UAO In Rehearsal

Rehearsals for Union Avenue Opera's 15th season are underway. Since last week, members of the ensemble have met frequently with musical director and principal conductor Scott Schoonover for musical rehearsals of the choral scenes in UAO's summer productions.

(female ensemble, The Merry Widow)

(male ensemble, Lakmé)

Principal staging rehearsals begin Monday for the first production of the season: Verdi's Il Trovatore. Chicago-based stage director Mark Meier returns to UAO this season to stage Trovatore after his work on last season's L'Elisir d'Amore and Otello.

Visit this blog for further updates and content on the productions at Union Avenue Opera this summer. For more information on UAO and its 15th season, please visit the company's website.

OTSL's "A Little Lunch Music" Series Continues on Monday, June 15

Photo: Soprano Jeanette Vecchione

Opera Theatre of St. Louis's "A Little Lunch Music" continues this Monday with a free noontime concert presenting performances by some of the young artists featured in OTSL main season productions.

This Monday, June 15, at 12:30 p.m. Jeanette Vecchione, soprano; Eric Margiore, tenor; Gregory Dahl, baritone; and Curt Pajer, pianist; will perform at Kirkwood Presbyterian Church, 100 E. Adams, in Kirkwood, Missouri.

Vecchione will make her operatic debut at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis this summer as Florestine in John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles. Vecchione is a May 2006 graduate of the Juilliard School was accepted into the Master’s Program on full scholarship. She studies under the tutelage of Marlena Malas. (Information courtesy of the Iron Sharpens Iron blog.)

Click here to visit Vecchione's MySpace profile.

According to the Encompass Arts web site, "Lyric tenor, Eric Margiore, is quickly becoming recognized for his unique Italianate timbre and the excitement that it brings to the stage, especially in the high lying Bel Canto and lyric French repertory. Most significantly, Eric was hailed by Opera News for his stunning regional debut in the role of Arturo in the Malibran version of I Puritani with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis when he stepped in twice to replace an ailing tenor. This season, Margiore sings Narraboth in OTSL's Salome."

Blogger Philip Kennicott writes:

John the Baptist was sung by baritone Gregory Dahl, whose voice was the most traditionally matched to the role. He was an uncomfortably believable prophet, vocally authoritative, and at times almost pastoral in his warnings to Salome. He dominated the orchestral texture more than the other singers, which meant he had an unusually large impact on the drama.

Curt Pajer, not only a pianist but also a vocal coach, has been on the music staff of OTSL since 1999.

Classic 99 KFUO-FM serves as a sponsor for the "A Little Lunch Music" series.

The final concert in the series will be:

June 22, 2009
The Purser Center
(on the campus of Logan Chiropractic College)
1851 Schoettler Road
Chesterfield, Missouri

For more information, contact the OTSL's Education Department at (314) 963-4250.

OTSL's "The Ghosts of Versailles" Opens June 17

From Alex Ross's great The Rest Is Noise blog:

John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles pleased most critics when it opened at the Metropolitan Opera at the end of 1991. I wasn't among them; in a review for the New Republic I described the opera as "nowhere music," a miscellaneous pastiche of Romantic and modernist styles.

I recently listened again to a recording of The Ghosts of Versailles and found myself liking it a great deal more. Even if the composer's voice remains at times elusive, the craftsmanship and vitality of the writing make a powerful impression. St. Louis audiences may judge for themselves when a new, streamlined version of The Ghosts of Versailles opens at the Opera Theater of St. Louis on June 17.

Union Avenue Opera hosts "Opera in Bloom" Event

Union Avenue Opera will be hosting "Opera in Bloom," an afternoon of hors d'oeuvres and cocktails featuring instrumentalists and UAO artists in the garden of a historic Central West End home.

This event precedes the company's upcoming season, including Verdi's Il trovatore, Lehár's Die lustige Witwe ("The Merry Widow"), Delibes' Lakmé and Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors.

"Opera in Bloom" takes place Saturday June 20th, 3:00 p.m. at the home of John & Anna Roach: 4931 Pershing Place in the Central West End. Tickets are $50 per person. To RSVP, contact Union Avenue Opera at (314) 361-2881. Tickets may also be purchased at the UAO Website.

OTSL Presents First 2009 "A Little Lunch Music" Program

Opera Theatre of St. Louis has announced three free Monday noontime concerts presenting performances by some of the young artists featured in main season productions.

This Monday, June 8, at 12:30 p.m. soprano Amanda Majeski, tenor Derek Taylor, baritone Jay Ivey, and pianist Greg Ritchey will perform well known opera, operetta and musical theater selections at the Grandel Theater in Grand Center.

Soprano Amanda Majeski has been a Young Artist with OTSL for their past two seasons, covering the title role in Michael Berkeley’s Jane Eyre, Greta Fiorentino in Street Scene and Elvira in I Puritani. The young soprano recently made her debut with Opera Company of Philadelphia as Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto.

Tenor Derek Taylor was born in Los Angeles, California, and trained at the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA), where he garnered rave reviews as Rodolfo in their 2005 production of La Boheme. "AVA seems to have found the key to producing excellent young tenors.... It was Derek Taylor’s turn Sunday night as Rodolfo.... Blessed with remarkable good looks, Taylor also possesses a naturally beautiful timbre that's clear and unforced, a sure feel for the dramatic arch of the vocal line, excellent Italian diction and a focused dramatic flair that projects the essence of the role without fuss or affectation." This season, Taylor appears as Rodolfo in OTSL's La Boheme.

Each concert begins at 12:30 p.m. Classic 99 KFUO-FM serves as a sponsor for the series.

June 8, 2009
Grandel Theatre
634 N. Grand Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri

June 15, 2009
Kirkwood Presbyterian Church
100 E. Adams
Kirkwood, Missouri

June 22, 2009
The Purser Center
(on the campus of Logan Chiropractic College)
1851 Schoettler Road
Chesterfield, Missouri

For more information, contact the OTSL's Education Department at (314) 963-4250.

Patricia Rice Previews OTSL's "Salome" in the Beacon

Patricia Rice previews OTSL's production of Salome for the St. Louis Beacon. Here she discusses Kelly Kaduce:

Lyric soprano Kelly Kaduce -- a St. Louis favorite -- dances and sings the title role.

Last year, her convincing fluency in the title role of Madame Butterfly at OTSL put her on the cover of Opera News magazine. While she has sung with opera companies across the country and overseas, the Minnesota native, who now lives in Texas with her husband, has offered some of her best efforts here.

Kaduce's title roles here include the world premiere of David Carlson's Anna Karenina in 2007, the American premiere of Michael Berkeley's Jane Eyre in 2006 and Puccini's Sister Angelica in 2004.

Her ability to dance first caught the attention of the late Colin Graham, OTSL's first artistic director. Before she ever came to St. Louis, Graham cast Kaduce in a dancing singer role in the world premiere of Bright Sheng's Madame Mao, which he directed in 2003 at Santa Fe.

Dance, she does in Salome. Even people who have never heard of the opera have likely heard of Salome's "Dance of the Seven Veils."

Click here for the complete preview.

Lew Prince Reviews OTSL's "La Boheme" in the RFT

Lew Prince has a review of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis' production of Puccini's La Boheme in this week's issue of the Riverfront Times. Prince gives a little background here:

Puccini was one of the few composers to eschew opera's usual fascination with mythology and the love affairs and succession problems of royalty. Instead he strove for what he called verissimo — truth-telling, or naturalness. The language of his songs is simple and straightforward in the original Italian, and Opera Theatre's English translation is alive with wordplay Puccini would have loved. In the first two acts, director Tim Ocel and his spirited young cast paint a lively and vivid picture of a bunch of middle-class dropouts living the Bohemian life in Paris at the cusp of the twentieth century.

Click here to read the complete review.