Edition 1 | 2019-2020
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome .................................................................. 3 Leadership ............................................................... 6 About PFO ............................................................... 7 The Love of Danae .................................................... 9 Mister Rogers’ Operas ............................................... 11 The Valkyrie ............................................................16 Scandals .................................................................21 Gianni Schicchi ....................................................... 23 Education Overview ................................................ 25 The Enchanted Forest ............................................. 27 Music That Matters ................................................. 28 Individual Contributors ........................................... 29 Festival Opera Fans ..................................................31 Host Families ......................................................... 32 Season Sponsors ..................................................... 32 Special Thanks ....................................................... 33 Festival Orchestra ................................................... 34 Festival Production Staff .......................................... 35 Directors ................................................................ 36 Conductors............................................................. 44 Artists’ Bios ............................................................ 49 Patron Information .................................................. 64 ADVERTISING Onstage Publications 937-424-0529 | 866-503-1966 e-mail: [email protected] www.onstagepublications.com This program is published in association with Onstage Publications, 1612 Prosser Avenue, Kettering, OH 45409. This program may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. JBI Publishing is a division of Onstage Publications, Inc. Contents © 2019. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. PITTSBURGH FESTIVAL OPERA 1 WELCOME FROM THE PRESIDENT elcome to Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s 2019 WSummer Festival Season. Help us celebrate our 8th festival season in the cool comfort of the Winchester Thurston School in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Here you will enjoy an interesting and impressive array of operas, recitals, lectures, and more in an informal setting. Please take advantage of the unique opportunity of hearing the world premiere of two of Mr. Fred Rogers’ operas. Other highlights of the season include the seldom heard The Love of Danae—the latest in our Richard Strauss series—The Valkyrie—the second in Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle and a special version of Puccini’s Gianni Schicci. I’m thrilled to announce that A Gathering of Sons, the latest commission from our “Music That Matters” series of operas which highlight contemporary social issues, won the World Bronze Medal for Excellence in Society and Societal Issues at the New York TV and Film Awards in Las Vegas this April. A Gathering of Sons was chosen from hundreds of entries from 50 countries worldwide. I’m also very pleased to welcome our new Executive Director—Mr. Christopher Powell, a Pittsburgh native, arts administrator, music educator, French horn player and choral conductor with nearly 25 years of experience in nonprofit administration. Chris comes to the company most recently from The Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, NY and previously from Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC and the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA—some of the top summer opera and symphonic music festivals in the nation. Eugene N. Myers, M.D., FRCS Edin (Hon) President, Pittsburgh Festival Opera PITTSBURGH FESTIVAL OPERA 3 FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Dear Friends, elcome to Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s festive, intimate, Wcontemporary opera-theater experience! Let’s look at those adjectives for a moment. Our summer festival is truly festive—our extraordinary productions, including The Ring, the Fred Rogers’ operas, the new Scandals half of the program that goes with Puccini’s hilarious comedy Gianni Schicchi, and the host of concerts, receptions, parties and cabarets, all followed by the opportunity to mingle with artists in the bar after performances—all that is absolutely fun and festive. But intimate? The Valkyrie, you might ask? And Strauss’s The Love of Danae?! To which my response is: absolutely intimate. And this is one of the things that makes PFO unique. Our version of The Valkyrie is brilliantly reorchestrated by Jonathan Dove and tells the timeless story in (a mere) three hours. And it deals with the most intimate family relationships. Also, all our productions take place in our intimate 400-seat theater. No distant figures on a far- flung stage in our festival. Instead, we experience real people in real relationships, who in their singing speak to us directly, up-close- and-personal—and mostly in English. And what do we mean by ‘opera-theater’? This has been a key part of our artistic ambition and identity since Mildred Miller founded our company 41 years ago. For us, theatrical excitement and authenticity are as important as musical excellence, and they go hand in hand. And lastly—contemporary? All live opera (and music, and theater) takes place in the present, the here and now—even if it is sometimes set in the past. Our productions are theatrically modern and provocative. And we regularly commission new works, on topics that are important to us here, today, in a cycle we call ‘Music that Matters’. This year you can follow the creation of two new works written by women, with scenes presented in workshop format, which you can then experience in full production at next year’s festival. So we hope very much that an evening in our company, with our exciting repertoire and imaginative productions, offers you the unique combination of festive, intimate, contemporary opera- theater. And that is what the Pittsburgh Festival Opera experience is all about. Enjoy—and see you in the bar after the show! Jonathan Eaton Artistic Director, Pittsburgh Festival Opera PITTSBURGH FESTIVAL 4 OPERA FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR t’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood…” Admit it, you “Iprobably just sang those words in your head. What a wonderful legacy to leave a world filled with kindness and song. What made Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood so special is not too different than what makes opera relevant today; the importance of telling a story—of discovering how our similarities far outweigh our differences. Mister Rogers helped children and adults through difficult times and he coached us through good things too, like how to love your friends, your family, yourself and most importantly, to be kind to one another. Now, for the first time ever, Pittsburgh Festival Opera is staging two of Mister Rogers’ 13 operas for our audience to experience in person, Windstorm in Bubbleland and Spoon Mountain. After Windstorm in Bubbleland aired Fred Rogers said, “When a bubble is gone, you don’t see it anymore—with your eyes. And when an opera’s over, you don’t hear it anymore—with your ears. But, you can remember. You can remember what bubbles look like and what operas sound like. And what friends feel like. And you’ll always have them with you—in your memory.” I am so pleased to welcome you, friend, to Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s 42nd season and my first at the helm of this ambitious company—in our beautiful neighborhood of Pittsburgh. I hope that you will take the time to experience all of our Festival programming this summer. Warmest greetings to you and welcome to Pittsburgh Festival Opera! Christopher M. Powell Executive Director Pittsburgh Festival Opera PITTSBURGH FESTIVAL OPERA 5 ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF LEADERSHIP Christopher M. Powell Lindsay Lehman Executive Director Associate Artistic Director Jonathan Eaton Victoria Bails Artistic Director Marketing Assistant Robert Frankenberry Iain Crammond Music Director Box Office Manager Roxy MtJoy Robert Chafin Director of Institutional Advancement Young Professional Artist Program Director Anqwenique Kinsel Education Director BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dr. Jerry Clack Mildred Miller Posvar Gail Mosites Chairman* Founder Educator and Singer Dr. Eugene Myers Retired Opera Singer Dr. Etsuro K. Motoyama President Sharon Alvarez Professor Emeritus Distinguished Professor Tom W. Olofson Chair Lana Neumeyer University of Pittsburgh in Entrepreneurship Vice President Medical Center Joseph M. Katz Graduate Neumeyer Environmental Joseph Bielecki School of Business Services. Inc. University of Pittsburgh Vice-President Juddson Poeske Attorney Dr. Roxana Barad Product Manager Physician Clement George Elizabeth Russell Treasurer Dr. Margaretha Retired Educational Senior Associate, Casselbrant Consultant Risk Consulting, PwC Retired Physician Children’s Hospital Dr. James R. Sahovey Carolyn Smith Physician Secretary Demareus N. Cooper Executive Coach Educator and Singer Phyllis J. Sidwell and Educator Educator and Joyce Candi Grove Social Service Consultant Carole L. Kamin Retired Educator Secretary Roseanne Wholey William Guy Executive/Consultant Retired Manager-Buyer Author and Poet Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh * In memoriam PITTSBURGH FESTIVAL 6 OPERA PITTSBURGH FESTIVAL OPERA ittsburgh Festival Opera presents innovative opera Pby producing American works, reinterpreting older works, and new works for the widest possible audience. The company focuses on diversity in programming