Seven opera fans will probably come up with seven different answers when asked to pick their favorite opera. Chances are they can catch a highlight from their choice in Kodak Hall this month.
For its spring production, Eastman Opera Theatre will present fully staged scenes from seven different works. The Opera Gala will tap the talents of more than 30 solo singers to present pieces from operas in three languages written between the 18th and early 20th centuries by classical, bel canto, and romantic composers.
“The Opera Gala offers a delicious menu of major scenes from the operatic repertoire,” said Johnathon Pape, member of the opera faculty at the Eastman School of Music and one of the production’s two stage directors. “Students get the opportunity to perform and patrons get the chance to enjoy selections from works that we may not be able to produce in full because of production or casting demands.”
Voice and Opera Chair and stage director Steven Daigle said, “Rochester audiences don’t get to hear and see many Strauss and Massenet operas, but the gala will feature three extensive scenes from three popular operas by these two beloved composers. These scenes are dramatically and vocally exciting and challenging for students. They also offer the audience a chance to experience the best of the opera tradition.”
Opera fans will have only two opportunities to see the Opera Gala: at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 26, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 28. Tickets are $15 to $44 (discounts with UR ID) and are on sale at the Rochester Philharmonic Box Office, 108 East Ave.; by phone (585) 454-2100; or online at https://www.esm.rochester.edu/concerts/tickets.php .
The works represented in the Opera Gala are Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Der Rosenkavalier; Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte; Donizetti’s L’elisir d’Amore; Massenet’s Manon; and Lakmé by Delibes. They will be sung in the original German, Italian, or French and supertitled in English.
Each of the selected scenes, which range from a five-minute duet to a full 25-minute act, is pivotal to the plot and memorable in its music. The Lakmé duet between a Brahmin priestess and her servant in a peaceful riverside setting is a contrasting prelude to the arrival of British officers and the resulting story of doomed love. The music of “The Flower Duet” also will be familiar to audiences from its use in commercials, films, and television shows. In the second act of Manon, the young lead character makes a choice that she will later regret when she opts for a life of luxury over true love. The scene ranges from romantic and sentimental to melodramatic and is vocally and dramatically demanding of the performers.
The other scenes include the sextet in Don Giovanni in which the characters plot the downfall of the philandering nobleman, and an emotional trio in Der Rosenkavalier in which the Princess Marschalin releases her younger lover to follow his heart. Lighter operatic moments will also be staged. The beginning of the opera — “the opera within the opera” — of Ariadne auf Naxos shows the amusing complications that result when high tragedy meets low comedy. A playful duet from L’eslisir d’Amore pits a love-struck peasant, emboldened by liquor that he believes to be a magical love potion, against the seemingly indifferent object of his affections. In the Act I finale of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, comedy abounds when, to win a wager over the constancy of women, two disguised young men employ extreme — and sometimes ridiculous — measures to woo the fiancée of the other.
The production will open with the overture to the opera Le roi d’Ys by Edoard Lalo, a work that is not well-known though it has been performed as a concert piece. Benton Hess is the conductor.
Daigle and Pape have taken advantage of the exterior and interior sets that were used for last spring’s Eastman Opera Theatre production of Le Nozze di Figaro for the Opera Gala. Each scene will be self-contained, with props, furnishings, and costumes appropriate to each different setting. The pieces will be introduced by a “host” who will provide background information on the scene’s context.
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Calendar Listings:
Friday, March 26
Eastman Opera Theatre:Opera Gala. Lalo’s Overture to Le Roi d’Ys; selections from R. Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Der Rosenkavalier, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Delibes’s Lakmé, and Massenet’s Manon. Benton Hess, conductor; Johnathon Pape, Steven Daigle, stage directors.
7:30 p.m.
Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs St.
Tickets: $15 to $44 (discounts with UR ID) and are on sale at the Rochester Philharmonic Box Office, 108 East Ave.; by phone (585) 454-2100; or online at https://www.esm.rochester.edu/concerts/tickets.php .
Sunday, March 28
Eastman Opera Theatre:Opera Gala. Lalo’s Overture to Le Roi d’Ys; selections from R. Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Der Rosenkavalier, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Delibes’s Lakmé, and Massenet’s Manon. Benton Hess, conductor; Johnathon Pape, Steven Daigle, stage directors.
2 p.m.
Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs St.
Tickets: $15 to $44 (discounts with UR ID) and are on sale at the Rochester Philharmonic Box Office, 108 East Ave.; by phone (585) 454-2100; or online at https://www.esm.rochester.edu/concerts/tickets.php .