For all media requests and inquiries, please contact Daniel Zillmann, Communications Manager, at dzillmann@mnopera.org or 612.342.1612.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
14 FEBRUARY 2012
CONTACT: Daniel Zillmann, 612.342.1612 or dzillmann@mnopera.org
Minnesota Opera’s acclaimed Bel Canto series continues with Donizetti’s masterpiece
Soprano Susanna Phillips returns in the title role with tenor Michael Spyres and baritone James Westman
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What: Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Sung in Italian with English translations projected above the stage.
Where: Ordway, 345 Washington Street, Saint Paul, MN 55102
When: Saturday, March 3, 7:30pm; Sunday, March 4, 2pm; Tuesday, March 6, 7:30pm; Thursday, March 8, 7:30pm; Saturday, March 10, 7:30pm
Tickets: $20 – $200. Call the Minnesota Opera Ticket Office at 612.333.6669, Monday–Friday, 9am–6pm, or purchase online at mnopera.org.
Media: An online press kit is available now at mnopera.org/luciakit, which includes full bios, links to view design renderings, production photos and other useful resources.
Contact Communications Manager, Daniel Zillmann, to take advantage of the following interview, photo and video opportunities:
Wednesday, February 29, 7pm; Thursday, March 1, 7:30pm and Friday, March 2, 11am (dress rehearsals at Ordway).
Bloggers: Minnesota Opera will host a Blogger Preview Night, including a reception with conductor Leonardo Vordoni and exclusive access to the final dress rehearsal on Thursday, March 1, 6pm. Email dzillmann@mnopera.org to R.S.V.P.
Minneapolis–Minnesota Opera is pleased to announce the continuation of its acclaimed Bel Canto series with Donizetti’s masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor featuring the return of Susanna Phillips in the title role. In this powerful and gripping opera, Lucia secretly loves Edgardo, her clan’s enemy. Scheming to restore the family’s fortune, her brother forces her into a loveless marriage – with disastrous consequences. Interpretations of this famous heroine by opera’s greatest superstar sopranos, such as Maria Callas, Beverly Sills and Joan Sutherland, have thrilled audiences and rendered them legends. The intensity of this piece and the cast assembled for it should not be missed.
Larry Fuchsberg, Star Tribune
If sentimentality is your thing, Jules Massenet's 1892 "Werther," which opened Saturday at Ordway Center in a new Minnesota Opera production marking the centenary of the composer's death, is an essential evening in the theater -- an unabashed, world-class, multi-hanky tear-jerker, engineered by a meticulous master.
But even if your musical diet is rigorously schmaltz-free, there are other pleasures to be savored in this, the first of Massenet's 30 operas to be mounted by the 49-year-old company, notably the singing of tenor James Valenti and mezzo-soprano Roxana Constantinescu.
Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press
Down with intellectualism! Up with passion!
You could say that that, in essence, was a Romantic's rallying cry in 19th-century Europe, when the continent was overflowing with art bent upon engaging the heart more than the mind. And if they could build their case upon a novel by a literary legend of the previous century like Johann Goethe, all the better.
French composer Jules Massenet tapped Goethe with "Werther," an 1892 opera currently receiving its first production in the Minnesota Opera's almost-half-century history. If you read the list of ingredients, it seems ideal for opera: A young scholar falls in love at first sight, but she's promised to another, leading him to a life of anguish interspersed with tortured professions of his passion.
But the opera has a host of shortcomings, particularly a clunky libretto that can leave you wondering if important details haven't been omitted. That said, the Minnesota Opera's production is quite impressive, particularly in the invariably powerful arias of tenor James Valenti in the title role, but also in an imaginative industrial-age set design by Allen Moyer. Yes, it's a flawed work, but this is an outstanding interpretation.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
28 JANUARY 2012
CONTACT: Daniel Zillmann, 612.342.1612 or dzillmann@mnopera.org
Minnesota Opera announces its 50th anniversary season
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Highlights of the 2012-2013 season include:
Michael Christie’s debut as Music Director
Company premiere of Verdi’s Nabucco starring Jason Howard and Brenda Harris
Tudor trilogy concludes with Donizetti’s Anna Bolena
World Premiere of Douglas J. Cuomo and John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt
French Grand Opera masterpiece, Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet
Dazzling new production of Puccini’s Turandot
Introduction of Opera in the Park
Minneapolis - Minnesota Opera announces its 2012–2013 season, a bold 50th anniversary season honoring the company’s half-century commitment to opera’s full spectrum and featuring classic favorites, a Bel Canto masterpiece and a world premiere. Highlights include the second commission of the Minnesota Opera New Works Initiative – the world premiere of Doubt, by Douglas J. Cuomo (composer) and John Patrick Shanley (librettist), based on his Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play. The season boasts five new productions – four company premieres and a powerhouse finale with Puccini’s Turandot. Also included in the 2012–2013 season is Verdi’s monumental Nabucco, the conclusion to Donizetti’s Bel Canto Tudor trilogy, Anna Bolena, and Ambroise Thomas’ rarely performed French Grand Opera masterpiece Hamlet. In a special summer encore, Minnesota Opera proudly introduces a new outdoor tradition to Minneapolis – Opera in the Park, a gift to the Twin Cities community that has nurtured the company for five decades.
Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press
When last we left tenor James Valenti, it was March 2010 and he was singing the male lead in Giacomo Puccini's "La Boheme" with the Minnesota Opera. The Twin Cities had become something of a second home for the 6-foot-5, ruggedly handsome tenor from New Jersey, as he cut his professional teeth here in his early 20s as a Minnesota Opera resident artist and had returned for lead roles in Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata" and Charles Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet."
But his career promptly skyrocketed when he left town that spring. He went straight to New York's Metropolitan Opera to sing the romantic lead in "La Traviata" with star soprano Angela Gheorghiu, a role that he'd already sung at Italy's storied La Scala. Then he joined a couple of superstars (Anna Netrebko and Thomas Hampson) for the same role with London's Royal Opera, where he also sang the male lead in Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" and the title role in Gounod's "Faust."
However, he hasn't forgotten Minnesota, for Valenti returns to the Ordway Center stage tonight in the title role of Jules Massenet's "Werther." We caught up with him between rehearsals to ask about the difference between the Minnesota Opera and those big companies and being Werther.
Graydon Royce, Star Tribune
The camera loves them. James Valenti and Roxana Constantinescu, decked out in glamorous black duds, flashed their pearly whites and traded lines while shooting a commercial last week to promote "Werther," the new Minnesota Opera production that opens Saturday.
"Unrequited love," he begins.
"Passion," she answers.
"Ideals. ... Reality. ... 'Werther' is a love story. ... It's gorgeous music. ... And extraordinary voices. ... Come see us in 'Werther!'"
With tenor Valenti in the title role and Constantinescu as Charlotte, his "unrequited love" interest, the Minnesota Opera has turned up the heat, casting two singers who are gorgeous in voice as well as appearance. This is Valenti's third lead role in Minnesota since 2008. Constantinescu, who laughed off a casual joke in the studio about divas ("I'm just a mezzo"), returns after charming audiences as Cinderella in October 2010.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
19 JANUARY 2012
CONTACT: Daniel Zillmann, 612.342.1612 or dzillmann@mnopera.org
Minnesota Opera appoints Michael Christie as Music Director
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Minneapolis – Minnesota Opera announced today the appointment of Michael Christie as Music Director, a new strategic role for the company. Maestro Christie is charged with enhancing the company’s artistic product through his work with the Minnesota Opera Orchestra, as well as providing leadership by conducting a majority of each season’s operas, beginning with the 2012–2013 season (details of the company’s 50th anniversary season to be announced on January 28).
“On behalf of myself, Artistic Director Dale Johnson and Minnesota Opera’s staff and our Board of Directors, I’m pleased to welcome Michael Christie to our team,” said President and General Director Allan Naplan. “His orchestra-building success leading The Phoenix Symphony and Colorado Music Festival, his championing of new works and his excellent musical leadership of our productions of La traviata, Wuthering Heights and Silent Night, confirmed for us that he is the right person to fill this exciting new role.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
18 JANUARY 2012
CONTACT: Daniel Zillmann, 612.342.1612 or dzillmann@mnopera.org
Minnesota Opera presents premiere webcast of Werther on February 5
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Minneapolis – Minnesota Opera announces it will webcast its new production of Massenet’s Werther on Sunday, February 5, at 2pm. This project, in collaboration with SoundQue, will further the company’s efforts to expand accessibility to the operatic artform and exposure to Minnesota Opera’s artistic excellence. These efforts utilizing new media began in the 2010–2011 season with the HD video shoot of Wuthering Heights. The webcast, available at operamusicbroadcast.com, will be offered free of charge, removing barriers of price and location.
For the last three years, Minnesota Opera has made new media a priority, working with those at the vanguard of the fast-changing field of digital distribution for opera. This project is an opportunity for Minnesota Opera to become the first major American opera company to webcast its works through this emerging distribution channel. Thanks to major funding provided by the St. Paul Cultural STAR Program, Minnesota Opera’s production of Werther has the potential to reach exponentially greater audience members than it could in its one-week engagement on the Ordway stage.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
17 JANUARY 2012
CONTACT: Daniel Zillmann, 612.342.1612 or dzillmann@mnopera.org
Winter Concert to be held on February 3 at Ordway
Minnesota premiere of The Giver April 27–29
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Minneapolis – Project Opera, Minnesota Opera's co-ed youth opera training program, will perform a winter concert at 7pm on February 3 at Ordway (345 Washington Street, Saint Paul, MN 55102) featuring: excerpts from Victor Hubert's Babes in Toyland and Susan Kander's The Giver. Both the Ragazzi (grades 4–8) and Giovani (grades 9–12) ensembles will join forces for this exciting concert, which is free and open to the public.
Project Opera, a training program for students in grades 4–12, is an important component of Minnesota Opera's expanding education program for young singers. The program features two ensembles – Ragazzi and Giovani. In addition to their own concert schedule, Ragazzi and Giovani participants perform in the Ordway lobby prior to each of the Opera's Sunday matinee performances. Led by Music Director Dale Kruse, Project Opera students learn healthy vocal technique, perform repertoire in the major operatic languages and study the fundamentals of acting technique throughout the year-long program. As enrichment activities, participants are also invited to attend the Opera's student matinees, its intensive Day at the Opera training program and a summer Opera Camp. Project Opera's most talented singers are invited to participate in the High School Apprentice Program, which includes individualized training and per- formance opportunities in main stage productions.
Project Opera's first commissioned opera, The Giver, will have its Minnesota premiere April 27–29, 2012, in a fully staged production at the Minnesota Opera Center in Minneapolis. This new opera by Susan Kander is based on the popular novel by Lois Lowry, and was a co-commission with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12 JANUARY 2012
CONTACT: Daniel Zillmann, 612.342.1612 or dzillmann@mnopera.org
This new Minnesota Opera production, directed by Kevin Newbury, is the first Werther in the company’s history
International stars, tenor James Valenti and mezzo-soprano Roxana Constantinescu, are paired for the first time on stage
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What: Jules Massenet’s Werther
Sung in French with English translations projected above the stage.
Where: Ordway, 345 Washington Street, Saint Paul, MN 55102
When: Saturday, January 28, 7:30pm, Tuesday, January 31, 7:30pm, Thursday, February 2, 7:30pm, Saturday, February 4, 8pm*, Sunday, February 5, 2pm
Tickets: $20 – $200. Call the Minnesota Opera Ticket Office at 612.333.6669, Monday–Friday, 9am–6pm, or purchase online at mnopera.org.
Media: An online press kit is available now at mnopera.org/wertherkit which includes full bios, links to view design renderings and other useful resources.
Contact Communications Manager, Daniel Zillmann, to take advantage of the following interview, photo and video opportunities:
Wednesday, January 25, 7:30pm and Thursday, January 26, 7:30pm (Dress Rehearsals at Ordway, 345 Washington Street, Saint Paul, MN)
Bloggers: Minnesota Opera will host a Blogger Preview Night, including a reception with tenor Nathaniel Peake and exclusive access to the Final Dress Rehearsal on Thursday, January 26, 6pm. Admission by invitation only.
Minneapolis–Minnesota Opera is pleased to announce the first staging of Massenet’s Werther in company history with the pairing of international opera stars James Valenti and Roxana Constantinescu. Overflowing with yearning and heartbreaking melancholy, Massenet’s most romantic tragedy is inspired by a true story of unrequited love originally penned by the genius of modern German literature, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Werther is the story of the idealistic poet of the same name who cannot live without love, and the object of his obsession, Charlotte. Massenet is celebrated in 2012 by the centenary of his death. One of the greatest French composers in the late 19th century, his music brims with emotion and exquisite melody, and later influenced Puccini’s style of composition.
Starring as the title role is tenor James Valenti (La bohème), who recently “won over the audience with his robust, ardent singing” (The New York Times) in his Metropolitan Opera debut. He returns to Minnesota Opera where he began his career as a Resident Artist. Opposite him as Charlotte is mezzo-soprano Roxana Constantinescu, who dazzled audiences in her American operatic stage debut in Minnesota Opera’s 2010 Cinderella. Aptly assessing that debut, Star Tribune said: “... it takes no clairvoyance to foresee a brilliant career for her.” Nathaniel Peake debuts in the title role on February 4. Soprano Angela Mortellaro and baritone Gabriel Preisser, both Resident Artists, sing the roles of Sophie and Albert. Austrian conductor Christoph Campestrini makes his Minnesota Opera debut, and Kevin Newbury, on the heels of his successful interpretations of the first two installments of Donizetti’s Tudor Trilogy, returns to direct. This gorgeous new production sets the action during the second industrial revolution, reflecting the elegant era in which the opera was composed. Sets are designed by Allen Moyer (The Grapes of Wrath, The Abduction from the Seraglio) with costumes by Jessica Jahn (Roberto Devereux, Mary Stuart).