STAGED PRODUCTION of HK GRUBER's Gloria
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Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5718; [email protected] National Press Representative: Julia Kirchhausen (917) 453-8386; [email protected] Metropolitan Museum of Art contact: Meryl Cates (212) 650-2684; [email protected] MAY 29–30 AND JUNE 1, 2014, AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: STAGED PRODUCTION of HK GRUBER’s Gloria – A Pig Tale Juilliard’s AXIOM Ensemble To Be Conducted by ALAN GILBERT Created by DOUG FITCH and GIANTS ARE SMALL As part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, New York Philharmonic Music Director and The Juilliard School’s Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies Alan Gilbert will lead a staged performance of Gloria – A Pig Tale, a two-act comic opera by HK Gruber (Austria, b. 1943), featuring vocalists affiliated with The Juilliard School — soprano Lauren Snouffer, mezzo- soprano Brenda Patterson, tenor Alexander Lewis, baritone Carlton Ford, and bass Kevin Burdette — as well as Juilliard’s AXIOM ensemble. The performances — May 29–30 and June 1, 2014, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, and a co- presentation of the New York Philharmonic, The Juilliard School, and Met Museum Presents — will be directed and designed by Doug Fitch, produced by Edouard Getaz, and staged by Giants Are Small; James Smith is production manager, Kate Noll is set designer, and Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew is lighting designer. This unprecedented production will transform the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium with an imaginative landscape that brings farm to stage with costumes, sets, and projections. “I enjoy blurring the lines that delineate categories and this production will be no different,” says director/designer Doug Fitch. “Rather than seeing my signature sketchy drawings come to life via live-animation though, I am building soft, full-body, masks that look sort of like large Dubuffet drawings, allowing singers to quickly shift from being a cow to a frog to a pig — like New Yorker cartoons brought to life by a bunch of operatic rednecks!” 2 “HK Gruber is an iconoclastic, crazy, fabulous composer,” Alan Gilbert said. “When the Philharmonic performed his Frankenstein!!, the performance coupled perfection with a magnificent irreverence, and I know this same excitement will happen again when the forces from Juilliard perform this wonderful opera. Doug Fitch’s signature visual touch combined with his incredibly developed dramatic sense, along with his total, faithful, and sensitive commitment to music, will be the perfect way to present Gloria – A Pig Tale in the ideal setting of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert last collaborated with Doug Fitch, Edouard Getaz, and their production company Giants Are Small in June 2013 for A Dancer’s Dream: Two Works by Stravinsky. In June 2011 the New York Philharmonic and Giants Are Small collaborated on the acclaimed staged production of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. In June 2010 they staged Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, a critical success that was named the number one cultural event of the year by several media outlets. Limor Tomer, general manager of Concerts & Lectures at the Metropolitan Museum, said: “The NY PHIL BIENNIAL and Met Museum Presents are a perfect match, exuberantly embracing the newest works to enter the classical canon. I can’t imagine a more thrilling prospect than working with the dynamic and irrepressible team of Doug Fitch and Alan Gilbert!” A flagship project of the New York Philharmonic envisioned by Music Director Alan Gilbert, the NY PHIL BIENNIAL is a kaleidoscopic exploration of today’s music showcasing an array of curatorial voices through concerts presented with cultural partners throughout New York City. Modeled on the great visual art biennials, the inaugural NY PHIL BIENNIAL, taking place May 28–June 7, 2014, brings the public together with a diverse roster of more than 50 composers, ranging from elementary school students to icons, for concerts of symphonies, concertos, staged opera, chamber music, and solo works, many of which will be premieres. Meet-up events, lectures and panel discussions, and online interactivity are planned to encourage audience members to directly engage with composers, scholars, and artists. The 2014 NY PHIL BIENNIAL partners include 92nd Street Y, The Museum of Modern Art, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Juilliard School, Gotham Chamber Opera, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Bang on a Can, American Composers Orchestra, and Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School High School. For complete information about the 2014 NY PHIL BIENNIAL, see press release. Repertoire Gloria – A Pig Tale (1992–94) has been noted for its fast-paced action, syncopated rhythms, and challenging vocals. Described as “neo-tonal” and “neo-Viennese,” HK Gruber’s work stands out for its variety of influences (from jazz and cabaret to pop and modern music) as well as its skillful invocation of irony and dark humor. Alan Gilbert led Philharmonic musicians and Mr. Gruber, as chansonnier, in a performance of the composer’s “pan-demonium” Frankenstein!! as part of CONTACT!, the new-music series, in December 2011. Gloria – A Pig Tale tells the story of a pig named Gloria, whose beauty and curly, golden hair leave her ostracized among the other pigs in her sty who are envious of her looks and disdainful of their unconventionality. Gloria’s desire for love and acceptance causes her to fall for a butcher she mistakenly believes to be a 3 prince, but she is rescued in time from her would-be assassin by another outcast, a wild boar named Rodrigo. Artists Alan Gilbert is the New York Philharmonic’s Music Director and The Juilliard School’s Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies and the inaugural William Schuman Chair in Music Studies. Since beginning his New York Philharmonic tenure in September 2009, the first native New Yorker in the post, he and the Orchestra have introduced the positions of The Marie- Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence and The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence; CONTACT!, the new-music series; and, beginning in the spring of 2014, the NY PHIL BIENNIAL. “He is building a legacy that matters and is helping to change the template for what an American orchestra can be,” The New York Times acclaimed. In addition to inaugurating the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, in the 2013–14 season Alan Gilbert conducts Mozart’s three final symphonies; the U.S. Premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Frieze coupled with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; world premieres; an all-Britten program celebrating the composer’s centennial; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey as the film was screened; and a staged production of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson. He continues The Nielsen Project — the multi-year initiative to perform and record the Danish composer’s symphonies and concertos, the first release of which was named by The New York Times as among the Best Classical Music Recordings of 2012 — and presides over the ASIA / WINTER 2014 tour. Last season’s highlights included Bach’s B-minor Mass; Ives’s Fourth Symphony; the EUROPE / SPRING 2013 tour; and the season-concluding A Dancer’s Dream, a multidisciplinary reimagining of Stravinsky’s The Fairy’s Kiss and Petrushka, created by Giants Are Small and starring New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns. Mr. Gilbert also holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies at The Juilliard School. Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, he regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award. Renée Fleming’s recent Decca recording Poèmes, on which he conducted, received a 2013 Grammy Award. His recordings have received top honors from the Chicago Tribune and Gramophone magazine. In May 2010 Mr. Gilbert received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and in December 2011, Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award for his “exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers and to contemporary music.” Doug Fitch, as co-founder of Giants Are Small (GAS), has collaborated on several acclaimed New York Philharmonic productions conducted by Alan Gilbert. He designed and directed György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, which was named “Best Opera of the Year” by The New York Times, and New York magazine; New York called their second project, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (2011) the “Best Classical Event of the Year”; the third, A Dancer’s Dream (2013, a theatrical retelling of two Stravinsky ballets), received an international cinemacast in fall 2013, concurrent with the launch of the GAS Webseries W Hot Culture. Mr. Fitch has also created productions for the Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Santa Fe Opera, 4 National Arts Center in Canada, and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. For 15 years he collaborated with artist Mimi Oka to create multi-sensory experiences known as Orphic Feasts, subject of the book Orphic Fodder: Experiments in Dining, or, an Autobiography of an Artistic Collaboration. In the 1980s he emerged as an architectural designer, creating homes and furniture for major clients including violinist Joshua Bell. Doug Fitch’s creative life began with his family’s touring puppet theater. He worked with Jim Henson, collaborated with director Peter Sellars on productions including Wagner’s Ring, and worked with Robert Wilson on Civil Wars at American Repertory Theatre. In Venice Mr. Fitch met Italian architect and designer Gaetano Pesce, an important influence. Born in 1959 in Philadelphia, Doug Fitch graduated magna cum laude in visual studies from Harvard University.