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Publish Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Maryann Devine
215-735-1685 x 23
mdevine at avaopera.org
Puccini's La boheme: AVA's Young Singers Bring Freshness to World's Most Popular Opera
April 30 - May 14 in Center City, Main Line, and Bucks
For tickets or info, call 215-735-1685 or visit www.avaopera.org
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Philadelphia: April 11, 2005 Puccini's La bohème is the most frequently produced opera in the world, with one hundred and seventy-two productions in the last ten years, according to Opera America. The Academy of Vocal Arts presents its young vocal artists as the Parisian bohemians in performances from April 30 through May 14 in Center City, Haverford, and Bucks County. Christofer Macatsoris conducts AVA's singers, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and ChildrenSong of New Jersey. The opera, sung in Italian with supertitles in English, is directed by David Gately . For tickets or more information, call 215-735-1685 or visit www.avaopera.org.
One might ask, with so many Bohème productions out there, why add one more? Because the roles of Rodolfo, Mimì, Musetta, and Marcello are staples of many professional singers' repertoire, The Academy of Vocal Arts is a frequent presenter of this opera, training its resident artists for roles they will sing for a good part of their careers. The gorgeous music of La bohème is familiar and dear to the hearts of opera goers everywhere, and AVA's patrons relish seeing and hearing the young, passionate characters of this work portrayed by equally young and exciting vocal artists.
SYNOPSIS
In Paris' Latin Quarter, painter Marcello and poet Rodolfo live the bohemian life. When their friends leave their garret apartment for the Café Momus, Rodolfo stays behind a while to write and meets his neighbor, Mimì, whose candle has gone out on the stair. They are smitten with each other, and Rodolfo invites his new acquaintance to meet his friends at the Café. The scene at the Café Momus includes Marcello's former lover, Musetta, who has taken up with the older, wealthy Alcindoro. Her ploys to regain Marcello's attention succeed, and the Bohemians fall in with a group of passing soldiers, leaving Alcindoro to pay the tab. Later, Mimì seeks Marcello on the outskirts of Paris, to confide in him Rodolfo's jealousy and to ask his advice. According to Marcello, the lovers should part company. Rodolfo emerges from a tavern, and while Mimì hides, he tells Marcello that he intends to end his affair with her. When pressed, he admits that his lover is dying and their poverty can only hasten her demise. Mimì reveals herself to say goodbye to Rodolfo, and they reminisce about their former happiness, while Marcello and Musetta quarrel. Mimì and Rodolfo decide to remain together until spring, but the other two lovers part in anger. Months later, Musetta arrives in the Latin Quarter apartment to announce that Mimì is downstairs but too weak to climb the stairs. She wishes to see her lover once more before she dies. As the friends leave to pawn their possessions in hopes of buying medicine for her, Mimì and Rodolfo recall happier times. The others return and Mimì dies quietly.
THE ARTISTS
The role of the poet Rodolfo is shared in AVA's production by graduating tenor Derek Taylor and Northeast native Stephen Costello . Among many concert and opera performances, Mr. Taylor has sung Pinkerton with Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera New Hampshire, and Di Capo Opera Theatre, and performed Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor with Portland Opera, and the Accuser in the world premiere of Bright Sheng's Madame Mao with Santa Fe Opera. Mr. Costello was recently heard trading high notes with AVA alumni and rising stars Stuart Neill and Richard Troxell in a "Three Tenors" bit for AVA's seventieth anniversary "BrAVA Philadelphia!" concert. Opera Now critic Diana Burgwyn described his "voice of sweetness and poignancy and the kind of timbre that opera-lovers swoon over." Their Mimìs are Ailyn Perez and Cristina Baggio . Ms. Perez was a winner of the Palm Beach Opera Competition, and performed Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Soeur Constance in Les dialogues des Carmelites for that company. Ms. Baggio is a native of Italy and the winner of many prestigious competitions including the 2004 Francisco Viñas Competition in Barcelona.
French soprano Manon Strauss Evrard alternates the role of the coquette Musetta with Takesha Meshé Kizart , a Chicagoan. The Philadelphia Inquirer 's David Patrick Stearns called Ms. Evrard "captivating" in the title role of Iolanta for AVA this past winter. Like Ms. Perez, Takesha Kizart is a winner of the Palm Beach Opera Competition, as well as a national semi-finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Her great-uncle was blues legend Muddy Waters. Baritones Markus Beam and Eric T. Dubin sing the role of Marcello. Mr. Beam, who graduates this spring, has many impressive opera credits including roles for Rome Opera, San Francisco's Merola Program, Wolf Trap Opera, Virginia Opera, and Opera Orchestra of New York. In February, Mr. Dubin stepped in at the last moment for an ailing colleague in AVA's production of Iolanta , learning the role of Ibn-Hakia in Russian on the day of the performance.
CHRISTOFER MACATSORIS, MUSIC DIRECTOR
Maestro Macatsoris began his conducting career in Italy at the Conservatory in Milan. He went on to study conducting privately with such famed maestri as Fausto Cleva, Max Rudolf, and Tullio Serafin, and studied composition with Vincent Persichetti. Among his many performance credits are appearances with Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company, Pennsylvania Opera Company, San Francisco Opera Center, and numerous regional opera companies. In 1970, Max Rudolf invited him to The Curtis Institute of Music, where he taught and conducted for seven years.
Mr. Macatsoris was the music director of the weekly NBC-TV program, Opera Theatre , and was music director and conductor for two seasons with the Opera at Ambler Festival. As a pianist, he toured with Metropolitan Opera singers in recital programs.
As music director of The Academy of Vocal Arts since 1977, he has led critically acclaimed performances of Puccini's ll trittico and Madama Butterfly , Mozart's Don Giovanni and Die Entführung aus dem Serail , and Britten's Albert Herring , which was broadcast on PBS. In addition, many operas received their Delaware Valley premieres at AVA under his baton, including Mozart's Idomeneo and La finta giardiniera , Handel's Deidamia , Strauss's Capriccio , Verdi's Un giorno di regno , and Richard Wargo's A Chekhov Trilogy . Mr. Macatsoris has appeared at The International Corfu Festival, Greece, in 1981 and 1982, leading performances of The Rape of Lucretia, La sonnambula, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Così fan tutte.
He has conducted in many regional American houses and has been on the conducting staff of San Francisco Opera Company. He is in great demand as a lecturer and for master classes, and has conducted them at major universities, including Johns Hopkins, Tulane, Loyola of New Orleans and SUNY-Buffalo. He frequently serves as a panel judge for the National Council Auditions of the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Macatsoris consistently earns high praise for his interpretive abilities and total commitment to excellent opera theater.
DAVID GATELY, STAGE DIRECTOR
Recently David Gately has directed productions of L'elisir d'amore with The Dallas Opera, Madama Butterfly with Seattle Opera, La bohème with Florida Grand Opera, Carmen in New Orleans, Les contes d'Hoffmann in Edmonton, Die Zauberflöte with the Cincinnati and Vancouver Operas, A Midsummer Night's Dream with Florentine Opera and Glimmerglass Opera, Falstaff with Opera Omaha and Rigoletto with Utah Opera. His hugely successful "wild west" production of Don Pasquale has been mounted by San Diego Opera, Kentucky Opera, Calgary Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Virginia Opera, Dayton Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Omaha, Edmonton Opera and Fort Worth Opera. Mr. Gately's productions of The Mikado and Pirates as well as his Barbiere and L'italiana have appeared throughout the U.S. and Canada. A partial list of wide-ranging production credits include Carmen, Tosca, Manon, Smetana's Two Widows, Hansel und Gretel, Die Fledermaus, Salome, La traviata, La Cenerentola, The Rape of Lucretia, Gianni Schicchi, I pagliacci, The Merry Widow, Candide, Amahl, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Otello, Samson et Dalila, Aïda, Turandot, La fille du regiment, Le Compte Ory, Lucia, Les pêcheurs des perles, Lakmé and The Ballad of Baby Doe. Mr. Gately is a favorite guest artist of The Academy of Vocal Arts, La bohème being his ninth production for AVA. His other credits for the Academy are Il barbiere di Siviglia, Don Giovanni, Falstaff, Rumpelstiltskin, The Rape of Lucretia, Albert Herring, La sonnambula, and Le nozze di Figaro.
FACT SHEET
The Academy of Vocal Arts
La bohème
Music by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica (after Mürger)
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Produced by the AVA Opera Theatre
K. James McDowell, executive director and producer
Christofer Macatsoris, music director
David Gately, stage director
Peter Harrison, set designer
Val J. Starr, costume designer
Cast
Mimì - Cristina Baggio/Ailyn Perez
Musetta - Manon Strauss Evrard/Takesha Meshé Kizart
Rodolfo - Stephen Costello/Derek Taylor
Marcello - Markus Beam/Eric T. Dubin
Shaunard - Joseph Specter/Jason Switzer
Colline - Jesús Ibarra/Keith Miller
Benoit/Alcindoro - Carlos Serrano
PERFORMANCE DATES, TIMES, AND LOCATIONS
Helen Corning Warden Theater, The Academy of Vocal Arts, 1920 Spruce Street, Philadelphia:
Saturday, April 30, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 1, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, May. 3, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May. 6, 7:30 p.m.
Centennial Hall, 450 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford:
Tuesday, May 10, 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 12, 7:30 p.m
Central Bucks East Auditorium, Anderson & Holicong Rds., Holicong:
Saturday, May 14, 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS
Regular: $80 (premium seating) and $45
Seniors: $70 (premium seating) and $35
Students: $60 (premium seating) and $25
For tickets or more information, call 215-735-1685, or visit www.avaopera.org .
About The Academy of Vocal Arts
The mission of The Academy of Vocal Arts, founded in 1934 by Helen Corning Warden, is to provide tuition-free vocal and opera training of the highest quality, and financial support during training, to exceptionally talented and committed young singers who have the potential for international stature, and to present them in professional performances that are accessible to a wide community.
Gifted singers come from throughout the world to seek the exceptional guidance and training that The Academy of Vocal Arts offers. AVA is unique, not only because it is a fully tuition-free institution that focuses solely on operatic training, but also because it has established a niche as an organization that produces opera, thus integrating both professional and educational components. Admission into AVA's four-year program is determined by competitive annual auditions. The roster of resident artists is deliberately kept low: approximately twenty-five singers each year. Those who are accepted receive training equivalent to more than $60,000 per year. A faculty of individuals who are among the finest in their fields provides intensive training in voice, acting, stage combat, repertoire, languages, and other related subjects necessary for an operatic career.
Over the past six decades, outstanding singers of international stature have attended AVA, including David Adams, Lando Bartolini, Gwendolyn Bradley, Thomas Carson, Elizabeth Carter, Richard Clark, Dominic Cossa, John Darrenkamp, Joyce DiDonato, Harry Dworchak, Ryan Edwards, Wilhelmenia Fernandez, Jesus Garcia, Allan Glassman, Vernon Hartman, Nancy Herrera, Jeffrey Kneebone, James Morris, Stuart Neill, John Packard, James Pease, David Poleri, Julien Robbins, Valerian Ruminski, Jane Shaulis, Hugh Smith, Ruth Ann Swenson, Indra Thomas, Richard Troxell, Victoria Vergara, Stephen West, and Beverly Wolff.
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Website: http://www.avaopera.org
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