SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA NEWS RELEASE Press Contacts: Jennifer Scott, 843.720.1137 [email protected] Jessie Bagley 843.720.1136 [email protected] Note: Digital images are available for download from our Media Photo Gallery. Renowned Artists and Emerging Performers from Around the World Gather in Charleston, South Carolina for 39th Spoleto Festival USA Performing arts festival takes place May 22 – June 7, 2015 May 11, 2015 (CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA)—Spoleto Festival USA’s reputation for blending renowned artists with emerging performers is showcased by the roster of guest singers and soloists engaged for operas and classical music concerts to be performed May 22 through June 7 in Charleston, South Carolina. Casts for the Festival’s two opera productions—the world premiere of Paradise Interrupted and the American premiere of Veremonda, l’amazzone di Aragona—include notable Festival debuts by emerging artists alongside internationally acclaimed specialists. Concerts by the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra and Westminster Choir also bring a stellar array of guest soloists to Charleston to work with the young artists who make up the ensembles. The casts are currently in rehearsals in Charleston, South Carolina with the creative teams for these productions. OPERA | Paradise Interrupted Performances May 22, 24, 27, 29, and 31 The world premiere of Paradise Interrupted by artist, designer, and director Jennifer Wen Ma and composer Huang Ruo, conducted by John Kennedy, showcases the much-heralded talent of Qian Yi, a specialist in the traditional Chinese style of kunqu singing. Catapulted onto the international performing arts scene in the lead role in the 20-hour production of The Peony Pavilion (presented at Spoleto Festival USA in 2004), Qian Yi’s performances have been widely acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, garnering such superlatives as “radiant” (The New York Times), “incomparable” (The Wall Street Journal), and “spellbinding” (New York magazine). Qian Yi is the central vocal focus from which this new production grew. Paradise Interrupted also features four singers making their Spoleto Festival USA debuts: Tenor Joseph Dennis was recently named a winner of the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Paradise Interrupted reunites him with composer Huang Ruo; in 2014 he stepped into the title role at the last moment for the American premiere of Huang Ruo’s Dr. Sun Yat-sen at The Santa Fe Opera. Countertenor John Holiday made his Los Angeles Opera debut during the 2014‒15 season as the Sorceress in Barrie Kosky’s production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and he will make his Glimmerglass Festival debut this summer in Vivaldi’s Catone in Utica. Baritone Joo Won Kang was the First Prize winner of Fort Worth Opera’s 2014 McCammon Voice Competition. As a member of the 2011 Merola Opera Program, he performed a variety of roles for San Francisco Opera as one of the company’s prestigious Adler Fellows, including Gardiner in Jake Heggie’s Moby Dick televised nationally and released on DVD. Bass-baritone Ao Li was also an Adler Fellow. He was the grand prize winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2014 and in 2013 won Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition. During the 2014-15 season he will make his role debut in the title role of Don Pasquale at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. OPERA | Veremonda, l’amazzone di Aragona Performances May 23, 26, 30, and June 2 and 3 Creating the first new production of Francesco Cavalli’s Veremonda, l’amazzone di Aragona in more than 350 years has not only ignited excitement and curiosity among baroque music specialists, it has created an opportunity for singers specializing in early music repertoire to create new roles. This American premiere production is directed by Stefano Vizioli, conducted by Aaron Carpenè, and designed by artist Ugo Nespolo. American mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux and Italian countertenor Rafaelle Pe will both make their Spoleto Festival USA debuts in the lead roles as the Spanish queen Veremonda and her army’s general, Delio. For the past 20 years, Genaux has been lauded as a pre-eminent interpreter of baroque and bel canto music. She performs in the world’s music capitals, from New York to London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Milan. No stranger to queenly quarrels on stage, she regularly performs a program called “Rivalries” with soprano Simone Kermes inspired by the competitiveness between baroque divas Bordoni and Cuzzoni and available as a Sony Classical CD called Rival Queens. Highlights of Pe’s career to date have seen him recognized as a leading emerging interpreter of repertoire spanning early recitar cantando to operatic works of the 18th century, including appearances in Tokyo as Ottone in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, in Paris conducted by Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, at Arena di Verona under the baton of Andrea Battistoni, and his recent recital debut at the Berlin Philharmonie. Veremonda also includes an international cast of singers experienced in 17th-century repertoire: Italian Francesca Lombardi Mazzulli (Zelemina) is a highly acclaimed baroque opera soprano and has sung main and title roles in operas from Cavalli to Mozart. Recent credits include Giunone in Cavalli’s La Calisto at Austria’s Innsbruck Festival of Old Music. Hailed by The New York Times as “vocally robust” and “lyrically malevolent,” American bass-baritone Joseph Barron (Roldano) was a winner of the 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the 2013 Sullivan Foundation Awards. Recently, Barron debuted at the San Francisco Opera in Mark Adamo’s world premiere of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. During the 2013‒2014 season, Barron debuted with the Metropolitan Opera in Shostakovich’s The Nose. Jason Budd (Giacutto) recently made his South American debut as the title character in Verdi's Falstaff with Theatro São Pedro in São Paulo, Brazil. His performances have garnered praise all over the globe, particularly for his specialty, buffo (comic) roles such as the one he will sing in Veremonda. Character tenor Steven Cole’s (Don Buscone) baroque music experiences have included Cavalli’s La Calisto at the Salzburg Festival, Cesti’s L'Argia, and Sartorio’s Giulio Cesare at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, and all the Monteverdi operas in Lausanne. He made his Spoleto Festival USA debut as Goro in the 1983 Ken Russell production of Madama Butterfly. Highly regarded for his performances of the bel canto operatic repertoire, Brian Downen (Zeriffo/Crepsculo) has sung leading roles in more than 60 productions for opera houses in the US, Europe, and Canada. A recent highlight includes Damon in Acis and Galatea for the Bhutan Opera Project, which marked the first performance of a Western opera in Bhutan’s history. Veremonda reunites him with the Bhutan project’s director, Stefano Vizioli, and conductor Aaron Carpenè. Soprano Michael Maniaci (Zaida) has won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Houston Grand Opera Competition, and ARIA Award. Operatic highlights include roles with the Metropolitan Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Pittsburgh Opera, Teatro La Fenice, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Royal Danish Opera, and the Göttingen International Handel Festival. Russian countertenor Andrey Nemzer’s (Re Alfonso/Sole) 2014‒2015 season includes his debuts with Opera San Antonio and Odyssey Opera as Agnes the Digger in Tobias Picker’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox, as well as performances of the Pergolesi Stabat Mater with Resonance Works. He was third prize winner of the 2014 Operalia competition, and was a winner of the 2012 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Céline Ricci (Vespina), a coloratura mezzo-soprano, was selected by renowned conductor William Christie for his academy, Le Jardin des Voix, and was named one of opera’s most promising new talents in 2005 by Opernwelt magazine. Recent performances include Akademie für Alte Musik in Sydney and Berlin, Philharmonia Baroque at Lincoln Center and Tanglewood, and Ars Lyrica at the Berkeley Early Music Festival. American soprano Danielle Talamantes (Sergente) is an international recitalist who made her stage debut earlier this season as Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera. Her debut album of Spanish songs, Canciones españolas, was recently released on the MSR Classics label. She previously sang at Spoleto Festival USA as a member of the Westminster Choir in 2000 and 2001. Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra | City Lights Conductor William Eddins will make his Spoleto Festival USA debut conducting the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra when it performs the score to Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights at two screenings of the classic film on May 25. Eddins is music director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and a frequent guest conductor of major orchestras throughout the world. Recent highlights include opening the 2014 Boston Symphony Tanglewood season with soprano Reneé Fleming, conducting the RAI Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale on Italian television, and leading Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess with Opera de Lyon. Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra | Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 American soprano Alyson Cambridge will perform as the soloist in Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, based on writing by James Agee, with conductor John Kennedy and the orchestra on May 26. Cambridge has been hailed by critics as “radiant, vocally assured, dramatically subtle and compelling, and artistically imaginative” (The Washington Post).