Porgy and Bess at Seattle Opera
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verdi AIDA Carmen_Program_042219-fixed.indd 1 4/26/19 11:10 AM BARBARA FRACCHIA Fine Art Paintings of Opera and Ballet Waiting for Don José, 24 × 24, oil on canvas [email protected] • 510-525-7057 • www.barbarafracchia.com My legacy. My partner. You have dreams. Goals you want to achieve during your lifetime and a legacy you want to leave behind. The Private Bank can help. Our highly specialized and experienced wealth strategists can help you navigate the complexities of estate planning and deliver the customized solutions you need to ensure your wealth is transferred according to your wishes. Take the first step in ensuring the preservation of your wealth for your lifetime and future generations. To learn more, please visit unionbank.com/theprivatebank or contact: Lisa Roberts Managing Director, Private Wealth Management [email protected] 415-705-7159 Wills, trusts, foundations, and wealth planning strategies have legal, tax, accounting, and other implications. 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Untitled-2 1 12/17/18 4:34 PM May 2019 Volume 43, No. 5 Paul Heppner President Mike Hathaway Senior Vice President Kajsa Puckett Vice President, Sales & Marketing Genay Genereux Accounting & Office Manager Production Susan Peterson Vice President, Production Jennifer Sugden Assistant Production Manager Ana Alvira, Stevie VanBronkhorst Production Artists and Graphic Designers Sales Marilyn Kallins, Terri Reed San Francisco/Bay Area Account Executives Devin Bannon, Brieanna Hansen, INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER MUSIC Amelia Heppner, Ann Manning Seattle Area Account Executives Danish String Quartet Orlando Consort Carol Yip Sales Coordinator Jerusalem Quartet Marketing Hagen Quartet Shaun Swick David Finckel & Wu Han with Philip Setzer Senior Designer & Digital Lead Ciara Caya Marketing Coordinator PRESIDENT’S PIANO Garrick Ohlsson Encore Media Group Jonathan Biss: Celebrating Beethoven, Part I 425 North 85th Street Seattle, WA 98103 Jonathan Biss: Celebrating Beethoven, Part II p 800.308.2898 | 206.443.0445 Hélène Grimaud f 206.443.1246 Jon Kimura Parker [email protected] www.encoremediagroup.com SPECIAL EVENTS Encore Arts Programs and Encore Stages are published monthly Midori with Jean-Yves Thibaudet by Encore Media Group to serve musical and theatrical events in the Puget Sound and San Francisco Bay Areas. All rights Los Angeles Master Chorale reserved. ©2019 Encore Media Group. Reproduction without written permission is prohibited. SEASON TICKETS NOW ON SALE MEANYCENTER.ORG 206-543-4880 4 Seattle Opera 2018/19 Season CARMEN VOLUME 43 ISSUE 5 22 MEET SEATTLE OPERA’S NEW LEADER Production Essentials By Gabrielle Nomura Gainor 12 Production Sponsors 13 The Cast 14 The Story 24 THE EXOTIC AND THE FAMILIAR: 17 Artists CULTURAL CONTRAST IN BIZET’S CARMEN 20 Actors By Judy Tsou 20 Supernumeraries 20 Chorus 26 THE CINEMATIC LIVES OF CARMEN 20 Youth Chorus By Julie Hubbert 21 Orchestra 30 In the Lobby 35 CINDERELLA GOES TO YAKIMA Departments By Glenn Hare 6 From the General Director 8 From the President 42 A TRIBUTE TO KARYL WINN 10 Board of Directors 10 Service Directory 31 Staff Chat 32 Seattle Opera Staff 33 Seattle Opera Podcast 34 Programs and Partnerships Sponsors 36 Individual Donors 41 Institutional Donors Seattle Opera 46 Amusements Editor 47 Upcoming Events Glenn Hare Graphic Design Trevor Giove Contributing Editor Gabrielle Nomura Gainor Cover Image Philip Newton Seattle Opera is now offering large-print and Braille versions of this program. Please see coat check for details. Carmen 5 FROM THE GENERAL DIRECTOR Welcome to our new production of Bizet’s immortal Carmen, the fruit of a collaboration with our colleagues at Opera Philadelphia and at the Irish National Opera. As always, we feature with this production a blend of artists who are making their Seattle Opera debuts alongside some welcome returnees. In this vein, it is wonderful to have Giacomo Sagripanti back on the podium and also my pleasure to present for the first time the work of our creative team, director Paul Curran and designer Gary McCann. Such is its popular appeal, Carmen might be described as one of the “super operas,” one of those works that will probably remain forever on people’s list of their personal favorites; but © RICK DAHMS it was not always so. Of the so-called “Top 10” operas, no fewer than four were deemed a flop when they originally opened, and Carmen is one of them. (The Barber of Seville, La traviata, and Madame Butterfly are the other three, in case you’re curious.) In the case of Carmen, however, it really boiled down to the piece being presented in the wrong theater. Carmen premiered in Paris at the Opéra-Comique, not as one might expect at the Opéra, and the customary operatic fare at the Comique was generally light in tone, appealing to a respectable bourgeois audience. With its raw passions and with a titular heroine who, to the audience of the time at least, was perceived as having dangerously loose morals, it is hardly a surprise that Carmen shocked and scandalized when it first appeared. But if to the 19th century, the character of Carmen embodied the femme fatale, a woman whose sexuality challenged the strict social mores of the time, these days we see her as the embodiment of liberty and free will in a society which denies women their true voice and place. Carmen may have been around for nearly 150 years, but it is still as potent a work today as it was back in 1875, when it was first produced. This production of Carmen also brings to a close my time here at Seattle Opera, before I head off to pastures new. It has been a pleasure to bring you so many different productions, in particular those operas that Seattle Opera had never previously performed, like Katya Kabanova, Count Ory, Nabucco and, of course, our recent The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. The addition of chamber operas to our roster has seen us reach new audiences, and it has been particularly exciting to know from our research that, contrary to worldwide trends, our audience has actually got considerably younger over the past three years. One of the beauties of opera is the way that so many of the great works speak to universal themes that transcend the parameters or scenarios of their libretti. Listening to feedback, be it from our surveys or at our post-performance talkbacks, it has been really gratifying to hear from you that, with each production that we put on, more and more connections are being made between what we have presented on stage and your experiences in your lives today. That is, after all, precisely what the arts are for! Change is an inevitable part of life, and in the performing arts it is particularly important to embrace it. I am therefore delighted to welcome Christina Scheppelmann to Seattle Opera to take my place at the helm of this wonderful company. I know Christina is as committed as I am to opera as a resonant and meaningful art form that combines the best musical values with theatrical imagination. Together with the completion of our new Opera Center to house our activity, the future is looking bright. It has been wonderful to make the acquaintance of so many of you over the past five years, and I look forward to returning to Seattle at some point to catch a production or two, and to joining you in the audience for another great Seattle Opera performance. 6 Seattle Opera 2018/19 Season SCC-004 SCCA_FY19 Brand-Level Campaign_Encore Arts Ad_Jennie.pdf 1 3/29/19 5:08 PM “People travel around the world to get care with us. You don’t C M Y have to.” CM MY — Dr. Jennie Crews CY Director of Community Oncology CMY K “The best cancer care in the region is coming to your neighborhood. The amazing doctors and nurses I am privileged to work with have made Seattle Cancer Care Alliance one of the top cancer centers in the nation. My commitment is to make sure you can receive SCCA-quality care close to home. That’s why we’re creating a network of SCCA clinics around the Puget Sound — including our newest locations in Poulsbo and Issaquah. Because we believe being around your family, your home, and the life you’ve built is a critical part of world-class cancer care.” You. Us. Better together. Seattle | Kirkland | Northgate | Poulsbo | Issaquah (206) 606-7222 | SeattleCCA.org Untitled-1 1 4/1/19 11:20 AM FROM THE PRESIDENT © Jonathan Vanderweit Outgoing Seattle Opera General Director Aidan Lang seen here with Board of Directors President Brian Marks. Lang has been appointed As we bring the 2018/19 season to a close, The Board and I want to express our deepest General Director of the Welsh the members of our Board of Directors gratitude to General Director Aidan Lang. National Opera in Cardiff, Wales. and I want to applaud you for your support As you may know, Aidan is ending his tenure throughout the year. When you contribute with Seattle Opera next month and returning to Seattle Opera you’re investing in our home to the United Kingdom, where he community and our state. You create opera has been appointed General Director of the experiences for students from South Seattle Welsh National Opera. Under his leadership, to the Yakima Valley. You also support new Seattle Opera has achieved several important works, like The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs milestones, among them the successful “With Aidan’s help, and The Falling and the Rising (coming conclusion of the Seattle Opera at the Center in November).