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190295940751.Pdf 2 The Dallas Opera presents American Opera in Two Acts Stage Director: Jack O’Brien Music by Jake Heggie Set & Costume Designer: Bob Crowley Story & Libretto by Terrence McNally Lighting Designer: Brian MacDevitt Projections Designer: Elaine J. McCarthy Co-commission/Co-production with Chorus Master: Alexander Rom The Dallas Opera and San Diego Opera Choreographer: John de los Santos World Premiere in Dallas on October 30, 2015 Wig & Make-up Designer: David Zimmerman The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House Sound Designer: Ra Byn Taylor at the AT&T Performing Arts Center Assistant Director: J. Knighten Smit Orchestra and Chorus of The Dallas Opera Stage Manager: Hally Albers Patrick Summers conductor Libretto available online at www.erato.com 3 Arden Scott Joyce DiDonato Ghost of Vittorio Bazzetti Kevin Burdette an internationally celebrated opera singer ghost of the composer of the opera at the height of her powers Rosa Dolorosa, Figlia di Pompei (1835) Tatyana Bakst Ailyn Pérez Anthony Candolino Rodell Rosel a young, talented, fiercely ambitious soprano a high-strung singer with a boisterous personality from Eastern Europe and a top that he is eager to share with the world Mrs. Edward “Winnie” Flato Frederica von Stade Wendell Swann Michael Mayes Arden’s first champion and now principal a handsome man who wears his matinee idol title patron/benefactor of American Opera proudly and earns his Don Juan reputation daily Sid Taylor Nathan Gunn Tommy Taylor Mark Hancock Arden’s high-school boyfriend, now a successful Sid’s 11-year old son architect and the single father of an 11-year old son Amor Manuel Palazzo Roane Heckle Anthony Roth Costanzo the God of Love in Rosa Dolorosa, Figlia di Pompei a stage manager who runs a very tight ship. Arden trusts him. Eric Gold Kevin Burdette Featuring and with special thanks to: the conductor; Arden’s frequent and most The Dallas Opera Orchestra fulfilling musical collaborator and The Dallas Opera Chorus 4 Frederica von Stade Winnie Flato Joyce DiDonato Arden Scott 5 ACT ONE: IN REHEARSAL 1 Overture 11 I want to be America’s soprano 2 And that, ladies and gentlemen Tatyana, Anthony, Wendell, Eric, Winnie Eric, Tatyana, Winnie, Anthony, Wendell, Roane 12 Young, ambitious and a huge talent 3 From Number 11 Arden, Winnie Eric, Roane, Winnie, Tatyana, Wendell, Anthony, 13 Oh Mrs. F, I wanted to be famous and wonderful Arden, Chorus Arden, Winnie 4 Vesuvio, il mio unico amico 14 Sorry Tommy’s late Arden, Winnie, Wendell, Tatyana Sid, Tommy, Arden, Winnie, Roane 5 Five years ago, I was in St. Petersburg 15 And we are back Arden, Tatyana, Winnie, Wendell, Eric Roane, Wendell, Anthony, Eric, Tatyana, Arden, 6 La mia schiava prigioniera! Chorus, Tommy, Winnie Tatyana, Arden, Anthony, Wendell, Roane, 16 I get scared, too, Tommy Winnie, Eric, Chorus Arden, Tommy, Eric 7 And we are on a break! 17 And we are all dancing! / The Fountain Dance Roane, Ensemble Eric, Chorus, Voice 8 Talk to me about Roane, Winnie 18 It’s a disaster Eric, Winnie, Roane Winnie, Eric, Arden, Amor, Wendell, Tatyana, 9 The writing’s on the wall Anthony, Roane, Chorus, Tommy Roane, Eric 10 La la la la la la la Anthony, Wendell, Winnie 6 ACT TWO: IN PERFORMANCE 19 Prelude 30 Arden. Arden! You’re not dressed for the Mad Scene! Scene 1: The Starry Spangled Banner Roane, Arden 20 Ladies and Gentlemen Scene 6: In the Wings Announcer, Tatyana, Troopers 31 No man over twenty should be asked to wear a toga Scene 2: Backstage Anthony, Wendell 21 Arden, you have seen the future Scene 7: Rosa Dolorosa, Act Two Arden, Winnie, Eric, Roane, Wendell, Anthony 32 La bellissima Agrippina Scene 3: Rosa Dolorosa, Act One Chorus, Arden, Anthony, Wendell, Tatyana 22 Ah! Tremo! 33 Padre divino (Rosa’s Prayer) Chorus, Arden, Anthony, Wendell, Tatyana, Tommy Arden, Tatyana, Anthony, Wendell, Tommy, Chorus Scene 4: Backstage 34 Io sola posso salvare Pompei (Finale) 23 I thought that went extremely well Arden, Chorus Anthony, Arden, Wendell, Tommy, Eric, Tatyana Scene 8: Curtain Calls Scene 5: Arden’s Dressing Room 35 Applause / Mrs. Flato, I’m so sorry about the Grizzlies 24 It’s open, Roane Arden, Winnie Arden, Sid, Roane 36 Thank you for your wonderful support 25 I don’t care how good what was Winnie, Arden, All Roane, Arden, Eric, Wendell, Anthony Scene 9: Arden’s Dressing Room 26 You’ll never be her 37 Look at the chat boards Eric, Winnie, Roane, Arden Arden, Anthony, Wendell, Tatyana 27 Maestro Bazzetti, are you there? 38 It’s always the song, not the singer Arden, Ghost of Vittorio Bazzetti Arden, Roane, Tatyana, Winnie 28 Look for me, I’m there on every page Scene 10: Center Stage Bazzetti, Arden 39 Wow. You’re beautiful 29 All that you leave behind Sid, Arden, Tommy Bazzetti, Arden 40 The empty theater Members of The Dallas Opera Chorus State Troopers Ailyn Pérez Tatyana Bakst 7 GREAT SCOTT Great Scott is an original American opera. It is Terrence McNally based on nothing. The characters and their situation will be unfamiliar to you. When audiences attend Moby-Dick, You will hear the adjective “American” many times during they usually bring with them their notion of who Captain this performance. Great Scott is an American opera and Ahab, Ishmael or Queequeg are and what they should 8 proudly so. Jake Heggie and I have tried to tell the story or would sound like. Because of the best-selling book of what it means to be any kind of artist in an art form that and very popular film adaptation, audiences come has never been entirely comfortable with the American to Dead Man Walking with at least some idea of what experience or vernacular. Porgy and Bess has probably to expect. come the closest. In Great Scott you will meet unfamiliar characters of Our previous collaboration in the artistically (and whom you have no preconception. We are asking you to financially) challenged arena of American opera was lean forward and listen to them. There’s plenty to take in: Dead Man Walking, which premiered in San Francisco new people, an unfamiliar story, new music. We know in 2000. That opera is based on the true story of a remark- we’re asking a lot. By the end of the performance, we able woman, Sister Helen Prejean, and her selfless, hope you will have become fully invested in Arden, courageous passion for social justice. Her story had all the Winnie, Sid and Tatyana and the outcome of their story. elements of Grand Opera: love, death, risk, redemption. We want you to take them home with you. Art that does We asked the audience to take an often harrowing spiritual not connect with an audience is all too common in these journey with us. We succeeded to the extent that there fractious times. What is American opera? Is it Sweeney have been numerous subsequent productions here and Todd, Show boat or Carousel? Is that even a relevant abroad. Companies clamor for a world premiere; everyone conversation in the twenty-first century? Is opera itself loves them. It’s the second production that is hard to come still relevant? Does the world truly need or want another by. Most new operas never get them. The stakes are high. revival of an obscure Donizetti misfire? Why not Samuel When The Dallas Opera offered us the opportunity to Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra? It was good enough to collaborate again, we accepted with pleasure and alacrity. open the New Met, which is already an Old Met. Where Fresh off the tremendous success of Moby-Dick (text by is opera in the American DNA? The arts are struggling, master librettist Gene Scheer) which premiered in Dallas all of them. It is the responsibility of people who work in 2010, Jake was eager to launch his next opera with a in the arts to face these challenges, but how? company that embraced American composers with their This is the dilemma of Winnie Flato and her beloved unproven, untested American operas and provided its but struggling American Opera. This is the passion of artists with an environment conducive to creating some- Arden Scott, to make her life and choice of career matter, thing fresh – in other words, a company that was not to herself most of all, but also to the audience. This is afraid to risk failure. Any opera company can produce something to which Sid has paid next to no thought, but another Traviata. It takes a very special breed to produce at a price: what kind of world will his son inherit? This is Great Scott. an art form on which the next big thing in opera, Tatyana Bakst, will make her mark, regardless of whom she Vittorio Bazzetti is a nineteenth-century Italian tramples on her way to center stage. These are life and composer whose operas are unfamiliar to you. He is death issues for American opera and the people who one hundred per cent the invention of Jake Heggie and give their lives to it. myself. How he came to be an essential part of a twenty- I confess to wincing when I hear Great Scott described first-century American opera is the best notion of what 9 as a “comic” opera. I suppose any opera is comic when Jake and I have been up to these past four years. the death toll is zero at the final curtain. Great Scott is an opera, nothing less, nothing more. It is an opera that Terrence McNally, October 2016 wants to include as much of contemporary American life outside the often insular world of the opera house as it can.
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