April 2000

Brooklyn Academy of Music 2000 Spring Season BAMcinematek Brooklyn Philharmonic 651 ARTS

Saint Clair Cemin, L'lntuition de L'lnstant, 1995

BAM 2000 Spring Season is sponsored by

PHILIP MORRIS ~lA6(8Ill CO M PA NI ES IN C. Contents • Apri I 2000 Royal Family 8 The Royal Shakespeare Company presents T. S. Eliot's The Family Reunion, the first of three productions that the renowned company is bringing to BAM. By Mark Fisher

Martyr Music 14 Next month, Les Arts Florissants, under the direction of William Christie, will perform a semi-staged version of Handel's oratorio Theodora. By Patrick Giles

Program 17

Upcoming Events 40

BAMdirectory 50

Photo by Michel Szabo I3A 1\/1 Co\/pr Arti,t

Saint Clair Cemin Saint Clair Cemin was born in Cruz Alta, Brazil , in 1951. He studied at the Ecole Nationale L'lntuition de L'lnstant Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, France. He lives in New York City. 1995 Painted wood Cemin's sculpture has been exhibited worldwide, including at the Hirshhorn Museum and 97' x 91 ' x 36' Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Museo de Arte Contemporary, Monterey, Mexico; California Center for the Arts Museum, Escondido, CA; Centro Cultural For BAMart information Light, Rio de Janiero, Brazil; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; The Arts Club contact Deborah Bowie at of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Stiidische Kunstha lle, Dusseldorf, Germany; The Fredrik Roos Museum , Malmo, Sweden; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Whitney Museum 718.636.4111 ext. 380 of American Art Biennial, New York, NY; Centro Atlantico de Arte Modemo, Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island; Documenta IX, Kassel, Germany; 22nd Biennial Intemational, Funda9lo de sao Paolo; Galleria Communale d'Arte Modema, Bologna, Italy; Fogg Art Museum , Cambridge, MA; and the Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland. His work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris; Rooscum , Stockholm ; the Broad Foundation, Los Angeles. He has executed many private and public commissions including the Reston Town Center, Reston, VA, and the Fountain House, New York City. In 1995 he received the Biennial Award from the Ueno Royal Museum and the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan . A major monograph will be published on his work, and a book of his writings will be published in 2000. In addition, the first volume of his catalogue raisonne is now being prepared. 4 The Royal Shakespeare Company T. S. Eliot's position as one of the great poets of the 20th century is unassailed. The Missouri­ comes to BAM with Adrian Noble's born, Harvard-educated, British-domiciled writer production of T. S. Eliot's The is still considered one of the greats more than 50 years after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for lit­ Family Reunion. By Mark Fisher erature and 35 years after his death. To find a fan of T. S. Eliot the dramatist, however, is a chal­ lenge. True , The Cocktail Party, an unorthodox drama which mixed poetry, Existentialism, and drawing-room banter, played more than 200 per­ formances on Broadway after its London debut in 1949. True, The Elder Statesman was the most pre-booked play of the Edinburgh International Festival of 1958. True , there was a postwar cau­ cus that believed Eliot was at the vanguard of a latter-day resurgence in poetic drama and that a new Shakespeare was in their midst.

But it's remarkable how many commentators , even at the time, resisted the argument that verse drama was where theater's future lay. The New York critic John Mason Brown accused The Cock­ tail Party, for example, of being "obscure," and of ending in "a pea-soup fog of mysticism"; in Lon­ don, J.e. Trewin said it was "unmemorable" and "mildly tedious"; and the celebrated Observer critic Kenneth Tynan put the play into prose to TS. Eliot show how it read like a Victorian melodrama. And 8 director Deborah Warner and Irish actor Fiona Shaw discovered in their production of The Waste Land-one of the hottest tickets in town when it played in a deserted warehouse in Toronto in 1996, and later on 42nd Street in New York City.

Unsurprisingly, this isn't how Royal Shakespeare Company director Adrian Noble sees it at all. For him, the supposedly uncomfortable blend of clas­ sical tragedy and drawing-room drama was never an issue. "I understand what people mean by that, but it was not my impression when I read [Family Reunion], and when I rehearsed it, I found that those tensions could be resolved in a very creative way," says the 50-year-old director, who first tack­ led Eliot in a revival of Murder in the Cathedral in 1993. "The problem when it was first produced was not with the play, but with the context in which it was performed-the bourgeois West End theater of the day. I don't think they knew what hit them. It was years and years ahead of its time."

Using a hard-to-spot blank verse, only apparent in moments of high passion, Eliot said he aimed to A scene from the RSC's production of The Family Reunion write about "men and women as we know them, that was a relative hit compared to the first pro­ in the usual clothes that they wear today, in the duction of The Family Reunion. When that play same perplexities, conflicts, and misunderstand­ was revived by Peter Brook in 1956 in a London ings that we and our acquaintances get involved production starring Paul Scofield, Tynan said that in, and uttering no lines that are not relevant to the although Eliot "can always lower the dramatic situation, the mood, and the dramatic action." The temperature, he can never raise it; and this is why Family Reunion was an ambitious attempt to the theater must ultimately reject him." marry the grandeur of Greek tragedy to the acces­ sibility of popular 20th-century drama. Eliot had-and still has-his supporters of course, but it sometimes seems that his most lasting con­ On one level, it works as a murder mystery in the tribution to the theater will not be for his plays, but manner of an Agatha Christie: an aristocratic fam­ his influence over others. His tempestuous private ily, a stately home, a whiff of adultery, and the life was the inspiration behind Michael Hastings' suspicion of death by foul play. On another level, Tom and Viv, the biographical drama which trans­ it's nothing less than a retelling of the Orestes story ferred to the big screen in 1994 with Willem as told by Aeschylus, the father of Greek tragic Dafoe as Eliot and Miranda Richardson as his drama, 2,400 years earlier. Look at it either as the unhappy wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood. Eclipsing that story of a modern man who returns home con­ in popularity (along with everything else he ever vinced that he's responsible for the death at sea of wrote) is Eliot's posthumous collaboration with his wife, or as a drama of existential profundity. It Andrew Lloyd Webber on Cats, the intemational has the stock characters of 1930s British drama hit musical. How ironic that his most frivolous (the maid, the chauffeur, and the slow-witted work-Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, dat­ policeman), and it has a chorus of Furies crawling ing from 1939, the same year as The Family out from the netherworld . It's an old-school pot­ Reunion-should have tumed out to be his boiler that just happens to be about sin, biggest money-spinner. Yet, even his most redemption, and the burden of responsibility. Like demanding poetry can seem a more appealing Shakespeare, Eliot was aiming to appeal to high- theatrical prospect than his plays, as the British brow and groundling alike. ~

10 "He was consciously using the drawing-room uncluttered production is the best account of it I tradition, but the play prefigures Beckett and have seen." On the other hand , there is the lin­ the absurdist playwrights by staging the inner gering suspicion that, as the American critic life of the characters," says Noble who, having Harold Clurman once wrote, "T.S . Eliot's dramatic been artistic director of the world's most ventures are experiments in the translation for the acclaimed Shakespearean company since popular playhouse of what he had already said 1991, is interested both in plays that influ­ far more valuably in his poetry." enced Shakespeare and plays that Shakespeare influenced. "In that sense, he is going right Noble agrees that the poetic drama movement back to the Elizabethan tradition." spearheaded by Eliot does seem to have been a theatrical dead end, but, in general terms, he Noble adds: "We found some interesting things in believes the poet's writing should be a treasured rehearsal. I set off directing it as a drawing-room part of a still-thriving tradition. "It's part of a tradi­ comedy, with furniture and sofas, and it really tion of writers using heightened, formal writing wasn't fitting, it didn't feel comfortable. Slowly, I and that is not dead at all," Noble says. "You'll started stripping stuff away. It was very similar to a see that in Harold Pinter and all the Irish writers. Shakespeare play in that if you have too realistic They're not slice-of-life writers, and he's in that scenery, you find that the verse is irrelevant. You medium . He used distilled writing because that don't need language if you have all the pictures up was his natural medium. There were things he there. As I stripped it back to five bentwood chairs, found difficult as a playwright, and it sometimes suddenly the text started to live. The actors found appears to be half-drama and half-oratorio, but a freedom of expression which they didn't have the pluses outweigh the minuses so massively before, and we found we had a very contemporary that I'm very happy to go along with it. It works piece on our hands. It was referring to the draw­ fantastically well as theater. It's very funny with a ing-room tradition , but was very much a play of a strong satirical edge, and a wonderful inner later generation." poetic landscape."

The jury is still out. On the one hand, there is the Mark Fisher is chief theater critic of the Glasgow opinion voiced by the respected British critic Herald. Nicholas de Jong that The Family Reunion "com­ municates an eerier, more palpable sense of BAM presents the Royal Shakespeare Company foreboding than any English play since Mac­ in a three-week residency from May 10-27, beth," a sentiment echoed in The Sunday Times including The Family Reunion by T.S. Eliot, Don by John Peter, who said, "this remains T. S. Eliot's Carlos by Friedrich Schiller, and A Midsummer greatest play, and Adrian Noble's tense, gaunt, Nights Dream by William Shakespeare.

Director Adrian Noble ~~ 1\/1

Brooklyn Academy of Music Bruce C. Ratner Chairman of the Board

Karen Brooks Hopkins Joseph V. Melillo President Executive Producer

presents Fol koperan Stockholm, Sweden Carmen Running time: BAM Harvey Lichtenstein Theater approximately 2 April 11, 13, & 15, 2000, at 7:30pm hours, 50 minutes, April 16, 2000, at 3pm including one intermission Music Georges Bizet Libretto Henri Meilhac & Ludovic Hah~vy Based on the short story by Prosper Merimee Swedish translation Caj Lundgren Musical director & conductor Kerstin Nerbe Director Staffan Valdemar Holm Set & costume design Bente Lykke Millier Lighting design Kevin Wyn-Jones Makeup & wigs Gunilla Pettersson English surtitles Christopher Bergen

The Cast Carmen Ulrika Precht (4/11), Anette Bod (4/13 & 15), Katarina Nilsson (4/16) Don Jose Stephen Smith (4/11 & 15), Ulrik Qvale (4/13 & 16) Micaela Charlotta Larsson Escamillo Fredrik Zetterstrom (4/11 & 15), John Erik Eleby (4/13 & 16) Mercedes Ellen Andreassen Frasquita Carin Zander Remendado Erling Larsen Dancaire/Morales Marcus Jupither Zuniga Mikael Axelsson lilias Pastia Staffan Jennehov

All other characters played by members of the company

Presenting sponsor for Carmen is Ericsson. Major sponsor is Forest City Ratner Companies. Leadership support is provided by The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; The Andrew W Mellon Foundation; The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc. ; and The Norman and Rosita Winston Foundation, Inc. Additional support provided by The Pro Suecia Foundation and the Consulate General of Sweden. 17 Choir Soprano Malin Gjorup Yvonne Ostlund Jessica Forsell Julia Nilsson

Mezzo-soprano Tove Hu ltman Boye Malin Langhals Anneli Westman Stina Akerstrom

Tenor Jan Lekemark Rolf Lindqvist Bjorn Uhrlin Petter Petersson

Baritone Fredrik Malmgard Ulf-Christer Jansson Ola Heden Johan Hackman

Orchestra Concertmasters Annette Mannheimer Dag Alin

Violin I Ake Johansson Els-Marie Landin Pia Faust Kerstin Nedler

Violin II Anna Sjonnemo Marit Bergman Sandklef Patrik Horman Leif Larsson

Viola Annika Hultgren Asa Stove Paulsson Anna Weibust Eva Sjogren van Berkel

Cello Sara Wijk Christian Sahlin Monica Jonsson Malin Sandell

Contrabass Olle Hagson Anders Gerhardsson

Flute Elisabeth Ekholm Peter Rydstrom

18 Oboe Christina Larsson Charlotta Nassen

Clarinet Jan-Erik Aim Lena Jonha ll

Bassoon Martin Krafft Peter Gullqvist

Horn Ellen Korsmo Henrik Nilsson

Trumpet Christer Fredriksson Jonas Lindeborg

Trombone Jonas Larsson Fredrik Andersson

Harp Ingegerd Fred lund

Timpani Bjorn Persson

Percussion Birger Thorelli

Orchestral Arrangement Jonas Dominique Chorusmaster and Repetiteur Bo Wannefors Assistant Director Peter Engelfeldt Deputy Stage Manager Benny Widjestam Stage Manager Henrik Erksell Stage Crew Peter Ambr6z Frederic Johansson Stage Properties Barbro Astrom Moback Lighting Director Kevin Wyn-Jones Costume Manager Malin Thornberg Makeup Crew Theresia SchUtz Jenny Martinpelto Podium Manager Sylvain Dallaire Technical Director Ingemar Melander Marketing Manager Eric Sjostrom Graphic Design Axel von Matern Photographer Mikael Silkeberg, Robert Blomback Planning Manager and Tour Coordinator Elisabeth Karlsson Production Manager and Tour Coordinator Kristina Lilliehook Production Manager/Ericsson Annelie Hellstrom

Folkoperan Theatre Management Managing Director Magnus Aspegren General Artistic Director Claes Fellbom Music Director Kerstin Nerbe

19 Program I\lotp,

Synopsis

The drama opens in a run-down garrison town scarred by recent war where a young corporal , Jose, meets Carmen. He is under orders to arrest her for stabbing another woman at the cigarette factory where she works. But Carmen convinces Jose to free her and entices him to follow her into the mountains. Jose leaves everything to join her, but Carmen soon starts to show more interest in the bullfighter Escamillo than for the more sensitive Jose, who edges toward the brink of madness.

ACT I: Outside the cigarette factory, the soldiers pass their time ogling the women who work there. Micaela comes to the town looking for her girlhood sweetheart, Jose.

ACT II : The scene is lilias Pastia's tavern on the edge of town, where Carmen's friends and the soldiers consort. Carmen is courted by three men: Escamillo, the bullfighter; Zuniga , the lieu­ tenant; and Jose.

ACT II I: The band of gypsies that Jose has joined sets up camp in the mountains. Micaela seeks out Jose to tell him that his mother is dying. Escamillo searches for the gang of smugglers in the hope of seeing Carmen once again; instead he meets Jose.

ACT IV: A fiesta and a bullfight take place. Escamillo is escorted by Carmen. Jose begs her to come with him, but Carmen refuses.

About Folkoperan

Folkoperan is unique for its unconventional productions. The audience's close proximity to the stage and the intimacy of the auditorium are among its notable features, but its distinctive charac­ ter goes further than that. Over the years the titles of Folkoperan's productions have become household words in Sweden, and the company's work has entertained and fascinated the interna­ tional opera world. Audience appreciation has been a decisive factor in this development; indeed, it has been a prerequisite for its very existence. The proceeds from ticket sa les represent more than 50 percent of its gross revenue, whi le most other opera houses finance approximately 90 percent of the ir activities by means of grants.

Over the years its companies have performed at such venues as the Edinburgh Festival, the Keiler Festwoche, Jerusalem in Israel, and in 1996 at BAM with Verdi's Don Carlos. In 1998 Folkoperan toured to Brighton , Lisbon, and Copenhagen with the newly written Swedish opera by Daniel B6rtz, Marie Antoinette, and other invitations are currently being considered . Many well-known singers have begun their careers at Folkoperan, and those who have stayed on have been able to mature artistically, appreciating the challenges and opportunities available to them. Today Folkoperan is Sweden's most important venue for freelance opera singers and musicians.

Folkoperan produces opera performances, concerts, conferences, seminars, and workshops at the opera house and at other locations. Between 150 and 250 performances are given each year on the main stage in Stockholm; as a rule, this encompasses five or six performances a week from the middle of September to the beginning of May. These productions are seen annually by as many as 120,000 pe0- ple. Every second year, the company performs specially producec operas that are seen by some 40,000 children in all. In spite of the small auditorium, it is one of Scandinavia's major opera houses in audi­ ence numbers. Since its founding in 1976, Folkoperan has had more than a million visitors, many of whom are now faithful fans. For more information visit the company's website: www.folkoperan.se.

20 (continued on page 45) continued from page 14

'No,' says he, 'I think the Chorus at the end of the and starri ng Dawn Upshaw, Lorra ine Hunt Lieber­ 2nd part in Theodora far beyond it.'" son, and David Daniels, was recently shown on the cable TV channel Ovation.) "He had a fickle Despite the admiration of its creator and a few public, often incredibly factioned or politicized," admirers, this oratorio-which in insight and effect Christie continues. "Success is such a hard thing approaches the Passions of Handel's great con­ to predict, no rnatter the quality of the pieces temporary, Bach , more than any other piece of involved." It is only today-through recordings, as his---came and went hardly noticed. After three live performances remain few-that the gravity sparsely attended performances, Theodora was and grace of this troubling music drarna can be unheard until 1755, when Handel presented a readily appreciated. severely truncated revival. It played only once. Another possible revival, in 1759, was thwarted Theodora's story is troubling for good and bad rea­ by the composer's death. sons. First the bad: Handel's music becornes even more miraculous when rneasured against Morrell's "Handel's life is punctuated by these masterpieces libretto. "Shabby poetry" is just one of the exasper­ that somehow didn't appeal to either the bour­ ated corn plaints generations of listeners have geoisie or the aristocracy," explains William made of it. It is true that the language tends to the Christie, Les Arts Florissants' founder, whose arch and heavy-handed. But in Morrell's defense, recent revival of Theodora at England's Glynde­ the drama is well structured, and the characteriza­ bourne Opera Festival was widely acclaimed. (A tions wide-ranging. There's the pragmatic and video of this production, staged by Peter Sellars unruffled Valens, the Antiochan president who orders Theodora's consignment to a Temple of William Christie Photo by Michel Szabo Venus as punishment for her Christian fervor (which Theodora judges literally to be a fate worse than death), as well as the two Rornan officers who must carry out the decree (one of whorn is secretly Christian, and in love with the heroine). The band of Christians, led by Theodora and her confidant, Irene, are convincing not only as embodiments of religious integrity, but men and wornen trapped in a terrible test of faith: should they sacrifice thernselves for the sake of their beliefs, or forego their faith to stay alive?

This leads to the good reason: Handel's setting of Morrell's words surpasses them in meaning and beauty so consistently and poignantly that a great performance of Theodora is not so rnuch a plea­ surable musical evening as a stunningly rnoving one. It reaches the hearts of its listeners, not through immediate gratification, but, rather, with a measured yet devastating cumulative effect (which perhaps accounts for its poor initial reception from an audience eager for easy diversion and sensa­ tion, even when garbed in holy trappings). Theodora is not simply a dramatization of the events of the last hours of an archaic martyr, but an argument on the nature of spirituality, the con­ flicting responsibilities of belief, and the trials of the soul in a world often in conflict with it. The serenity with which Theodora and Didymus meet

22 continued on page 62 \ALho', \ALho

Kerstin Nerbe (conductor), as musical director at (Strindberg) at both the Teatro Nacional in Folkoperan, has led the orchestra in a number of its Santiago de Chile and the Teatro La Abadia in productions, including Aida and Don Car/os (both Madrid. After Carmen (Bizet) at Stockholm's by Verdi), Turandot (Puccini), Don Giovanni Folkoperan, which was his first major opera pro­ (Mozart), Otello (Verdi), and The Marriage of Figaro duction, he directed The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart). She has made guest appearances at a (Mozart) at Folkoperan and Carmina Burana number of international opera festivals, and has (Orff) at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. Most been active as a conductor of concerts and operas recently, Mr. Holm has directed Falstaff (Verdi) at in England, Germany, Poland, and the United the Volksoper in Vienna, and after this season he States, as well as in China, where she conducted at will be directing The Cunning Uttle Vixen the Shanghai Symphony's Beethoven Festival. Ms. (Janacek) at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, as Nerbe also has the distinction of being the first well as La traviata at Folkoperan and Otello (both female conductor ever to wield a baton in Australia. by Verdi) at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen.

Staffan Valdemar Holm (director) has worked in Bente Lykke M011er (sets and costumes), as one Copenhagen, staging Miss Julie (Strindberg) at of Scandinavia's most acclaimed set designers, the New Scandinavian Experimental Theatre and has created designs for The Ghost Sonata The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare) at the (Strindberg) at Betty Nansens Teatret, The Royal Theatre, where he was engaged full time Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare) at the Royal as a director. Between 1992 and 1998 he Theatre in Copenhagen, and both Lulu served as artistic director of Malmo's Dramatic (Wedekind) and Hamlet (Shakespeare) at Theatre, where he directed Hamlet (Shakespeare) Malmo's Dramatic Theatre. She has also designed and Jeppe of the Hill (Holberg), the latter in con­ sets for various film and television productions. nection with Copenhagen's year as Europe's cul­ Since 1989 she has been the set designer for all tural capital. He also staged Playing with Fire of Staffan Valdemar Holm's presentations. 45 \/\/ho'c;. \/\/ho

Kevin Wyn-Jones (lighting), during his years as a autumn of 1998. On the concert circuit she has chief lighting engineer in London, worked on a performed in Verdi's Requiem at the East-West number of productions, including Les Miserables at Festival in Switzerland with l'Orchestre the Palace Theatre. Since 1991, however, he has Symphonique de Bienne, with the Estonian worked in Sweden, lighting such comedies as National Symphony Orchestra, and in Handel's Anyone for Breakfast and Sylvia, and other types of Messiah in Garnisonskyrkan in Copenhagen. productions such as The Gospel According to St. Earlier this year she made a guest appearance in Mark and Alfons Aberg, a musical. His first assign­ Biel/Bienne, where she sang Mahler's Lieder ment at Folkoperan was The Marriage of Figaro in eines fahrenden Gesellen and Dalila in Samson 1998, which was directed by Staffan Valdemar et Dalila (Saint-Saens). Holm and designed by Bente Lykke M011er. Katarina Nilsson (Carmen), alto, in 1996 Gunilla Pettersson (makeup and wigs) has for debuted as the Third Lady in The Magic Flute several years designed masks and wigs at (Mozart) at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, Folkoperan, lending her skills to such produc­ where she has gone on to sing such roles as tions as Don Carlos and The Marriage of Figaro . Lisetta in /I mondo della luna (Haydn), Suzuki in Nowadays, she also works as a freelance at the­ Madame Butterfly (Puccini), Mercedes in aters such as Teater Galeasen , Riksteatern (the Carmen, and the Page in Salome (R. Strauss). Swedish National Touring Theatre), Orionteatern, She also sang the alto solo in the Roya l Opera's Nya Pistolteatern, and Norrlandsoperan, most production of Mahler's Third Symphony. This recently with Madame Butterfly. spring she will appear as Medoro in Orlando (Handel), and as both the Dog and the Ulrika Precht (Carmen), mezzo-soprano, has Woodpecker in The Cunning Little Vixen been engaged at the opera house in Basel, (Janacek) . Outside Sweden Ms . Nilsson has Switzerland , since 1997, where she sang sung the role of Mrs. Pike in Albert Herring Hansel in Hansel und Gretel (Humperdinck), (Britten) at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Charlotte in Die Soldaten (Zimmermann), Tisbe Stephen Sm ith (Don Jose), tenor, has performed in Cinderella (Rossini), and Octavian in Der extensively in the United States, as well as in Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss). At Folkoperan she opera houses in Bern, Gdansk, Belfast, Helsinki, has sung Dalila in Samson et Dalila (Saint­ and Oslo. From 1989 to 1998 he was engaged Saens) and Eboli in Don Carlos (Verdi). Among at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, the her other roles are Nancy in Martha (von Gothenburg Opera, the Drottningholm Court Flotow) at the Opera in Dublin, Herodias in Theatre, Norrlandsoperan, and Folkoperan . His Salome (R. Strauss) under the direction of many roles include Alfredo in La traviata and Myung-Whun Chung at Gothenburg's concert Riccardo in The Masked Ball (both by Verdi), house, and the Second Lady in The Magic Flute Romeo in Romeo et Juliette (Gounod), Tamino (Mozart) in Strasbourg. She has also sung in in The Magic Flute (Mozart), Pinkerton in Katya Kabanova (Janacek) at the Salzburger Madame Butterfly, Rodolphe in La boheme Festspiele. Her recorded performances include (both by Puccini) , Canio in Pagliacci Linda di Chamonix (Donizetti) , in which she (Leoncavallo), and the title roles in Tales of sings with Edita Gruberova, among others. Hoffmann (Offenbach) and Faust (Gounod). Mr. Smith has recorded for Musica Sveciae and Anette Bod (Carmen), mezzo-soprano, a native Caprice Records, and created the leading male of Denmark, sang the role of Carmen first in role as Mats in Swedish Television's production Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, and again last spring of Ture Rangstrom's opera Kronbruden. Since at the Gothenburg Opera. She also appeared as 1998 he has been active as leader of the opera the Mother in Ture Rangstrom's opera workshops at Middle Tennessee State University Kronbruden at the Malmo Music Theatre in the in Murfreesboro, where he holds a professorship.

46 \"Lho', \ALho

Ulrik Qvale (Don Jose), tenor, has been engaged The Magic Flute, Ilia in Idomeneo, Donna Anna by the Royal Opera in Stockholm since 1992, in Don Giovanni (all by Mozart); and the title where he has sung such roles as Prince Pietro in role in Suor Angelica (PUCCini) . This autumn Ms. Boccaccio (von Suppe), the title role (the "Dream Larsson will play Violetta in La traviata (Verdi) in Guzzler") in Dromfrossaren (Hiller), Monostatos a new production at Folkoperan. in The Magic Flute (Mozart), Fenton in The Merry Wives of Windsor (Nicolai), the Steersman Fredrik Zetterstrom (Escamillo), baritone, has in The Flying Dutchman (Wagner), Beppo in performed at Norrlandsoperan, the Vadstena Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), Cecco in II mondo della Academy, the Drottningholm Court Theatre, and luna (Haydn), Don Anchise in La finta giardiniera the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. Mr. Zetterstrom (Mozart), and, most recently, the Captain in has also played a number of roles at Folkoperan, Wozzeck (Berg). This spring he will perform the among them lago in Otello (Verdi), Leporello in roles of both the Schoolteacher and the Gnat in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Pantalone in The Love for The Cunning Little Vixen (Janacek) . In an earlier Three Oranges (Prokofiev), the Count in The engagement at Folkoperan, Mr. Qvale appeared Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Louis XIV in Marie as Cardinal Rohan in Marie Antoinette (by the Antoinette (Bortz), and Marcello in La boheme Swedish composer Daniel Bortz). He has also (PUCCini). This autumn he will sing the role of sung the Bishop and Enjolras in Les Miserables Germont in La traviata (Verdi) at Folkoperan. at Cirkus in Stockholm and Gustav III in the Park Theatre's performance of The Masked Ball John Erik Eleby (Escamillo), bass-baritone, (Verdi). He recently won the Jussi Bjorling Award appeared as Osmin in The Abduction from the for the year 2000. Seraglio (Mozart) at Confidencen, the theater at Ulriksdal Castle outside Stockholm; Don Profondo Charlotta Larsson (Micaela), soprano, debuted in II viaggio a Reims (Rossini) at Gothenburg's in 1993 as Liu in Turandot (Puccini) at Opera; the title role in Don Giovanni (Mozart) with Folkoperan, where she also played Desdemona Norrlandsoperan; and Nick Shadow in The Rake's in Otello (Verdi) and most recently Mimi in La Progress (Stravinsky) at Upsala Stadsteater. At boMme (Puccini) . She has also appeared at Folkoperan he has played II Commendatore in Don Stora Teatern in Gothenburg, at Stockholm's Giovanni, Tchelio in The Love for Three Oranges Royal Opera, and with Norrlandsoperan and the (Prokofiev), the Duke of Orleans in Marie Antoinette Opera of Norway. Her roles have included Signe (BOrtz), and Colline in La boheme (Puccini). As of in Gillet pJ Solhaug (Stenhammar); Pamina in the next winter season, 2000-2001, Mr. Eleby will

47 \/\/ h 0 'c::. \/\/ h 0 be engaged with the Royal Opera, where he will Music Theatre, the title role in Wozzeck (Berg) at sing Sarastro in The Magic Flute (Mozart) and the the Gothenburg Opera, and Marcello in La boheme Grand Inquisitor in Don Car/os (Verdi). (Puccini) at Folkoperan. Among his other roles are Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart) at Si:icra Ellen Andreassen (Mercedes), mezzo-soprano, has Teatem and Confidencen in Stockholm, Dr. Falke in performed with Folkoperan roles including Eboli in Die Fledermaus (J. Strauss Jr.), and Gerard and Don Car/os and Emilia in Otello (both by Verdi), Roucher in Andrea Chenier (Giordano) at the Music and Fata Morgana in The Love for Three Oranges Theatre in Sweden's Vermland province. In addi­ (Prokofiev), and she has played three different roles tion , he has sung in Kullervo by Sibelius in in Marie Antoinette (BOrtz), namely Madame de la Minneapolis and SI. Paul under the direction of Motte, the Countess Polignac, and Madame Neeme Jarvi, and in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony Bergner. She was also seen at the Royal Opera in at the Royal Albert Hall in London under Sir Colin The Bacchae (BOrtz), under the direction of Ingma r Davis. Future roles include the title role in the newly Bergman. Ms. Andreasson debuted in 1989 in The written opera Macbeth by Jan Sandstrom, which English Cat (HW Henze), which was first per­ will have its premiere at the Gothenburg Opera , a formed in GLiterloh in Germany, and, after a tour of role in Katya Kabanova (Janac;ek) at the Theatre Europe, was filmed for German television. de la Monnaie in Brussels, and the title role in Wozzeck at the Prague Opera. Carin Zander (Frasquita) , soprano, in the spring of 1996, Ms. Zander debuted at Folkoperan in Mikael Axelsson (Zuniga), bass-baritone, has sung the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Mozart) . Her with a number of companies in Sweden, including more recent roles there include Frasquita and Oscars-Teatem in Stockholm, Norrlandsoperan, Micaela in Carmen (Bizet), Ninetta in The Love Reginateatem, Komediteatem, the Vadstena for Three Oranges (Prokofiev), Nicole in Marie Academy, Ystadsoperan, and Folkoperan, where Antoinette (Bortz), Susanna in The Marriage of he appeared as Escamillo in Carmen (Bizet), Figaro (Mozart), and Mimi in La boheme Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), and, (Puccini). Ms. Zander has toured as a soloist most recently, Colline in La boheme (Puccini). In with Swedish Radio's Chorus and Eric Ericson's the summer of 1999 he sang two different roles in Chamber Choir. In 1994 she received that year's Powder Her Face (Ades) at Ystadsoperan , the Jenny Lind Award. Duke and the Judge. He has also played Gremin in Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky) at the Festiva l dei Erling Larsen (Remendado), tenor, has played Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. some 50 different roles on opera house stages, most often in Sweden and Norway, but also Staffan Jennehov (lilias Pastia), tenor, has throughout Europe. Over the years his roles at appeared in productions at the Malmo Music Folkoperan have included Pinkerton in Madame Theatre, Norrlandsoperan, Folkoperan, and Butterfly and Calaf in Turandot (both by Confidencen, where he has sung such roles as Puccini), Monostatos in The Magic Flute Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Seraglio (Mozart), and Creon in Oedipus (Qu Xiao-Song). (Mozart), Dancaire in Carmen (Bizet), Pantalone At the Norwegian Opera he has appeared as in The Love for Three Oranges (Prokofiev), the Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus (J. Strauss Jr.) and title role in Pelle Svanslos (von Koch) , Rodrigo Feri in The Gypsy Princess (Kalman). Mr. Larsen and Cassio in Otello (Verdi), Don Cluncar in Les has also recorded a series of Vienna operettas Brigands (Offenbach), and Basilio and Don with the Norwegian Opera. Curzio in The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart). Mr. Jennehov has also performed in several newly Marcus Jupither (Dancaire/Morales), baritone, has written Swedish dramatic musical works, includ­ sung the roles of Dunois in Jeanne d 'Arc ing Den sovande staden ("The Sleeping City") by (Tchaikovsky) at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, Georg Riedel and DrakdOdaren ("The Dragon Figaro in The Barber of Seville (Rossini) at Malmo's Slayer") by Stefan Nilsson.

48 continued from page 22 their fate makes it even more heartrending, as its piercing plea of "So from virtuous Toil well­ does the brief, uncompromising clarity of Irene's borne, / Raise Thou our Hopes of endless Light," final word : "Their Doom is past & they are gone / become convincing revelations. Because Handel's To prove, that Love is stronger far than Death." gifts as an entertainer are amply in evidence, his ability to reflect on human nature and destiny is The piece's "action" could have taken an hour of often overlooked-as in the case of Theodora. stage time, as brief but telling as Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. But, unusually for Handel, he seems "Oh, it's ineffable music!" says Christie, for whom musically possessed more by the ideas his charac­ the oratorios of Handel have always been impor­ ters grapple with. As in his earlier Samson tant (he hopes to perform even more of them in (1743), he does not sentimentalize the pious and Paris in the near future). Theodora is as precious a castigate the heathens: the Roman music is beau­ work for this conductor as it was for its creator. tiful and persuasive-just devoid of the radiance "It's so deeply compelling, having this music-not and suffering which Handel's Christians sing. mythological or religious music, but a historical Handel was correct in ranking Theodora's second drama-about this patristic, early Christian who act finale above the "Hallelujah!" chorus. The dies for her faith," adds Christie. Messiah number is a celebration of redemption and the triumph of faith. The Theodora chorus, in Throughout its history, Theodora has been music rich in dread and rapture, tells a story of blessed with enough admirers to at least ensure redemption voiced by worshippers literally cor­ its survival. Our age of recordings and videos and nered by their faith. Their beloved Theodora has vibrant performances of old works seems a per­ been lost to either death or Roman prostitution; fect moment to bring the opera forward into the their own lives are at risk; and all they can do is public consciousness, to share its music and sing their hopes to each other. spread the faith.

Here and in other moments, Handel reaches levels Patrick Giles writes for Opera News, Stagebill, and of human understanding and visionary insight that other publications. are unprecedented, even for him. In his hands, airs of piety such as Theodora's "Angels, ever bright & Les Arts Florissants will perform Handefs fair," and Irene's "As with rosy steps the Morn" with Theodora at BAM on May 6 and 7.