He’s singing Tevye at Grange Park Opera next summer. Believe that?
Tevye.
Terfel.
Believe in the resurrection.
San Diego Opera, recently pronounced dead by its board, is soaring out of the morgue with a world premiere share.
Jake Heggie’s new opera Great Scott, which Joyce DiDonato will open at Dallas in October 2015, and will be shared by San Diego the following season. No confirmation that Joyce will sing in SD, but the co-production is a mark of the ambition of the reborn ensemble.
The soprano has been associated with the composer all the way back to his first opera, Dead Man Walking.
This time round, the subject matter could not be more apt: Terrence McNally and Jake Heggie have set GREAT SCOTT in “an important American city” that boasts a respected but struggling opera company and a thriving football team. Arden Scott, the hometown girl who has become an international opera star, has returned to her roots to help save the company. San Diego, anyone?
Press release follows.
SAN FRANCISCO, JUNE 20, 2014 – The Dallas Opera proudly welcomes a co-producer, San Diego Opera, to the first major project in fourteen years by critically acclaimed American composer Jake Heggie (Moby-Dick) and Tony Award-winning playwright and librettist Terrence McNally (Master Class).
GREAT SCOTT will star world-renowned mezzo-soprano, Joyce DiDonato in her eagerly anticipated Dallas Opera debut. The world premiere performances in Dallas, with support from The Eugene McDermott Foundation, The Hoblitzelle Foundation and The Carol Franc Buck Foundation, will be staged by Broadway legend Jack O’Brien (former Artistic Director of San Diego’s Old Globe Theater) and conducted by one of the fastest-rising young artists at the podium today:Maestro Evan Rogister.
GREAT SCOTT opens the Dallas Opera’s 2015-2016 Season with five performances scheduled from October 30, 2015 through November 15, 2015 in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Additional performances in San Diego will follow in the 2016-17 Season.
Composer Jake Heggie shared the big news today in San Francisco at the Opening Session of OPERA America’s Opera Conference 2014.
“I’m very honored and touched,” said Mr. Heggie, “to be a part of this magical, remarkable occasion.” Word of SDO’s commitment to the piece was followed by the first public performance of an aria from GREAT SCOTT by acclaimed American lyric soprano Heidi Stober, a principal artist at Deutsche Oper Berlin and a sought-after guest artist in opera houses around the world.
Previous co-commissions and co-productions by the two companies include the tremendously successful adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, brought to the opera stage in 2010 by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer and seen in Canada, San Francisco, Australia and, most recently, in Washington, D.C.; as well as an earlier world premiere production ofThérèse Raquin by composer Tobias Picker and Mr. Scheer.
“For months now, the San Diego Opera saga has been the most closely watched story in the western opera world,” saysDallas Opera General Director and CEO Keith Cerny. “It is incredibly gratifying to be able to welcome the company as a partner in this exhilarating project. SDO’s involvement sends a powerful message to our industry—and the message is this: San Diego Opera is here to stay and planning for an exciting future!
“We have tremendous confidence in the leadership exhibited by Carol Lazier and the San Diego Opera Board, as well as William Mason, SDO’s new artistic advisor, and we are certain that San Diego Opera will play a vital and productive role in bringing Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s original concept to life for the enjoyment of audiences everywhere.”
“Jake Heggie is no stranger to San Diego Opera,” shares San Diego Opera Board President Carol Lazier. “After his wildly successful Moby-Dick in 2012, when we heard that Jake was working on a new opera we knew we had to be part of it. At its heart, Great Scott asks ‘What is worth fighting for?’ a question that resonates with us here in the San Diego community.
“This opera also gives us the opportunity to work again with The Dallas Opera, who have been champions for our continued survival since day one, offering advice and logistical support during these transitional times. They are a great partner to work with, having been co-producers on Moby-Dick, co-commissioners on Thérèse Raquin, and partners on productions ofMadama Butterfly and Aida over the years. Our participation in Great Scott is a show of support for Jake and The Dallas Opera, a commitment to the future of great American opera, and a statement to let the world know that San Diego Opera is still here and we are not going anywhere.”
“It is extremely gratifying to learn about this co-production of Jake and Terrence’s next opera,” wrote Marc A. Scorca, President and CEO of OPERA America. “The collaboration of these artists promises to add another important work to the American opera repertoire. It is equally exciting that The Dallas Opera and San Diego Opera will work together as co-producers of the piece, demonstrating that bold artistic plans that include new American operas can and should be part of a an opera company’s strategy for long-term success.”
“What a triumph on every level,” said Jake Heggie. “I couldn’t be more grateful to all parties involved.”
“At the heart of GREAT SCOTT are big questions about artistic and personal sacrifice, picking our battles and the kind of cultural legacy we want to leave for the future, as well as our personal responsibility in that legacy. How appropriate that the Dallas Opera and San Diego Opera—two companies that have recently triumphed over adversity—have now become two of the standard bearers in this challenging dialogue! Loyal audiences, staffs and highly motivated leadership are embracing artistic collaborations to keep these companies vital—eyes on the horizon—as they construct a future based on fresh ideas, new works and different perspectives.”
Joanna Wallfisch, our surprise guest last weekend, is back at even greater heights. How does she do that?
We have received a reasoned, sensitive and gently moving post from a British-Israeli opera singer, criticising the Met’s cancellation of the global simulcast of John Adams’ opera, The Death of Klinghoffer.
Darren Abrahams writes:
In my opinion the controversy about this piece shows exactly why it should be performed and broadcast. It forces debate, brings out buried feelings and makes us examine ourselves as individuals, as artists, as members of the human family. I myself have an intimate history with Death of Klinghoffer. I am a British born Jewish man, with an Israeli mother, a Grandfather who escaped the Holocaust and Grandmother whose family fled Yemen…
Read the full post here.
La Monnaie Opera in Brussels has cancelled next seasons contract with Tamar Iveri, a Georgian soprano who is accused of making extreme homophobic comments on her Facebook page. She was to have sung there in Ballo in Maschera. Monnaie intendant Peter Caluwé notified a Dutch website that he dropped her and confirmed the sacking to slippedisc.com.
Opera Australia, where Ms Iveri is due to sing Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello in two weeks time, is resisting social pressure to replace her, saying she has apologised for remarks published in her name.
It issued a statement saying: ‘Opera Australia has become aware in the past 24 hours, of the media and social media coverage of comments reported to have been made by soprano Tamar Iveri … Tamar Iveri has sought to clarify her views on this important issue, and has issued an apology and explanation on her own Facebook page … Rehearsals and performances at Opera Australia are continuing as planned.’
Ms Iveri has sought to dissociate herself from the published remakrs, saying they were issued by her husband without her knowledge.
Here’s what she writes on her Fb page:
I am shocked and saddened by the reports in the internet and in the Australian media calling me a homophobic.
For my entire career I have been working with gay people and some of them are very dear friends. All of them can confirm that I never lost a word that might associate me with homophobic ideas. I respect every single human being and I am against all kind of descrimination and violence.
Please let me explain what lead to the recent articles that you might have read:
On the 17th of May 2013 a gay parade was supposed to pass directly in the yard of an Orthodox Church in Tiflis. At the same place and for the same date a commemoration for Georgian soldiers killed in Afghanistan had been announced. For that reason and because Georgia is a country where 90% of the population are deeply religious, conservative Orthodox Christians I wanted to express my sincere doubts that a parade made sense under these circumstances, in the yard of an Orthodox church. I was worried that this would provoke people and lead to violence. Unfortunately this is what happened then.
Besides myself my husband was using my Facebook account at that time and he is a very religious man with a tough attitude towards gay people. He copied my text, changed it considerably and posted it under my name. You might imagine that I was not happy with that at all and I immediately deleted it when I saw the text about half an hour later. This text does not express my own opinion. I’m afraid it was too late and the text was already spreading in the internet.
I explained the situation and officially apologized to the LGBT community in Georgia a year ago and they accepted my apology.
I would also like to point out that it was not Paris Opera that cancelled my recital on the 1st of June 2013 as stated in some of the articles, but that I had to cancel it due to a indisposition.
Furthermore I never wrote an official letter to the Georgian president on this matter, it was a Facebook post that was copied and used for the article a year ago.
Best regards,
Tamar Iveri
The cellist Johannes Moser has a residency at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt next season.
Instead of just playing to a passive public, he thought he might ask for their participation. So Johannes created ‘Spiel Mit! Johannes Moser and the 12 cellists’, inviting amateurs to join him on stage.
He expected 20 applications at most. But the deadline has just passed and he has 125 people queing for audition, aged between 9 and 78 years old. And more requests are still coming in.
Here’s the video pitch, with some extra cello tricks.
Among this week’s media interviews, Classicaldarkarts wanted to know why we set up the new slippedisc.com. Here’s why.
And the new editor of Classical Guitar magazine, Guy Traviss, asked why their instrument was not getting the attention it deserved. Sample answer here.
Susan Bradley plays in an orchestra.
She didn’t start until she’d undergone surgery for lung cancer.
The operation changed her life. The surgeon was a musician. He persuaded her to join his orchestra.
We asked Sue to tell us more:
Just what creates the connection between music and medicine? Why are so many medicos also good musicians? Is it the ability to do detailed study? The talent for time management? Or is there a complementary aspect – the stark, controlled, discipline of the practice of medicine versus the catharsis that comes from music performance?
If there’s an orchestra that can answer these questions, it’s Corpus Medicorum, a Melbourne, Australia based symphony orchestra, currently preparing to take their 2014 programme, To Russia With Love, to Melbourne’s sister city St. Petersburg, for medical and musical exchange. The doctors and nurses will spend a few days in rehearsal, a day of medical consultation with their Russian counterparts, and give two
performances: one formal concert, and a charity gala ball.
The orchestra grew out of the Australian Doctors’ Orchestra, initially as a string ensemble, evolving into a chamber group, and about seven years ago took the plunge into the larger symphonic repertoire. The current personnel are mostly medicos, plus a couple of lawyers, and the odd professional musician to fill in the gaps..
One such gap was filled by a most unusual audition: freelance Melburnian tuba player Susan Bradley was diagnosed with an aggressive form of non-smoking lung cancer in early 2010 and was operated on by the founder of the orchestra, violist Phillip Antippa, a leading Melbourne cardio-thoracic surgeon, losing a lung. She promptly found herself playing in the orchestra – highly effective post-operative physiotherapy, but a tough audition process, especially for a tuba player!
In Australia the orchestra raises funds for Lung Cancer Services at The Royal Melbourne Hospital; in Russia they will be raising funds for Russian cancer charity AdVita.
Come and support us in St Petersburg:
June 24 at the State Academic Cappella Hall, playing Rimsky-Korsakov
Capriccio Espagnol, Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with soloist Mikhail Gantvarg,
Head of the St Petersburg Conservatorium, a new piece Suspended by Australian
composer Iain Grandage, and Dvorak Symphony no 9, conducted by Keith Crellin.
June 25 Charity Gala Ball in the Rose Pavilion of the Pavlovsk Palace, with
music of J. Strauss and Shostakovich.
Find us on Facebook, and check out the website for more information!
http://www.corpusmedicorum.
The Russian pianist Denis Matsuev reflects on his recent New York residency:
This year my friend, Executive and artistic Director of Carnegie Hall, Sir Clive Gillinson invited me to take part in the three concerts of a series “Carnegie Hall presents”. This concert was part of a series “Keyboard Virtuosos”, in which I found myself in the company of wonderful musicians performing at Carnegie Hall during this musical season. I thought over the program for this concert really thoroughly, as I was aware of all the responsibility to the American public, which I love and good attitude of which I cherish. The atmosphere at the concert itself was fascinating; I was got a lot of positive energy and emotions from the audience.
As it happens all the time after the concerts in Carnegie Hall, I got a lot of enemies. Tickets for the concert were sold out, so not all comers were lucky to get them. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about it. In Russia, knowing how it is important for many people to come to classic music concerts, I always manage to solve the problem with tickets somehow (to get tickets to the gallery or just put the chairs on the stage that happens more and more often recently). Unfortunately, it is impossible variant for Carnegie Hall, because of the traditions and original peculiarities of the hall. Therefore, those who has not got to the concert this time, I solemnly promise to inform you about the dates of future concerts in Carnegie Hall, which will take place in January 2015, where you all are invited.
Mezzo Clare Presland, 30, has won the award in memory of Susan Chilcott, a soprano cut short in her prime.
Details:
The Chilcott Award is offered biennially to an opera singer between the ages of 23 and 33 who, like Susan Chilcott herself, has the potential to make an international impact within the world of opera. The Award is specifically designed to enable advanced training or career development. The first recipient, in 2012, was Baritone Duncan Rock. This year, over 40 young singers applied for the Chilcott Award.
Clare Presland, who is shortly to sing the role of Miss Jessel in Nevill Holt Opera’s production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (5 & 6 July), was chosen following audition. The award was made by a distinguished jury, chaired by pianist and close friend of Susan Chilcott, Iain Burnside and featuring Chilcott Scholarship Trustees, soprano Dame Josephine Barstow, international voice coach, Lady Pappano, Pamela Bullock, bass baritone, Neal Davies, Ian Rosenblatt, Founder of the Rosenblatt Recital Series and RPS Trustee and John Gilhooly, Director of Wigmore Hall and Chairman of the Royal Philharmonic Society. They were joined by Camilla De Rijck, Producer at Cypres Records, radio host and producer and owner of Forumopera.com, David Sigall, Director of Ingpen and Williams, and Eva Kleinitz, Opera Director, Stuttgart Opera and President of Opera Europa.
Clare Presland has appeared at English National Opera, Grange Park Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, Garsington Opera and with Opera UpClose.
Viola player Gareth Zehngut is heading inland to join the rebuilding of the Minnesota Orchestra.
He says: ‘I feel incredibly privileged to be joining the Minnesota Orchestra. By joining this fantastic group of musicians I am fulfilling a life-long dream and I can’t wait to get started!’
Photo by Beth Ross-Buckley.
From 510 applicants, they have selected the following:
– Samuel Burstin (UK)
– Leandro Carvahlo (Brazil/Italy)
– Ivan Cherednichenko (Ukraine)
– Marzena Diakun (Poland)
– Mihhail Gerts (Estonia)
– Ayyub Guliyev (Azerbaidjan)
– Quentin Hindley (France)
– Alexey Kirillov (Russia)
– Stanislav Kochanovsky (Russia)
– Vladimir Kulenovic (USA/Serbia)
– Lio Kuokman (Macao)
– Kalle Kuusava (Finland)
– Chen Lin (China)
– Julien Masmondet (France)
– Andris Rasmanis (Latvia)
– Ena Shin (South Korea/USA)
– Vasily Valitov (Russia)
– Kseniya Zharko (Russia)
The finals, open to the audience, will be held at the prestigious Salle Pleyel (258 rue du Faubourg St Honoré, Paris) on 28th June 2014 from 14:00-17:00 and 18:30-21:30.