Edition 3 | 2018-2019
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insidewhat’s 2018-2019 SEASON Letter from Chairman 9 Artists 35 Board of Directors 10 Creative Team 41 General Director’s Welcome 11 Production Staff 43 Co-Producer Society & Palm Beach Opera Chorus 44 Program Sponsors 12 Palm Beach Opera Orchestra 46 Don Giovanni 29 Benenson Young Artists 48 Cast of Characters 30 Apprentice Artists 49 Director’s Notes 31 Orpheus Legacy Society 56 Synopsis 32 Supporters 58 Production Team 33 Palm Beach Opera Staff 64 ADVERTISING Onstage Publications 937-424-0529 | 866-503-1966 e-mail: [email protected] www.onstagepublications.com This program is published in association with Onstage Publications, 1612 Prosser Avenue, Kettering, OH 45409. This program may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. JBI Publishing is a division of Onstage Publications, Inc. Contents © 2019. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. PALM BEACH OPERA 5 LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN DEAR OPERA FRIENDS, Welcome to our mid-season production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni! Hopefully, many of you were able to attend one of our La traviata performances. The singers, the chorus and orchestra, and in particular also the large scale production received wonderful audience acclaim and generated a lot of excitement. Thanks to all of your support, we are able to present large scale productions. I’d like to thank, in particular, all the Co-Producer Society members for their ongoing generosity. We endeavor to bring you an engaging variety of productions. This weekend’s production of Don Giovanni takes a much different dramatic approach. It is inspired by the cinema style ‘film noir’, and creates a menacing black and white environment in which Don Giovanni lives out his fate. We have announced our 19/20 season – a season of broad variety of musical styles, drama and comedy. The mainstage opera season will start in grand fashion with Puccini’s Turandot, continue with much laughter in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, and end on a passionate note with Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. This year, our subscriber family grew by over 425 subscribers! We hope the exciting mainstage programing for 19/20 will encourage you to renew your subscription and to ask your friends to become new subscribers. In addition, you’ll have a chance to see Hansel & Gretel at the Crest Theater in Delray and a Children’s Performance of The Barber of Seville at the Kravis Center. We are also expanding our education and community engagement programs, which will further improve the positive impact that Palm Beach Opera has in our local communities. Mid-season is a wonderful time to reinforce your financial commitment to Palm Beach Opera. You play a critically important part! The best way for you to ensure that Palm Beach Opera will continue to be able to offer you the quality productions you have come to expect is to make a contribution to the annual campaign. I encourage you to be as generous as you can, to join our Co-Producer Society, or to support an education or community program of your choice. Your investment will assure the high artistic standard of our stage productions and our extensive community engagement. I’m very grateful to all of you for your continued patronage and support. It is your dedication and enthusiasm that has turned Palm Beach Opera into one of the most successful and sustainable American regional opera companies. Enjoy the performance of Don Giovanni, and I look forward to seeing you again at Die Fledermaus in March. Dennis Williams Chairman PAST CHAIRS Marc S. Solomon (2008-2012) William D. Chalek (1977-1979) James W. Beasley, Jr. (2005-2008) Dr. Warner Earle Fusselle (1976) Robert M. Montgomery (1986-2005) James Nemec (1973-1975) Shannon Ginn (1984-1985) Mrs. Carleton R. Dodge (1973) Herb Benn (1982-1983) William K. de Veer (1972) Dr. Elwood Groves (1977-1979) PALM BEACH OPERA 9 BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS DIRECTORS EMERITI Dennis K. Williams Sanford M. Baklor Hans D. Baumann Chairman Dr. Robert Biscup Dr. Elizabeth Bowden Nathan Leventhal David Brodsky Claire Chasanoff* President Annette Y. Friedland Rita Denerstein Ann Fromer John Domenico Jeffrey H. Alderton Paul A. Goldner Leon Fassler* Vice President Ronnie Isenberg Arlette Gordon Gladys Benenson Florence Kaufman Chuck Hardwick Vice President Ingrid Kosowsky Dr. David I. Kosowsky* William G. Brown John J. Pohanka Howard Lester* Vice President Marc Solomon Virginia Longo Ed Streim Charlotte Miller Sanford Fisher Marc E. Wise Sunny Miller Vice President Robert M. Montgomery* David Genser LEGAL COUNSEL Helen K. Persson* Vice President Jeffrey I. Pheterson M. Mac Schwebel* Muriel Shapiro* Charles Gottesman Vice President Reneé Silvester* Dr. John Strasswimmer Dr. Marsha Laufer Barbara Weimer Vice President Sy Ziv* Ari Rifkin Vice President Peter A. Hoffman Secretary & Treasurer *In Memoriam LIFETIME GIVING CONTRIBUTORS With special thanks to the following individuals who have made cumulative contributions to Palm Beach Opera of $1,000,000 or more. Anonymous Mrs. Lorraine Friedman Palm Beach Opera Guild Mrs. Cornelia T. Bailey*, Mr. Eugene* & Mrs. Helen K. Persson* The Cornelia T. Bailey Mrs. Ronnie Isenberg Mrs. Lois B. Pope Charitable Trust Mr. Robert* & Mr. M. Mac Schwebel* Mrs. Gladys Benenson, Mrs. Mary Montgomery The Edward H. Benenson Foundation *In Memoriam PALM BEACH OPERA 10 GENERAL DIRECTOR’S WELCOME GREETINGS TO ALL OF YOU! Thank you for joining us once again – or for the first time – in the opera house. We had a wonderfully traditional production of La traviata in January, and are excited to present to you a completely different type of production this weekend with our ‘film noir’ inspired Don Giovanni. It can be both fascinating as well as disturbing to examine some of the operatic masterpieces through our current lens. On one hand, they were written in a distant era, when society was guided by much different mores and perceptions. On the other hand, if we claim that those masterpieces are timeless because they deal primarily with the human condition and not with historic events, we must be willing to analyze the storyline, libretto, and character relationships from a modern perspective as well. Our film noir production does a bit of both, as it is clearly informed by a more modern standpoint than when it was written, but is still set in the 1950’s when the current conversations were not yet prevalent, and especially not in the context of the ‘noir’ genre. So I invite you to put on your ‘critical thinking hat’ while enjoying Mozart’s masterfully created score and drama. I hope you will join us again in March for the last opera this season, the ‘lilting waltz inspired’ and ‘good fun’ production of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus, which will bring back to the mainstage the preeminent American powerhouse mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe in the role of Orlofsky. Don’t miss the fun shenanigans directed by Dona D. Vaughn and conducted by our Chief Conductor David Stern, bringing back also soprano Keri Alkema as Rosalinde, alongside the debuts of tenors Jack Swanson as Alfred and Zach Borichevsky as Eisenstein – an overall wonderful way to close the season. We’re equally excited to announce to you our 2020 mainstage plans: We’ll start the season with a new fully staged production of Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel at the Crest Theater in Delray, showcasing our Benenson Young Artists. In January, you’ll experience one of the grandest of operatic dramas with Puccini’s Turandot, the fairy tale of the ice princess Turandot who beheads her suitors if they cannot answer her riddles. An amazing orchestral score is conducted by Mo. David Stern, bringing back Alexandra Loutsion and introducing Alexandra LoBianco in the title role, with Stefano La Colla and Hovhannes Ayvazyan as Calaf, and Leah Crocetto as Liù. The impressive and colorful production with a large chorus will be directed by Keturah Stickann in her company debut. In February, the opera house will be full of laughter with Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, also conducted by Mo. Stern and directed by Joshua Major. Rossini specialists Daniela Mack and Taylor Stayton sing the lovers Rosina and Almaviva, with Andrew Manea making his PBO debut as ‘Jack of all trades’ Figaro. In March, for the first time in over 15 years, we will produce the Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky's masterpiece Eugene Onegin, in a romantic production by Tomer Zvulun, conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov. The cast brings back Michael Chioldi in the title role, and includes internationally acclaimed Russian tenor Dmitry Korchak as Lensky and soprano Svetlana Aksenova as Tatiana. Gremin will be sung by Štefan Kocán, who thrilled our audiences last as Sparafucile to Michael Chioldi’s Rigoletto. Thank you for being such loyal subscribers! If you haven’t renewed your subscription yet, I encourage you to stop by at the renewal table in the lobby today during intermission, and receive a special early renewal discount. Your patronage is crucial to the success of the Palm Beach Opera, and I thank you for your continued generous support! Enjoy today’s performance, and look forward to seeing all of you at Die Fledermaus. Daniel Biaggi, General Director PALM BEACH OPERA 11 CO-PRODUCER Palm Beach Opera acknowledges with gratitude and appreciation the generous Co-Producers whose designated contributions underwrite production costs, and are instrumental in making this season’s productions possible. Contributions to the 2019 season, current as of 2/8/2019 SOCIETY PRODUCTION UNDERWRITER THE CORNELIA T. BAILEY CHARITABLE TRUST, IN LOVING MEMORY OF CORNELIA T. BAILEY La traviata Palm Beach Opera most gratefully acknowledges Cornelia Bailey’s immense support to Palm Beach Opera’s productions and programs.