Hershey Felder, PUCCINI
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x THEATREWORKS SILICON VALLEY AND OPERA SAN JOSÉ OFFER WORLD PREMIERE Hershey Felder, PUCCINI Featuring baritone Nathan Gunn, tenor Charles Castronovo, and sopranos Gianna Corbisiero and Ekaterina Siurina Livestream 5pm, Sunday, March 14 (Plus streaming on-demand through March 21) SAN JOSE, CA (8 March 2021) – Two leading Bay Area arts organizations, TheatreWorKs Silicon Valley and Opera San José, will offer viewers the World Premiere livestream of Hershey Felder, PUCCINI, a new work by and starring virtuoso pianist/performer Hershey Felder, with opera guest stars baritone Nathan Gunn, tenor Charles Castronovo, and sopranos Gianna Corbisiero and Ekaterina Siurina. Presented by Hershey Felder Presents Live from Florence, Hershey Felder, PUCCINI tells the story of a young musician captivated by the world of opera, particularly by Giacomo Puccini’s immortal works La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. When, through a series of unusual circumstances, the young musician meets the musical master himself, secrets are revealed that open a whole new world for the young man. Filmed and performed on location in Lucca, Italy, in the very home where Giacomo Puccini was born, Hershey Felder, PUCCINI promises theatre, music, and opera audiences an exciting new adventure created by one of the world’s top musical storytellers. Hershey Felder, PUCCINI will be streamed live 5pm PST, Sunday, March 14, 2021 (with streaming on-demand access through March 21). To buy tickets ($55 per household) or find more information, the public can visit TheatreWorKs.org or Operasj.org. Ticket sales directly benefit the arts organization through which they are purchased. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ TheatreWorks MEDIA CONTACT: Lauren Goldfarb, CARLA BEFERA & CO. Email: [email protected] OPERA SAN JOSÉ MEDIA CONTACT: Sydney Albin, CARLA BEFERA & CO. Email: [email protected] This sumptuously filmed world premiere gives home audiences a front row seat as Felder presents another masterwork, this time delving into Puccini’s life and music. Felder is joined in this production by four internationally renowned opera stars: baritone Nathan Gunn, soprano Gianna Corbisiero, tenor Charles Castronovo, and soprano Ekaterina Siurina. Hershey Felder, PUCCINI is directed by Felder & Stefano Decarli, with associate direction by Trevor Hay. Production design is by Hershey Felder. Film production and live editing is by the DeCarli Live film company. Live broadcast and sound design production are by EriK Carstensen. Line producer is Annette Nixon. Meghan Maiya is the Director of Development . Costumes and Hair are by Camilla Saccardi. Hershey Felder (Writer & Performer). Named to Time Magazine’s 2016 Top 10 Plays and Musicals, Hershey Felder has played over 6,000 performances of his self-created solo productions at some of the world’s most prestigious theatres, consistently breaking box office records. American Theatre Magazine has said, “Hershey Felder is in a category all his own.” His shows include: George Gershwin Alone (Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, West End’s Duchess Theatre); Monsieur Chopin; Beethoven; Maestro (Leonard Bernstein); Franz Liszt in Musik; Lincoln: An American Story; Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin; Our Great Tchaikovsky; and A Paris Love Story. His compositions and recordings include Aliyah, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings; Saltimbanques for Piano and Orchestra; Etudes Thematiques for Piano; and An American Story for Actor and Orchestra. Hershey is the adaptor, director and designer for the internationally performed play-with-music The Pianist of Willesden Lane with Steinway artist Mona Golabek; producer and designer for the musical Louis and Keely: ‘Live’ at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Hackford; and writer and director for Flying Solo, featuring opera legend Nathan Gunn. Hershey has operated a full-service production company since 2001, and in 2020 created a new brand, Live From Florence, that operates a “theatre at home broadcast company,” based in Florence, Italy. Previous broadcasts have included Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin; Hershey Felder, Beethoven; Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone; Hershey Felder, Backstory – The Story Behind the Creation of Berlin, Gershwin & Bernstein; and Cooking French in Florence with Jeff Thickman & Hershey Felder. The Hershey Felder Presents - Live from Florence 2020-21 Season of broadcasts include: Hershey Felder as Claude Debussy in A PARIS LOVE STORY; Hershey Felder, TCHAIKOVSKY; Hershey Felder as Sholem Aleichem in BEFORE FIDDLER; Hershey Felder as PUCCINI; and Hershey Felder as Sergei ______________________________________________________________________________________________ TheatreWorks MEDIA CONTACT: Lauren Goldfarb, CARLA BEFERA & CO. Email: [email protected] OPERA SAN JOSÉ MEDIA CONTACT: Sydney Albin, CARLA BEFERA & CO. Email: [email protected] Rachmaninoff in ANNA & SERGEI. Hershey has been a scholar-in-residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music and is married to Kim Campbell, the first female Prime Minister of Canada. Felder has become an enormous favorite among South Bay Area audiences through his appearances at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, where his stage productions have smashed box office records, including the regional premieres of Our Great Tchaikovsky and Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, and the World Premieres of Hershey Felder as Claude Debussy in A PARIS LOVE STORY and Hershey Felder: Beethoven. The Tony award-winning theatre has partnered with Hershey Felder Presents Live from Florence to offer its 2020-21 Season of broadcasts to its audiences. Hershey Felder, PUCCINI will feature guest stars from the world of opera including acclaimed baritone Nathan Gunn, who has performed many of opera and musical theatre’s greatest roles on the world’s most prestigious stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Royal Opera in London, Paris Opéra, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Theater an der Wien Vienna, Teatro Real Madrid, and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie Brussels. He has been seen and heard on television, radio, video, and live simulcast performances, including the first ever Met in HD broadcast (The Magic Flute), in which he sang Papageno, one of his signature roles. Nathan has reinterpreted other classic roles such as Billy Budd, Figaro, and Don Giovanni, garnering awards including the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording (Billy Budd) and the Metropolitan Opera’s first ever Beverly Sills Award. Gunn has also been widely acclaimed for his ability to cross over into musical theatre, including performances with the New York Philharmonic in Carousel and Camelot, the televised celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday, and collaborations with musical theatre stars including Mandy Patinkin, Kelli O’Hara, Audra McDonald, and Kristin Chenoweth. Gunn’s one-man autobiographical show Flying Solo, produced and written by Hershey Felder, has been lauded as a “riveting autobiographical musical [that] is a stunner both with its touching, relatable, family-centric narrative and Gunn’s entertaining, charismatic performing style “ (Broadway World). Another luminary to join this production is soprano Gianna Corbisiero. Declared “luminous” by Opera News, Corbisiero has performed the title roles in Tosca, La Bohème, La traviata, ______________________________________________________________________________________________ TheatreWorks MEDIA CONTACT: Lauren Goldfarb, CARLA BEFERA & CO. Email: [email protected] OPERA SAN JOSÉ MEDIA CONTACT: Sydney Albin, CARLA BEFERA & CO. Email: [email protected] Pagliacci, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Carmen, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Falstaff at major opera houses throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, under the baton of conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, and Charles Dutoit. She has performed with Bryn Terfel, Renee Fleming, and Marcelo Alvarez. For Bravo Canada she recorded episodes of television’s “Opera Easy” performing excerpts from La Bohème, La traviata, Tosca, and Norma, and made her cinema debut singing "O mio babbino caro" in the film “Elephant Song,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Corbisiero’s many honors and awards include a special prize from the Luciano Pavarotti International Vocal Competition, Top Prize in the Canadian Music Competition, and First Prize from the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation. Also guest starring in the production is Charles Castronovo, acclaimed internationally as one of the finest lyric tenors of his generation. Castronovo has sung at most of the world’s leading opera houses, including San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera. Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Paris Opera, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Theatre Royale de la Monnaie Brussels, and many others. He starred in the title role of Daniel Catan’s Il Postino opposite Placido Domingo in the work’s World Premiere in Los Angeles, as well as in Paris and Santiago. His repertoire spans from the great Mozart tenor roles in Don Giovanni, Cosi Fan Tutte and Die Zauberfloete, to Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore and Alfredo in La traviata. In recent seasons Castronovo won wide acclaim for his performances as the title role in Faust, Romeo in Romeo et Juliette, the Duke in Rigoletto,