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.
Contact: Daniel Zillmann, 612.342.1612 or dzillmann@mnopera.org
Minnesota Opera 2010-2011 season update
Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights to replace
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis as season closer
Eighth performance added to La traviata production
Minneapolis, MN-Minnesota Opera announces updates to its 2010- 2011 season, including a change of repertoire and added performances. 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).
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.”
Minnesota Opera 2010–2011 season update
Bernard Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights to replace The Garden of the Finzi-Continis as season closer
Eighth performance added to La traviata production
Minneapolis, MN—Minnesota Opera announces updates to its 2010–2011
season, including a change of repertoire and added performances. 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).
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.