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TOLEDO, OH – Toledo
Opera will celebrate its 50th anniversary during the 2008-2009
season. The Opera was founded by a dedicated group of Toledoans
who felt that a city without an opera company was a city
devoid of color, life and excitement. These are ingredients
that opera can easily supply.
A story of aristocratic arrogance, fatherly love
and a terrifying curse comes to the stage on November 8,
14, and 16, 2008 with Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. Rigoletto's
anguished attempts to rise above his weakness to save his
daughter make for a heart-rending and riveting story. The
title role in Rigoletto is one of the most difficult
for any singer. Baritone Jason Stearns makes his
debut with Toledo Opera as the twisted, vengeful court
jester. Following his performances with Toledo Opera, he
will go on to reprise this role in his Metropolitan debut.
Soprano Rachel Watkins will perform the
role of Rigoletto’s vulnerable daughter Gilda. Tenor
Yoonson Shin makes his Toledo Opera debut as the womanizing
Duke of Mantua.
The production is sung in Italian with English translations
projected above the stage. A pre-performance artistic discussion – free
to ticket holders – is held one hour prior to each
performance at The Valentine Theatre.
“Rigoletto was Verdi’s first major
revolutionary work, dealing strongly as it does with the
violation of accepted moral code, the misuse of power and
the abuse of women,” comments Renay Conlin, artistic
director of Toledo Opera. Rigoletto is a normal man
with a superior wit, born into a society where the pleasures
of the upper class are tantamount and the poor simply live
and die.
Rigoletto becomes a victim of his own ambition, bent by his
hatred of his job and his employer. His clothes weigh him
down; they are the tattered remnants of what he might have
been were he not trapped in a class structure over which
he has no control. He tries desperately to micromanage his
personal life, to keep it, and thus his daughter, totally
cut off from the corrupt world in which he is so deeply entrenched.
This, of course, results in the opposite of what he had intended:
his teenage daughter rebels, culminating in her physical
destruction and his emotional demolition.
On February 14, the 2009 Opera Gala will
present a lavish banquet of operatic delights by Giuseppe
Verdi – musical genius and master
of the human heart. This concert at the Peristyle Theatre features a fantastic
fusion of orchestral and vocal sound when the Toledo Opera Chorus, University
of Toledo Concert Chorale, Toledo Symphony Orchestra and dynamic soloists perform
selections from Aida, Macbeth, Otello, Falstaff, Don
Carlos and more. What better way to spend Valentine's Day!
On March 14, 20 and 22, 2009, Salome takes
the Valentine Theatre stage, bringing one of Richard
Strauss’s
most riveting operas,filled with brooding beauty and evocative music. This
is a production that no one can afford to miss. The opera, with a libretto
translated into German by Hedwig Lachmann from the original French of Oscar
Wilde, has raised eyebrows since its world premiere in 1905. A combination
of nudity, sexuality, gore and biblical subject matter—though only loosely
related to the Bible—led censors to ban it from the stages of London
and Berlin for many years. American audiences were so scandalized by the Metropolitan
Opera’s first performance of Salome that the
company closed the production, which lead to its absence
from their stage for 27 years. Modern audiences, however,
have embraced the opera for what it truly is: exceptional
music and dynamic drama.
The story is one of deceit and desperation
revealing one young woman’s dark soul. By concentrating on the conflict
between the sensual figure of Salome and the ascetic John
the Baptist, Strauss further heightened the already considerable
dramatic force of the original play by Oscar Wilde. John
the Baptist’s unusual personality exerts a peculiar
attraction on the beautiful stepdaughter of Herod. Incensed
at being rebuffed by the prophet, Salome demands his head.
Soprano Amy Johnson, will sing the demanding role of Salome,
and tenor Adam Klein will return to Toledo, following his
recent triumph in Toledo Opera’s production of Carmen, to
sing the role of Herod. This production is sung in German
with simultaneous English translations projected above the
stage.
The season will close on
May 2, 2009 with a spectacular celebratory performance
at the Peristyle of Leonard Bernstein’s
immensely popular operetta, Candide, featuring
a dynamic roster of young American singers and a very special
guest artist in the acting role of Pangloss. Toledo Opera
invites its audience to enter a world of fantasy and imagination
as the tale of the optimist, Candide, comes to
life. Candide’s philosophy of optimism (instilled
by his teacher and mentor, Pangloss) is put to the test
as he faces trials, war, and an ongoing struggle to reunite
with his beloved Cunegonde. Candide is cherished
by lovers of both opera and musical theatre and is one
of the career highlights for composer Leonard Bernstein.
This production is sung in English. The performance will
be followed by a 50th Anniversary Party at The Toledo Club.
For information about ticket packages or single tickets,
call 419-255-7464 or visit www.toledoopera.org.
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