For all media requests and inquiries, please contact Daniel Zillmann, Communications Manager, at dzillmann@mnopera.org or 612.342.1612.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
25 AUGUST 2010
Contact: Daniel Zillmann, 612.342.1612 or dzillmann@mnopera.org
Minnesota Opera’s season opens September 25 with a stunning new production of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice
Internationally acclaimed countertenor David Daniels makes his Minnesota debut
What: Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice. Sung in Italian with English translations projected above the stage.
Where: Ordway, 345 Washington St., St. Paul, MN
When:
Saturday, September 25, at 8:00 p.m. (Opera Gala 2010 performance)
Tuesday, September 28, at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, September 30, at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 2, at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 3, at 2:00 p.m.
Tickets: $20 - $200. Call the Minnesota Opera Ticket Office at 612.333.6669, Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m., or purchase online at mnopera.org.
Media: Contact Daniel Zillmann, Communications Manager, to take advantage of
the following exclusive interview, photo and video opportunities:
Wednesday, September 1, at 10:30 a.m. (Meet and Greet Design and Artist Presentation, Minnesota Opera Center, 620 N. First St., Minneapolis, MN)
Wednesday, September 22, at 7:30 p.m., and Thursday, September 23, at 7:30 p.m. (Dress Rehearsals, Ordway, 345 Washington St., St. Paul, MN)
Minneapolis, MN—The Minnesota Opera season opens on September 25 with Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice. In mythological Greece, Orpheus mourns the loss of his wife, Eurydice, with such despairing grief that the gods take pity, permitting him to enter Hades to reclaim her, with one condition: he must not look at her until they cross the river Styx. On his journey from heartbreak to ultimate triumph, Orpheus charms the god of Love with his voice, and is at last reunited with his beloved.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
25 AUGUST 2010
Contact: Daniel Zillmann, 612.342.1612 or dzillmann@mnopera.org
Minnesota Opera 2010-2011 season update
Casting updates for Cinderella, La traviata and Wuthering Heights
Minneapolis, MN-Minnesota Opera announces updates to its 2010- 2011 season casting for Cinderella, La traviata and Wuthering Heights. A new production of Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights, based on the novel by Emily Brontë, will replace The Garden of the Finzi-Continis as the 2010-2011 season finale, and based on anticipated demand, an eighth performance of La traviata has been scheduled for Wednesday, March 9, 2011. The season also boasts the Minnesota debut of an operatic superstar, countertenor David Daniels, who headlines Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice. This wide-ranging season spans the early Classical period to the 20th century and includes the vocal pyrotechnics of Rossini's fairy tale opera, Cinderella, a Bel Canto masterpiece (Mary Stuart, second in Donizetti's Tudor trilogy) and Verdi's most famous love story (La traviata).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Daniel Zillmann, 612.342.1612 or dzillmann@mnopera.org
Minneapolis, MN - Minnesota Opera finished its 2010 fiscal year on June 30 with a balanced budget.
"I'm proud to announce that Minnesota Opera finished this past season in the black for the eighth year in a row," said President and CEO Kevin Smith. "This is an especially satisfying outcome, given the challenging economic environment and a very ambitious artistic program. I want to acknowledge the Opera Board, staff and volunteers for their hard and effective work this past year. I also thank the community for its support, both in terms of attendance and philanthropy, for providing the foundation upon which Minnesota Opera continues
to flourish."
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Lani Willis, 612.342.9561 or lani@mnopera.org
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Minnesota Opera announced today that Kevin Smith is retiring as
president and chief executive officer, a position he has held since 1986. He will stay on into
the next opera season until a successor is in place.
“I love this organization – the people, the mission, the art form and the artistic process.
However, as I approach my 30th season with the company and my 60th birthday, I am simply
ready for a change in my professional life. I don’t know what this change will bring, but
I’m excited to find out. Minnesota Opera has never been stronger artistically and financially,
which makes this an excellent time to transition to new leadership that will take the
Opera to the next level of accomplishment,” Smith said.
Downloadable PDF
Minneapolis, MN—Minnesota Opera and the creative team of The Garden of
the Finzi-Continis announce the postponement of the opera’s world
premiere, which had been scheduled for April, 2011, until the spring
of 2013, as part of Minnesota Opera’s 50th anniversary season. A new
production of Bernard Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights, which was
previously scheduled for the 2013–2014 season as part of the Minnesota
Opera New Works Initiative, will replace the commission to close the
2010–2011 season.
This decision comes on the heels of the first workshop of the piece,
which is an essential development stage of Minnesota Opera’s
commissioning process. “Ricky Ian Gordon and I have always rewritten
sequences after having seen them in context in a staged workshop,” said
librettist Michael Korie. “This was true with The Grapes of Wrath, and
it is true with The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. With less than a year
before we are scheduled to go into rehearsals, we requested that the
premiere be delayed so that we could make revisions, then orchestrate
the opera, and upon its completion, send out the music to the singers
with ample time to familiarize themselves with their roles. We are
extremely grateful that Minnesota Opera is giving us its full support
by giving us the necessary extra months we need to refine our work.
With this extension, we need never feel that we didn’t give suffiencent attention to any aspect of this opera or its vitally important
subject matter.”
Downloadable PDF
Minneapolis, MN-coOPERAtion! will be conducting a week-long residency in Chisholm, MN, May 17-21, 2010. Minnesota Opera's Teaching Artist Angie Keeton and Resident Artist Assistant Conductor Clinton Smith will be working with the Chisholm Public Schools, the East Range Choral Society and Mesabi Community Orchestra. This week of public school vis- its, opera education classes, master classes and rehearsals will culminate with a performance in the High School Auditorium. This concert will feature selections from Bizet's Carmen with orchestra, singers from Minnesota Opera, adult and children's choruses and student narrators. English translations will be projected above the stage. Tickets will be $5 and available for pur- chase at the door.
About coOPERAtion!
coOPERAtion! is Minnesota Opera's in-school residency program. The Chisholm residency project is the Spotlight Partnership of the season, created to target a school or group with sig- nificant interest in Minnesota Opera's education programs, but with limited financial resources. Minnesota Opera goes above and beyond regular programming with these schools to involve the community and impact the lives of the teachers and students. Sponsored in part by the Twin Cities Opera Guild, Medtronic Foundation and Enterprise Rent-a-Car Foundation. On behalf of the Chisholm School District, this activity is funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008, and an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature. For more information contact Teaching Artist Angie Keeton at 612.342.9554 or visit the Education page at mnopera.org/learn.
April 12, 2010
Special to the Twin Cities Performance Art Examiner
"How beautiful Princess Salome looks tonight." So begins Salome, the alternately celebrated and censured opera by German composer Richard Strauss. With these simple opening words one of opera's most enigmatic figures is introduced, a woman whose symbolic meaning and psychological motivation have been continually reinterpreted since the debut staging in 1905. One singular aspect of the work, however, that is never in doubt is the grotesque consequences of obsessive desire, a signature theme rendered with spellbinding finesse by The Minnesota Opera in this season finale.
Based upon Oscar Wilde's dramatic adaptation of the biblical legend, Strauss' Salome recounts how the unrequited lust of Princess Salome for the prophet Jokanaan (popularly known as John the Baptist), the one man impervious to her ravishing beauty, leads to Salome's infamous demand to have the holy man's head presented to her on a silver platter. Whether the notorious deed is born of malevolent spite or deranged affection, this exceptionally powerful production offers no conveniently prosaic explanation for inflamed passion.
Salome's inscrutability is brought to mesmerizing life by the acclaimed Russian soprano Mlada Khudoley. From the very first moments, Khodoley projects a grandiose persona defined by a bored indifference to the desire of others. As Salome's obsession with Jokanaan grows, however, Khodoley uses her extraordinary vocal range to underscore a precarious emotional instability. Regulating such demanding vocal stamina would be an endurance test for any performer, especially as the work builds toward Salome's climactic aria. To Khudoley's enormous credit, her powerful pitch never falters, growing increasingly commanding even as her character succumbs to madness.
While the vocal requirements of Salome are notoriously complex, the role is made even more challenging by the physical demands of the Dance of the Seven Veils. The famed movement (in which Salome gratifies the lustfulness of her stepfather King Herod with a blatantly seductive dance) requires a deftness of movement traditionally more attuned to a seasoned dancer than an operatic singer. Rather than relying solely on one performer, Choreographer and Stage Director David Lefkowich has crafted a sensually charged arrangement that maintains Khudoley's place in the spotlight even while complimenting her movements with the graceful supporting trio of dancers Emily King, Megan McClellan, and Colleen McClellan Ueland.
Salome is far from the only character driven by desire. Christian Reinert, in his impressive portrayal of Narraboth, the Captain of the Guard, makes striking use of his rich tenor to express his secret yearning for Salome. Not to be outdone, fellow tenor Dennis Petersen's take on King Herod emphasizes equally potent desire (albeit of a less innocent variety) through luxurious phrasing. And as the understandably embittered Queen Herodias, soprano Elizabeth Byrne serves as the modulating counterbalance to all this heightened passion.
Playing the fated subject of Salome's wanton desire, baritone Jason Howard lends a doomed righteousness to Jokanaan that is both unerringly wise and untouchably pious. These characteristics are on electrifying display in Howard's gripping defiance of Salome's delirious overtures. Howard's voice is that of the fated martyr willing to sacrifice all on the altar of spiritual rectitude.
Strauss' energetic score is sensitively conducted by Emmanuel Joel-Hornak to match the tonal shifts of Salome's volatile passions. Such tensions are further regulated by Set Designer Steve TenEyck's imaginatively adaptable stage which utilizes a digital backdrop in conjunction with practical effects to create subtle shifts of atmosphere. An added flourish is provided by Costume Designer Jennifer Caprio who strikingly attires each role, from the threadbare rags of Jokanaan to the pristine white robes that flow from Salome.
While Salome's actions remain shocking in their barbarity, a glance at contemporary media is ample evidence that obsessive desire continues to elicit violent extremes. By capturing the work's terrifying drive with such sumptuous skill, The Minnesota Opera connects Salome to our own inner desires, creating a resounding pathos even in those of us who would never dream of demanding anyone's head on a silver platter.
April 12, 2010
Special to MinnPost
In 1907, the Metropolitan Opera, having given the American premiere of Richard Strauss' "Salome" and finding its story line too disgusting to justify, dropped the work after a single performance. Today, even at the Met, "Salome" is almost standard repertoire, provided one can find a lithe young soprano with major lung power to sing - and dance - the title role. And yet, let's face it, even when well done, this sordid tale of a 16-year-old princess of Judea who strips for her lecherous stepfather and makes love to the bloodied, severed head of a saint, is still pretty disgusting.
The striking Julia Migenes sang the role for Minnesota Opera in 1989 in a production that made use of the reduced orchestration Strauss later provided for an opera that often, when the original version is used, degenerates into a screaming contest between orchestra and singers. As a result, the relatively small-voiced Migenes came through loud and clear, as did the formidable - and considerably bigger-voiced - Russian soprano Mlada Khudoley, who is playing the part in the company's new production of "Salome," for which the skilled conductor Emmanuel Joel-Hornak is also using the reduced orchestration.
"Salome" opened Saturday at the Ordway Center, and runs through April 24.
An attractively polished, sleek look
This production was staged and choreographed by David Lefkowich, with costumes by Jennifer Caprio, sets and lighting by Steve TenEyck. It has an attractively polished and sleek look: classical columns and arches that stretch into infinity, along with vistas of oceans and clouds and a surprising - and jarring - tableaux at the start that imitates Leonardo's painting of "The Last Supper," with crazy old Herod as Jesus Christ. (Strauss, who hated Christianity, might have liked that last touch.)
It was all impressively sung on opening night. At least in vocal terms, Khudoley almost totally possessed the role, easily cutting through the thick orchestral textures, especially in the final scene where our randy teenager literally makes love to the head of John the Baptist.
As for the Baptist - Jokanaan, as he is known in the opera - Jason Howard, who, with his sculpted physique looked more like Tarzan than the famous Christian prophet, sang his flowing utterances with rich, stentorian tone. Dennis Petersen's Herod, on the other hand, was not just excitingly sung but was also the evening's strongest characterization: a depraved, superstitious borderline psychotic whose frenzy and lust became barely manageable as the story unfolded, though it's hard to believe that Khudoley's silly Dance of the Seven Veils would turn him - or anyone - on. Elizabeth Byrne's Herodias was more conventional - sneering and cruel. Christian Reinart offered his fine tenor in the role of Narraboth.
Sense of mystery, unease is missing
And yet, for all its strengths, the production fails in some key regards. The opening scene never establishes the unsettling sense of mystery and unease that is so clearly in Strauss' brilliant score and even in the Oscar Wilde play on which the opera was based, and some of the voices in this scene were faint on opening night. And though the enigmatic title role can be played in different ways, the approach here seems less credible - and more disturbing - than most.
Rather than being psychologically unbalanced, this Salome is simply a spoiled, arrogant teenager who can't tolerate being ignored. The progression of events concerns her sexual awakening rather than her mental deterioration, in which case she becomes at the end a truly evil character. Sex equals death in this equation, and presumably this means there's a bit of Salome lurking in every teenager. No wonder Herod has her killed.
Kinky, sensual and ecstatic: Minnesota Opera's "Salome" is a 100-minute psychodrama with a grimly gorgeous and bloody finale
April 12, 2010
Special to the Star Tribune
Richard Strauss' lurid, one-act "Salome" (1905), which opened Saturday at St. Paul's Ordway Center in a superbly sung new production by the Minnesota Opera, is a canny essay in depraved carnality, more sensationalist than unsettling.
In its second century, it has lost its power to shock, if not to titillate; its misogyny and anti-Semitism, never attractive, have grown odious. So why does it hold the stage?
Efficiency is one answer: Barely 100 minutes long, the piece seizes the attention and never lets go. Then there's the singing, which for many operagoers is what the medium is all about. "Salome" climaxes in one of the greatest of operatic monologues, an 18-minute psychodrama that provides a matchless vehicle for the right soprano. And if a severed head is part of the bargain, well, such are the sacrifices we make for Art.
But if the soprano gets the ovation, the orchestra is arguably the real protagonist: It moans, shrieks and insinuates, making vividly audible the psychopathological stew in which Strauss' characters swim. While the 68 musicians of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra seemed up to the task, they were held in check by conductor Emmanuel Joel-Hornak, who showed too much deference to his singers. Often the orchestra simmered when it should have boiled; Salome's famous dance, which buys her the head of John the Baptist, was decidedly unslithery.
Billed as "scandalously erotic," the production is hardly that. Steve TenEyck frames the action with slender, symmetrical columns; his resourceful lighting does much of the heavy lifting. Jennifer Caprio's handsome costumes have a touch of Hollywood Biblical about them.
Director/choreographer David Lefkowich's largely static staging leaves unexploited many dramatic opportunities in the libretto (a German abridgement of Oscar Wilde's French original). Lefkowich turns Salome's dance into a quartet, adding three trained female dancers who, in undressing her, introduce a homoerotic component. But for the crowning monologue he deposits his heroine on an otherwise bare, brilliantly lit stage, as if to acknowledge that it's her show.
Mlada Khudoley is incandescent as Salome, at once perverted and sympathetic. In her final minutes she finds a macabre, necrophiliac ecstasy from which it's impossible to look away. Her high B-flats are secure, her low notes shudder-inducing.
Khudoley has a worthy foil in Jason Howard's commanding, sonorous John; his "Never, daughter of Babylon," hurled at her, is the evening's most chilling moment. Dennis Petersen's Herod is musically impeccable but a bit under-acted; the character is more manic than Petersen lets on. Elizabeth Byrne, herself an accomplished Salome, makes something memorable of Herodias' every line.
April 12, 2010
By Rob Hubbard
Special to the Pioneer Press
If operas were ascribed those degree-of-difficulty scores that you find in diving competitions, then Richard Strauss' "Salome" would warrant one of the highest.
Start by squeezing the largest orchestra you can fit into the pit, with many of the musicians playing some of the most difficult lines they'll ever encounter. Then ask a dramatic soprano to not only sing at the top and bottom of her range and all points in between, but present an athletic dance - shedding her clothes as she goes - and deliver a lengthy lung-busting aria to a severed head.
It's an ambitious undertaking, but one that the Minnesota Opera is conquering with one of its most successful productions of recent seasons. Anchored by a spectacular performance from Mlada Khudoley in the title role, it surpasses the opera's daunting demands in all areas, with outstanding singing, powerful acting, imaginative design ideas and a Minnesota Opera Orchestra that has seldom sounded better.
"Salome" is built around a myth that grew up from brief passages in the gospels of Mark and Matthew about John the Baptist being executed as payment for a girl's dancing. But Strauss' 1905 opera - based upon Oscar Wilde's play - turns the tale into a chilling story of sexual obsession. The dancer becomes King Herod's stepdaughter, whose vengeful demands for the prophet's head are motivated by him rebuffing her advances.
Set amid the intriguing stagecraft of Steve TenEyck - which borrows from many a biblical epic and artwork for inspiration - the Minnesota Opera's production rests firmly upon Khudoley's shoulders. The soprano's singing is a breathtaking blend of soaring passion and dark low notes that rumble with foreboding. And her formidable acting skills make Salome's tempestuous mood swings believable, painting a sympathetic portrait of a woman driven to madness by an obsession.
She's complemented by the powerful baritone voice and commanding presence of Jason Howard as Jokanaan, the John the Baptist character. However, despite some strong singing, Dennis Petersen's Herod doesn't convey the creepiness commented upon by other characters.
Director David Lefkowich seems to have imbued his performers with the idea that everyone onstage is driven by a consuming desire. It's part of what keeps the intensity at fever pitch throughout this excellent production.