Behind the Series
Below you'll find details about the 2011–12 season's opera performances: guest artist bios and links and program tidbits.
Double Bill of Davies and Handel
About the Curtis Opera Theatre
double bill davies/handel
Vinay Parameswaran, conductor (Davies)
Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor (Handel)
Chas Rader-Shieber, stage director
DAVIES Miss Donnithorne's Maggot
HANDEL Apollo e Dafne
Thursday, October 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, October 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, October 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Curtis Opera Studio
Fully staged production sung in English and Italian with the Curtis Chamber Ensemble.
3-opera subscription: $75
Single tickets ($35) go on sale August 15.
Madness and deep emotion mingle in a double-bill of impassioned chamber operas. The Curtis Opera Theatre performs Peter Maxwell Davies's Miss Donnithorne's Maggot and Handel's Apollo e Dafne with the Curtis Chamber Ensemble. A uniquely expressive evening juxtaposes Handel's Baroque eloquence with Davies's adventurous vocal acrobatics.
:: Watch an excerpt of Davies' opera
Guest Artist bios
Vinay Parameswaran, conductor (Davies)
San Francisco Bay Area native Vinay Parameswaran entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2009 and studies with Otto-Werner Mueller, distinguished conducting pedagogue. All students at Curtis receive merit-based full-tuition scholarships, and Mr. Parameswaran is the Albert M. Greenfield Fellow.
Prior to entering Curtis, he was a double major in music and political science at Brown University, where he graduated with honors in 2009. He began studying piano at age five and added percussion the next year. As the only student to win Brown University's Concerto Competition on two different instruments, he soloed twice with the Brown University Orchestra—on piano in 2009 and timpani in 2007. He also performed Darius Milhaud's Concerto for Marimba, Vibraphone, and Orchestra with the Fremont Symphony Orchestra in 2004. He was a percussionist for six years in the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, joining them on two European tours, and he attended the Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar (2003).
Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor (Handel)
Francesco Lecce-Chong from Longmont, Colo., entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2009 and studies with Otto-Werner Mueller, distinguished conducting pedagogue. All students at Curtis receive merit-based full-tuition scholarships, and Mr. Lecce-Chong is the Martin and Sarah Taylor Fellow.
Mr. Lecce-Chong began his conducting work at age sixteen, as assistant conductor of the Boulder Youth Symphony, a position he then held for three years. He made his principal opera conducting debut in 2009, leading several performances of Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Fledermaus for the Brooklyn Repertory Opera. He has also served as assistant conductor for the Gotham Chamber Opera, Mannes Opera, and Curtis Opera Theatre, and as guest conductor with the Mannes Orchestra. Over the past two summers, he has worked with the Sofia Festival Orchestra at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, conducting both symphonic and operatic performances.
Chas Rader-Shieber, stage director
Website | Review New York Times
Known both for his bold and inventive productions and for his acute musical instincts, Chas Rader-Shieber has established himself as one of the most innovative opera directors of his generation. Reviewing his staging of Janáček's Cunning Little Vixen, Toronto’s Classical 96.3 FM praised Mr. Rader-Shieber’s “daring and visionary approach to staging” and declared him “a force to be reckoned with in the opera world.”
faust
Benjamin Shwartz, conductor ('04)
John Giampietro, stage director
GOUNOD Faust
Thursday, November 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, November 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 20 at 2:30 p.m.
Prince Music Theater
Fully staged production with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, sung in French with English supertitles.
2-opera subscription: $50 (Faust and I Capuleti e i Montecchi)
3-opera subscription: $75
Single tickets ($35) go on sale August 15.
A classic contest between good and evil lies at the heart of Gounod's glorious opera. Faust sells his soul to the devil to the ruin of those he loves.
:: Listen to Gounod's Faust on InstantEncore.
Guest Artist bios
Benjamin Shwartz, conductor ('04)
After three successful seasons as the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony where he assisted Michael Tilson Thomas, and was the Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra Benjamin Shwartz has made Berlin his home-base. He has conducted the BBC Scottish, Iceland, Trondheim, Oregon Symphony Orchestras, among others. Next season engagements include debuts with the Tokyo Symphony and Duisburg Philharmonic, and will return to the New World Symphony in Miami as well as the Iceland and Trondheim Symphony Orchestras.
elegy for young lovers
George Manahan, conductor
Chas Rader-Shieber, stage director
HENZE Elegy for Young Lovers (Philadelphia premiere)
Presented in association with Opera Company of Philadelphia and Kimmel Center Presents
Aurora Series for Chamber Opera at the Perelman Theater
Wednesday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 16 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 18 at 2:30 p.m
Perelman Theater – Kimmel Center
Fully staged production with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, sung in English with supertitles.
Tickets: $21, $49, $66, $102, $132
Single ticket onsale date: September 6 (Kimmel Center box office and Ticket Philadelphia)
What happens when a ruthless poet looks to an unlikely cast of characters to provide his artistic inspiration? This gripping drama unfolds in an isolated mountain inn as a deadly snowstorm swirls outside.
Funded in part by:
National Endowment for the Arts
William Penn Foundation
:: Learn more about the production from the Opera Company of Philadelphia website.
Guest Artist Bios
George Manahan, conductor
Full bio | Instant Encore | Video
The wide-ranging and versatile George Manahan has had an esteemed career conducting opera and orchestra concerts, from the traditional to the contemporary. He is music director of New York City Opera and the American Composers Orchestra and has been hailed for his leadership at City Opera, where he “gets from his players the kind of heartfelt involvement unthinkable in the City Opera orchestra pit twenty years ago . . . these musicians operate with such consistent energy and involvement.” (New York Times)
Chas Rader-Shieber, stage director
Website | Review New York Times
Known both for his bold and inventive productions and for his acute musical instincts, Chas Rader-Shieber has established himself as one of the most innovative opera directors of his generation. Reviewing his staging of Janáček's Cunning Little Vixen, Toronto’s Classical 96.3 FM praised Mr. Rader-Shieber’s “daring and visionary approach to staging” and declared him “a force to be reckoned with in the opera world.”
I capuleti e i montecchi
David Hayes, conductor ('89)
Emma Griffin, stage director
BELLINI I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Thursday, May 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 6 at 2:30 p.m.
Prince Music Theater
Fully staged production with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, sung in Italian with English supertitles.
2-opera subscription: $50 (Faust and I Capuleti e i Montecchi)
3-opera subscription: $75
Single tickets ($35) go on sale August 15.
The timeless tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is retold in Bellini's soaring bel canto style. The young lovers struggle to unite despite the bitter feud that divides their families.
:: Listen to segments of the opera and read the synopsis in a 10-minute YouTube video.
Guest Artist bios
David Hayes, conductor ('89)
David Hayes is a conductor with an unusually broad range of repertory, spanning the symphonic, oratorio/choral, and operatic genres. Mr. Hayes is currently the Music Director of The Philadelphia Singers. He recently concluded a decade-long tenure on the conducting staff of The Philadelphia Orchestra (with whom he made his subscription debut in 1993 at the request of Wolfgang Sawallisch). In addition, Mr. Hayes is the Music Director of the Mannes Orchestra and Professor of Professional Practice at Mannes College The New School for Music in New York City and Staff Conductor of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.
Emma Griffin, stage director
Emma Griffin is a theater and opera director based in New York City. She is a frequent collaborator on new music/theater pieces; these include Corey Dargel’s Removable Parts (winner of “Outstanding Performance Art Production” at NY Innovative Theater Awards) and Thirteen Near Death Experiences, Susan Bernfield and Rachel Peters’ Stretch, a fantasia, Michael Jackson’s Dirty Laundry, Chris Wells’ Hello New York!, and Phil Kline’s Zippo Songs. Opera credits include The Cunning Little Vixen and Wozzeck, both Kimmel Center Presents/Opera Company of Philadelphia/Curtis Opera Theater productions and The Rake’s Progress, Postcard from Morocco, and Die Zauberflote at Curtis Opera Theater. She is the Artistic Director of the OBIE-award winning Salt Theater. She is currently developing the musical Blossom City with writer Rory Stitt, a stage adaptation of the Bollywood movie Lagaan (to be performed with a cast of second graders), and The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, a new opera by composer Corey Dargel for the NEWSPEAK ensemble. She is Adjunct Faculty at New York University, where she teaches directing.
Curtis Opera Theatre
The Curtis Opera Theatre is the performing entity of the Curtis Vocal Studies Department, under Artistic Director Mikael Eliasen, the Hirsig Family Head-of-Department Chair in Vocal Studies. Each season the Curtis Opera Theatre presents at least four fully staged performances and concert productions in the Prince Music Theater, Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center, and the Curtis Opera Studio.
All of the department's twenty-five voice and opera students are cast repeatedly each season, providing students a rare level of performance experience. As a result Curtis graduates can be found on the rosters of opera companies worldwide, and more than sixty alumni have sung with the Metropolitan Opera.
The Rake’s...
The Rake’s...
La sonnamb...
The Barber...
The Barber...
