BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Seiji Ozawa, Music Director Carl St. Clair and Pascal Verrot, Assistant Conductors One Hundred and Seventh Season, 1987-88 ^^ Saturday, December 12, at 8

SEIJI OZAWA conducting

Please note that soprano Ruth Falcon will sing the role of Chrysothemis at this performance of Elektra.

Ruth Falcon

Born in New Orleans, soprano Ruth Falcon has won wide acclaim in performances at the leading opera houses of Europe, including the Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Munich, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, Hamburg State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The winner of several impor- tant vocal competitions, including those of Busseto, Vercelli, Rio de Janeiro, Geneva, and the Metropolitan Opera auditions in New York, Ms. Falcon made her professional debut as Micaela in Carmen with the New York City Opera in 1974 and began her international career in 1976 when she joined the Bavarian State Opera. There her roles included Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, and Leonora in both II trovatore and La forza del destino. Other important European debuts soon followed: as Donna Anna at the Paris Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Monte Carlo, and Prague, as the Trovatore Leonora at the Vienna State Opera, and as Agathe in Der Freischutz at the Hamburg State Opera. She appeared at Florence's Teatro Comunale in a revival of Donizetti's II duca d'Alba, at Venice's Teatro La Fenice as Elettra in Idomeneo, and as Mozart's Countess for her debut in Brussels. Now living in Paris, Ms. Falcon has appeared in many productions in France in recent seasons. She sang her first performances as Bellini's Norma in Bordeaux in 1983, her first Anna Bolena in Nice in 1985, Spontini's La vestale in Toulouse, Salome in Massenet's Herodiade in Avignon, and, in 1986, her Aix-en-Provence Festival debut in the title role oiAj'iadne auf Naxos. She has also performed with Radio France in Paris in concert versions of Strauss's Daphne and Weber's Der Freischutz under Marek Janowski. In recent seasons her new roles have included Elsa in Lohengrin in Amsterdam, Senta in Der fliegende Hollander in Bonn, and, for her Covent Garden debut in June 1987 under Christoph von Dohnanyi, the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten. Next year she returns to Covent Garden as Chrysothemis in Elektra, the role of her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut this evening and her Carnegie Hall debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra next week. Other roles in her repertoire include Elisabetta in Don Carlos, Elisabeth in Tannh'duser, and Sieglinde in Die Walkure. In concert Ms. Falcon has appeared with conductors Wolfgang Sawallisch, Marek Janowski, Andrew Davis, and Emil Tchakarov. Her repertoire with orchestra includes such works as Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, the Verdi Requiem, and Strauss's Four Last Songs. Ms. Falcon will make her New York Philharmonic debut this coming March in Mahler's Das klagende Lied under the direction of James Conlon.

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