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MICHIGAN OPERA THEATRE ANNOUNCES
2009-10 OPERA SEASON:
LOVES AND LIES
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09-10 Season Opens with Company Premiere of Nabucco
Perennial Favorite Tosca
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Broadway Returns!
Season Includes Sondheimís A Little Night Music
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DETROIT, Michigan, February 11, 2009...Michigan Opera Theatre announced today the components of its 2009-10 opera season entitled Loves and Lies, which includes a MOT premiere and for the first time in over seventeen years, a Sondheim musical as part of the main stage opera season. Additional casting and production details will be announced at a later date.
Due to the difficult economic climate, Michigan Opera Theatre's main stage 2009-10 opera season is reduced to four productions instead of the five main stage opera productions customarily produced during a season. The 2009 Fall Opera Season includes the Michigan Opera Theatre premiere of Nabucco, October 17-24, 2009 and the return of Broadway with Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning A Little Night Music, November 14-21, 2009. MOT's 2010 Spring Opera Season includes Mozart's seductive classic Don Giovanni, April 17-24, 2010, and concludes with Puccini's dramatic operatic standard Tosca, May 8-16, 2010.
"Through this difficult economic period, we are so thankful for the support of our loyal patrons who continue to support world-class opera in Detroit," says Michigan Opera Theatre General Director Dr. David DiChiera. "The upcoming season exemplifies the kind of diverse repertory Michigan Opera Theatre is known for presenting."
Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco - October 17-24, 2009
Performed in Italian with English Supertitles
Nabucco, which premiered at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1842, was an instant success at its opening. The opera's themes of forbidden love, hidden identity, and religious epiphany; along with its poignant score, make it one of Verdi's most touching and moving works. Nabucco was made popular in recent times by its frequent performances at the Metropolitan Opera. The chorus "Va pensiero" which is regularly given as an encore at the Metropolitan Opera is one of the most famous opera choruses ever performed. An opera in four acts, the libretto was written by Temistocle Solera.
Inspired by the Old Testament stories of King Nebuchadnezzar, the opera follows the plight of the Jewish people as they are assaulted and exiled from their homeland by King Nabucco. During a fierce battle to protect Jerusalem from invasion, King Nabucco's two daughters, Fenena and Abigaille, are both in love with the enemy — the King of Israel's nephew, Ismaele. When Ismaele tries to protect Fenena from harm, this causes a rift between him and his own people, which is reconciled when Fenena, out of love for Ismaele, converts to the Jewish religion. When Nabucco discovers what his daughter has done, he orders that the Jews be put to death, knowing that his daughter Fenena would also be killed. Struck by lightning after asserting that he is god, Nabucco is rendered senseless and Abigaille picks up his fallen crown, destroying evidence of her true identity as a slave.
When Nabucco regains his strength and his senses, he sees Fenena being led to her death. Asking forgiveness of the God of the Jews, he promises to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, and follow the true faith. In a last desperate attempt at redemption, Nabucco rushes in to save Fenena, denouncing the idol of Baal and freeing the Jews. Abigaille, expressing her remorse and asking for forgiveness, poisons herself and dies as the Jews acclaim Nabucco as a servant of their God.
To date, the cast and artistic team of Nabucco include many singers returning to MOT and two company debuts. Nabucco will be performed by Italian baritone Marco di Felice, who made his MOT debut as Germont in the 2008 production of La Traviata. The role of Zaccaria will be performed by Turkish bass Burak Bilgili, who will also be performing the role of Dulcamara in the upcoming spring 2009 production of The Elixir of Love. Director Mario Corradi returns to stage the production, following his acclaimed staging of Madame Butterfly in the fall 2008 season. Detroit favorite maestro Steven Mercurio returns to conduct.
Making their MOT debuts are acclaimed soprano Francesca Patanè as Abigaille and young rising star tenor Noah Stewart as Ishmaele, a regular with San Francisco Opera, and a graduate of their prestigious Adler opera fellowship program.
Sondheim's A Little Night Music - November 14-21, 2009
Performed in English with English supertitles
Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning waltz musical A Little Night Music returns to Michigan Opera Theatre for the first time in over 25 years, and the fall 2009 production will represent the first time since 1992 that Michigan Opera Theatre has presented a musical as part of the main stage opera season.
A Little Night Music, the brainchild of Stephen Sondheim and Broadway director/producer Harold Prince, is based on the film Smiles of a Summer Night by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. With book adaptation by Hugh Wheeler, A Little Night Music is a romantic musical set in 1901 Sweden, filled with infectious waltz melodies that surround the past and present love affairs of an elegant society. Featuring the haunting ballad "Send in the Clowns," the Broadway blockbuster won six Tony Awards and six Drama Desk Awards during its 1973 opening season.
The musical features some of Sondheim's most well-known works, including "The Glamorous Life," "You Must Meet My Wife," "Every Day a Little Death," "Liaisons," "In Praise of Women," and "The Miller's Son." With virtually all of the music in the show written in waltz time, the music symbolizes the ever-changing liaisons between husbands, wives, mistresses, and lovers.
Set in turn-of-the century Sweden, the plot revolves around successful lawyer Fredrik Egerman, who is in an unconsummated marriage with his teenage wife, Anne. Feeling a bit restless, he rekindles an affair with an old flame, actress Desiree Armfeldt, who herself is having an affair with married military officer Count Carl Magnus Malcolm. Complicating matters is Fredrikís teenage son, Henrik, who is in love with his stepmother. The play culminates in a weekend at a country estate where, despite an attempted suicide and a duel, love triumphs.
Returning from her MOT debut staging The Abduction from the Seraglio in 2007 is stage director Dona Vaughn, acclaimed for her work in operetta, musical theater and opera. MOT Assistant Music Director Suzanne Acton, who recently conducted MOT's productions of The Barber of Seville and La Traviata at the Wharton Center in Lansing, will conduct A Little Night Music.
Mozart's Don Giovanni - April 17-24, 2010
Performed in Italian with English supertitles
Michigan Opera Theatre’s 2010 Spring Season begins with what has been called “the greatest opera ever composed” – Mozart’s brilliant tour de force of musical perfection, Don Giovanni. Deemed by many critics to be the greatest opera ever composed, Mozart’s brilliance shines through in this drama giocoso, a subtle comedy and moral tragedy surrounding the historical lover, Don Juan. In the opera, Don Giovanni is an infamous womanizer who moves from conquest to conquest through Seventeenth-Century Spain with his hapless servant Leporello. Two women, a dazed peasant girl, her outraged fiancée and the spirit of a murdered father join forces to punish the incorrigible rogue, interested only in adding names to his lengthy list of “achievements.”
Some of the most noted arias in the opera include “Là ci darem la mano” and “Il mio Tesoro.” The music of Don Giovanni has also been featured in a number of movie soundtracks, including It Happened in Brooklyn, Kind Hearts and Coronets and Babette’s Feast.
Returning to reprise his role as Don Giovanni following his Tony Award-winning debut as Emile De Becque in South Pacific on Broadway is Brazilian baritone Paulo Szot. Making her Michigan Opera Theatre debut is young American soprano Jacquelyn Wagner in the role of Donna Anna. The role of Donna Elvira will be performed by Kelly Kaduce, who made her MOT debut in 2005 as Caroline Gaines in Margaret Garner.
Conducting the incomparable Mozart score is regular Metropolitan Opera guest conductor Christian Badea. Director John Pascoe will stage the opera, which features sets and costumes designed by him as well. Pascoe’s designs last appeared on stage at the Detroit Opera House in October 2007 for the world premiere of David DiChiera’s Cyrano.
Puccini's Tosca - May 8-15, 2010
Performed in Italian with English surtitles
Filled with drama, passion, and intense political intrigue, Tosca is a perennial favorite in the operatic repertory. Based on Victorien Sardou's play La Tosca, the opera premiered in Rome on January 14, 1900. With libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, the exceptionally dramatic Tosca exemplifies Puccini's mastery of the art form, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest verismo operas.
An intense thriller, Tosca is a tale of obsessive love, manipulation and betrayal. The ravishing diva Tosca finds herself torn between her lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi, and the villainous chief of police, Baron Scarpia. When Scarpia vows to bring Cavaradossi to the gallows and Tosca into his arms, Tosca strikes a deal with him in which her lover will be spared. Scarpia tries to rape Tosca and she kills him. Tosca attempts the mock-execution of her lover and, as they sing of their hopes for the future, Cavaradossi is shot — Scarpia has betrayed her even in death. Tosca climaxes in the shadows of suicide, treachery and murder.
Tosca contains some of the most dramatic of Puccini's famous music, including "Recondita armonia," "Te Deum," "Vissi, díarte, vissi díamore," and "Ecco un artista!"
The lead role of Cavaradossi will be sung by tenor Antonello Palombi, whose 'claim to fame" occurred in a performance of Aida at La Scala when Roberto Alagna was booed off the stage, and Palombi stepped in his place without a costume. Palombi made his Michigan Opera Theatre debut in 2005 in Aida, which was praised by opera critics and fans alike. Italian soprano Tiziana Caruso will perform the title role of Tosca, following her MOT debut last season as Magda in La Rondine. Making his MOT debut is American baritone Todd Thomas as Scarpia.
Italian maestro Giuliano Carella will return to conduct Tosca, following La Traviata in the 2008 spring season. Director Bernard Uzan will also return to stage the production, in his first visit to MOT since the world premiere of Cyrano in 2007.
Subscriptions:
New this year, Michigan Opera Theatre is offering a payment plan for subscriptions. If a patron subscribes by March 30, 2009, the subscription cost will be split into four equal payments due at the end of each month, the final payment due on June 30, 2009.
As always, subscriptions are offered first to renewing subscribers. Renewal packets will be mailed February 2009. Subscribers may renew subscriptions online at http://www.MichiganOpera.org. Subscribers enjoy the benefits of priority seating, limited free ticket exchanges and advanced purchase opportunities for some non-subscription events. 2009-10 season ticket subscriptions will be available through Michigan Opera Theatre online at http://www.MichiganOpera.org, as well as through the ticket office. Michigan Opera Theatre will again offer special package discounts for "first-timers," as well a distance discount for new subscribers traveling more than 80 miles to attend performances. The popular "family series" discount will also continue through the 2009-10 season. All subscription information may be obtained by calling the Michigan Opera Theatre ticket office at (313) 237-SING (7464).
Single Tickets:
Single ticket prices will remain unchanged from last season, ranging from $25 - $115 for all opera productions. Single tickets for Michigan Opera Theatreís 2009-10 opera season will become available in August 2009. Single tickets will be available in person at the Detroit Opera House ticket office (1526 Broadway, Detroit, MI 48226), by phone at (313) 237-SING (7464) and through Michigan Opera Theatre's online ticketing at www.MichiganOpera.org. Single tickets will also be available through all TicketMaster outlets, by phone at (248) 645-6666 or online at http://www.TicketMaster.com. For group sales rates, please contact the Michigan Opera Theatre box office.
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Michigan Opera Theatre, a non-profit organization, is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and provides programs and services without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, or handicap. Michigan Opera Theatre is supported by private donations, foundation and corporate grants, the State of Michigan through the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal Agency.
2009-10 Michigan Opera Theatre Productions
Giuseppe Verdi's
Nabucco
October 17-24, 2009
Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 18, 20092:30 p.m.
Wednesday, October 21, 20097:30 p.m.
Friday, October 23, 20097:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 24, 2009 7:30 p.m.
Sondheim's
A Little Night Music
November 14-21, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 15, 20092:30 p.m.
Wednesday, November 18, 20097:30 p.m.
Friday, November 20, 20097:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 21, 20097:30 p.m.
Mozart's
Don Giovanni
April 17-24, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 20107:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 18, 20102:30 p.m.
Wednesday, April 21, 20107:30 p.m.
Friday, April 23, 20107:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 24, 20107:30 p.m.
Puccini's
Tosca
May 8-15, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 9, 20102:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 12, 20107:30 p.m.
Friday, May 14, 20107:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 15, 2010 7:30 p.m.
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