Month: November 2018

Curtis Opera Theatre Presents Sweeney Todd November 14–18

Date

PHILADELPHIA—November 12, 2018—The 2018–19 Curtis Opera Theatre season continues with Sweeney Todd on Wednesday, November 14 and Friday, November 16 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, November 18 at 2:30 p.m. at the Philadelphia Film Center (formerly the Prince Theater). Emma Griffin directs and Geoffrey McDonald conducts members of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.

Based on the character from Victorian Britain’s popular “penny dreadfuls,” Sweeney Todd arrived on Broadway in 1979 with volcanic force, and has lost none of its power to stun audiences. Stephen Sondheim’s wildly popular melodrama, may be called a musical, but it’s universally admired for its operatic scope. Exiled on false charges, Sweeney returns from fifteen years of forced labor obsessed with revenge on the corrupt judge who convicted him. As the “Demon Barber of Fleet Street” descends inexorably into madness, a stage crowded with fascinating, complicated characters is eventually covered with bodies.

Conductor Geoffrey McDonald leads members of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in the fully-staged production, which is sung in English. Emma Griffin, managing artistic director of the Mannes Opera at the New School in New York, returns as stage director. Having worked with the Curtis Opera Theatre on last season’s Mahagonny/Medium production, which also combined the American opera tradition with elements of musical theater, Griffin strives to bring Curtis’s “learn by doing” philosophy to Sondheim’s exhilarating and witty music: “It’s an amazing piece of American art. I am deeply interested in taking these students who have this unbelievable, rigorous classical education in the voice and bringing them to the American canon. I think it’s essential, and it’s thrilling.” 

Scenic design is provided by Meredith Ries, with costume design by Kathleen Doyle and lighting design by Oona Curley. Elizabeth Braden serves as chorus master for the sizable group of London onlookers who function as a Greek chorus, participating in and commenting on the action on stage.

Single tickets for $20–75 are available through the Prince Theater Box Office at (215) 422-4580 or PrinceTheater.org. The Curtis Opera Theatre season is sponsored by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Wyncote Foundation. 

Under the artistic direction of Mikael Eliasen, the Curtis Opera Theatre has become known for imaginative productions, bold concepts, and absorbing theatre. Promising young singers work alongside established professional directors and designers, resulting in fresh interpretations of standard repertoire and contemporary works. All of Curtis’s 25 voice and opera students are cast repeatedly each season, receiving a rare level of performance experience on stage and appearing frequently with Opera Philadelphia, Curtis on Tour, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. As a result, Curtis graduates have sung with opera companies all over the world, including La Scala, Covent Garden, the Vienna Staatsoper, Houston Grand Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera.

 

 

CURTIS OPERA THEATRE: Sweeney Todd

Wednesday, November 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, November 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 18 at 2:30 p.m.

Prince Theater, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

 

STEPHEN SONDHEIM          Sweeney Todd

 

Geoffrey McDonald, conductor
Emma Griffin, stage director
Meredith Ries, scenic designer
Kathleen Doyle, costume designer
Oona Curley, lighting designer
Elizabeth Braden, chorus master             

 

Fully-staged production with members of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, sung in English

Single tickets: $20–75, sold by the Prince Theater Box Office, PrinceTheater.org, or (215) 422-4580.

 

CAST (in singing order)

Anthony Hope Aaron Crouch
Sweeney Todd Vartan Gabrielian
Beggar Woman Lindsey Reynolds
Mrs. Lovett Amanda Bottoms
Judge Turpin Adam Kiss
The Beadle Colin Aikins
Johanna Sage DeAgro-Ruopp
Tobias Ragg Martin Luther Clark
Pirelli Dennis Chmelensky
Jonas Fogg Charles Buttigieg
The Company

Merissa Beddows
Ziyi Dai
Emily Damasco
Sophia Hunt
Hannah Klein
Sophia Maekawa
Ashley Marie Robillard
Anastasiia Sidorova
Olivia Smith
Tiffany Townsend
Corey Bonar*
Colin Doyle*
Steven Humes*
John David Miles*
George Ross Somerville*
Tim Stopper*
Daniel Taylor*
Cory O’Niell Walker*
Patrick Wilhelm
Jackson Williams*

*guest artists

 

The Curtis Opera Theatre season is sponsored by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Wyncote Foundation.

 

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Curtis 20/21 Ensemble Opens 2018–19 Season with A Mad King on November 10

Date

PHILADELPHIA—November 7, 2018—The Curtis 20/21 Ensemble presents A Mad King, the first of three programs in the 2018–19 season, on Saturday, November 10 at 8 p.m. in Gould Rehearsal Hall. A preconcert discussion will begin at 7:30 p.m. The program and discussion will also be streamed live at Curtis.edu/YouTube.

This performance is built around Peter Maxwell Davies’s melodrama Eight Songs for a Mad King, long recognized as a major work of experimental theater. Composed in the late 1960s, it captures King George III’s descent into madness through inventive music and a wide array of non-traditional performance techniques. Baritone Jonathan Beyer (Opera ’07) appears in the lead role, accompanied by Curtis student and faculty performers on flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion.

The work is preceded by Joy Boy, a bright and minimal piece by Curtis alumnus Julius Eastman (Composition and Piano ’63), a gifted and idiosyncratic composer, pianist, and one of the first vocalists to take on the Eight Songs in performance.

At 7:30 p.m. David Ludwig, artistic director of the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble and Gie and Lisa Liem Artistic Advisor to the President, leads a conversation about the composers on the program, exploring their lives and their works.

Tickets for $20 are available from Curtis Patron Services at (215) 893-7902 or Curtis.edu/Performances. The concert and preconcert conversation will also be streamed live at 7:30 p.m. EST on YouTube (Curtis.edu/YouTube) and Facebook Live (Facebook.com/CurtisInstitute).

Jonathan Beyer has quickly established himself as a versatile performer in opera and concert. A grand prize winner at the 2011 George London Foundation competition, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2012 as Wagner in Gounod’s Faust. His roles include Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis); Marcello in La bohème (Dallas Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Boston Lyric Opera); Guglielmo in Così fan tutte (Florida Grand Opera); Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (Austin Lyric Opera, Fort Worth Opera); Le Comte de Vaudemont in Verdi’s Les Vespres Siciliennes (Frankfurt Opera); and Captain Gardiner in the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick (Dallas Opera); among many others.

Mr. Beyer has appeared in concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra; the Munich and Netherlands Radio philharmonics; and the American, Chicago, Colorado, Fort Worth, Lansing, and New Jersey symphony orchestras. An avid recitalist, he has performed in recital with Craig Rutenberg, Mikael Eliasen, Kristin Okerlund, Martin Katz, and Brian Zeger. 

Mr. Beyer is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

Flexible in size and scope, the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble performs a wide range of music from the 20th and 21st centuries, including works by Curtis students and alumni. The ensemble has appeared at major U.S. venues such as the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Miller Theatre, as well as international venues, including the Intimacy of Creativity festival in Hong Kong. The ensemble has presented concert portraits of iconic composers in residence Unsuk Chin, John Corigliano, George Crumb, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Chen Yi, among many others. Of the ensemble’s Joan Tower portrait program, the New York Times wrote, “Ms. Tower could hardly have hoped for more passionate performances.” The Curtis 20/21 Ensemble is led by artistic director David Ludwig.

 

 

CURTIS 20/21 ENSEMBLE: A Mad King

Saturday, November 10 at 8 p.m.
Gould Rehearsal Hall, Lenfest Hall, 1616 Locust Street, Philadelphia

Preconcert discussion at 7:30 p.m.

 

JULIUS EASTMAN (’63) Joy Boy
  Curtis 20/21 Ensemble
   
PETER MAXWELL DAVIES Eight Songs for a Mad King
  Jonathan Beyer (’07), baritone
  Susan Nowicki, piano
  Curtis 20/21 Ensemble

 

Tickets: $20, sold by Curtis Patron Services at (215) 893-7902 or Curtis.edu/Performances.

Streamed live on YouTube (Curtis.edu/YouTube) and Facebook Live (Facebook.com/CurtisInstitute) at 7:30 p.m. EST.

 

Generous support for the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble is provided by the Daniel W. Dietrich II Foundation.

 

 

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