Opera Mcgill – Lisl Wirth Black Box Festival November 21, 22, 23 and 24, 2007 Pollack Hall

Schulich School of Music of McGill University Concerts and Publicity 555 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal, Quebec H3A 1E3 Phone: (514) 398-5530 Fax: (514) 398-5514

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Opera McGill – Lisl Wirth Black Box festival November 21, 22, 23 and 24, 2007 Pollack Hall

Albert Herring Benjamin Britten

For immediate release

November 19, 2007 – Opera McGill opens its 2007-2008 with Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten on November 21, 22, 23 and 24, at 7:30 p.m. in Pollack Hall for its Lisl Wirth Black Box Festival. Tickets for this production are $10 ($5 seniors and students) and are available at the Pollack Hall Box Office, Monday through Friday, 12:00 (noon) to 6:00 p.m., (514) 398-4547.

With this production Opera McGill welcomes its new director, Patrick John Hansen, who will stage direct the cast of 13 students, including 3 children. From the orchestra pit, Julian Wachner, Opera McGill’s principal conductor, will conduct the singers and the small ensemble of 13 musicians as indicated by the composer.

Comic opera in three acts, Op. 39, by Benjamin Britten to a libretto by Eric Crozier, after Guy de Maupassant’s short story Le rosier de Madame Husson, Albert Herring has been premiered on June 20, 1947 at Glyndebourne by the English Opera Group, an independent and progressive opera company launched by Britten and Crozier, with Peter Pears in the title role and Joan Cross as Lady Billow. “There are a number of themes being played out in this delightful libretto: Victorian fixation on morality, the British pre-occupation with correctness, judging persons strictly on their appearances, sexual repression (or lack thereof) in the countryside of Suffolk in 1900, and how to sever the apron string’s of not only a mother figure but society’s strings as well… Albert Herring is an opera that continues to amuse audience from production to production because of its terrific libretto and Britten’s magnificent genius of a score. I first came to know this piece over twenty years ago, and I continue to renew my love and admiration for this operatic masterpiece.” Patrick John Hansen, stage director In April of 1900, the dignitaries of Loxford, a small market town in East Suffolk, assemble for their annual task of choosing a Queen of May. It soon becomes clear that none of the young women meet the moral standards of Lady Billow. Eventually the police superintendent proposes a radical solution: electing a King of May instead. Although Lady Billow is initially opposed to this idea, the only alternative seems to be to cancel the festival altogether…..

The score has been written for 10 adult solo voices, 3 child voices, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, percussion (2), harp, string quartet, double bass, and piano.

Patrick John Hansen begins his first year as Director of Opera Studies for Opera McGill at the Schulich School of Music directing this production of Albert Herring. A versatile artist, Mr Hansen is a stage director, conductor, vocal coach, and acting teacher. During the summer months, he is the Associate Director of the Janiec Opera Company at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.

Formerly the Director of Artistic Administration for Florida Grand Opera where he was responsible for casting artists, conductors, and directors, Mr Hansen was also the Director of Musical Studies for the Young American Artist Program at Glimmerglass Opera for six seasons. Previous to his joining F.G.O., he was the Music Director of Opera / Musical Theatre at Ithaca College.

In addition to his conducting credits at Pittsburgh Opera, Tulsa Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Ash Lawn Summer Festival, Opera Memphis and Shreveport Opera, he is the former Music Director of Opera Festival of New Jersey where he conducted the world premiere of the revised edition of Frank Lewin’s Burning Bright, Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero, Bartok’s A Kékszakállu Herceg Vara, and Die Zauberflöte. His stage directing credits include the critically-acclaimed production of La Bohème in Charlottesville, Virginia as well as productions of Così fan tutte, Suor Angelica, Dido & Aeneas, Dialogues des Carmélites, Rider’s to the Sea, A Hand of Bridge, The Impresario, and Die Zauberflöte.

An active national figure in opera, Mr Hansen’s former students and young artists can be currently seen on the stages of all the major opera companies in North America, including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, L’Opéra Montreal, the Canadian Opera Company, Seattle Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Mr Hansen was a fellow in opera coaching with The Juilliard Opera Center, a repetiteur with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Des Moines Metro Opera, chorus master with the Tulsa Opera and Opera Memphis, and was the resident conductor at Ash Lawn Summer Festival. This past spring he served on the judging panel for the prestigious Richard Tucker Award.

For the current season at Opera McGill he will be teaching acting classes, coaching the students in operatic repertoire, and will be the stage director for Albert Herring, Così fan tutte, and Alcina. This summer he will be conducting a program of operatic scenes with the Brevard Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Hansen received his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from Simpson College, and his Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from University of Missouri at Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Among his other credits, he is the Assistant Editor of the G. Schirmer Operatic Anthology series, volume 1 (edited by Robert L. Larsen) and was the pianist for a recorded set of Brass Methods with the Canadian Brass.

Conductor-composer Julian Wachner is one of the most active and versatile artists of his generation having appeared most recently with Glimmerglass Opera (Orphée), Toronto Operetta Company (Candide), Spoleto Festival USA (Dido and Aeneus), Opera Boston (The Mikado, The Gondoliers), Red House Opera Group (Albert Herring), and as principal conductor of Opera McGill (Così fan tutte, Albert Herring, Christopher Sly, Turn of the Screw, Candide, Dido and Aeneus, Bastien und Bastienne, L’Enfant et les sortilèges, Gianni Schicchi, Vanessa.) Guest orchestral engagements include the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Music Academy of the West, The Boston Pops, Calgary Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, The Metropolis Orchestra (Chicago), Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, L’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, L’Orchestre Symphonique de l’Île, Tanglewood Young Artists’ Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony, and the New Haven Symphony. Conducting engagements for the 2007-2008 season include those with the Sioux City Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Opera McGill, Portland Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, McGill Chamber Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony and two appearances at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

Wachner's original music has been described as “jazzy, energetic, and ingenious” by Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe, “bold and atmospheric” by the New York Times, “highly enjoyable, touching, clever, and inspiring” by the Deseret News, and “upbeat, jazzy, glittering, and poignant” by the Providence Journal. Recent commissions include the Boston Landmarks Orchestra (The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, 2004 and Lifting the Curse, 2006), l'Orchestre Métropolitain (Triptych for Organ and Large Orchestra), Cornell University's Glee Club (4 Scenes from the Rubayat), and his first opera, Evangeline Revisited, for Opera McGill in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. Other commissions and performances include the Spoleto Festival USA (Cymbale), the New Haven Symphony (Planet X, Pluto, Apollo's Fire), the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, Montreal (Psalm Cycle III), the San Diego Symphony (Regina Coeli), the Providence Singers (Canticles), the Quincy Symphony (Clarinet Concerto), the Cape Ann Symphony (Celebrations), Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Maryland (Behold the Tabernacle), the Charleston Symphony and Chorus (Regina Coeli), and Alea III (Cycles). His complete catalogue of music is published exclusively by E. C. Schirmer.

In addition to his professorship at McGill University, Wachner has served as music director of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul (2003-2008), Bach-Academie de Montreal (2003-2007), The Providence Singers (1996-2006), The Back Bay Chorale (1996-2002), The Boston Bach Ensemble (1995-2002), the Red House Opera Group (Summer 2002), and of Marsh Chapel at Boston University (1990-2001). He has also served as director of the Young Artists’ Composition Program at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Previous faculty positions include those at Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Born in Hollywood, California, Wachner began his musical education at age 4 with cello and piano lessons and studied improvisation, composition, organ and theory under Gerre Hancock while a boy chorister at the St. Thomas Choir School in New York City. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University’s School for the Arts where he studied orchestral conducting with David Hoose, piano with Benjamin Pasternack, voice with Joan Heller and Joy McIntyre and composition with Lukas Foss, Theodore Antoniou, Charles Fussell and Marjorie Merryman.

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