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BuildBeyond.com l [email protected] l (888) 762-1442 l Bellevue, WA Untitled-1 1 7/27/18 4:07 PM THE GERSHWINS’® PORGY® AND BESS VOLUME 43 ISSUE 1 18 ROOM FOR CHEMISTRY Production Essentials By Jessica Murphy Moo 8 Production Sponsors 9 The Cast of Porgy and Bess 10 The Story of Porgy and Bess 20 BLACK ARTISTS AND ACTIVISTS REFLECT ON 11 Artists PORGY AND BESS 15 Actors By Gabrielle Nomura Gainor 15 Supernumeraries 15 Chorus 24 BREAKING GLASS: HYPERLINKING OPERA & ISSUES 15 Orchestra By Gabrielle Nomura Gainor Departments 37 IN MEMORIAM: FRANCES ROGERS 5 From the General Director 6 Board of Directors 7 From the President 7 Service Directory 16 Programs and Partnerships Sponsors 25 Seattle Opera Staff 26 Staff Chat 27 Donor Impact 28 Institutional Donors 28 In-Kind Sponsors 28 Volunteer Fundraising 29 Leadership and Producer’s Circles 31 Planned Giving 32 Seattle Opera at the Center Seattle Opera 36 Online at Seattleopera.org Editor Contributing Editors Kristina Murti Jonathan Dean 38 Amusements Ed Hawkins Graphic Design 39 Upcoming Events Kelly Hamilton Colglazier Jessica Murphy Moo Gabrielle Nomura Gainor Brittany Rall Cover Image: © Philip Newton Seattle Opera is now offering large-print and Braille versions of this program. 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Porgy and Bess 3 August 2018 Volume 43 No. 1 britten THE TURN Paul Heppner President Mike Hathaway OF THE Vice President Kajsa Puckett Vice President, Marketing & Business Development SCREW Genay Genereux Accounting & Office Manager oct. 13–27 Production Susan Peterson Design & Production Director Jennifer Sugden Assistant Production Manager Ana Alvira, Stevie VanBronkhorst Production Artists and Graphic Designers Sales Amelia Heppner, Marilyn Kallins, Terri Reed San Francisco/Bay Area Account Executives Joey Chapman, Brieanna Hansen, Ann Manning, Wendy Pedersen Seattle Area Account Executives Carol Yip Sales Coordinator Marketing Shaun Swick Senior Designer & Digital Lead Ciara Caya Marketing Coordinator Encore Media Group Corporate Office 425 North 85th Street Seattle, WA 98103 p 800.308.2898 | 206.443.0445 f 206.443.1246 SPINE-TINGLING GHOST STORY New Production [email protected] When a young governess travels to an In English with English subtitles. www.encoremediagroup.com Evenings 7:30 PM isolated English manor house to care for Sunday 2:00 PM two orphaned children, a series of Encore Arts Programs and Encore Stages are published monthly ominous encounters with menacing Featuring members of Seattle by Encore Media Group to serve musical and theatrical events Symphony Orchestra. in the Puget Sound and San Francisco Bay Areas. ©2018 Encore specters of the estate’s previous staff Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction without written soon follows. Are the spirits supernatural MCCAW HALL consent of Seattle Opera and Encore Media Group is prohibited. in origin, or are they the products of the 206.389.7676 governess’s overactive imagination? SEATTLEOPERA.ORG/TURNSCREW 2018/19 SEASON SPONSOR: Britten’s seductive, luminous, and LENORE M. HANAUER brilliantly structured thriller offers a PRODUCTION SPONSOR: MARKS FAMILY FOUNDATION tantalizingly veiled portrait of PHOTO © PHILIP NEWTON psychological disintegration to usher in the Halloween season. TICKETS START AT JUST $25! 4 TOTSEncoreAd-V2.indd 1 7/25/18 2:39 PM Seattle Opera 2018/19 Season FROM THE GENERAL DIRECTOR Welcome to Porgy and Bess, which opens our 2018/19 season. Opera comes in all shapes and sizes, and as always, we are offering a program which spans many musical and dramatic styles. But this season, alongside works of a European heritage like Carmen, The Turn of the Screw, and Il trovatore, we are also delighted to present two American works–one from the last century, and one that received its world premiere just a year ago. An interesting trend in the American opera scene recently is the move towards the creation and presentation of new operas. We are living in a golden age of American opera, and this is very timely; for if opera is to survive as an art form, it is essential that © RICK DAHMS its core repertoire is continually replenished. But unfortunately, the fate of a new opera can often be uncertain. On so many occasions and through nobody’s particular fault, a new opera is performed once and then laid to rest, as it hasn’t raised sufficient traction to gain further productions. One way to mitigate this is to co-commission with like-minded companies–and Mason Bates and Mark Campbell’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, which we present in March 2019, is a textbook example of this approach. Our West Coast premiere follows a triumphant first showing in Santa Fe last year, with further performances scheduled at Indiana University and San Francisco Opera; and with each presentation, the work will develop and mature. Other works take on a life of their own. It may amaze you to learn that Laura Kaminsky’s As One, which so captivated audiences when we staged it at Washington Hall in 2016, was one of the most performed operas across the US last season, receiving more performances than The Barber of Seville! And especially pleasing to us at Seattle Opera is that Jack Perla and Jessica Murphy Moo’s An American Dream, which we commissioned in 2015, will be presented in three different cities over the coming season. But such a golden age of American opera must have a beginning. Porgy and Bess is, without doubt, the first great American opera, and it has endured ever since its premiere in 1935. It has certainly not been without controversy throughout its life, and its contents have often polarized audiences. At a purely musical level, with its inclusion of jazz idioms along with spirituals and folksongs, it has also given rise to debate as to what sort of piece it is. Is it an opera or a musical? That it was originally premiered on Broadway only served to muddy the waters. But Porgy and Bess is very much an opera. It was written for classically trained voices and has a deceptively difficult and challenging orchestral and vocal score. Happily, with Maestro John DeMain on the podium, we are in the best possible musical hands. John conducted the landmark Houston Grand Opera production in 1976 which presented Gershwin’s full score in all its glory, and helped turn the tide of opinion about the work. Likewise, director Francesca Zambello has many years’ experience with the piece, culminating in the success of this particular production, which we have co-produced with the Glimmerglass Festival. Porgy and Bess was premiered on October 10, 1935; by happy coincidence, this coming 10th of October is also the day that we are due to receive the keys to our new opera center next door to McCaw Hall. This building will not only transform the way that Seattle Opera runs its operations; it will also offer opportunities for new programs and enable us to be an opera company that invites all communities of Seattle to experience our work. I would like to thank everyone who has supported our fundraising to date–it has been a huge effort from all concerned. Although the finish line is in sight, our campaign is not yet over. I invite every one of you to join with us and help provide the means for Seattle Opera to remain a vital and vibrant part of this city. Porgy and Bess 5 BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2018/19 Season Chairman Treasurer Representatives to the Board John F. Nesholm John Starbard Gayle Charlesworth, Seattle Opera Guild President Secretary Gail Neil, Seattle Opera Chorus Brian Marks Milkana Brace Eoin Hudson, BRAVO! Immediate Past Eric Jacobs, The Seattle Symphony and Opera President Players’ Organization Maryanne Tagney Seattle Opera Foundation Vice Presidents Jeffrey Hanna, Brian Marks, President ex officio Susan MacGregor Matthew Segal Charles B. Cossé Steven C. Phelps Coughlin Martha Sherman James D. Cullen Anne M. Redman James D. Cullen Stephen A. Sprenger Jay Lapin Michael Tobiason Adam Fountain Moya Vazquez Moya Vazquez A. Richard Gemperle William T. Louise Miller Weyerhaeuser Jonathan Rosoff Advisory Board Connie Bloxom Victoria Ivarsson Directors John M. Bloxom, Jr. Linda Nordstrom Willie C. Aikens Gary Houlahan Beverly Brazeau Eulalie Schneider Thomas H. Allen Michael Hyman Norma B. Croco Judy Schuchart Barry Bolding Bruce E. H. Johnson David R. Davis Virginia B. Wright Toby Bright Brian LaMacchia Betty Hedreen Brenda Bruns, M.D. Bruce R. McCaw Susan Buske Tom McQuaid Honorary Life Members Beverly Brazeau Duff Kennedy Stella Choi-Ray Brendan Murphy Donald L. Johnson Michael M. Scott Robert Comfort Steven C. Phelps Janice C. Condit Tom Puentes Past Presidents Charles B. Cossé James David Raisbeck Norma B. Croco Sheffield Phelps† Natalie de Maar Jean Stark Albert O. Foster† Steven C. Phelps Susan Detweiler, M.D. John Sullivan Max E. Gellert† Maryanne Tagney Carolyn Eagan Russell F. Tousley Harold H. Heath† Russell F. Tousley Robert Fries Judy Tsou H. Dewayne Kreager† Richard S. Twiss Diana Gale James Uhlir Francis A. LeSourd† William T. Leslie Giblett Susanne Wakefield, † Weyerhaeuser Ph. D James M. McDonald Jr. Paul Goodrich † Stanley N. Minor Howard S. Wright Jeffrey Hanna Joan S. Watjen John F. Nesholm Kennan Scott Wyatt Hollingsworth, M.D.