Alan Gilbert's Final Weeks
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 20, 2017 Contact: Katherine E. Johnson (212) 875-5700; [email protected] ALAN GILBERT’S FINAL WEEKS WAGNER’S DAS RHEINGOLD ERIC OWENS as Wotan JAMIE BARTON as Fricka in Her Philharmonic Debut CHRISTOPHER PURVES as Alberich in His Philharmonic Debut RUSSELL THOMAS as Loge June 1, 3, and 6, 2017 In the third of Alan Gilbert’s final four subscription weeks as New York Philharmonic Music Director, he will lead an enhanced concert production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold. Soloists include bass-baritone Eric Owens as Wotan, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton as Fricka (in her New York Philharmonic debut), baritone Christopher Purves as Alberich (debut), tenor Russell Thomas as Loge, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor as Erda, bass Morris Robinson as Fasolt (debut), bass Stephen Milling as Fafner (debut), soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Freia (debut), tenor Brian Jagde as Froh (debut), bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Donner (debut), tenor Peter Bronder as Mime (debut), soprano Jennifer Zetlan as Woglinde, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano as Wellgunde, and mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford as Flosshilde. The enhanced concert production will be directed by Louisa Muller with costume design — featuring character-based treatment of modern concert attire — by David C. Woolard. The performances will take place Thursday, June 1, 2017, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 3 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, June 6 at 7:30 p.m. Conducting opera has been an essential commitment of Alan Gilbert’s during his tenure as Music Director. In June 2013 he conducted A Ring Journey, his own arrangement of music from the Ring cycle, as part of the season-concluding Gilbert’s Playlist. He has also led the Orchestra in music from Wagner’s Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Rienzi, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, and Die Walküre, as well as Siegfried Idyll. Alan Gilbert’s opera productions at the Philharmonic include critically celebrated staged productions of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (2010) and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (2011), both cited as the top cultural events of their respective years. At The Metropolitan Opera, he led Mozart’s Don Giovanni in 2015 and John Adams’s Doctor Atomic in 2008, which New York magazine declared one of the year’s top ten classical events and the DVD/Blu-ray of which earned the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. (more) Alan Gilbert / Das Rheingold / 2 “Performing great opera with the New York Philharmonic is special on many levels,” Alan Gilbert said. “Very often it is music that the Orchestra is not as familiar with, which is wonderful: it’s always a thrill to introduce new music to an orchestra discovering it for the first time. We’ve put together an ace cast starring Eric Owens as Wotan: the beauty of his voice and the kind of depth of his psychological understanding of the role, which is exactly what I think is demanded, is rare these days.” Bass-baritone Eric Owens served as the New York Philharmonic’s 2015–16 Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence. The New York Times called his January 2016 Philharmonic performance as Wotan in the Final Scene from Act III of Wagner’s Die Walküre an “impressive portrayal. His diction crisp, his tone dark and burnished, with an exciting undercurrent of muscular force.” The New York Times wrote that when he appeared as Alberich in The Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 production of Das Rheingold, “he seemed destined to play the king of the gods,” and that when he appeared as Wotan in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2016 Das Rheingold production, “he sang with rich, deep sound and impeccable diction, and conveyed Wotan’s essential dignity.” Alan Gilbert’s final four subscription programs as Music Director reflect signature themes of his tenure and feature works that hold particular meaning for him and musicians with whom he has formed close relationships. They also include Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw paired with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (May 3–6 and 9); a concert highlighting the Philharmonic’s close collaborations, with the New York Premiere of Kravis Emerging Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Aeriality, the New York Premiere of Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Wing on Wing, and Brahms’s Violin Concerto with Artist-in-Residence Leonidas Kavakos as soloist (May 19–20 and 23); and Alan Gilbert Season Finale: A Concert for Unity, which celebrates the power of music to build bridges and unite people across borders (June 8–10). Artists As Music Director of the New York Philharmonic since 2009, Alan Gilbert has introduced the positions of The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence, and Artist-in-Association; CONTACT!, the new-music series; the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, an exploration of today’s music; and the New York Philharmonic Global Academy, partnerships with cultural institutions to offer training of pre-professional musicians, often alongside performance residencies. The Financial Times called him “the imaginative maestro- impresario in residence.” Alan Gilbert concludes his final season as Music Director with four programs that reflect themes, works, and musicians that hold particular meaning for him, including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony alongside Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw, Wagner’s complete Das Rheingold in concert, and an exploration of how music can effect positive change in the world. Other highlights include four World Premieres, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre, and Manhattan, performed live to film. He also leads the Orchestra on the EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour and in performance residencies in Shanghai and Santa Barbara. Past highlights include acclaimed stagings of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd starring Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson (2015 Emmy nomination), (more) Alan Gilbert / Das Rheingold / 3 and Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake starring Marion Cotillard; 28 World Premieres; a tribute to Boulez and Stucky during the 2016 NY PHIL BIENNIAL; The Nielsen Project; the Verdi Requiem and Bach’s B-minor Mass; the score from 2001: A Space Odyssey, performed live to film; Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony on the tenth anniversary of 9/11; performing violin in Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time; and ten tours around the world. Conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and former principal guest conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra, Alan Gilbert regularly conducts leading orchestras around the world. This season he returns to the foremost European orchestras, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He will record Beethoven’s complete piano concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Inon Barnatan, and conduct Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, his first time leading a staged opera there. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut conducting John Adams’s Doctor Atomic in 2008, the DVD of which received a Grammy Award, and he conducted Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux étoiles on a recent album recorded live at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Gilbert is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, where he holds the William Schuman Chair in Musical Studies. His honors include Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from The Curtis Institute of Music (2010) and Westminster Choir College (2016), Columbia University’s Ditson Conductor’s Award (2011), election to The American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2014), a Foreign Policy Association Medal for his commitment to cultural diplomacy (2015), Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2015), and New York University’s Lewis Rudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City (2016). Bass-baritone Eric Owens launched the 2016–17 season with his role debut as Wotan in David Pountney’s new production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold at Lyric Opera of Chicago. He sings a trio of operas at The Metropolitan Opera: the house’s premiere of Kaijo Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin, a new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka under Mark Elder, and a revival of Mozart’s Idomeneo conducted by James Levine. Other highlights include recitals with Susanna Phillips at Carnegie Hall and Lawrence Brownlee at Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Metropolitan Opera’s 50th anniversary at Lincoln Center gala, and, for the third time, he joins the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Negaunee Music Institute to present an interactive recital for incarcerated youth with Riccardo Muti and Joyce DiDonato. He rounds out his season singing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Le Coq d’Or at Santa Fe Opera. Mr. Owens collaborates regularly with Muti, Simon Rattle, Michael Tilson Thomas, Alan Gilbert, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Franz Welser-Möst, Andrew Davis, Osmo Vänskä, and Donald Runnicles. In addition to performing with leading opera companies in Europe and North America, he has appeared with orchestras including the New York, Berlin, and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras; Chicago, Boston, Toronto, Bavarian Radio, Atlanta, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Swedish Radio symphony orchestras; and the Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras. Mr. Owens is featured on several recordings including excerpts from Richard Strauss operas (Telarc) and John Adams’s A Flowering Tree (Nonesuch Records) and Doctor Atomic (Sony). A Philadelphia native, Eric Owens began studying piano at age six, and at eleven began formal oboe training under Lloyd Shorter of the Delaware Symphony and Louis Rosenblatt of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He studied voice while an undergraduate at Temple University and as a graduate student at the Curtis Institute of (more) Alan Gilbert / Das Rheingold / 4 Music.