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TOLEDO, OH – Toledo
Opera will celebrate its 50th anniversary during the 2008-2009
season. The Opera was founded by a dedicated group of Toledeans
who felt that a city without an opera company was a city devoid
of color, life and excitement. These are ingredients that opera
can easily supply.
A story of aristocratic arrogance, fatherly
love and a terrifying curse comes to the stage on November
8, 14, and 16, 2008 with Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. Rigoletto's
anguished attempts to rise above his weakness to save his daughter
make for a heart-rending and riveting story. The title role
in Rigoletto is one of the most difficult for any
singer. Baritone Jason Stearns makes his debut with Toledo
Opera as the twisted, vengeful court jester. Following his
performances with Toledo Opera, he will go on to reprise this
role in his Metropolitan debut. Soprano Rachel Watkins will
perform the role of Rigoletto’s vulnerable daughter Gilda.
Tenor Yoonson Shin makes his Toledo Opera debut as the womanizing
Duke of Mantua.
The production is sung in Italian with English translations
projected above the stage. A pre-performance artistic discussion – free
to ticket holders – is held one hour prior to each performance
at The Valentine Theatre.
“Rigoletto was Verdi’s
first major revolutionary work, dealing strongly as it does
with the violation of accepted moral code, the misuse of power
and the abuse of women,” comments Renay Conlin, artistic
director of Toledo Opera. Rigoletto is a normal man with a
superior wit, born into a society where the pleasures of the
upper class are tantamount and the poor simply live and die.
Rigoletto becomes a victim of his own ambition, bent by his
hatred of his job and his employer. His clothes weigh him down;
they are the tattered remnants of what he might have been were
he not trapped in a class structure over which he has no control.
He tries desperately to micromanage his personal life, to keep
it, and thus his daughter, totally cut off from the corrupt
world in which he is so deeply entrenched. This, of course,
results in the opposite of what he had intended: his teenage
daughter rebels, culminating in her physical destruction and
his emotional demolition.
On March 14, 20 and 22, 2009, Salome takes
the stage, bringing one of Richard Strauss’s most riveting
operas,filled with brooding beauty and evocative music. This
is a production that no one can afford to miss. The opera,
with a libretto translated into German by Hedwig Lachmann from
the original French of Oscar Wilde, has raised eyebrows since
its world premiere in 1905. A combination of nudity, sexuality,
gore and biblical subject matter—though only loosely
related to the Bible—led censors to ban it from the stages
of London and Berlin for many years. American audiences were
so scandalized by the Metropolitan Opera’s first performance
of Salome that the company closed the production,
which lead to its absence from their stage for 27 years. Modern
audiences, however, have embraced the opera for what it truly
is; exceptional music and dynamic drama.
The story is one of deceit and desperation
revealing one young woman’s dark soul. By concentrating
on the conflict between the sensual figure of Salome and the
ascetic John the Baptist, Strauss further heightened the already
considerable dramatic force of the original play by Oscar Wilde.
John the Baptist’s unusual personality exerts a peculiar
attraction on the beautiful stepdaughter of Herod. Incensed
at being rebuffed by the prophet, Salome demands his head.
Soprano Amy Johnson, will sing the demanding role of Salome,
and tenor Adam Klein will return to Toledo, following his recent
triumph in Toledo Opera’s production of Carmen, to
sing the role of Herod. This production is sung in German with
simultaneous English translations projected above the stage.
The season will close with a spectacular
celebratory performance of Leonard Bernstein’s immensely
popular operetta, Candide, featuring
a dynamic roster of young American singers and a very special
guest artist in the acting role of Pangloss. Toledo Opera invites
its audience to enter a world of fantasy and imagination as
the tale of the optimist, Candide, comes to life. Candide’s
philosophy of optimism (instilled by his teacher and mentor,
Pangloss) is put to the test as he faces trials, war, and an
ongoing struggle to reunite with his beloved Cunegonde. Candide is
cherished by lovers of both opera and musical theatre and is
one of the career highlights for composer Leonard Bernstein.
This production is sung in English. The performance will be
followed by a 50th Anniversary Party at The Toledo Club.
Season subscription renewals for 2008-2009
are being sent in mid-March. New subscriptions will be accepted
after the company’s production of Cavalleria Rusticana on
May 2, 3, 4, 2008. For information, call 419-255-7464 or visit www.toledoopera.org.
Single tickets for the 2008-2009 season go on sale the second
week of September and can be purchased through the website
or by calling the Toledo Opera office. |
