants' role sung with appropriate intensity by mezzo Sarah Heltzel.

Now in its fifth season and with a new home at the Skip Viragh Center for the Arts on the campus of Chaminade Preparatory School, Winter Opera stands poised to be an important player in the growing opera scene locally. If this production is any indication, we can expect great things from them."

Winter Opera Saint Louis' final performance of Ariadne auf Naxos takes place tomorrow Sunday, January 29 at 3pm at the St. Louis Woman’s Club located at 4600 Lindell Boulevard (map). The production is sung in German with projected English supertitles. Tickets for performances and the post-performance dinner may be purchased by calling Winter Opera Saint Louis at 314-865-0038 or online at http://winteroperastl.tix.com/ For further information on the company, its future performances and special events, visit winteroperastl.org.

Patricia Racette Returns as "Tosca" on Met's Saturday Matinee Broadcast, January 28

St. Louis Public Radio will carry the Met Opera broadcast of Giacomo Puccini's Tosca on their HD channel, KWMU-3 beginning at 12 noon. Approximate running time 3 hours, with intermissions at approximately 12:45 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.

The Met says:

Patricia Racette won plaudits when she first sang the title role at the Met in 2010. Now she she's back with Robert Dean Smith as her heroic lover, Cavaradossi. James Morris is Scarpia.

CBC Radio 2 reports:

"A shabby little shocker" is how the opera Tosca has been described. One French critic called it "coarsely puerile, pretentious and vapid." Even the New York Times felt compelled to comment that "Puccini will do better with a better story." It's a tale that features torture, attempted assault and murder, and to this day audiences can't seem to get enough of it. Before there was C.S.I. or Law and Order SVU, there was Puccini's Tosca!

The 2011-2012 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Puccini's Tosca, starring Patricia Racette as the fiery title character, Marcelo Álvarez as her lover, the idealistic Cavaradossi, and James Morris as the villain Scarpia. Finnish conductor Mikko Franck makes his Met debut with this season's performances of Tosca, and veteran bass Paul Plishka, whose distinguished Met career spans more than 40 years, sings the role of the Sacristan in his final Met performance.

Earlier this season, Plishka decided that this performance would be his farewell to the Met. Since his debut as a monk in Ponchielli's La Gioconda on September 21, 1967, he has sung more than 1,600 Met performances in 88 roles, including the title roles in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Verdi's Falstaff, Philip II in Don Carlo, and Leporello in Don Giovanni. During the first intermission, an onstage presentation will mark his final performance. The radio broadcast will carry this special moment as part of its intermissions, along with backstage interviews with the stars and the "Opera Quiz."