Green Mountain Opera Festival: It's 'Marriage of Figaro'
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Conductor Jacques Lacombe Submitted photo |
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Published: January 9, 2009
WAITSFIELD – The Green Mountain Opera Festival has announced plans for its 2009 season. The three-and-a-half-week-long festival will culminate with two fully staged performances of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," at the Barre Opera House on June 19 and 21. The conductor will be Jacques Lacombe, who was recently principal guest conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and led two productions at the Metropolitan Opera.
Now in its fourth year, the festival brings talented artists to Vermont's scenic Mad River Valley to give concerts and master classes in the beautifully renovated historic Joslyn Round Barn and other venues. Artistic Director Taras Kulish says, "Mozart's 'Figaro' is one of my favorite operas, which will charm everyone. This piece is like a modern-day soap opera filled with love and betrayal, laughter and tears, and of course the transcendent music of Mozart. What else could one wish for in today's world but to be swept away by a fun plot and gorgeous music!"
This year, Kulish is especially excited to have engaged Lacombe as conductor. The Canadian served as principal guest conductor of the OSM 2002 to 2006 and is a regular guest conductor with orchestras throughout Canada, the United States and Europe. In 2009, he returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 2004, he conducted Massenet's "Werther" at the Metropolitan Opera and was invited back in 2005 to conduct Strauss's Die "Fledermaus." Anthony Tommasini, music critic of The New York Times, praised Lacombe's conducting as "lithe, crisp and refreshingly unmannered."
Ellen Schlaefer will join the festival as stage director. She has directed productions for the Washington Opera and has collaborated with Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. Schlaefer has directed all over the United States in houses such as Houston Grand Opera, Connecticut Opera, Michigan Opera, Orlando Opera, Santa Fe Opera among others. She is general director and founder of Fly by Night Productions, a nonprofit organization that produces "Opera for Kids," with performances in elementary schools to introduce children to opera. Schlaefer serves as director of opera studies at the University of South Carolina.
American soprano Jennifer Aylmer will sing the role of Susanna. Aylmer made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera during the 2005-2006 season, singing Bella in Tobias Picker's "An American Tragedy," and returned the next year to sing Papagena in Mozart's "Magic Flute." In 2006, she sang Gretel in Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" at New York City Opera. Aylmer has recently sung with Portland Opera, Atlanta Opera, Utah Opera, Minnesota Opera and several other theaters and orchestras.
Minnesota baritone Andrew Wilkowske will sing the title role of Figaro, which he has previously sung for the Minnesota Opera. This season's engagements have included the role of the Scientist in the North American premiere of Howard Shore's "The Fly" at Los Angeles Opera, directed by David Cronenberg and conducted by Placido Domingo.
Mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala will perform the role of Cherubino. She was recently praised by The New York Times as "a vivid, fearless presence," and by the Los Angeles Times as "extraordinary." She will sing the title role in Rossini's La Cenerentola with the Atlanta Opera and Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" at Opera Carolina. Zabala performs extensively internationally and throughout the United States.
Chicago soprano Kate Mangiameli will sing Countess Almaviva, a role she has previously sung with Shreveport Opera. The Charlottesville Daily Progress called her voice "full and luxurious" with "beautiful sforzandos and pianissimos that were breath-taking."
Canadian baritone Phillip Addis will sing the role of Count Almaviva. He will debut in this same role with the Florida Grand Opera just before he arrives in Vermont. During the last few seasons, he has sung with many opera companies in the United States, Europe and Canada, most notably singing the role of Zurga in Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers" at the Opéra de Montréal in 2008.
For the third year, the festival is continuing its Emerging Artist Program under the direction of pianist and coach Bruce Stasyna. This year the program welcomes five new singers who will spend the festival in intense training and performing. Free and open to the public master classes will continue at the Joslyn Round Barn. The program features masters such as American bass-baritone Sanford Sylvan, Lacombe and others. For the first time, the festival will present an abridged version of Donizetti's opera "The Elixir of Love" performed by the Emerging Artists at the Round Barn on June 11.
On March 7, the festival will present a concert of opera's greatest moments at the Barre Opera House, as part of the Celebration Series and sponsored by Friends of Classical Music. Kulish, a bass-baritone, will sing along with festival favorite soprano Mariateresa Magisano, mezzo-soprano Mireille Lebel and tenor Antoine Bellanger, accompanied by pianist Claude Webster. On March 22, the festival will hold its annual fund-raising dinner and concert at the Joslyn Round Barn.
The Opera Festival is sponsored by the Green Mountain Cultural Center.
For more information on festival activities, call the GMCC at (802) 496-7722, or go to www.greenmountainoperafestival.com.
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